Donnie Simpson Gets Some Digital Air

Longtime Radio and TV Personality Launches Podcast

Many listening and viewers know him as ‘Donnie Simpson in the morning’, ‘Donnie in the afternoon’

and/or ‘Donnie Simpson Mr. Video Soul’. He’s adding something new to this list of titles and this time he’s the boss and owner. Having worked in radio for more than 50 years, and not ever owning his work until now, Simpson recently announced in an interview with Washington Business Journal that he has launched the Donnie Simpson Podcast Network.

The longtime radio host who got his start on Detroit’s airwaves before moving to WKYS, and later WPGC and WMMJ in the D.C. region, is now expanding to podcasts. Donnie Simpson Podcast Network aired its first self-titled show on Wednesday.

The show will be produced by Podville Media, a D.C. podcast production company led by co-founder and President Charlie Birney and co-founder and CEO Oscar Zeballos. Podville lists ESPN, the Lincoln Project, the George Washington University Hospital and the YWCA among its podcast

clients, but "The Donnie Simpson Show" is its first original show. The parties declined to share startup costs for the network or other financial terms of their partnership.

For Simpson — who has experienced no shortage of success, including being inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame last year — starting his own podcast network is the culmination of a professional dream that goes back to his first few years in the industry. At that time, he recalls talking with other DJs about the need for more Black ownership of radio stations. It was “pretty much nonexistent then,” Simpson said. And it’s a number that is still extremely low, with

around 1% of commercial stations in the country being Black owned, according to the African- American Public Radio Consortium.

It wasn’t about competition for him, he said. “I was so proud that day. And I still remain proud of her for that,” Simpson said. “And now, finally, here comes the opportunity for me to do it myself. And I’m really happy about that.”

With the podcast network, Simpson wants to build something tangible he can pass down to the next generation. “You can’t hand down popularity. That dies with you,” he said. He will run the shoW with his son, Donnie Simpson Jr., who will serve as senior adviser.

The Donnie Simpson Show Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google

Podcasts, and most podcast apps.

The contents of this story was provided by Washington Business Journal.