For a politician yearning for a path back to power, the deal that former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo struck to start his own podcast in 2022 looked almost perfect.<\/p>\n
The show, \u201cAs a Matter of Fact \u2026 With Andrew Cuomo,\u201d offered an uncensored platform to mend his reputation a year after he resigned<\/a> in a sexual harassment scandal. He laughed with Sean Penn<\/a> and Kellyanne Conway<\/a> and dished \u201cstraight talk\u201d about his party\u2019s faults. There was talk of interviewing Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n And the endeavor came with the promise of a big payday. Quake Media, a buzzy start-up known for its right-wing hosts, paid Mr. Cuomo as much as $40,000 a month, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.<\/p>\n But this was no star turn. Instead of launching Mr. Cuomo\u2019s comeback, his foray into online media turned out to be the beginning of a protracted \u2014 and often humbling \u2014 misadventure that only ended this spring when he decided to run for mayor<\/a> of New York City.<\/p>\n Mr. Cuomo, 67, has managed to keep most details about his podcasting career under wraps. But a review of previously unreported court records and interviews with a dozen people involved show the lengths he was willing to go to restore his name.<\/p>\n It began with Quake Media. But when the start-up began unraveling, Mr. Cuomo tried others in the Republican spectrum. He courted a conservative talk radio powerhouse and had a portentous run-in with a Republican rival in a familiar red beret. And, in a bizarre twist, the podcasts he made may soon be owned by a well-known Fox News host.<\/p>\n Powerful allies privy to the work said they could only guess why Mr. Cuomo was so determined.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are asking me to be his psychiatrist!\u201d said John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of WABC, a conservative talk radio station where Mr. Cuomo tried to get on the air.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think he wanted to stay relevant politically,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce you are out of the media for a period of time, you become irrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Cuomo now finds himself in a similar position. He is trying to salvage his career as a third-party candidate in the mayor\u2019s race, in large part by courting Republicans<\/a>, including Mr. Catsimatidis and his radio listeners<\/a>.<\/p>\n For politicians who have been canceled, are washed-up or out of work, radio has long been a refuge. Mr. Cuomo knew the model well: His own father, Mario M. Cuomo, had briefly hosted a nationally syndicated radio show<\/a> after leaving the New York governor\u2019s mansion in the 1990s. His brother, Chris Cuomo, announced he was starting a podcast<\/a> in the summer of 2022 after CNN fired him<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Andrew Cuomo, Quake Media seemed an odd fit. For $4.99 a month, subscribers could get access to \u201cexclusive\u201d content from hosts that included Laura Ingraham, Soledad O\u2019Brien, Mike Huckabee and Pete Rose as part of a novel \u201csubscription podcast network,\u201d where the shows were secured behind a paywall.<\/p>\n Laura Ingraham, known for her work on Fox News, sued Quake Media for nonpayment.Credit…Pete Marovich for The New York Times<\/p>\n But Mr. Cuomo did not exactly have a lot of options. The company started paying him lump sums that would add up to close to $500,000 a year to produce a show every week or two. \u201cAs a Matter of Fact \u2026\u201d rolled out in fall 2022, billed as the Democrat\u2019s big public re-emergence<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing it because I\u2019m worried about this country,\u201d Mr. Cuomo said in the first episode.<\/p>\n An I-know-best politician who had spent his career sparring with journalists, Mr. Cuomo was not exactly a natural host. But he secured splashy guests and attracted attention by using the show to air longstanding grievances against Democrats in \u201cdenial\u201d about the scourge of crime, against then-President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and a recent but frequently cited foe, the socialist left.<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, Quake was unraveling. Unbeknown to Mr. Cuomo, the company had lost its corporate charter in May 2022, months before hiring him.<\/p>\n When it began missing contractual payments, Ms. Ingraham, better known for her work on Fox News, filed suit, saying the company owed her nearly $1 million. Ms. Ingraham\u2019s lawyer declined to comment.<\/p>\n The company missed payments to Mr. Cuomo, too, according to the former governor.<\/p>\n In a wide-ranging interview in early June, Mr. Cuomo said the podcast had taken \u201cthe majority of my time\u201d for the year or so he was on air and that he enjoyed the challenge of writing scripts. \u201cI took it very seriously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Mr. Cuomo conceded the company\u2019s founder, Doug Rosenberg, had stiffed him. \u201cHe was a nice enough fellow, and the economy sort of changed beneath him,\u201d Mr. Cuomo said. \u201cHe has not paid me everything that I\u2019m owed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe said he will, he just needs time,\u201d Mr. Cuomo said. \u201cI said OK.\u201d<\/p>\n Quake went dark in late 2023. Mr. Cuomo\u2019s spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, declined to say how much the former governor was owed.<\/p>\n James D. Bailey, a lawyer for Mr. Rosenberg, declined to comment on his interactions with Mr. Cuomo.<\/p>\n Mr. Cuomo did not, at the time, publicize his situation. Instead, he quietly looked for a lifeline.<\/p>\n John Catsimatidis, the owner of WABC, considered taking on Mr. Cuomo as a radio host, but the two did not reach a deal.Credit…Vincent Alban\/The New York Times<\/p>\n Enter Mr. Catsimatidis.<\/p>\n A heterodox Republican who made his fortune off groceries and oil refineries, Mr. Catsimatidis also owned WABC, a talk radio station that he turned into a drive-time juggernaut. The station leans rightward, but it draws a large audience that centrists like Mr. Cuomo covet.<\/p>\n Mr. Catsimatidis said he could not remember exactly when Mr. Cuomo approached him, but the former governor made it clear in late 2022 or 2023 that he wanted to move to WABC.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about money,\u201d the owner said. \u201cHe thought he could get double the listeners.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Catsimatidis consulted his team. They were not interested, three people involved at the time said.<\/p>\n Mr. Catsimatidis \u201cdidn’t think Andrew would be objective enough,\u201d recalled David A. Paterson, Mr. Cuomo\u2019s predecessor as governor and another WABC host. \u201cHe would use the mic to go after people that he felt slandered him.\u201d<\/p>\n Others at the station voiced showmanship concerns. \u201cBasically, I said to the techs, if ever he becomes a podcaster here, I\u2019d want to impale myself with a microphone,\u201d said Curtis Sliwa<\/a>, a WABC mainstay who is now clashing with Mr. Cuomo as the Republican nominee for mayor. \u201cThe guy is boring!\u201d<\/p>\n Curtis Sliwa, who had a WABC radio show with Ron Kuby, left, expressed his dislike for Mr. Cuomo on the air.Credit…Librado Romero\/The New York Times<\/p>\n By Mr. Azzopardi\u2019s account, the two sides did not come to terms and Mr. Cuomo \u201cultimately decided it wasn\u2019t something he wanted to pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n The former governor had started a lucrative parallel consulting business where he earned more than $500,000 in 2024, according to his financial disclosures to the city. Mr. Cuomo has refused to produce a list of his clients, though news media have reported he worked for an embattled cryptocurrency exchange<\/a> and a nuclear power<\/a> start-up.<\/p>\n But he did not completely give up on radio.<\/p>\n This winter, not long before he announced his campaign for mayor<\/a>, Mr. Cuomo approached WABC again. This time, he said he was interested in producing a political podcast with Mr. Catsimatidis\u2019s podcasting network<\/a>, Red Apple.<\/p>\n The mogul was more receptive. Unlike an on-air show, Mr. Cuomo would be responsible for finding sponsors for a podcast, he said, and would have to share a cut of the revenue with Red Apple.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has access to a lot of people with \u2014 how do you call it \u2014 checks-appeal,\u201d Mr. Catsimatidis said. (After initially supporting Mayor Eric Adams before he dropped his re-election bid<\/a>, Mr. Catsimatidis has endorsed Mr. Cuomo.)<\/p>\n But the podcast idea fell apart, in no small thanks to Mr. Sliwa. When Mr. Cuomo came to visit Red Apple\u2019s Midtown Manhattan studios, Mr. Sliwa was live on air.<\/p>\n