Last night during the New York Mets’ 5-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox, viewers on SportsNet New York (SNY) may have noticed a banner drop from the score bug in the top left corner of the screen. There, it listed that WFAN’s simulcast of its afternoon radio program will return to SNY on Monday, July 24 with the official launch of Evan & Tiki featuring Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber.
Neil Best of Newsday confirmed the news on Thursday morning ahead of an announcement by the network this afternoon regarding the ongoing simulcast, which first began in May 2021. Craig Carton hosted afternoons with Evan Roberts for just over two years and recently departed the station to focus on his FOX Sports 1 morning show full time. The duo won nearly all of the ratings books in competition against ESPN New York 98.7’s The Michael Kay Show.
SportsNet New York will carry the show from 4 to 6 p.m. EST on weekdays leading into its studio program, Baseball Night in New York, which is anchored by WFAN midday host Sal Licata. In an interview with Newsday, SNY president Steve Raab expressed that the original decision to bring WFAN on the network was not centered around the presence of Carton.
“It checks a lot of boxes for us, and Tiki is a knowledgeable, recognizable, polished personality,” Raab said. “And Evan we’re certainly familiar with and we’ve been working with him.”
Raab emphasizes that the show, which spans from 2 to 6 p.m. EST, is an ideal fit for the network in the time slot. Before the commencement of WFAN simulcasts, SNY would frequently air reruns of old New York Mets games or other studio programming.
“It extends our live window by two important hours and gives us a better lead-in to the rest of the day than some of our library programming was doing,” Raab said. “It’s a relevant, topical show every day [and] it has entertainment value.”
Although Carton frequently chided SNY for neglecting to carry the entirety of the program, the network feels the two hours supplements the rest of its programming effectively. After the show and Baseball Night in New York, the regional sports network usually broadcasts New York Mets games and follows it up with Honda SportsNite to close the day.
“The debut of Evan & Tiki is the next chapter in our tremendous partnership with SNY,” Chris Oliviero, market president of Audacy in New York, said in a statement. “Together we will bring the very best in sports audio and video to New York fans daily, which is exactly what they have come to expect from WFAN on SNY.”
Evan & Tiki will be the second WFAN show simulcast to television viewers, joining Boomer & Gio in the mornings on CBS Sports Network. Brandon Tierney recently told Barrett Sports Media that his goal is to have the new midday show with Sal Licata simulcast as well; however, the viability of that ambition is not yet known. The YES Network previously simulcast Mike and the Mad Dog starting in 2002, and it continued doing so with Mike Francesa solo in afternoons until early 2014. FOX Sports then picked up the simulcast of parts of the program, placing it on its sports networks Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 until the fall of 2015.
