I don’t want to talk bad about Josh Innes. I really don’t. I listened to his show a few months back, and while he’s not my kind of sports talk host, I don’t want the guy to fail.
Despite what people thought after I wrote a very critical blog about him last year, I certainly don’t dislike the guy personally. And I wanted to write something positive about his new show with Tony Bruno. But after listening for a few minutes Friday, I lost my mind and also my desire to write something positive.
Innes started talking about how Rob Tornoe, the great cartoonist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, drew one of Innes and Bruno yelling at Fanatic drive time host Mike Missanelli. He then said something along the lines of this being a big boom in Philadelphia radio, and said something to the effect, and I’m paraphrasing, that Angelo Cataldi has been a legend here, but this – the pairing of Innes and Bruno – is the biggest thing that ever happened in Philly radio.
Seriously, he acted like this was the biggest thing ever.
Bigger than Wing Bowl.
Bigger than booing Donovan McNabb.
Bigger than Angelo throwing a ball from, I believe, the 700 level to past home plate at Veterans Stadium.
Bigger than “Honk for Herschel!” the “For Who, For What?” scandal and the 15-hour pregame show from years ago when the Eagles played the Cowboys on Monday Night Football.
Bigger than all of the great things Howard Eskin did, bigger than all the great things The Morning Guys have done.
This is it!
This is the greatest boom in Philly sports talk! And it means WIP is having its greatest success ever!
Or are they?
WIP was Comcast. It was a monopoly.
It was the sports station. When people thought Philly sports talk, it wasn’t even a question where they turned. It was WIP.
Now “Radio Wars,” a great phrase coined by Kyle Scott on Crossing Broad, is a huge thing and an extremely popular feature on that site.
Is that really a good thing that a battle between the station that has been king forever against the competition is now an all-out war? Why would the station that had always been in first place even talk about the war?
The reason is because Innes would much rather talk about himself than he would talk about sports.
It’s not terrible radio, either, because some people enjoy Innes’ shtick. He is a charismatic guy who does have stories some might find entertaining. It’s about 20 percent sports, and the rest is stories about his life. That’s fine. There are talk radio shows that have nothing to do with sports on stations across the country. He does entertain people.
But don’t gloat that you’re now in a war with a station you previously demolished.
Facts remain, there is a radio war going on, and it’s almost incredible that this is the case considering WIP’s former dominance in the Philadelphia sports market.
When WIP didn’t bring Glen Macnow back to the midday show, they lost me as a consistent listener because, from that point, they went downhill drastically in my book.
They took Rob Ellis, who was a vanilla guy who knew sports, and made him do shtick with Anthony Gargano. They were fans who talked sports. They weren’t the most informative duo, but at least they gave you sports talk.
Then they don’t renew Gargano’s contract and that absolutely killed Ellis. In a year or so, they killed his credibility, and then asked him to be credible again. That’s impossible and it was unfair to Ellis.
I agree, Ellis in his new form couldn’t work the earlier shift, but I’m not sure other hosts needed to bury the guy. Ripping teammates is fine behind the locker room door, but doing it on the air is unprofessional at best.
Pairing Bruno and Innes together for the afternoon show is probably the best WIP can do right now. But chances are that they’re going to continue to lose to Missanelli.
I’m obviously not their target audience, but here’s my advice to them: stop talking about Missanelli. The people who are listening picked you over 97.5, so why would you talk about the competition? Do your own thing. Do your bits, make your jokes, do what got you there. The station obviously thinks you have what it takes to win, so do what you do best. Talk about yourself. Talk about strippers or bacon or whatever. And let Bruno be Bruno. Run your offense, as they say.
It might work. There are a lot of kids and young adults who like that kind of show, and there are older people who love Bruno. See how it goes. But do what you do best and don’t make the show about the competition.
I agree that sports talk is doing great right now, but it has little to do with the afternoon shows.
Eytan Shander and Harry Mayes are now on 97.5 from 10 a.m. to noon, and that’s the must-listen to show these days. They do this crazy thing where they find sports topics and then talk about them. It’s cutting edge!
Mayes has always been a very great host for 97.5, and Shander has been great since he was on nights at WIP years ago. Even my wife will listen to these guys, and she’s not a big sports talk fan.
Last year, Eytan took us all the way from Bucks County to Wildwood and she only asked to change the station once, and that was when we started to lose the signal. You don’t get higher praise than that.
Two other people at 97.5 who should also get a little love are weekenders Phil from Mount Airy and Kwame Fisher-Jones.
I’ll listen to Fisher-Jones when I’m up in time, and while I don’t always agree with him, I do always enjoy his show.
Phil, on the other hand, got a bad rap from me years ago (and still does) because he always loved Michael Vick, but would bury Donovan McNabb. But when he talks other sports, he’s great. Just lay off my boy Donnie.
I really hope we get a new era of great Philly sports talk, but it looks like the next era won’t be my kind of shows. Oh well, at least I’ll have the comments on Crossing Broad.
Credit to the Bucks County Courier Times who originally published this article
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
