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KLBJ breaks new ground with subscription podcast

KLBJ-FM's Dudley and Bob morning show is adding a new subscription-only podcast they hope listeners will pay for.
6KLBJ

AUSTIN -- For more than 20 years an Austin radio team has entertained fans. Starting next week, they're launching a new venture they hope will have even more people listening to what they have to say.

It's called Dudley and Bob Land, and its creators say it's an innovative way to bring radio into the future and take it to the next level.

The question is, will people pay to listen?

Inside KLBJ-FM s North Austin studio, it's a new beginning for the decades old radio show.

Dale Dudley, Bob Fonseca and the rest of the morning show crew spent Friday morning working out technical glitches as they prepare to launch a new show they call Dudley and Bob Land.

Starting Monday, the popular morning show on 93.7 FM will end at 9 instead of 10, and the crew will record another hour that won't go out over the air.

It s a continuation of the Dudley and Bob show without the restrictions of the FCC and without worrying about political correctness to a point, Dale Dudley said.

The one-hour podcast is uncensored and no subject is taboo. Only paying subscribers will have access to the podcast.

We've had to talk like fourth graders on the air for the last 25, 26, 27 years, said radio personality Bob Fonseca. We will have more freedom because again, people will be paying for the product.

Emmis radio gave the new show the green light, saying it's a multimedia approach to serve fans who can't listen to the show after 9, and hopefully tempting new fans to pay for the privilege of listening.

We're one of the first companies to try something like this, said Chase Rupe, who is the Emmis Austin VP of Programming and Digital Content. We think there's a business model here that will work, that people will pay for and we want to be able to prove that.

While the morning show crew knows it won't appeal to everyone, they say it's one way to keep radio fresh and help it survive in the future.

Some people are absolutely going to go away, said radio personality Matt Bearden. Others won t. We get to give them exactly what they want without having to give them the other things that we have to do in a broadcasting nature. It becomes a lot more fun for everybody involved in that conversation.

You can subscribe to the Dudley and Bob Land Sideshow starting Monday morning, and it will be free for 30 days. After that listeners will pay about $3 a month to access the no holds barred program.

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