Yesterday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that longtime Philadelphia sports talk radio host Howard Eskin had been banned from Citizens Bank Park for the remainder of the Phillies season after an investigation found he had made an unwanted advance toward a female Aramark employee back in May. Today, the Philadelphia 76ers told the paper the team won’t grant Eskin access to their training complex for an undecided amount of time.
In a column from Marcus Hayes, he says the team asked the Wells Fargo Center, where the team is a tenant, to also deny access to Eskin. Additionally, Hayes gives his opinion that Eskin should be suspended until next May by WIP owner Audacy (Eskin hosts a weekly Saturday show and is a sideline reporter for Philadelphia Eagles games on the station) and for all of the local teams to ban his access for a season.
Howard Eskin’s son Spike Eskin, the former 94WIP and WFAN program director, is now an afternoon host on the station and as Ike, Spike, and Fritz began today, the younger Eskin briefly addressed the subject.
“The only reason I am mentioning this here at the top of the show is because I have love and respect for my co-hosts here, Jack and Ike, and I have a great love and respect for people who listen to this show,” he said. “I’ve only been on the air for a few months, but I feel like we have a great group and a great community, and I feel like you are owed that.
“So, there’s a story out there about my dad. And you can read it, you’ve probably read it, you probably heard about it. The truth though is that he and I are different people who do different things, even though he did this job and I do this job. I am not him he is not me. I think we have made that very clear over the years for better or for worse.
“I don’t feel comfortable at all speaking on the issue itself, as I would not if it were anyone else at WIP. It’s his issue with the radio station and with the people involved, it is not my issue. As far as this show goes and as far as I go, we are going to do this show exactly as we always do. There’ll be no difference. Things will go as they do and from this point on that’ll be it out of me.
“The reason for that is I because I feel it is the right thing to do, the respectful thing to do. And truthfully, these four hours out of my day is the highlight of my day. And I feel like this show is my escape from everything else. The same way that it is the escape for you…That is what it is. I felt it was the right thing to say something but that’s about all I can or will say.”
With that, the show went on to talk about the Philadelphia Eagles and did their show just as Eskin said they would.
