Earlier in the week, a clip of WFAN host Joe Benigno circulated on the internet where he was seen having technical difficulties in trying to record his podcast, Oh the Pain, on which he discusses New York sports at large, including his favorite football team in the New York Jets. The clip, which spans for just over a minute and a half, features Benigno being frustrated with technology when the podcast seemed to have stopped recording. When WFAN update anchor Jerry Recco revealed that he had audio of the miscue, morning co-host Gregg Giannotti felt apprehensive as to whether or not Benigno said anything that could endanger his profession.
“I don’t know what that is that pops up; it goes all the way across the screen,” Benigno stated within the clip. “I tried to get rid of it and it just stopped. I mean, I could just pick it up from here.”
Shortly thereafter, Benigno figured out that the episode was still recording, but it was not edited out in the final product that went out for consumers to hear. Throughout the rest of the episode, Benigno discusses other matters across New York sports in a special “By the Numbers” edition of the program.
“He did wind up getting it out there,” Recco said. “But he was good and they posted that as part of the new podcast.”
Giannotti recounted a story when he used to work with former NFL linebacker Brian Jones at CBS Sports Radio as his co-host. He prefaced the memory by expressing that no man cursed more than Jones, who he remembers frequently used expletive language behind the scenes. One day when he was fulfilling his weekly appearance on Rich Ackerman’s Saturday college football show, the studio where the interview was being recorded was accidentally placed onto WFAN live. When this was occurring, Gregg Giannotti was listening to WFAN and his car and began to panic when he realized what was happening.
“In a minute-and-a-half, Brian Jones did not curse and he didn’t know he was on the air,” Giannotti said. “He was the most polite, nicest person you’d ever heard in your life.”
Morning program co-host Boomer Esiason interjected by conveying to Giannotti that Jones is a great guy, something he concurred with. The fact of the matter was that Giannotti was accustomed to Jones cursing in their conversations, and since Jones ostensibly did not realize he was live on WFAN, Giannotti was worried that it would find its way on the air.
“I was so scared just now thinking when you had this of Joe,” Gregg Giannotti said to Recco. “That’s all of it, right? There’s nothing else?”
Recco confirmed that he had played all of the audio within the clip, much to Giannotti’s relief, before transitioning to discuss other topics, concluding with his description of a four-game slate of New York sports teams in action on Wednesday night.
