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Guy Who Inspired Today’s Sports Talk Radio Talent Says Sports Talk Radio No Longer Has Any Talent

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 9th, 2025 · 1:56 PM EDT

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Howard Eskin went on Dan Sileo’s show recently. Two dinosaurs trying to stay relevant in 2025. The fine folks at Barrett Sports Media transcribed some of the quotes:

…Eskin lamented the lack of originality and talent in modern sports talk as the biggest difference in sports talk radio over the past 15 years.

“There really is a lack of talent,” Eskin said of why hosting a solo program was preferred. “Somebody had this grand idea of having two hosts. The reason, I believe, that they decided to have two hosts is so they can argue with one another. It’s just good cop, bad cop. I’ll take this side, you take this side. Whether they believe it or not. After a while, I think people know that it’s bulls**t.”

He said the premise to have two co-hosts to simply create debate caused people on both sides of the conversation to become annoyed, leading to what Eskin claims is “the same thing every day.”

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He contrasted that commitment with what he sees today: manufactured debate, minimal accountability, and a business model driven by cost-cutting rather than content. “Radio is a dying business,” Eskin said. “It’s sad because that was what got me to where I am.”

He criticized station ownership—without naming names—for shifting priorities away from quality programming. “The people running the business now are just trying to save their a**. They’re just trying to keep their jobs,” Eskin added.

Howard is not wrong when he talks about manufactured debate and the modern theme of saying shit just to say shit. Sports talk radio in Philadelphia especially is plagued by rage bait and fake outrage, with incessant jamming of the square peg into the round hole as we talk about the same Eagles and Phillies stuff on a daily basis, then flip flop like a career politician and pretend none of it was actually said. This extends to the hot take culture now pervasive on television and social media as well.

But it does make you laugh, because Eskin is the godfather of it all. He’s the pioneer of sports talk radio in Philadelphia, and inspired and influenced a lot of the people who he now suggests are talentless. Where does he think performative, contrarian radio came from? Where did loud, boisterous, provocateur sports talk begin? It began with him! He was the first one to do the brash combativeness radio routine, and he did it very well, letting callers know how stupid they were over the course of decades.

So it’s kind of silly, like an awkward meet up between the pot and the kettle. We’re all trying to find the guy who did this!

Imagine, for instance, if last week Black Sabbath said that all of the bands who performed at their farewell show weren’t very good. Those bands, like it or not, are derivatives of you, and were influenced and inspired by you, but now operate in a world that’s much different than the one you started in. And the level of success they’ve found is significant and indisputable.

To segue, what’s the definition of “talent,” anyway? WIP remains a large and popular brand, pulling strong ratings and humming right along. Surely there must be talented individuals making the decisions, and not idiots, depending on how far up the Audacy food chain we’re going. You can dislike what they’re doing, but you must admit that they are very good at it. Take someone like Eliot Shorr-Parks, for instance. You can believe that training camp stats are fucking stupid (they are), but this gets people talking and generates opinion and contributes to an ecosystem that works for WIP.

EDIT – I think it needs to be mentioned that the AM and PM drive main hosts at WIP now are Howard’s former producer and his son, which makes the “talent” comment even more remarkable

Here’s the full thing if you’re a masochist. Howard does make some good points about accountability and showing up in locker rooms and facing the music, even if he did it all within the framework of grandstanding and self-aggrandizing: