It’s pretty rare a radio station gets as much print press as WFAN in New York has been getting this week. WFAN has been must-listen-to radio these past few days. Mike Francesa’s short retirement has certainly stirred the pot and generated excitement in New York City radio — and everyone is taking sides. Here’s what happened yesterday.
After their gag order was lifted Wednesday, morning WFAN morning duo Boomer & Gio unloaded on their soon-to-be co-worker Mike Francesa, for nearly an hour. They ridiculed his retirement tour. They played and mocked old Francesa soundbites. They did pretty good impressions of him. They wondered if the “cheap Mike Francesa Studio”
plaque would now have to come down. They pondered if he should return all the sponsorship money for his retirement tour. They mocked the station for just having a new van postered with all the new talent and their new time slots.
Boomer and Gio spent the majority of their vent berating Francesa for pushing aside the three people who were hired to replace him, Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray, and Bart Scott. Both CMB and Joe and Evan will have their shifts shortened when Francesa returns, which could be as early as next week
(We’re expecting the official press release from Entercom Friday).
Esiason was the hardest on Francesa. He said Francesa announced he was coming back before he even had a contract and before the station made any announcement, making Tuesday ‘one of the most bizarre days at the radio station.’ Both Boomer and Gio believe Entercom gave up on CMB before giving them a real chance to succeed (they’ve been on the air since January 2 and never worked together before that).
And Esiason added, Francesa “decided to come back because of some conspiracy to keep him off the air. I have no idea what the hell that means.” Giannotti added, “It made me feel a little uneasy the entire day.” What was even more amusing was that Boomer and Gio say they were told not to talk about the issue on Tuesday, then heard it being reported on 1010WINS. The all-news New York station is also owned by Entercom.
Esiason who is a successful former NFL quarterback and also has a successful career on TV covering the NFL, isn’t too impressed with how Entercom handled this or the radio business in general. How he felt about the industry came across loud and clear on the radio Wednesday. “Radio can be a real sewer pit. There’s a lot of backstabbing and knife-throwing that goes on. I try to stay above a lot of that stuff. Unfortunately, you can’t. Three people basically have gotten screwed. I don’t care how you put it — they’ve gotten screwed.”
When Joe and Evan hit the airwaves at 10:00 they picked right up on the story. However, they went into a different direction. Even though their shift will be shortened to make room for Francesa, both said they owed a lot to Francesa and had no problem with him coming back to the station.
It’s unclear so far whether Francesa’s return was orchestrated by WFAN PD Mark Chernoff or by Francesa’s representatives and Entercom corporate (Mike Dee and David Field). The New York Post‘s Andrew Marchand wrote a piece entitled, “Mike Francesa’s ‘crawl’ back to WFAN is fun, heated and doomed.” In that piece, Marchand writes, “Chernoff did not want Francesa back.” New York Daily News columnist Bob Raissman wrote a column called “Get ready for Mike Francesa’s latest con job when the Sports Pope returns to WFAN next week.” In his column he writes that Chernoff desperately wanted him back.” And Raissman says Francesa got a five-year deal and said he would stay even longer than that.
You have to wonder what ESPN’s Michael Kay is thinking today. Kay was edging closer and closer to Francesa in the ratings, and this past fall Kay was tied for third when Francesa was second. And Kay did beat WFAN in the winter book, when Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray, and Bart Scott were on.
Here’s what Kay told Radio Ink last night. “I think it will be tight because he will get a curiosity bump in the beginning but at the end of his “retirement tour” he finished 2nd and we finished tied for 3rd so if that trend continues we will be in good shape. I’ve always thought our show was a much better listen but he got the benefit of the combined ratings of two strong signals and 30 years in the market. I think people tired of his show at the end and those that sampled us when he was gone are not going back. Why go from a fun, lively bar back to a quiet, boring one? I think it’s going to be fun and it will be a blast and good for radio in the city. Bring it on.”
There’s no arguing that Francesa has been a ratings winner for WFAN for many years. If Francesa blows the ratings out of the water and stays on top, all of the WFAN infighting will be swept under the rug because advertisers will pay for those numbers, and, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. Not too long ago, WFAN was the highest-billing radio station in the country. In 2017, according to BIA, WFAN was sixth, taking in $41 million.
For those who love the “inside baseball” discussions about the radio industry, Wednesday was as good as it gets.
As someone who retired at a younger age, I can understand why he’s returning. As we go through life, we encounter people who become jealous of our success. When there’s a lack of respect shown, the individual, has to do, what he has to do. For himself, his family, and in this case with Mike, his listeners. It’s not about ego either. His critics, whether it be these other staff members who work at WFAN,or whomever, should wise up to someone who’s good at what he does. They could only wish in their dreams, to do half of what this man has done, for over 30 years. He gets it, and someday soon, maybe his list of critics will get it too. It is, what it is, Welcome back Mike.