The iHeartPodcast Awards are right around the corner and are ready to take over SXSW to honor this year's most innovative and influential voices and creators in podcasting.

This year's iHeartPodcast Awards will take place live on March 10th at 7pm CT/8pm ET at, ACL Live at The Moody Theater. Fans will be able to tune in and stream on select iHeartRadio stations, on the iHeartRadio app, as well as on iHeartRadio's YouTube channel at 11pm ET/10pm CT/8pm PT.

The nominees for the 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards include podcasts and creators across all genres, distributors and platforms with categories including comedy, crime, news, pop culture, sports, food, business and more. Winners in each category will be determined by a panel of blue-ribbon podcast industry leaders, creatives and visionaries.

And as in years past, podcast fans help decide the winner of the coveted Podcast of the Year award by voting online at iHeartPodcastAwards.com. This year's Podcast of the Year nominees include "Normal Gossip," "Three," "Giggly Squad," "Call Her Daddy," "Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang," "Hysterical," "The Telepathy Tapes," "Who Killed JFK?," "Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD" and "The Good Whale."

The 2025 iHeartPodcast Awards will also present three Icon Awards: Audible Audio Pioneer Award,Social Impact Award and Innovator Award – which will pay tribute to the creators, organizations and podcasts that have made groundbreaking industry contributions. Sarah Spain, Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist and host of "Good Game," will be honored as the 2025 Social Impact Award for her pivotal role in championing equity in sports coverage, equal pay for female athletes and better investment in women’s sports infrastructure.

Dan Taberski will be honored with the 2025 Audible Audio Pioneer Awardfor his significant influence in the podcasting landscape through his storytelling and investigative journalism, including his latest podcast "Hysterical" (nominated for Podcast of the Year and more) and his previous work with "Missing Richard Simmons" and "Surviving Y2K," among others.

The 2025 Innovator Award will honor Daniel Alarcón, a Peruvian-American journalist and novelist, for his work on "The Good Whale" (nominated for Podcast of the Year), which stands out as an innovative and captivating approach to storytelling within the podcasting realm as it revisits the life of Keiko, the orca who gained fame as the star of the 1990s film Free Willy.

Tune in on March 10th!

97.1 The Eagle