When New York Post opinion columnist Phil Mushnick wrote a review about a segment on WFAN’s morning program, Boomer & Gio, it caught attention from those within sports media. Mushnick lamented the fact that Gregg Giannotti and update anchor Jerry Recco (filling in for Boomer Esiason) engaged in conversation related to genitals. In his column, he claimed that the station does not consider its listeners intelligent enough to be able to “distinguish crude from clever or sports from the sounds of gastric flatulence.”
Mushnick took umbrage with the conversation, which ironically stemmed from an article that the New York Post, the very outlet he writes for, posted as an exclusive story. Sports Illustrated columnist Jimmy Traina expressed his thoughts on the entire ordeal, essentially calling Mushnick and The Post out as being hypocritical. Before even conveying their opinions, Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb of 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, Mass. read off various headlines published by the newspaper over the years. The undertaking was a purported effort to demonstrate the newspaper’s jocoseness and crudeness utilized to generate engagement.
“‘Osama bin Wankin. Beet the Meatles.’ And then of course, there was when Ike Turner died with the wildly inappropriate, ‘Ike Turner beats Tina to death!,’” Shertenlieb recited on the air.
The show proceeded to read the litany of headlines the newspaper wrote regarding Anthony Weiner, a disgraced politician who became involved in sexual harassment scandals that forced him to resign from Congress and an election. Essentially, the headlines embody what the show was trying to state about the New York Post and how it is distinct when compared to other newspapers.
“You write for crap,” Toucher said to Mushnick. “The Post is crap – it’s not a real newspaper. No one’s under the illusion The Post is a real newspaper. It’s funny – it’s a joke…. First of all, The Post is five pages, and second of all, it’s nonsense.”
In his column, Mushnick took a shot at Esiason when he was not even involved in the incident by calling him “a profane phony who plays a gentleman on CBS’s NFL weekend studio show.” He went on to include a quote from a reader about the specific segment in which Giannotti and Recco were referred to as “two clowns,” and then questioned whether or not they speak with the same mannerisms in front of their families.
WFAN’s Boomer & Gio recently won the spring ratings book in the morning daypart with an 11.1 share and continues to be simulcast on CBS Sports Network. The book spans beyond solely sports radio stations, as it includes all radio stations in New York City and further emphasizes the appeal of the show. Nonetheless, Mushnick seems to make a habit of harshly criticizing WFAN in his columns according to Toucher, and it is something those in the industry recognize from afar.
“He was always complaining about [Mike] Francesa,” Toucher said of Musnnick. “He had this thing that Francesa supported the Nazis [and] all this crazy stuff [where] he was like, ‘The audio doesn’t exist, but he really laid into Israel’ or something.”
Toucher proceeded to say that if Mushnick were to host 20 hours of radio programming per week, he would have to probably prescript it. Moreover, he does not think Mushnick could captivate an audience, comparing him to when baseball luminary Bill James appears across different programming in the middle of the summer.
“This guy is just such a prick; he’s really a prick,” Toucher said of Mushnick. “I’ve been in markets where they have guys covering radio; I don’t know anyone who just hates it so much.”
