NPR will be honored with the first-ever iHeartRadio Podcast Pioneer Award at iHeartMedia's inaugural iHeartRadio Podcast Awards on January 18 at 8pm PT at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles. iHR will recognize NPR as an innovative force in the creation of the podcasting industry and will pay tribute to the on-profit multimedia organization's contributions to podcasting's expanding role in today's popular culture.
NPR launched its first digital-only podcasting predecessor, "All Songs Considered," in April, 2000 and officially debuted NPR Podcasts in August, 2005 with a full slate of 174 programs, including 17 original podcasts. In less than a year, they reached 13 million downloads for all of its podcast programming and reached more than 80 million downloads by February, 2007. Today, NPR remains a leading podcasting publisher with over 40 active podcasts on topics ranging from the day's news to arts, culture and science, that reach a unique monthly audience of 16,386,000 (per Podtrac).
