Flyers

RADIO WARS: Chris Carlin Is Going To Get Replaced By Mike Francesa

By Kyle Scott

Published: Apr 24th, 2018 · 4:12 PM EDT

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So it would appear that former WIP Afternoon host Chris Carlin is shifting roles again.

Carlin left WIP last year to take over for Mike Francesa at WFAN, where he is joined by Maggie Gray and Bart Scott in the afternoon. Their show is not doing well, and an insider I talked to referred to it as a trainwreck. So cue Francesa, who is reportedly coming back, according to Newsday:

Saying “it is time to return to WFAN,” Mike Francesa told Newsday on Tuesday morning that after four months away from the station he is ready for a comeback.

Francesa declined to elaborate on what form his return might take, but a person at WFAN with knowledge of the plan said he likely would reclaim a portion of his old afternoon drive time slot, from 3 to 7 p.m. It is not clear when that would occur.

It sounds like Carlin, Gray and Scott could be moved a 1-3 p.m. time slot, leading into Francesa.

Last month, Carlin took exception when Francesa joined his former co-host Chris Russo – Carlin used to produce their show – and the pair made fun of the current WFAN lineup.

Carlin subtweeted the shit out of this story on Twitter this morning:

How’s everybody’s day going so far?

— Chris Carlin (@ChrisCarlin) April 24, 2018

My phone just melted.

— Chris Carlin (@ChrisCarlin) April 24, 2018

My thought: This seems to be a trend in sports talk radio. It turns out Philly isn’t the only market longing for better days in many time slots. It turns out that the younger, ostensibly hipper hosts aren’t always better. Part of the problem is listeners get comfortable with a longtime voice, and the other part is that the new generation of hosts has largely come up trying to emulate an old host, whose shitck was either original or crafted by the years of actual experience covering a team. Now, many radio hosts grow up wanting to become radio hosts– they have no experience on which to draw, and rather just try to do their best version of the guy they’re replacing. That seems to be what we have here.