Following Fred Toucher calling ESPN host Mike Greenberg a “no-talent prick” on his morning show on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, professionals from around the world of sports media weighed in on the situation. Toucher himself addressed his remarks on the air Thursday morning, expressing how Greenberg seemed to ignore the facets of radio that make the medium unique to listeners.
Boomer Esiason, who currently hosts the simulcast morning program, Boomer & Gio, on WFAN and CBS Sports Network, used to appear with Toucher & Rich for certain segments. He was not surprised at all by what Toucher had to say.
“Did he call him a professional? Did he call him a legend in the business [or] did he call him an educator?,” co-host Gregg Giannotti said to Esiason on WFAN. “Nothing like that. What he did call him was a ‘no-talent prick,’ which is the funniest thing I’ve read all week!”
Toucher was prompted to make his remarks about Greenberg after the ESPN host went on a podcast and spoke about how important it was to write out teases for a program. He divulged that it does not matter how informative or entertaining you are just as long as one is able to keep their audience engaged.
Neither Esiason or Giannotti seem to have anything against Greenberg and understand what was said and understand the perspective he is coming from after decades in the business.
“That’s a formula,” Esiason said. “It’s not free-flowing [and] it’s not improv. It’s just, ‘Here’s the script. Follow the script, and this is the way you do it.’”
“Very rarely do I give you a good tease if I think I have something because I don’t want to be called a ‘no-talent prick,’” Giannotti said. “I just want to do what we do here, you know? That is great that he went there though. That is awesome.”
Giannotti is a 7pm – 10pm talent macerating in drive time. He spends most of his time humble bragging or talking about the glory days of Long Island – or sticking his nose into all aspects of the station’s gossip, which only he seems to care about. The truth is a trained monkey next to Esiason would be #1 in the ratings as he and Carton both demonstrate. The only thing worse is when Boomer is gone and Gio acts like the BMOC answer fan favorites such as “who would you bet on to be the next great WFAN host?”. Send him back to middle America…