(see the update below the story)
At 4 p.m. today, 97.5 the Fanatic will announce the new afternoon show that will fill Mike Missanelli’s 2 to 6 p.m. time slot.
We’re told that the final grouping is pretty much what we reported back in June, with Tyrone Johnson, Hunter Brody, and Ricky Bottalico joined by Jen Scordo. The show is slated to begin on August 1st.
As you know, the Mikey Miss and Beasley relationship abruptly ended on a random Tuesday back in May. Tyrone and Jen have continued in their roles during this interim period, which has seen Tom Alvord circle into the producer chair. This has temporarily been branded as “The Afternoon Show,” so we’ll see how that changes when 97.5 makes this announcement.
A few notes on the show:
This is an interesting grouping for the afternoon show. You’ve got an internal promotion with Tyrone, you’ve got Brodes climbing the ranks and lapping more-tenured young talent over there, Jen only recently came over to replace Natalie Egenolf, and then Ricky Bo makes a TV-to-radio jump right into the all-important P.M. drive shift.
The biggest question for me is wondering who becomes the “main voice,” so to speak, like which person is the show lead? As an example, you’ll have Andrew Salciunas and the morning crew work off Gargano and Kincade, respectively, but between Tyrone/Hunter/Ricky who is 1, 2, and 3? Is there a 1a, 1b, and 1c? How will that work? Do you end up with a Bruno and Innes type of thing where it’s two lead talents trying to figure it out? Or do we settle into the comfortable scenario of an Angelo Cataldi with three other people chiming in at some point? That’s what interests me the most, the distribution of roles, if you wanna call it that. Ratings weren’t fantastic when Mike left, but the TV simulcast and growth of digital is really helpful here and something to pay attention to.
They are announcing this thing shortly. I’ll listen and update with any details I missed.
UPDATE –
Tyrone is doing the announcement right now. He says Jen will be the new producer of the program, and the show is called The Best Show Ever? He went on to explain that the name is a homage of sorts to the fans, because Philly has the best fans. That’s me paraphrasing right there. There’s a writeup on the Fanatic website if you want to read their introduction to the show.