Poptimal.com’s The Jone Dome Brings New, Fresh, and Unique Black Voices to Mainstream Podcasting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Editor-in-Chief
Poptimal LLC
8639B 16th Street, #243
Silver Spring, MD 20910
www.poptimal.com
Zuberi.Williams@poptimal.com

Silver Spring, MD – December 1, 2008 – As they strap on their headsets, Ference and Double Edge discuss, for the first time, this week’s show.  “Well, we have the Princeton versus Harvard game tailgating, the Buddhist Pescadarian who eats chicken wings when she thinks no one is looking, and White Mike leveraging MySpace to hook up with sistas,” Ference suggested.  Without missing a beat, Double Edge chuckled and said, “Let’s also talk about that whack show Knight Rider and why, according to Pride & Glory, there are no black people in New York. That’s it, that’s the show.”

The Jone Dome is Poptimal.com’s (a website dedicated to reviews of movies, television, and everything pop culture) inaugural podcast venture.  The show is hosted by Ference (Silver Spring, MD) and Double Edge (Columbia, MD), two friends who persuaded Poptimal to give them 10 episodes to prove the show was something that would catch on with a national audience.  Catch on it did. Not surprisingly, the duo’s quick wit, pop culture knowledge, and self-decrepitating humor has sent a significant number of people to the Poptimal.com website and downloads of the show from iTunes has increased exponentially over the past two months.  This is especially impressive because the show only receives word-of-mouth advertising.

“One thing that makes the show unique is that it is the only podcast that I know of that has two black hosts but is listened to by a large mainstream audience,” remarked Zuberi Williams, president and owner of Poptimal LLC.  “I will admit that they talk a lot about race in pop culture, but they approach it in a completely different, comedic way than we are used to.  Their comedy is more similar to what we are seeing on shows like 30 Rock (NBC), Scrubs (ABC), and The Chappelle Show (Comedy Central) because it cuts across demographic borders.  Poptimal had to take a chance on that.”

The pair have been so successful that Poptimal.com asked them to cover the New York and Los Angeles auditions for MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew earlier this fall.  However, due to scheduling reasons, the show was only broadcasted from New York.

The show takes its name from a phrase used on The Junkies radio show, Ference’s favorite radio program growing up in the DC Metropolitan area.  “To jone,” he explains, “is a DC area term that means ‘to relentlessly make fun of someone.’  So when you are in The Jone Dome, you have to be ready to dish it out and take it.  I just hope our show has a modicum of the success those guys [The Junkies] have had.”

When asked what pop culture pair they are most like, Double Edge replied, “I think we are a lot like Turk and J.D. from Scrubs, well . . . that is if Turk was black too.”

Because of the success of The Jone Dome, Poptimal.com will premiere a second podcast entitled The J Factor in early December, which is a little more toned down.

The Jone Dome can be found on Poptimal.com here, and can be downloaded from iTunes here.