The two hosts of Mommycast – Gretchen Vogelzang and Paige Heninger – were on my podcast panel at Syndicate yesterday. Later, they generously gave me 45 minutes for an interview. It wasn’t hard to see why their program has been successful.

The secret of a co-hosted program is chemistry. The Mommycast formula is straight out of the comedy team mold. Gretchen is the reserved one. She’s had a 25-year career in dance instruction and has owned her own dance studio. She has that Germanic disciplined demeanor that belies a planner

Paige makes up life as she goes along. She admits she hasn’t held any one job for more than four years. That one was as a school bus driver, an incongruous image for one so petite. She’s impulsive, irreverent and chatty, even bubbly. Gretchen is the wise mom. Paige (despite having five kids) comes is the irreverent teenager. They’re perfect together.

Everything has gone right for Mommycast. They’re being approached by terrestrial radio networks that want to take Mommycast to the airwaves. They’ve had inquiries about books and paid endorsements. Dixie, their main sponsor, wants to align as closely as possible with this duo, who bring the dual benefits of family values and Internet coolness. Gretchen and Paige are featured on a back-to-school CD package Dixie is preparing for the fall and the cup maker wants to do more. They have endorsement requests. Movie studios, smitten by the pair’s impact on March of the Penguins (Warner has attributed 25% of the film’s revenues to Mommycast’s recommendations) are inviting them to preview new films.

Paige and Gretchen can take this as far as they want to take it. They may turn out to be the first podcasters to become pop culture icons. It couldn’t happen to two nicer people.