Two weeks ago, WFAN host Gregg Giannotti hinted there was a “bombshell candidate” in the search for a new program director. Today, we learned officially that candidate was Jon Weiner, aka Stugotz from The Dan Le Batard Show, and he will not be taking the position.
“We talked about the bombshell program director candidate a couple of weeks ago,” Giannotti said this morning on Boomer & Gio. “Well, I can report a couple of things…The process is not over…The bombshell of the world is out…There was mutual interest on both sides, there was a lot of discussions back and forth, they really tried to make it work, creative ways to see if it could happen, it just ultimately in the end did not happen…I do know it did not work out and there is one less candidate. So now the focus has gone from bombshell to more mainstream [candidates].
“I can’t answer many questions about it…but as of right now I can only say, this is the bombshell candidate, and he is now out and his name is Stugotz. Jon Weiner was the bombshell candidate, and he loves this place, and they had a lot of discussions…but he is now out. There was a point I thought it was going to happen.”
Dan Le Batard also discussed the topic on his show this morning and made his listeners and some of his staff aware of how qualified Stugotz was for the job.
“The industry Stugotz helped build should feel flattered that he would entertain the idea of coming back to be a power broker, lazy and fat and comfortable. Boomer Esiason just got done telling Stugotz that now, unfortunately they are going to have a professional environment.
“Stugotz kind of helped invent the revolution of sports radio in Miami. Where Miami had been doing sports radio the way New York did it and Stugotz hired a whole bunch of young people and created a radio station that was doing it different entirely than the generation of people who were doing it all over the country.”
“I remember thinking to myself ‘there has to be a younger, hipper, cooler way of doing this in Miami,'” Stugotz said.
“I hope New York radio is flattered that someone who helped shape and shake this industry was willing to consider it at 50, but he didn’t want to work that hard,” Le Batard said.
“Well, that hard for that amount of money,” Stugotz replied.
So, the search continues to find the replacement for Spike Eskin who will soon be headed back to Philadelphia. Giannotti said a few weeks ago he believes Spike Eskin’s contract expires with WFAN on June 20th.
In mid-December it was announced Eskin would return to SportsRadio 94WIP in Philadelphia as afternoon drive co-host. Eskin will leave his current position, which he has held since July, 2021. At the time of that announcement, it was said Eskin would return to the WIP airwaves, on a full-time basis, once his successor at WFAN and CBS Sports Radio has been found.
As for the what if of Stugotz having taken the job, Giannotti said, “It would have been interesting. It would have been different.”
