Last week, Adam Carolla transitioned from national radio talk show host. His contract with CBS prevents him from returning to radio (supposedly through 2009) – and in exchange, he is paid handsomely in the meantime.

So Adam Carolla decided started a podcast – launching it last week. It had over 1,000,000 downloads… a staggering number:

I’m overwhelmed by your response to the podcast. In less than 24 hours, the first podcast was downloaded over a quarter of a million times, which is awesome.

This means that we’ll be able move along faster in terms of getting this project up into a new gear, and getting a little more production, more guests, and everything you guys deserve. I’m grateful to have such fantastic fans, and honored at this response.

I’ve been very busy working on this pilot with CBS, and getting all the parts in place for that, which has taken a lot of time and energy, but we’re still focused on putting a great podcast out.

Again, I’d like to thank everyone, and let everyone know that we’ll all get our shit together very soon, and bring this to a new level.

Keep up the good work.

-Adam Carolla

Consider that Corolla achieved one million downloads with:
- no real promotion or advertising campaign (and no brand behind it)
- a basic website based on Wordpress.com
- no mobile-based website like ESPN’s Podcenter (which is how I consume ESPN podcasts on-the-go)
- just entered iTunes (important for access, subscription)

Adam Carolla is not alone in his success. ESPN’s Bill Simmons (the Sports Guy) had over 550,000 podcast downloads last week.

These numbers are enormous. And for Adam Carolla to find such success so quickly and without a big brand or producer – talent should really ask themselves, why not follow Carolla’s lead? Consider that Carolla used to start his show at the crack of dawn, talk for several hours, abide by FCC regulation… and it cost $20,000,000 annually to run. Now his podcasts are 30-60 minutes, free of censorship and available in a new format that is killing traditional radio and has rendered satellite radio useless – why subscribe to XM and Sirius when you can get Adam Carolla, Bill Simmons, The Wall Street Journal, etc portably and on-demand?

And if Carolla and others can find success in podcasting – then the supply of content will enable the medium to grow (to me, this really was the mitigating factor). But with 1,000,000 downloads and a lean staff, Carolla will certainly be able to find financial success…. which is, in turn, great for consumers.

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