Rod Lakin knew taking the reigns at 94 WIP in Philadelphia would be a challenge when he first accepted the job. When Angelo Cataldi announced that 2022 would be his final year on air, it added another wrinkle to Lakin’s path to success in a new market.
The WIP brand manager was recently asked how he is approaching the prospect of replacing one of the city’s most iconic sports voices. Rod Lakin says he isn’t using the word replace.
“Angelo is a once in a lifetime type talent. He’s a one of a kind of personality that can never be replicated,” he told Philadelphia Business Journal’s Jeff Blumenthal. “Trying to replicate Angelo Cataldi is a failure strategy to begin with. So the job really is to create a product in the morning drive that can adhere to the standards that Angelo created.”
WIP listeners have heard Angelo Cataldi in morning drive on the station for the last 33 years. Earlier this year, he told listeners that he had considered retiring at the end of 2021. Instead, he chose to work a reduced schedule for 2022 before calling it a career at year’s end.
Rod Lakin has a year to figure out his strategy and put the pieces he wants in place to wake WIP listeners up in the future. He knows how parochial Philadelphia sports fans can be. That doesn’t mean he is feeling any added sense of dread or pressure though.
“I’m listening to a lot of different things. We have a great lineup at WIP with a lot of great internal people as well. So I’m just taking it all in,” Lakin says.
Starting next month, Cataldi will do just four shows a week on WIP. He will be off every Wednesday.
