Craig Carton’s time at WFAN is coming to an end. The news has elicited two very different reactions. His colleagues and devoted listeners have wished him well and sung his praises. His detractors have taken to social media to point fingers and write things like “good riddance to ‘guy talk’”.
The latter is a position I never understood. What is wrong with guy talk on sports radio? Why is the idea that having fun may create a much bigger tent than doling out picks and history lessons so repulsive to a certain percentage of New York sports fans?
Admittedly, I came to sports radio from a wacky morning zoo kind of show on rock radio where we had bits with names like “The Douche Test” and “Drunk or Kid?”. Even when I got to sports radio, I made a recurring bit out of organizing TV and movie casts into basketball starting lineups. I cannot imagine having a microphone in front of my face and not instinctively trying to entertain the person on the other end of the speaker.
I would also argue that when Craig Carton returned to WFAN after his incarceration, guy talk was the station’s best path forward in afternoon drive. Listeners already knew him to be brash, plus he was just getting out of prison. Not indulging in a little controversy or conversations outside the confines of sports wouldn’t have just been silly. You could argue it would have been detrimental to the long-term success of Carton & Roberts.
Forcing Evan Roberts to adapt to a sillier, less life-and-death approach to sports radio was good for him too. We saw more of his personality and he proved that he didn’t always have to be pigeonholed into the role of sports nerd to be valuable.
The show wasn’t Joe & Evan, it definitely wasn’t Mike Francesa, and for some people, that just was not okay.
Change is hard for everyone, especially the people that have no say in the matter. Still, I can’t understand what was so wrong with talking to a player’s girlfriend for ten or fifteen minutes instead of spending another segment on an NFL game that was played three days ago.
Not only do I think guy talk was the right move for Craig and Evan, I would argue that it should be a big part of what WFAN does in afternoon drive going forward. Regardless of who ends up as Roberts’s next partner, the ability to be fun and a little bit controversial is a difference-maker for the station.
Personality-driven radio is about the personalities, but do not underestimate human nature. People like familiarity. There will be listeners that abandon WFAN in afternoon drive for ESPN New York simply because Michael Kay is a known quantity. His show has been on the air in its current form since 2015. As the TV voice of the Yankees, he has credibility with New York sports fans whether they have listened to his show or not.
We have seen it in the past when WFAN makes changes in afternoons. Kay and his crew always make some kind of gain in the ratings. It may not always be sustainable, but it always happens.
In music radio, where personalities matter less than they do in sports and now matter less than they ever have before, there is a rule to flipping formats. Don’t enter a crowded field just because you think there is room for another station. That gives you a firm ceiling at number two behind the heritage brand in the format. You only make a change if the numbers say there is room for a competitor and you can offer the audience something the heritage brand does not.
WFAN may be the heritage brand amongst New York’s two sports stations, but Michael Kay is the heritage afternoon brand. It doesn’t matter if Evan Roberts stays or not. Any kind of change resets the clock. Whatever comes next will be treated like a brand new show.
Michael Kay’s show is fun. I enjoy it for different reasons than I did Carton & Roberts. The Michael Kay Show certainly isn’t old school, but Kay has been a known quantity to sports radio listeners in the city since 1992. Don La Greca has been that since the days of Sports Phone! Leaning into youth and innovation as counter-programming seems like a no-brainer for WFAN.
How many examples do you need from Washington and/or Hollywood? You can clamor for what you loved in the past all you want, but turning back the clock is an impossible solution when trying to find a path forward. Audiences change. What you were precious about in 2008 may not even be on the radar of listeners fifteen years later.
Guy talk is good for sports radio. It lets entertaining people entertain. We have evolved beyond “here’s a former newspaper columnist giving you the hot scoop” and thirty minutes of back-to-back-to-back phone calls.
Spike Eskin is a really smart guy. He wouldn’t be WFAN’s programmer if he wasn’t. He knows the benefit of broadening sports radio’s appeal. That is exactly what adding some guy talk into the mix does for the format.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
