Cigar Dave Show To End Syndication After 25 Years

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/188816/cigar-dave-show-to-end-syndication-after-25-years/

‘Cigar Dave’ Zeplowitz will end his weekly syndicated show after 25 years at the end of the month.

“Cigar Dave” debuted on 620 WSUN Tampa in July 1995 and entered syndication in December of that year. Currently airing on 150+ stations, “The Cigar Dave Show” describes itself as “focused on Alpha Male Lifestyle pursuits including cigars, spirits, grilling, sports, travel, cars, and aviation while upholding personal liberties from the Pleasure Police”.

Cigar Dave will end his radio show at the end of June 2020.

 

[TheBigA]

Leaving the cigar market completely to Tom Leykis?

 

[RMarino]

I've never heard his national show. But I remember when he was on WSUN, the show was called "Smoke This".

 

[TheBigA]

Cigar Dave explains why he decided to end his syndicated show:

https://radioink.com/2020/06/11/podcast-why-cigar-dave-left-radio/

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Cigar Dave's interview is accurate in many ways. A podcast is a better way to deliver specialty content. It's lower-cost, it's possibly more timely (especially compared to a specialty show that airs only on weekends), and if there's a boring week in your field you're not obligated to create 3 hours of content on Saturday.


On the other hand, there's the discoverability problem. I have been listening to an agriculture podcast for a while, and the host recently disclosed that he had achieved 5,000 downloads all-time after ~14 months. There's a reason that most of the successful podcasts out there are backed by an existing media organization, like NPR or Discovery Networks.