Longtime Philadelphia sports talk personality Howard Eskin didn’t hold back when asked about the state of sports radio, expressing frustration over the industry’s decline and disappointment with how his exit from WIP was handled. In an interview with Dan Sileo on The National Football Show with Dan Sileo, Eskin lamented the lack of originality and talent in modern sports talk as the biggest difference in sports talk radio over the past 15 years.
“There really is a lack of talent,” Eskin said of why hosting a solo program was preferred. “Somebody had this grand idea of having two hosts. The reason, I believe, that they decided to have two hosts is so they can argue with one another. It’s just good cop, bad cop. I’ll take this side, you take this side. Whether they believe it or not. After a while, I think people know that it’s bulls**t.”
He said the premise to have two co-hosts to simply create debate caused people on both sides of the conversation to become annoyed, leading to what Eskin claims is “the same thing every day.”
Eskin, who helped launch WIP’s sports talk format nearly four decades ago, says that he built his reputation on being honest—even when it wasn’t easy. While he stated that he didn’t feel he was the best with his work, he felt he did the job the right way.
“I made a point to face the music when I was critical,” Eskin recalled. “I felt I had to do that to have respect, whether they like what I said or not… I tried to inform, and I tried to entertain. I think you can do both.”
He contrasted that commitment with what he sees today: manufactured debate, minimal accountability, and a business model driven by cost-cutting rather than content. “Radio is a dying business,” Eskin said. “It’s sad because that was what got me to where I am.”
He criticized station ownership—without naming names—for shifting priorities away from quality programming. “The people running the business now are just trying to save their a**. They’re just trying to keep their jobs,” Eskin added.
“The business model for radio just isn’t the same anymore,” explained Eskin. “Radio has business expenses that they have to pay for. So their business model is to overprice their clients. They charge more than they deliver.”
When asked about his dismissal from WIP in December, while Eskin didn’t go into full detail, he acknowledged it still stings.
“I got screwed. There was no reason that they had to do what they had to do,” said Eskin. “Embarrassed? At the time I tried to not say a whole lot because I tried to move on. It’s difficult at first when you know what they did wasn’t right. The management people are just trying to save their a** because they like their cushy jobs. It was wrong, but was I embarrassed? No. I was hurt,” he admitted. “I put in close to four decades. I started that radio station into sports talk format. It was what it was, but they had nothing. They had some people saying some things which they had no evidence that any of that stuff happened.”
Despite the pain, Eskin tried to remain active and passionate, now working independently with his own content and podcast model.
“You have to try and move on. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do,” said Eskin. “I want to have fun, and I always tried to have fun. It’s kind of sad that they tried to tarnish who I was and I just got to work my way out. People that know me, know me and I’m not a bad person.”
Even in frustration, Eskin’s passion for the medium remains clear—a reflection of a broadcaster who helped shape the sports talk landscape in Philadelphia and beyond.
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