Philadelphia sports radio has been forced to call an audible thanks to the travel restrictions in place for Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia.
With regular overnights hosts Jon Johnson, Steve Trevelise and Rickie Ricardo unable to travel to Sportsradio 94.1 WIP’s Center City studio at 4th and Market St., the station has been forced to lean on two producers and an online editor to fill the void.
On Friday morning, CBS.com sports editor Andrew Porter got his first taste of hosting his own show, taking over WIP’s 2-5 a.m. shift. Overnight producer Vince Quinn, also hosting for the first time, anchored the same overnight shift on Saturday morning.
Tonight, producer Eric Golden (better know as “Turtle” from the “Mike & Ike Show”) gets his first shot at hosting, taking over at midnight and hosting until 6 a.m. Golden lives in Warmenster, but took the train into town on Thursday and is splitting time between a hotel and the studio to help the station through the weekend, including producing other shows.
WIP took steps to keep its daytime hosts far away from Center City over the weekend. Howard Eskin hosted his Saturday morning show from The Borgata in Atlantic City, while afternoon duos Glen Macnow & Ray Diginger and Rob Charry & Garry Cobb will host their shows from Delaware Park.
Despite their studio being located in Bala Cynwyd, ESPN 97.5 The Fanatic didn’t want to take any chances with the pope’s visit. The station made the decision to send everyone down to Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City to do shows on Saturday and Sunday, as well as Monday morning.
Credit to Philly.com 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.
