The agency teams with show hosts Ty Hildenbrandt and Dan Rubenstein to develop new business.
Indie college football podcast The Solid Verbal is adding to its offense.
The sports and lifestyle show, which boasts over ten million downloads over its decade-plus run, has signed with WME, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The agency will work with hosts Ty Hildenbrandt and Dan Rubenstein to increase digital distribution and look for TV, touring and merchandising opportunities for the year-round podcast.
The podcast was launched in August 2008 and initially only garnered "just 30 listeners in our first month," the duo recounted in a five-year anniversary note. The show was brainstormed when Hildenbrandt was writing the "Quick Slants" column and Rubenstein hosted "SI Tour Guy" videos for Sports Illustrated.
In 2011, it became part of the podcast launch slate for Bill Simmons' now-defunct ESPN literary sports site Grantland, and added a video show a year later on Vox Media's sports site SB Nation. In recent years, The Solid Verbal has toured the country with ticketed live shows, including Dallas and Washington, D.C. in 2019.
The Solid Verbal currently has an advertising sales pact with podcast network Wondery. It continues to be managed by Amplify Management in NYC.
The signing marks the latest for WME's expanding podcast roster, which includes Crooked Media and Malcom Gladwell’s collective along with recent additions Meet Cute, Throwing Fits, and Anna Sale (host of WNYC’s Death, Sex & Money).
