Tampa Radio: Todd Schnitt Revives Morning Show As Podcast

Todd Schnitt

Todd “MJ” Schnitt is rolling out his new MJ Morning Show in pretty much the same way any big, new morning radio show would traditionally launch into a major market like Tampa Bay. He’s planning billboards across the region, along with a blitz of radio commercials announcing “the MJ Morning Show is back."

But this time around, the MJ Morning Show isn’t on radio at all. Since October, Schnitt has released six episodes of a new podcast with the same name and co-hosts as the popular morning show he hosted on Tampa Bay’s WFLZ 93.3 FM for 18 years. He’s also financing the whole venture himself.

So far, he said, the response to the podcast has been vibrant, netting “tens of thousands of downloads," a couple “major potential sponsors,” and drawing out “feelers” from terrestrial radio programmers interested in possibly putting him back on old-school radio in the morning, which he isn’t ruling out.

“Buzz is being created ... and this is only from my social media and word of mouth,” Schnitt said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. “Now (iHeartMedia) has agreed to sell me advertising. Here’s a former radio morning show turned podcast that’s going to advertise on local radio. I don’t know that anyone has ever done that.”

The MJ Morning Show podcast runs about one hour, with a new episode every two weeks, though that frequency and length could increase.