“Fresh Air,” an early podcast catalyst, celebrates 50 years

Fresh Air, iconic radio program and podcast, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The show formally started in 1975 on Philadelphia NPR station WHYY. (A precurser, also titled Fresh Air, ran for two years previously — run by volunteers and unevenly structured, that brief period is not generally considered part of the franchise history.)

Later, as the digital media era got underway, its success provided a model for other public radio programs to migrate online as podcasts.

The show remained local to the Philadelphia market, growing its audience footprint and leading to national expansion starting in 1985. At that time a weekly, half-hour edition of the show was distributed nationally by NPR. (The one-hour format started in 1987.)

That national distribution set the stage for Fresh Air‘s popularity across the nation’s radio markets, resulting in the franchise’s popularity as a podcast: By 2016, Fresh Air was the most downloaded podcast on iTunes.

NPR benefited from Fresh Air‘s early push into podcasting; the network currently sits in the #3 slot of Podtrac’s Top US Podcast Publishers and Networks (August 2025).