After nearly two weeks off, Mike Missanelli was back on-air for 97.5 The Fanatic Monday afternoon and began the show with an emotional apology.
The popular radio host had been absent since NBC Sports Philadelphia showed him throwing his headphones and shouting at producer Tyrone Johnson off-mic last month. Missanelli directly addressed the May 26 temper tantrum, which stemmed from an argument over a viral video of a white woman calling police on an African American male for requesting she put her dog on a leash.
“Rightfully, I was excoriated in the public forum and would like to say that I’m ashamed about it,” Missanelli said near the start of his Monday afternoon show. “I suffer sometimes from a thing I like to call Sicilian DNA. It’s a condition where, at times, my temper, and the temper of people of my culture, are triggers for this temper and they get really sensitive and need to be put back in the shop and fixed.”
Although he began the apology by highlighting “the temper of people of my culture,” Missanelli quickly pointed out his DNA is no excuse for the incident.
“I can’t blame what happened last Tuesday on DNA. This was 100% on me,” Missanelli explained. “My tirade was wrong and embarrassing and would have been considered foolish and immature for an eight-year-old, much less for a grown man like myself.”
The headphone throwing incident was immature, but it also didn’t seem like an action worthy of a two-week absence. We don’t know exactly what Missanelli said off-mic to his colleagues, but The Fanatic afternoon host seemed genuinely upset over the tirade. As he apologized to Tyrone Johnson, Natalie Egenolf and the listeners, Missanelli was on the verge of tears, which you can see thanks to Crossing Broad posting a video of the show’s NBC Sports Philadelphia simulcast.
“And the worst part is that I hurt people who are close to my heart, so I need to take this time to sincerely apologize to my good friend Tyrone Johnson, who has been more help to me on this show than you can imagine, and also my colleague Natalie Egenolf who was caught in the wake of the verbal diarrhea that I used and should never have been subject to the salty language I used that day,” an emotional Missanelli said. “You guys are both extremely important to me and I would go to the wall for both of you. I’m deeply sorry I put you in such an awkward position. And I also want to apologize to the people who were listening and watching that day and how I made you guys all feel uncomfortable.”
Neither The Fanatic nor Beasley Media ever acknowledged the almost two week long layoff as a suspension. The first day he was off-air following the incident, Missanelli told Crossing Broad’s Kyle Scott he was taking vacation time and The Fanatic afternoon host reiterated that claim during his Monday show.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
