Mike Missanelli is no longer P.M. drive host at 97.5 the Fanatic. It was a great run for Mike, who can now do whatever he wants to do. He can open that winery, spend time on the links, and/or cook up some Italian delicacies.

In honor of the outright leader in electric sports talk (only being half-sarcastic), we decided to go through the CB archives and pull the top 15 Mike RADIO WARS stories. These are not in any particular order, since ranking is an admittedly arbitrary exercise and we have differing opinions on the matter at hand.

(FYI, I have no idea when the new show is going to be announced officially. We reported that it will be Tyrone Johnson, Hunter Brody, and Ricky Bottalico from a studio at NBCSP headquarters, with Jen Scordo apparently remaining with the group. This thing is supposed to be close to the finish line, so I wonder what the hold up is. I will continue to “effort” more information on that while working on the Angelo replacement story as well.)

To the list:

 

Bathroom attendant wars

This one started with a rather innocuous tweet from Jimmy Kempski at Philly Voice, who believes that the bathroom attendant is useless. Mike then came to the defense of bathroom attendants at-large, condemning Kempski for the snooty behavior. It ended with Jimmy making a come back about the time Mike punched his producer, so the whole thing escalated quickly:

RADIO WARS – Mike Missanelli, Jimmy Kempski, and the Bathroom Attendant

 

Ripping “water boy” Howard Eskin

This was probably my all-time favorite day in Philly sports media history.

It was October of a few years ago, and the Eagles had just lost to the Cowboys. Josina Anderson and her ALLEGED source, Alshon Jeffery, were spreading all sorts of shit. So Jeff McLane asked Doug Pederson if Howard Eskin was leaking info on behalf of the team, and Mike then chimed in, calling Howard a water boy who bought his own Super Bowl ring, which CB later clarified:

Mike Missanelli Went in HARD on “Water Boy” Howard Eskin

 

Unpaid Internship Wars

This one was recent and involved me. It stems from the Jane Slater tweet about unpaid work for experience, which was decried nationally by “the libs.” I went on Mike’s show in an effort to explain that the sports media business is hard to break into for anybody, and they spun it into some socioeconomic and racial thing instead:

UNPAID INTERNSHIP WARS: Mike Missanelli and Tyrone Johnson vs. Kevin

 

Accusing Jon Marks of burner accounts

In July of 2018, a vicious rumor was spread.

Were women not allowed to attend Fan Fest?

Mike squashed that rumor on his show, then accused former producer Jon Marks of using burner accounts to spread fake news:

RADIO WARS: Mike Missanelli Accuses Former Producer Jon Marks of Using Fake Twitter Accounts To Criticize Him

 

Irrevelent foofs

In the halcyon days of RADIO WARS, everybody was fair game. You go through the archives and find stories about Mike, Josh Innes, John Gonzalez, the Cuz, Tony Bruno, Spike Eskin, and Andy Bloom. In this particular story, Mike called former 97.5 host Gonzo an “irrelevant foof,” which was a typo. It could be either “fool” or “goof,” but no one will ever know:

RADIOCOMCASTWARS: John Gonzalez and Mike Missanelli Exchange Opening Salvos

 

a flower delivery

This may have been the height of RADIO WARS right here.

Back in March of 2015, Josh Innes and Tony Bruno defeated Mike in the ratings, then sent black roses to Mike over in Bala.

Wrote The Maestro at the time:

“So Josh and Tony sent an errand boy and flowers to Greater Media’s offices, where they were met by police, apparently called by 97.5 to keep them out of the building. One of the guys got in and attempted to deliver the flowers to 97’5s office and studio on the fourth floor, but never made it and was told “that floor is not accepting deliveries.” And now we return to our regularly scheduled Villanova one seed, Tim Tebow in town and Cliff Lee going on 60-day DL sports talk.”

Wow.

RADIO WARS: Tony Bruno and Josh Innes Claim Victory over Mike Missanelli

 

OB-GYN Wars

One of my personal favorites.

This one goes back to August of 2015, when a guy claiming to be Mike’s brother called up Josh and said he wanted to kick his ass in a parking lot. Kyle did some research and discovered that John Missanelli formerly practiced as an OB-GYN in California before moving over to Roxborough:

RADIO WARS: A Man Claiming To Be Mike Missanelli’s Brother Called Josh Innes’ Show and Threatened to Fight Him

 

Mike accuses CB of stealing the Field of 64 idea, then shades Ray Didinger

“Ray Didinger pretty much invented football, as far as I’ve been told.”

Damn!

Mike went off on a tangent here when he threw shade at Ray Diddy after accusing Crossing Broad of stealing the Field of 64 March Madness idea, which has been used by every single sports and news outlet for decades now:

Crossing Broad Reader Mike Missanelli Says We Stole “Field of 64” Idea From Him, then Proceeds to Shade Ray Didinger

 

Beth Mowins comments

In 2017, Mike had a side gig doing appearances on the Action News Sunday night show. He lost that gig after getting in trouble for saying the following about Beth Mowins:

“I don’t know why the sporting world needs a female play-by-play person on an NFL game. And I know that sounds harsh, and I just want to know what is the reason for it?

“Here’s my rationale for that: women don’t grow up playing football. Now, I understand that women also don’t grow up playing baseball and that Jessica whatever her name is does a really good job, not as a play-by-play person, but as an analyst.”

The Jessica in question was Jessica Mendoza.

Mike Missanelli Admitted That He Was Fired From His 6 ABC Gig For Comments About Beth Mowins

 

Problematic emails

You know this story. Mike was suspended for calling a listener a “homosexual” in an email exchange:

Here’s the Entire Email Exchange Mike Missanelli Had with a Listener

 

Going after Barkann

This stems from the famous Victor Cruz tweet of 2014.

Mike was writing a column for Philly Mag at the time, and used that column to take a swipe at Michael Barkann, calling him “a marginally talented circus barker who couldn’t exist without a teleprompter,” which was a pretty good dig. Point, Mikey Miss.

RADIO WARS: Mike Missanelli Calls Michael Barkann a “marginally talented circus barker”

 

Separated at practice

A candidate here for apex RADIO WARS. Perhaps we reached the pinnacle of the saga back in August of 2015. Josh and Mike were both at Eagles practice and had a verbal confrontation in which they had to be separated:

RADIO WARS: Josh Innes and Mike Missanelli Confronted Each Other at Eagles Practice Today, Pair Separated

 

Blackness and the white power structure

Mikey Miss and Jason Whitlock mix like oil and water, and in this instance Mike basically accused Whitlock of being a sell out. An “Uncle Tom,” if you will, though Mike didn’t use those words. Whitlock shot back by claiming that Mike embodies “the white power structure in charge of blackness” and that’s when I went upstairs to my medicine cabinet to grab three 200mg Ibuprofen:

Oh Good, Now We’ve Got Jason Whitlock and Mike Missanelli Arguing About Blackness and the “White Power Structure”

 

Mike launches headphones across the room, returns to show and apologizes

Let it be known that Crossing Broad was the only media outlet to transcribe the apology in full, thusly providing context.

Also, when Mike tossed his headphones and had the in-studio blow up, he was trying to do the devil’s advocate thing to present the other side of the argument. That’s where the frustration came from, when he, Natalie, and Tyrone were talking about the New York woman who called the cops on the black bird watcher:

RADIO WARS: Mike Missanelli Returns to Show, Issues Emotional Apology for Blowup, Claims He Was On Vacation

 

Dwayne from Swedesboro

Let it also be known that Mike has reiterated his position on “Dwayne” from day one. He says he did not know that Dwayne from Swedesboro was a fake caller, and he was not one of the three people suspended in the fallout from creation of said character.

Regardless, Dwayne remains one of the best RADIO WARS stories ever, and if we re-organized this list in some kind of order, it would be #1 –

RADIO WARS: Mike Missanelli Addresses Dwayne From Swedesboro, Calls Me An Ambulance Chaser