RADIO WARS: In Response to Fake News Jack Fritz
94 WIP producer Jack Fritz is spreading fake news.
He delivered his “top five at five” on Monday afternoon, identifying enemies of the Marks and Reese show, and he listed me as enemy number four, saying this:
I will answer these pernicious allegations in order:
1) “rips Eliot’s training camp stats, thinks they are absolutely useless”
Okay, that’s true. I have ripped Eliot’s training camp stats. They are, indeed useless, but Crossing Broad has been very nuanced in our approach to this topic. We don’t find value in tweeting out “Jalen Hurts went 10 for 15” on day one of training camp, but we also recognize that 94 WIP has a different audience than CB or The Philadelphia Inquirer. If there is demand for training camp information, and listeners want stats, then Eliot is supplying data that meets the demand. On some days, there’s a more meaningful supply to satisfy the demand, and sometimes 94 WIP is guilty of overdoing it with Eagles talk, but we’re willing to concede that WIP is doing what works for them, and therefore our gripe is more with the ecosystem that validates the tweeting, and not necessarily the tweeting itself. It’s a chicken vs. egg type of thing. What came first? The stat tweets or the demand for those tweets?
2) “also rips many of our callers, which I don’t appreciate”
Okay, this is also true, but it’s fair. Chuck from Mount Airy is a dope. Ingy is a nitwit and a moron. Andy from Deptford, Mad Mike, etc – it’s the same doofuses on the radio every day. I am a HUGE proponent of going back to the old rule: callers may only join the show once per week and once on the weekends. Marks and Reese should take my advice and re-install this criteria immediately.
3) “Kevin and I don’t have anything personally against each other”
That’s true, although Ike does have me blocked on Twitter for some reason. I seek an explanation for that. Maybe too many soccer tweets.
4) “quite frankly, I don’t think there’s enough positivity written about the show, you mention this show in passing as if it’s a nothing show… part of me thinks Kevin Kinkead is slightly hating on the show a little bit, trying to keep us down”
Fake news! Fake news! I have been a longstanding supporter of the Marks and Reese show. I actually have listened to Marks and Reese more than any other show on WIP, mostly for the fact that I was driving to pick up my kid and would have it on in the car.
I wrote this about Marks and Reese back in April of 2021:
I think that Jon Marks, Ike Reese, and Jack Fritz have the best chemistry. The way they bounce off each other as a trio is seamless, and the show has a lot of laugh out loud moments because it’s light and doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s an appropriate balance between entertaining and informative.
Another thing worth mentioning, and I think this is understated, is that Ike Reese has really come a long way from the early days of co-hosting with Mike Barkann. I was talking to a WIP host a few months ago, and he said “somebody should do a story on how good Ike is in 2021,” and that’s very interesting. When you listen to him now, you’d think he was a 30-year veteran, and not an ex-athlete who had to learn an entirely new career.
We’ve also noted myriad times on Crossing Broad that Marks/Reese was hammering the Fanatic in the ratings, so we’ve been totally fair to the program.
Real talk though –
You don’t hear about Marks and Reese very often on CB because they don’t provide any RADIO WARS ammunition. Jon and Ike aren’t hanging up on Howard Eskin, or talking out of their rear ends, or doing a fake shtick. Neither guy is playing a character or putting on a show for the purposes of “entertainment.” They do it naturally because that information/entertainment balance exists in the composition of the show. The success of their time slot proves the point I’ve been trying to make for years now – that WIP doesn’t need corny hosts playing characters or morphing into some “persona” to do enjoyable sports talk. It’s just Eagles, Phillies, etc without the cringey acting job.
In conclusion, Jack Fritz is fake news and I expect an apology today. Go Union DOOP DOOP.