The Next Great Podcast Wants To Hear Your Best Ideas!

Got an idea for a podcast you’re dying to share with the world and wish you had a way to really show what you can do?

This is for you!

Starting today, iHeartRadio in conjunction with the creator platform Tongal, is announcing the search for the Next Great Podcast! Submit a pitch to nextgreatpodcast.com along with any links to past work and you’ll be in the running to become one of ten finalists who will be awarded $1,000 to turn their idea into a ten-minute pilot!

Any format is acceptable, and the goal is for iHeart to fund and produce a full series for the final winner.

From true crime, to narrative drama to the secret lives of male barbers, there’s no limit on where your passion project can take you. If you have a great idea that doesn’t fit into pre-conceived notions this is a great time to break the mold!

Legendary broadcaster Dan Patrick and a secret panel of mystery judges will determine the first round of winners, and from there it’ll be up to you dear listener! All ten pilot episodes will be voted on by fans this fall where the winner will be set loose and heavily promoted by iHeart, one of the largest audio platforms in the world with millions of listeners.

From Star Search in 1983, to American Idol in 2002, to the Next Great Podcast in 2020, people with a burning vision and a creative dream have been given the opportunity to set the world on fire.

And none of this would be possible without the Tongal platform. It’s a crowdsourced website that founder James DeJulio describes as like a “reverse Kickstarter” where anyone with an idea can pitch them and describe how much money they need for their idea, and how they would do it, and if Tongal likes it, then they’ll pay you for it.

It started a little over ten years ago when James was working in feature films at Paramount and was really frustrated with movie development deals because they always wanted the same ten names that cost millions of dollars, and those ten names were never available.

He knew there was talent everywhere that just needed an opportunity, and out of that idea came Tongal. Just recently, they released a feature-length documentary on the SYFY channel that was developed by a young director in the community, and he says a lot of brands have used Tongal in the past to develop Superbowl ads, “so it’s been a really interesting ride to see what’s possible by working with new talent that normally wouldn’t have access to these opportunities.”

He was heavily influenced by the old tv series Project Greenlight that gave novice filmmakers a chance to be discovered, and the main thing he took from it was how it allows so many more ideas be to seen without having to hold separate meetings in an office for each one. “And that’s the core operation of what we do,” he says. “We connect talent to opportunities.”

His favorite example of what’s possible is when he was approached by a small non-profit called Southeastern Guide Dogs who wanted to make a short animated project to tell a story. The script was written by someone in Alabama, and the animation was done by a small studio in Spain, and the end result called Pip has become one of the most viewed animations on YouTube with over 192 million views so far that James says has moved grown men to tears. It’s an empowering story of what’s possible, and it was all because one small company wanted to raise money to help people who couldn’t see gain the assistance of a canine companion.

And one of the great things about audio is you can create whatever you can see in your mind without having to worry about locations or computer graphics.

So, if you have a great idea, you have from now until August 27 to sign up and let the world know, and it just might become The Next Great Podcast.