94WIP aired its first sports talk show 37 years ago – August 29, 1986. Station legend Howard Eskin was the host that afternoon.
On Tuesday, Eskin joined 94WIP Middays with Hugh Douglas and Joe Giglio and said it was a bold move for general manager Mike Craven to go with sports talk at the time. But he remembered being hyped up for the very first broadcast.
“We didn’t know what was gonna happen, but he wanted to give it a try,” Eskin said of Craven. “And he started in the afternoon. I just remember being excited.”
“It’s a challenge to do those kinds of things,” Eskin added of Craven’s decision to venture into sports talk. “That’s the serious part of it, but it was fun for me.”
Eskin said between his TV and radio career, he had more fun on the radio. He felt like he did have more airtime on television though to discuss what he wanted. He thought part of the fun was dealing with sports talk radio callers.
“I guarantee you I have spoken to more nitwits and dopes in 37 years than anybody in America. Maybe in the world!” Eskin said.
Howard recalled a lot of good memories with WIP, and when the station promoted the anniversary on social media, he said he never realized people could be nice on Twitter given how negative the social platform can be. He was blown away by the positive comments.
Eskin said he was pleased with the direction the station has gone especially with Douglas and Giglio.
“I can’t say enough good things about what’s happened at WIP,” he said. “It’s all good, and there’s still dopes and morons and nitwits out there. And some of those are you two dopes and nitwits.”
“You paved the way,” Giglio responded jokingly. “You let us all know a dope could sit here in front of this microphone and do it. So thank you!”
