Lori Barghini and Julia Cobbs are returning to the airwaves with a new podcast, “Lori and Julia Still LOUD!” which debuts Oct. 1.
The pair hosted the afternoon talk show “Lori and Julia” for 22 years on MyTalk 107.1 and helped to establish the station as a go-to for women’s voices. Last year, they surprised listeners when they announced they were ending the program, citing Barghini’s desire for more free time as well as the rigors of producing the show, which aired three hours a day, five days a week. Now, they’ll issue two new hour-long podcasts each week.
“It’s going to be perfect for us,” Barghini said. “We’re going to love this new schedule.”
Barghini said she always knew they would end up doing a podcast at some point, but she wanted to take at least a year off before pursuing the new venture. The first person they talked to was Ginny Hubbard, CEO of MyTalk’s parent company Hubbard Radio.
“She said she hoped we’d talk to her first and I told her, ‘Absolutely, you hired us for the radio. Of course we’re coming to you first,’” Barghini said.
They reached an agreement to produce “Still LOUD!” for Hubbard Radio’s Gamut Podcast Network, which distributes shows featuring longtime KQRS “Morning Show” host Tom Barnard and Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray along with other local and national podcasts.
Listeners can expect to hear a similar format to the pair’s radio show. “We’re going to continue to be People magazine for people’s ears,” Barghini said. “We’ll talk about pop culture, what TV shows we’re obsessed with, movies, music, whatever we find interesting.”
Initially, it’ll just be the two of them, but they do plan to start inviting guests once they get settled. And Barghini said “Still LOUD!” will be a bit looser and more informal now that they’re freed from the constraints of commercial radio: “I like that idea that we can be — I don’t want to say raunchier, because Julia doesn’t really like raunchy — but I like the idea of being able to be more frank about some things we might have pulled back on (on the air). You know, we’ll just be laying it out there.”
The pair, who are sisters-in-law, have remained close in the time since they left MyTalk and have hosted some public events together. They just returned from a group trip they led to Paris.
Julia Cobbs and Lori Barghini visited La Galerie Dior during a recent group trip they led in Paris. (Courtesy of Julia Cobbs)
Tuesday, they recorded their first trial run of the podcast.
“The hour went by just like that,” Barghini said. “It did feel (like riding a bike again), but we didn’t have to be aware of stopping the clock or changing directions every 10 minutes. It was nice to be able to go on and off and on something like we used to in the early days on the radio, when we didn’t have any advertisers. It was just us entertaining each other.”
New episodes of “Lori and Julia Still LOUD!” will drop at 11 a.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and can be found on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, Google or wherever listeners find their podcasts.
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