PodcastOne crowns True Crime Podcast Knock Knock as the winner of Self Made Podcast Edition

PodcastOne, a leading podcast platform and a subsidiary of LiveXLive Media (NASDAQ: LIVX), announce today, on International Podcast Day, that Knock Knock, hosted by Jason B. Jones has been selected as the first-ever winner of Self Made Podcast Edition, an audio competition to find the next big podcast star for the network giant and was hosted on PodcastOne’s independent podcasting platform LaunchpadOne. In addition to being crowned the inaugural winner, Jones was awarded a PodcastOne podcasting contract and a total prize package worth over $100,000 including promotion across PodcastOne’s network.

The true crime podcast, Knock Knock featuries real stories of families and communities that have lived through the horror of an unsolved murder. Season 1 tells the story of host Jones’ own step-grandmother, Betty Jones, who was murdered alongside her friend, Kathryn Crigler who were both brutally attacked on Labor Day in 1990 after answering a knock on the door at Crigler’s Starkville, Miss., home. Mrs. Jones, who opened the door, was stabbed immediately and died. Crigler, who was in a wheelchair, was in the rear of the home. The killer walked back to Crigler’s room, raped her, strangled her and left her for dead. Crigler was able to crawl to a phone and call for help. She died two months later. The case, which received national attention for its brutality remained unsolved for three decades, prompted Jones, who was 10 at the time of the crimes, to spotlight the case in Knock Knock. In Season 2, the family of John D. Bellettieri is desperately seeking answers to their loved one’s cold case and Knock Knock helps tell their story, uncover the details of the crime, and seek justice for the victim.

Jones’ podcast Knock Knock was crowned the winner by an esteemed panel of podcast notables and advertising and media industry executives who used criteria ranging from sound quality to host relatability to show promotion paired with download numbers, to determine the grand prize winner.

“We had an overwhelming response to the competition and the content for the submissions ranged from true crime and sports to pop culture and gossip. The quality and excitement around the Self Made Podcast competition exemplifies that independent podcasting is thriving. We are thrilled to be able to offer up an opportunity to become part of the PodcastOne network and plan to continue enabling up and coming podcasters to succeed through our LaunchpadOne platform. A very special thank you to our judges who took the time to listen to each podcast and tell us what they think. We can’t wait for Self Made Podcast 2nd Edition,” said Kit Gray, president of PodcastOne.

The judging panel included Kailtyn Bristowe, creator and host of Off the Vine, one of the most successful and downloaded podcasts for women. Bristowe is also current Co-host of The Bachelorette and recently was crowned champion of Dancing with the Stars; Adam Carolla, host and Guiness World Record holder for the world’s most downloaded podcast, The Adam Carolla Show. Additionally, Carolla is the former host of the iconic radio and television series Loveline; Emmy Award-winner Doug Ellin who created the smash HBO series Entourage and host of two podcast series, Hollywood Wayz and the Victory Podcast which garnered more than 5 million downloads in its first 12 months; Internationally recognized broadcast journalist Jillian Hamilton who hosts the podcast Cheating: When Love Lies; and and Barbara Schroeder who also served as a mentor in addition to her judging duties. Schroeder who created the Netflix hit documentary Evil Genius and whose podcast Bad Bad Thing catapulted onto the top True Crime genre charts provided expert insight with each of the finalists to help them hone their storytelling skills.

Rounding out the group of esteemed panelists were revered and venerated podcast industry scions and advertising industry executives James Ingrassia, Head of Client Services, Oxford Road, the leading Los Angeles-based audio ad agency; DeSha Runnels, Vice President of Media, Ad Results, the world’s leading audio & podcast advertising agency; Sarah Cotenoff, Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships, Podsights, the leading attribution platform for podcast advertising; John Goforth, Chief Revenue Officer, Magellan AI, the leading developer of a data and analytics platform used to analyze podcasts and organize the data; Kit Gray, Co-Founder and President of PodcastOne; and member of the Radio Hall of Fame, Norm Pattiz, Founder of PodcastOne and WestwoodOne.

LaunchpadOne, which hosted the competition, was created as a low or no cost tool for independent podcasters without access to parent podcasting networks or state of the art equipment to create shows. LaunchpadOne serves as a talent pool to parent network PodcastOne and LiveXLive.

Self Made Podcast Edition is the latest pop-culture competition franchise developed, produced and distributed by LiveXLive. A company with their finger always on the pulse, LiveXLive is developing a wide array of competitive franchises across multiple genres, ranging from racing, sports, music, and more. Each event will bring the best aspects of entertainment together - sports, social media influence, music, lifestyle, and technology, plus breakthrough integration through NFTs, merch, and VIP meet and greet experiences. LiveXLive recently announced it will be changing its name to LiveOne. As part of its rebrand, LiveXLive’s plans to rebrand its subsidiaries and businesses as the “ONE” brand - PodcastOne, SlackerOne, PPVOne, ReactOne, StudioOne and PersonalizedMerchOne.