Podcasts about Cincinnati, Ohio

Early in a Hamilton County Commission debate carried on Cincinnati Edition in April, a moderator goes back to 1996, when county voters approved a half-cent sales tax to build new homes for the Bengals and Reds. Thirty percent of each year's revenue was promised back to homeowners as a property-tax rebate. In December, the moderator says, commissioners approved a fraction of that: "I believe it was 4.5 percent." Candidate Herman Njoli answers that the talks were "very private and behind closed doors."

That exchange is a fair key to listening here. Some of the city's shows in this guide are about its teams, and the teams will not stay in the sports shows. They surface in a county tax fight, in a public-radio program that moves from a courtroom to the ballpark, and at the Enquirer's microphone between a crime story and a beat writer.

A newcomer hears the games first: Bengals free agency argued live with a chat, a Bearcats basketball coaching change, and a Reds offense that a comedy podcast spent an April episode grumbling about. The civic arguments run to money. On September 28, 2026, WVXU reported a projected $44.5 million deficit for Cincinnati Public Schools in fiscal 2029, alongside a proposed five-year, seven-mill levy. The same day, a council committee advanced security requirements for parking lots and garages. Cincinnati Edition titled its October 2 episode Gas tax holiday, CPS budget, parking lot regulations and more top stories, and That's So Cincinnati's September 30 episode title set parking safety beside Kroger protests and prices.

What Cincinnati is

Cincinnati sits on the Ohio River in southwestern Ohio, anchoring a region that extends into Northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana. The Census Bureau put the city's population at 314,367 on July 1, 2025, a figure for the city alone rather than the metro area. The regional tourism organization lists Kroger, Cintas, Fifth Third and Procter & Gamble among its major corporate headquarters. The shows below treat the city from different angles, and the Ohio page widens the view to the state.

Council, county and courthouse

Cincinnati Edition, heard on WVXU, does the slow work. Its April 3 episode, The report is out on Theetge, FirstEnergy hung jury, plus more top stories, shows the method. A reporter lays out a law firm's summary concluding that Chief Theetge was not an effective leader of the police department. The reporter then marks the summary's limits: 42 people were asked to be interviewed, 32 responded, and no list of them is public. Signal Ohio's Jake Zuckerman finds no single cause for the hung jury, "more a mosaic," though he notes 17 defense attorneys on court documents and prosecutors "left to think on their feet." Then host Lucy May turns to the Reds with Local 12's Richard Skinner. The call-in format lets residents talk back. In Is the city on track with its Green Cincinnati Plan?, a guest sets out the goal of halving carbon emissions by 2030. An email from Steve in Oakley then asks why 15 aluminum-can bins went into Oakley's business district when the public trash cans there are not emptied regularly.

WLWT News 5 carries debates. In Commitment 2024: 1st Congressional Debate Landsman v. Sonza, the Republican challenger ties fentanyl to cartels moving drugs along 75, 74 and 71. The Democratic incumbent answers with a bipartisan border bill and his account that Donald Trump said "kill the bill." The newest episode dates to October 2025, so treat the feed as an archive of election debates.

That's So Cincinnati, from the Enquirer, gives its reporters room. In That's So Cincinnati with Reds Beat Reporter Gordon Wittenmyer, a breaking-news reporter walks through a street takeover in the Woodward High School parking lot. Police reported 39 arrests and 65 cars towed, and the host notices that the cars outnumber the people. Then the beat writer gets the Reds. That's So Cincinnati Special Edition 10 years after the Pike County murders is heavier. Reporters explain how eight killings about two hours away, outside the paper's coverage area, became a story they followed through a 13-week trial. The episode describes the crime scenes in close detail, and its hosts take care to say that the man convicted on all 22 counts "did not kill anyone."

Bearcats, Bengals and the Reds

The Bearcats' basketball coaching change makes the best three-way listen. On Sports with strawberry ice, a live stream that covers the teams from a Westside angle, the host greets Wes Miller's firing with "Ding dong. The witch is dead" and reads out the record. BCJ Podcast, from Bearcat Journal, calls what followed the "most boring, uneventful coaching search" of the nearly ten the site has covered, in Turtles Brew Coaching Search: Cincinnati Hires Jerrod Calhoun. As one host puts it, everyone they spoke to said Calhoun. On That's So Cincinnati, a host recalls covering Calhoun's single season as a student assistant on Bob Huggins's staff for the Cincinnati Post. BCJ runs a baseball show too, and in Diamond Bearcats Podcast Ep 8 one host apologizes on air to Jackson Smith for doubting him: "I love being wrong."

Football splits between live reaction and the long view. Sports with strawberry ice's Legal Tampering Begins: What’s Next for the Bengals? is a streamed reaction show, with sponsor reads and chat names included. The host cheers signings that include Brian Cook, "Cincinnati guy, former Bearcat." On the show's Day 2 stream, a member of Bengals UK, speaking from Trafford, Manchester, says the group has been going for 11 years. Hear That Podcast Growlin': A show about the Cincinnati Bengals, from The Athletic's Paul Dehner Jr., is the long view: its latest episode, Farewell HTPG, hello The Growler, dates to February 2024. Its Prepping for combine, free agency still works as a lesson in roster economics, with one host making the case against paying Joe Mixon: "He's not going to get any younger."

Baseball gets both the loosest and the tightest treatment. In The Cincinnati Reds Early Offensive Woes, The New Nasty Boys, comedians Billy DeVore, Chris Weir and Jake Polson, move from sunburn and ballpark food to a note that Elly De La Cruz already has four right-handed home runs, against five all of last season. They also talk about City Connect red pants. The humor is crude. Cincinnati Reds Podcast plays it straight: 3/26/26 Reds-Red Sox Game Recap logs a 3-0 opening-day loss to Boston, Andrew Abbott's six shutout innings, and Sal Stewart becoming the first Reds rookie since 1958 with three hits on opening day. Mo Egger's 4-16-26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show Hr 2 puts Reds third-base OPS at .332, worst in the sport. Even 3-26-25 The R&L Carriers 700 WLW Opening Day Broadcast on Bill Cunningham on 700WLW pauses for a stat: when the Reds scored at least four runs last year, they went 65-25.

For FC Cincinnati, Talking Tactics with Coach Gough pairs coach Brad Gough with former Arsenal and FCC player Justin Hoyte. In Good or Lucky? FCC Hold Crew off With Makeshift Defense, the hosts point to a moment at the 13-minute mark to show how quickly FCC's players closed on a pass into midfield.

Away from the scoreboard

Cincy Brewcast covers the beer trade, and its geography does real work. Alexandria Brewing Company Is Coming To West Chester, Ohio! puts the drive from the Kentucky brewery to its new Ohio outpost at 38 miles, by one guess. Even so, the conversation notes, it "feels for a lot of people up here that it's the other side of the universe." The state line matters in plainer ways too. Of mug clubs, a guest says, "we can't do that in Kentucky right now."

Sunday Morning Magazine with Rodney Lear is gentler. Lear revisits a conversation with Buddy LaRosa and his sons Mike and Mark as the pizzeria marked 70 years. A July 2024 run of hometown-Olympian segments lets Mary Wineberg recall finishing "dead last" at the 2004 trials and then hearing Justin Gatlin tell her to get up. High jumper Loretta Blaut, who holds a full-time job, describes being one of two unsponsored athletes to reach the final. The newest episodes date to August 2024. Cincinnati Zoo Tales, meanwhile, lets a speaker explain why king snakes, which "will eat almost anything," can quickly get overweight.

Where to start

Start with the debate, and listen for who is asked to pay for what.

• If local government is your thing: Cincinnati Edition, Watch: Commission candidates tout policy priorities, address criticisms in debate. The stadium-rebate question gives three candidates a concrete promise to answer for.
• For the Bearcats argument: BCJ Podcast, Turtles Brew Coaching Search: Cincinnati Hires Jerrod Calhoun, an insider's account of a hire the hosts saw coming.
• For the Bengals obsessive: Hear That Podcast Growlin': A show about the Cincinnati Bengals, Prepping for combine, free agency, where a 2024 roster decision is argued on economics.
• For a weekend plan: Cincy Brewcast, Alexandria Brewing Company Is Coming To West Chester, Ohio!, which maps the region's beer across a state line.
• If you want baseball with jokes: The New Nasty Boys, The Cincinnati Reds Early Offensive Woes.

The Cincinnati feed on this page plays clips from these shows.