Two of Philadelphia sports radio’s most recognizable figures sat down for a wide ranging interview yesterday. Outgoing 94WIP morning man Angelo Cataldi joined The Mike Missanelli Podcast to discuss a bevy of topics, including why sports talk radio in Philadelphia is different from other areas.
“We developed this fearlessness,” Missanelli said. “Once I got past the novelty of being on sports talk radio, I developed this fearlessness. I always thought I had to be an advocate of the fan with all these rich owners and all this mismanagement. And we were all fearless that way. And you — more than anybody — took on almost everybody who carved out any sort of injustice on Philly sports fans. Buddy Ryan was one, and you just went down your list. Is that from being in newspapers — the fearlessness that you showed? Because we were doing rights deals with these teams and we had to walk gingerly around these teams sometimes because they were paying us money to broadcast the games. How do you describe that?”
“When I covered teams, I infuriated just about everyone I covered,” Cataldi said. “It was tough, but I was told at Columbia ‘Treat it like city hall. Ask the tough questions. Be a journalist’. So I would do this, and I was attacked by Bob McCammon, head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. I was attacked by two members of the Eagles. Gregg Garrity, the wide receiver, saved my life that day. Once I got to radio, I wasn’t going in the locker room anymore. I could say whatever I wanted. You were dumb enough to still go in the locker room. The last time I stepped in a locker room was the first day I stepped in a radio booth. You wanna see me? Come see me at the radio station. I’ll make sure security is there. I said whatever I wanted! You know why? Because that’s what a fan does! You said it. We’re supposed to be the voice of the fan. The fan doesn’t look for the approval of the manager or the owner of the team. The fan says what he wants. Never worried about it.”
Cataldi did say he received pushback from management at times due to the response from business partners over things he said, but added “by that point, we were that important to the survival of the station, they would go to bat for us”. He concluded by saying that’s why WIP has been such a good station for fans, because “we represented their point of view”.
