It’s been almost a full week, but nothing new on the Mike Missanelli front.

We reported on Thursday evening that a reunion with 97.5 the Fanatic was possible, which Jon Marks later corroborated on his podcast. As expected, Missanelli was not named during Friday’s “major programming announcement,” because there was no signed contract and no final agreement. Instead, 97.5 revealed the rest of their new lineup, which now has John Kincade and Andrew Salciunas working the morning show, Bob Cooney on middays, and Pat Egan at night.

Program Director Scott Masteller did confirm to the Inquirer the following:

“Mike’s name has come up. He’s a great talent, and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. A lot of people are interested in the radio station right now. So I’ll leave it at that.”

Not much movement over the early part of the week, but Mike confirmed on Twitter Wednesday afternoon that talks have been taking place:

Somewhat vague, as is usually the case. Makes it sound like the ball is in the Fanatic’s court, but you never know.

This is where it stands right now. Nothing final, at least not of Thursday morning. But there’s been interest, and if Mike does come back, he’d slot in with Bob Cooney on the midday show. If it falls apart, they’ll put someone else in that spot, because right now it’s just Bob with Ray Dunne producing the show. They were always going to add an outside talent in addition to their internal reshuffling.

From a strategic standpoint, Mike on middays makes a lot of sense. That’s where 94 WIP is weakest across the three main day parts. The morning show with Joe DeCamara does huge numbers. Afternoons were very strong with Marks and Reese, and we’ll see if there’s any change in Q1 2024 following Jon’s departure. Joe Giglio and Hugh Douglas win comfortably over the Fanatic, but have the lowest number of the three main shows. Mind you, midday is not a “drive time” show and usually gets smaller numbers than AM and PM, but I’d be curious to see if a Mike and Bob show makes some inroads in that time slot.

The other consideration is this, and I’m not being facetious –

This is an election year, and Mike is very politically opinionated, as you’re well aware. He’s constantly talking about politics on social media and it bled into his afternoon show during the last couple of years, before his 2022 departure. Personally, I think all parties have to be on the same page here, that if Mike comes back, he’s gotta leave the Trump shit at home. If you ask people over at Beasley, the political stuff is a net negative and it’s not good for business. You lose listeners when you don’t stick to sports.

Does that mean that politics and social issues are unimportant? No. It just means that people listen to sports talk radio for sports.