Wichita Podcasts

The most useful Wichita listening does not arrive as one neat city portrait. It comes through college rivalries, local festivals, public-service conversations, business interviews and the occasional fictional detour. Sports supplies the sharpest conflict, while Wichita-focused shows fill in the civic and cultural life around it.

Follow the games first

For immediate stakes, start with the college-sports shows. They treat Wichita as a place where a result matters, not merely as scenery.

Hoist the Colours: An East Carolina Athletics Podcast offers the outsider’s postgame view in ECU's conference struggles continue with series loss in Wichita. The show’s brisk panel style suits listeners who want frustration, game-management arguments and season-level consequences worked through by people already immersed in East Carolina athletics. Wichita enters as the site of a damaging conference result, which makes this a strong choice when you want competition rather than hometown celebration.

J&J Show approaches from another visiting market. J&J Show---Hour 3 Thursday 2/26/26-- Tigers vs. Wichita State tonight on ESPN2, Arthur Horne Memphis Bachelor + Dan Wolken joins later places the matchup inside a rapid local-radio hour with other Memphis conversation still moving around it. Expect Wichita State discussion in live-rundown form: quick, conversational and intended for listeners who already know the teams.

The home-side route is Forward Together. Forward Together Podcast | Episode 43 - Mike Kennedy: Voice of the Shockers points toward the identity and storytelling around Wichita State sports, while Forward Together - Episode 40 | Coaches Kristi Bredbenner and Brian Green turns to coaches. Its most explicitly Wichita-titled episode heads elsewhere on campus: Forward Together Podcast | Episode 42 ASL @ Wichita State: Interpreting Linguistics and Deaf Culture. That range makes the show a useful bridge between athletics and university life rather than a pure game-reaction feed.

Taken together, these shows give you three different listening positions. Hoist the Colours: An East Carolina Athletics Podcast processes a series loss, J&J Show previews a matchup from Memphis, and Forward Together stays close to Wichita State’s own people and programs. There is no single sweeping sports history here; the appeal is the contrast between opponent analysis, radio anticipation and campus conversation.

The city talking to itself

Away from competition, Wichita Podcast has the broadest recurring local frame. Its WichiTalk run moves from family services in 69-Care For Every Family (WichiTalk Series) to a major community event in 68-Riverfest Revisited (WichiTalk Series). The other instalments, 67-S.J. Crespo (WichiTalk Series) and 66-Lily Lake (WichiTalk Series), show the series rotating through named subjects rather than locking itself into one beat.

That makes Wichita Podcast the closest thing to an ongoing sampler. It is a sensible first stop for someone who wants Wichita encountered through individual conversations and community subjects, one episode at a time. The titles promise breadth more than a single argument.

The Eddytorial: A Wichita By E.B. Podcast is more plainly event-led. Episode 84: All the fun updates for June in Wichita reads like a practical monthly catch-up, while Ep. 85: Wichita Forever Festival narrows the focus to one festival. Choose it when the question is what is happening around town, especially if a compact update sounds more inviting than a long institutional discussion.

The difference between these two local shows is useful. Wichita Podcast builds a continuing interview-style series around varied subjects; The Eddytorial: A Wichita By E.B. Podcast points more directly toward calendars, updates and things to attend. Neither needs to carry the entire city. Their narrower jobs are what make them good on-ramps.

Institutions, families and local work

Empower Wichita takes the public-service route. Listen: Empower Wichita- Wichita Fire & Police Foundation foregrounds a civic organization, Empower Wichita- The Treehouse introduces another community-focused subject, and Empower Wichita - Youth and Addictive Tobacco Products tackles a specific issue affecting young people. This is the place to start when festivals and scoreboards feel too light.

The titles also make the show’s boundaries clear: these are focused conversations, not a general news bulletin. Each episode gives one organization or concern the floor. That makes Empower Wichita better suited to listeners looking for community infrastructure and practical local issues.

For the commercial side of the city, Wichita Chamber Business Accelerator offers Championing Wichita Startups (Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis - NXTUS) [Re-release]. The title is unusually specific about both subject and guests, so it is the cleanest business-oriented entry point here. Its other listed episodes address marketing and workplace culture, but Wichita itself is most directly foregrounded in the startups conversation.

iHeartMedia's show packages the city as a bundle of possible outings in Visit Wichita, Bike Share ICT, & Pretty Prairie Rodeo. The neighbouring episode Sedgwick County Fair continues that regional-events direction without making Wichita its explicit subject. This is lighter, more itinerary-shaped listening: useful for attractions and activities, less useful for sustained analysis of the city.

The edges of Wichita coverage

A couple of episodes use Wichita in ways that should not be mistaken for full city guides. BLENDED FAMILY TODAY, 100% Stepfamily Radio - a USABFA.com program has Interview with American Family Radio - Wichita KS. Wichita identifies the setting or station in the title, while the show’s family-radio focus remains the stronger signal. Start there only if that specific interview context interests you.

Uncanny County goes farther from documentary treatment with Wichita Starman (S2, Ep9). As an audio drama, it offers fiction rather than reporting, civic discussion or sports analysis. It is an entertaining side door for listeners drawn to the name and atmosphere, but it will not answer the same questions as Empower Wichita or Forward Together.

That distinction matters because Wichita appears across very different podcast formats. Some episodes genuinely organize themselves around the city, its events or its teams. Others use Wichita as a matchup location, an interview identifier or part of a fictional title. Listeners looking for depth should favor the recurring local series before wandering into those one-offs.

Where to start

For sports, begin with Hoist the Colours: An East Carolina Athletics Podcast and ECU's conference struggles continue with series loss in Wichita; it has the clearest competitive stakes and the strongest post-result angle. Follow it with Forward Together and Forward Together Podcast | Episode 43 - Mike Kennedy: Voice of the Shockers for a Wichita State-facing perspective.

For city life, try Wichita Podcast with 68-Riverfest Revisited (WichiTalk Series), then move to The Eddytorial: A Wichita By E.B. Podcast and Episode 84: All the fun updates for June in Wichita. If civic work is the priority, Empower Wichita and Listen: Empower Wichita- Wichita Fire & Police Foundation provide the most direct entry.

Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.