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RADIO WARS: Some Thoughts on the Arrogant Angelo Cataldi and Howard Eskin Disrespecting Their Former 94 WIP Colleagues
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This one is a little dense so bear with me as we set it up.
Howard Eskin had Angelo Cataldi on his podcast last week and Awful Announcing summarized some anti-WIP comments from both individuals:
AA’s Sean Keeley transcribed the following:
“I stopped listening,” Cataldi told Eskin… I don’t listen at all anymore. The reason is because I would hear something that I would go, well, no, that’s not the way you should do it. I did it for 33 years. I know how to do it. It got to the point where it was just so frustrating for me that I don’t listen.”
“People emailed me all the time,” Cataldi said. “The Phillies would lose a big playoff game, and the next day the host would talk about how nobly they fought. That’s not the Philadelphia I was in. When you don’t win here, you should pay a price.”
“People don’t want to turn the radio on anymore,” Eskin said. “Radio is a dying business. It’s sad because both our careers were great for sports talk radio, but it’s a business that’s almost dead… They have some good people there [94 WIP]. But they don’t have enough good people there, and they’re not alone. Talent doesn’t exist the way it used to in talk radio. It’s just the way it is.”
I went back and listened to most of this show and the Awful Announcing writeup accurately sums things up. Funny enough, Howard and Angelo got into the WIP topic with Angelo ripping the Jack Fritz standing ovation for Trea Turner (or was it Philly Captain?), while Howard called the ovation “lame.” Cataldi then credited Rhea Hughes for giving strong opinions and Howard talked at length about the business challenges that have resulted in radio company bankruptcies. He mentioned that WIP producers are making $13 an hour and said that he doesn’t talk with his son Spike about WIP business.
(Separately, they ripped the Eagles for a lackluster offseason while pointing out that the team brought back Grant “Calcavecchia,” who may or may not be related to golfer Mark Calcavecchia)
The segment about radio was only a few minutes long, and it didn’t seem overly nasty. More like two old grumps complaining that things were better when they used to do it. But the criticism elicited responses from several current and former WIP employees, among them, Spike Eskin, Jon Marks, and Ava Graham, who put the following on social:
Now, some thoughts on all of this, in no particular order:
- It’s definitely disrespectful for Angelo and Howard to rip the current iteration of WIP, which includes many of their former colleagues, who are good people. These are co-workers, who, at the very least, recognized Eskin and Cataldi’s pioneering radio talent and their decades-long contributions to the station. I’d assume a decent amount of these current employees even looked up to Angelo and Howard and would consider them influences as they worked to refine and improve their own skills. Furthermore, Joe DeCamara used to be Howard’s producer, Ava’s father, Big Daddy Graham, was Angelo’s lead-in for years, and Spike is Howard’s son, so, at the risk of sounding presumptuous, not only does it feel disrespectful professionally, but it feels disrespectful personally.
- Spike says this is “disappointing” and “embarrassing” for Howard and Angelo. That is TRUE. It’s also arrogance on Angelo’s part because he says “I know how to do it,” as if his way of doing sports talk radio is correct and everybody else’s approach is wrong.
- Spike says this is the “most talented” WIP staff ever, which is FALSE. Two of the three dayparts are currently unlistenable because they talk about the same fucking thing every single day – 1) Is Jalen Hurts elite? 2) We should trade/not trade A.J. Brown! 3) Fire Nick Sirianni and/or Rob Thomson and cut player X. Jon Marks’ afternoon show was better than Spike’s afternoon show and Ray Didinger and Glen Macnow are gone, so this isn’t even the best WIP staff of the last three years.
- Angelo and Howard are essentially saying that they don’t think WIP is critical enough, or that it’s getting soft, which is comedy. The Trea Turner standing ovation was mostly an outlier, otherwise WIP is following the playbook that these two established decades ago. You get on the microphone and say a bunch of dumb shit to rile up low-IQ Eagles fans, who confuse the rage bait for holding the players and coaches and executives “accountable.” Rinse and repeat with the same discussion every day and you’ve got enough to hold a core audience and keep the sponsors happy. Cataldi and Eskin invented performative “I’m so mad” radio, which is what Spike re-installed when he took over as program director for Andy Bloom about 10 years ago. And credit where it’s due – Spike becoming PD and hiring Eliot Shorr-Parks and going the hot take route is what allowed WIP to flourish once again, and pull away from the Fanatic.
- Spike says that “our ratings lap theirs,” which, on the surface, is true. WIP is putting up some monster Nielsen numbers. It’s worth pointing out, for context, that 97.5 has largely fallen off a cliff and is hardly competitive these days. But Howard and Angelo broadcasted in the 90s before streaming was a thing and before satellite radio and podcasts were a thing, so it’s safe to assume that a larger portion of the Philly sports audience went to radio because the options were not robust. Plus, we still don’t have an accurate way to measure how large the total audience is, for instance – it’s one thing to have a 15.8 share for 500,000 listeners, while it’s another thing to have a 15.8 share for an estimated 100,000 listeners. We can look at shares from a sample size, and parse more granular streaming data these days, but we still can’t extrapolate the Nielsen shares to a total audience, if that makes sense.
- You always have to give Angelo and Howard credit for the legwork they did back in the day. Cataldi was, at one time, a Philadelphia Inquirer writer who worked locker rooms and did real journalism. Howard was always at the games and working sources before he became a total blowhard who was only showing up to stroke his ego and take selfies with the fans. This new crop of radio talent is just that – radio talent, and most do not have the same backgrounds as the original crop of talent that started this format.
- WIP ratings have been really steady for years now, which says to me that it’s not about individuals; it’s about WIP being a machine. Spike’s ratings are great, but Jon’s were great. Angelo’s ratings were great and so are Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie’s ratings. I have no doubt that if you removed any one of those guys and replaced them with a similarly-skilled person that the ratings would be exactly the same. That’s not an insult to any individual; I just think we have enough information now to deduce that the station itself is a wagon, and larger than any person or persons.
- Producers making $13 is not news. Audacy went through bankruptcy proceedings not long ago. Sports talk radio, and all sports media, is non-essential work in a competitive economic landscape and advertisers now have many different places where they can spend their money. The hosts themselves don’t make a fraction of what Howard and Angelo used to make.
- I have to confess that I took WIP off the radio dial entirely. I’ll flip it on occasionally, like weekends when Rob Ellis and Mike Sielski are on, but my truck presets currently include WMMR, WMGK, WZZO, KYW News Radio, 97.5 the Fanatic, and then Q102 for the occasional Taylor Swift song when I’m driving my daughters around.
Howard and Angelo come off as bitter here. Show some respect to the shop that made you successful and the people who supported you along the way. You ingrates.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com