97.1 The Fan afternoon hosts Mike Ricordati — also known as “Common Man” — and Jonathan “T-Bone” Smith raised eyebrows around the industry earlier this week after the pair refused to take regularly scheduled commercials breaks while discussing Ohio State’s loss to Michigan. The show was threatened with suspension and removal from the air if they didn’t return to taking commercial breaks.
On Common Man & T-Bone Tuesday, the pair discussed the incident at length, with Ricordati sharing his displeasure about the situation.
Although he was apparently not supposed to discuss what occurred the day before, Ricordati opened the show by describing the incident. He conveyed that he was back on the air despite some people assuming that he would not be allowed to host the program. Moreover, he acknowledged that there were points on Monday where he did not believe he would be on the day’s episode, although he posted on X that he would be on the show at 3 p.m. later in the day.
“We were talking and drinking bourbon on the air, which is not professional but who the hell cares,” Ricordati said. “We’ve never been accused of being professional.”
Smith thought that the hosts’ consumption of the alcoholic substance would get them in trouble, which was indeed confiscated later in the program. The initial concern seemed to stem from the program skipping a commercial break, which prompted Ricordati to expound on what he believes is a double standard within the building. TEGNA also owns a television station, WBNS, which operates under the same roof and provides breaking news coverage when necessary. During these times, the outlet interrupts regularly scheduled programming and eschews commercial breaks as it procures and disseminates real-time information en masse.
“But when there’s a national day of mourning among Buckeye Nation, they expect us to go out there, do our 10 minutes [and] hit the break,” Ricordati said. “Why? We’re here to provide a service to you, so you take the hit for a day. If you’ve got a radio host willing to sit there for three hours straight and drink bourbon and talk to people and still adhere to FCC regulations, which we were going to do, then you know what? Eat the commercial inventory for a day. I volunteered to pay for it.”
Smith suggested that instead of going to break, the show could have implemented live sponsorship reads, using plumbing services as an example. Not only would it have hypothetically provided a boon for business, he surmised, but it would have also ensured that the outlet could keep attaining revenue.
When Ricordati began to ponder how often the program has an episode as monumental as an Ohio State loss to Michigan, he recognized that it is becoming an annual tradition, a matter of concern for fans of the team. Smith replied by vowing that if the team loses a fourth straight game to Michigan next year, the program will discuss the NBA and eliminate football discussion from the episode entirely.
“NBA and just commercials. It’ll be TEGNA’s wet dream,” Ricordati added. “Oh yes.”
Although he did not divulge specific details about the conversation he had with management on Monday, Ricordati implied that he raised his voice and revealed that Fishman did not show up for work. While the reason for Fishman’s absence is unknown, Ricordati took it as an opportunity to say that he won the battle.
Mike Ricordati then took issue with the idea that he doesn’t have the ability to dictate how his program operates, in spite of his long history with the station.
“I have been on these airwaves for 20 years,” Ricordati affirmed. “I have hosted more shows than anybody in the history of this radio station. I’ve made a lot of money for this place. If I want to do a show where I blow through a break or two, I should be allowed to do it.”
“What do they think?,” Smith said later in the segment regarding company management. “They know who we are; they know this show. We’ve been on the air together for 11 years; you’ve been on here for 20 years. They know how this show is. We talk; we tell people what’s on our minds [and] we have an audience that listens to us because they expect us to not pull any punches, which by the way, that’s what yesterday was all about.”
Following a brief discussion about Ohio State and the job security of head coach Ryan Day, it was time for the show to take its first scheduled commercial break of the afternoon. Ricordati told his producer once again that he did not want to go to a break, eliciting laughter within the studio before the show ran its first set of advertisements.
“We’re going to do a fun show today,” Ricordati disclosed. “I can’t do yesterday’s show again for a variety of reasons.”
