As the clock moved closer to 2 p.m. EST on Friday, Brandon Tierney and Tiki Barber’s time hosting a sports talk show together was coming to an end. While their time on WFAN may have been ephemeral when comparing it to the run on CBS Sports Radio, it contained some of their best work and gave them a bonafide audience with whom to connect. Both Tierney and Barber wish that their show had made the move to New York radio far earlier in their 12-year hosting run, but cherish the memories they made together during that time.
Entering the final segment of Tiki & Tierney playing “TNT” by AC/DC, a song that has come to be identified with their show, Barber and Tierney engaged with final callers and then said their farewells. Show producer Pete Hoffman received several calls from listeners who wanted to thank him for his work behind the scenes. The contribution he made was not remiss to Tierney and Barber, both of whom took the time to show their appreciation for everything he did.
“You helped streamline us here,” Barber said. “On the national show, we literally did what we wanted to do…. You came and you helped us become more focused as a local show.”
After thanking executive producer Dov Kramer, a WFAN mainstay who has been with the station since its first year in 1987, the midday duo ensured they gave each other best wishes as a new chapter unfolds at the station. Tierney will be remaining in middays and pairing with Sal Licata, while Barber will move to afternoons and join Evan Roberts, sitting in the chair formerly occupied by Craig Carton.
“BT, I’ll be listening to you obviously,” Barber said to Tierney. “I’m going to miss you for sure. I’m going to still seek out advice from you because there’s some still things I don’t know locally, but this has been real dude – it really has.”
When Tierney spoke about how weird it was to be saying goodbye because no one was leaving the station but merely being reassigned, Barber expressed how it did not feel like an end. Tierney then shared that when he left his home this morning, his wife asked him if he was sad to which he, a sentimental person, surprisingly replied that he was not.
“Maybe it hasn’t hit me; maybe I’m really just at a stage in my life where I focus on the good and happy rather than maybe lament a few things or fixate on things that I used to,” Tierney said. “It’s been an honor, man. It’s been an honor riding next to you for a long time.”
Tierney’s father, Charles, was a former detective in the New York Police Department (NYPD) and was selective in giving out praise to his partners. That is why when Tierney heard his father talk about someone who was a really good partner, he knew it was genuine.
“This is going to sound corny – you’ve enriched my life,” Tierney said to Barber. “I think you’ve made me a better person; a better human [and] a little more grounded. I’m going to miss you buddy.”
Tierney and Licata are natives of the area and will bring their contrasting team allegiances to create fireworks in the midday slot. Barber grew up in Virginia, but is one of the best-known players in New York Giants history, and he is pairing with a virtual sports encyclopedia in Evan Roberts, who is a diehard New York Mets fan. The pairings, on paper, evinced excitement from WFAN’s legion of dedicated listeners; however, it will truly be up to the audience come July 24 to accept the new pairings. It is something listeners have done before, for which Tierney is effusively grateful.
“It was up to you guys to decide whether or not you embraced us and whether or not you trusted us, and you guys did,” Tierney said to the audience. “The Tiki & Tierney almost two-year run at WFAN – it was imperative; there was no way I was coming here and failing. There was no freaking way that that was happening, and we did it together.”
