Audacy is in the midst of its search for a new program director for WFAN, borne out of Spike Eskin returning to SportsRadio 94WIP to serve as an afternoon drive co-host. It was revealed on Thursday that Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, member of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz and various other programs through Meadowlark Media, was offered the position but ultimately turned it down.
Weiner called into the Boomer & Gio morning show on Thursday to explain his rationale, citing his family and desire to take the air as part of the reasons why he decided to decline the opportunity. Eskin himself joined the morning show live in the studio on Friday while wearing an Iron Maiden T-shirt, prompting speculation as to whether or not it was his last day on the job.
Eskin confirmed that he would be at the station next week, but he did acknowledge that his tenure at the outlet is coming to a close. Morning program co-host Gregg Giannotti explained that whenever he was asked when Eskin was leaving the station, he told people that it would be when he wore the Iron Maiden T-shirt. Giannotti then wanted to know if Eskin wearing the T-shirt was a ceremonial selection ahead of his final days at the station.
“I felt like a Friday shirt – maybe not ceremonial, but certainly on the precipice of – as you were talking to Stugotz yesterday, obviously Chris is on the precipice of deciding who the next program director will be,” Eskin said.
Eskin went on to explain that he understood the upside of deciding to hire Weiner to take over the responsibilities of program director. Morning co-host Boomer Esiason then reflected on when Eskin was hired for the job last May, explaining that he did not initially know that much about him within the sports media industry.
“I took one look at you and thought you were some sort of meth addict because all the [tattoos] and all that stuff, but it turned out that you were actually a great guy and you turned out to be [a] really, really great program director and got this whole station back on track, I believe,” Esiason said. “A big part of Boomer & Gio Live, which has been great, and now I hear that they got Mark Chernoff possibly coming back in – is he going to fill in until the new guy is hired or a new person is hired?”
“I do not comment on any of those,” Eskin said. “That is for the Architect to comment on.”
Audacy has yet to announce a new hire to fill Eskin’s position with the company, but Giannotti felt that the process is taking longer than anyone expected. As a result, he perceived that Audacy New York market manager Chris Oliviero may have felt bad about that and wanted to get him to Philadelphia rather than having him train the new hire. Eskin, however, said that he will be able to assist the new hire nonetheless and help them become familiar with the outlet. From there, he commented on Weiner saying that Eskin did not make the program director job sound more attractive, a proposition with which he disagreed.
“I told him it was the best programming job in America without question… and I said it’s a lot of fun, but I assured him it is an actual job that has emails and meetings and salespeople and all of those things,” Eskin said. “For the sake of the place and you guys, he should know that it’s not just lunacy here every day.”
Esiason reflected on a caller from the Thursday show who stated that Weiner is lazy, meaning that he would be unable to assume the position Eskin is leaving behind. Eskin responded by yielding that it would be a difficult job for a lazy person to adequately perform. From there, Giannotti repeated the syllogism explained by Weiner that he was unsure if he would be able to resist finding a spot on the air if he were to have programming responsibilities at the outlet.
“I talked to Stugotz for a while, [and] I reported back to Chris [Oliviero] what I thought, and I was positive about the conversation,” Eskin articulated. “I said, ‘One thing I am thinking though,’ I said, ‘You know, I guess it’s possible that he’s just coming here to [wait] for an air job to open up, and then you lose a program director.’”
“It was 100% trojan horse,” Esiason concurred. “Just get in the building and wait until somebody either dies – me – or somebody else is going to leave or say something stupid – Sal [Licata] – on the air.”
Eskin assuaged Esiason’s fears of Audacy hiring someone who is coming to the station not genuinely wanting to perform the programming job, conveying that he did not have anything to worry about. After that, Esiason asked Eskin if he knew who the program director was, to which he replied, “Maybe.” To close the segment, Giannotti outlined the moment that he is eagerly anticipating upon the start of the new vice president of programming.
“Whoever this is, I just can’t wait for this first real ‘has to ask Boomer something’ interaction, because I was talking to Al,” Giannotti explained. “You had been in the business; your father was in the business for a long time. I knew you had – and you had dealt with Angelo Cataldi – I knew you had that in you, so I wasn’t as excited about your first interaction with Boomer as I am this one because whoever this person is is going to have to ask him to do something at some point, and I just can’t wait to see it.”
