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RADIO WARS: Sean Brace Says “Miserable” WIP Hosts are Not Diehard Philadelphia Sports Fans
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Sean Brace ripped WIP and Spike Eskin on Friday, after Spike poo-pooed the LeBron James signing:
“I can’t believe how miserable those people are. Somebody sent me a video, and look I’ll call it, I don’t care, Spike (Eskin) literally said, like ‘this is the worst day of my life and I’m setting a calendar for the day that he is done on the 76ers.’ And this dude went on Twitter or TikTok or whatever and he’s like ‘welcome to Philadelphia LeBron,’ and I hate the fact that that gets amplified. I hate the fact that that is what’s gonna be out there. Because you literally had my station doing somersaults – not just my station, the whole (Beasley Philadelphia) cluster – MMR, Matt Cord, everyone’s going absolutely berserk, emails are firing. We’re the flagship station, of course, but at the end of the day we’re diehard Philadelphia sports fans. They are not. They suck. Screw them, dude. That is a negative, negative vibe that they are putting out. And it will be amplified and it bothers the hell out of me. Same old song and dance. Nothing new.”
Without doing a comprehensive audit here, there is definitely some truth to Sean’s assertion that 94 WIP is not entirely staffed with diehard Philadelphia sports fans.
It’s common knowledge that Spike used to like the Knicks. He’s said in the past that he was not really immersed in Philadelphia sports at all, despite his father being one of the prominent figures in Philly sports media. Spike was a rock DJ at WYSP up until 2011, when the station flipped formats to give WIP a spot on the FM dial. Back then, CBS Radio was trying to retain all of the WYSP employees who lost their jobs after the flip and Spike found his way over to sports talk before starting the Ricky Sanchez podcast in 2013.
Then there’s Joe Giglio, who got into radio via WFAN in New York. He was some sort of tweener who liked New York sports and also watched Philadelphia sports.
The Giglio thing makes me laugh because he is indeed a good dude. But he’s not a Philly sports fan. He’s a Monmouth County/Ocean County guy who grew up rooting for the Giants and started his sports radio career at WFAN. He didn’t start picking up part-time shifts at WIP until 2013, and was writing for NJ.com at the same time, penning stories about the Yanks and Mets and shit like that. Eventually Joe got the evening shift after Chris Carlin went back to New York.”
So I don’t think either one of those guys is, or ever was, a “diehard Philadelphia sports fan,” and they would probably agree.
Then you have the former Philadelphia Eagle in every daypart – Jon Ritchie, Hugh Douglas, and Ike Reese, none of whom are from Philadelphia or grew up as Philadelphia sports fans. Their status is a little bit different, because they were hired as second mics to help bludgeon listeners to death with Eagles talk, but the fact of the matter is that they didn’t live and die with all of the teams like we did. They ended up here as pro athletes, and there’s a lot of respect for their playing experience, but they didn’t live through the Legion of Doom and the Fo Fo Fo Sixers and the 1993 Phillies and all of that.
Of course, WIP has guys Joe DeCamara and Jack Fritz, who grew up here and have always been Philadelphia sports fans, but I think Sean’s point is pretty valid. Two of their three main dayparts are led by guys who aren’t diehards, and former Eagles can’t be considered four major-type diehards.
It just adds to the criticism that the WIP brand is inauthentic, or at least manufactured. We experienced 33 years of this with Rhode Island native Angelo Cataldi comically claiming to speak for Philadelphia sports fans.
Sidenote –
This is a big opportunity for 97.5 the Fanatic. That station has fallen pretty far in recent years and here comes LeBron James to join the Sixers. They have the radio rights. This fell right into their lap and they have some desperately needed leverage for once.
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