The Volume
Colin Cowherd (founder)
Logan Swaim (head of content)
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Longtime sports radio and television personality Colin Cowherd launched The Volume in early 2021 in partnership with iHeartMedia. At the time, he said there had “never been a more exciting time to develop new sports content,” and he took full opportunity in constructing a network of shows around his flagship podcast. Yet despite how extensive The Volume’s offerings are, head of content Logan Swaim explained that the company’s success is built on a fundamentally basic idea.
“What Colin embodies is the simplest form of entertainment: Can you hold a conversation directly with one other person and grab their attention just by talking?” said Swaim, who previously worked with WME, NBC Sports, NFL Media and DAZN. “I thought there was an opportunity to go find more Colins out there. Whether they’re former athletes, current athletes or emerging talent who you may never have heard of before, they’re people who are really good at talking and holding your ear while weaving a narrative.”
The Volume now has 18 shows with a roster of hosts that includes Draymond Green, Richard Sherman and, most recently, Shannon Sharpe, who in August moved his “Club Shay Shay” podcast to the network. Swaim said it was a natural partnership wherein the company adds a major property to the lineup — Chartable recently ranked the show fifth among sports podcasts — while Sharpe can leverage The Volume for scale and to develop new shows. Just last month, The Volume debuted “Nightcap with Unc and Ocho,” starring Sharpe and former NFL wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson. It airs on Sunday nights following the conclusion of the NFL’s slate, reflecting the sort of immediacy Swaim says is critical to standing out in today’s crowded landscape of talking heads.
And while The Volume is often labeled a podcast network, Swaim is quick to note that audio alone just doesn’t cut it anymore.
“The opportunity is weaponizing video more. To us, a podcast isn’t really fully realized until it has video,” Swaim said. “You’re not giving it the best chance to be seen, followed or survive until it has video, because that gives you a full 360 of promotion. If people can do that correctly, the advertisers are going to start to take notice. We actually have more than double the inventory because we can sell into video and social, where we might actually be getting a bigger audience than we would in the audio side of things.” — Chris Smith
