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RADIO WARS: 97.5 the Fanatic Program Director Retiring
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Some Radio Warz news courtesy of John Mamola at Barrett Media:
Scott Masteller is retiring. The 97.5 The Fanatic program director will step away December 31 after more than 45 years in radio.
What We Know: Beasley Media Group announced that Masteller will retire December 31. He joined 97.5 The Fanatic three years ago and helped realign its programming and on-air lineup. Before The Fanatic, he spent seven years as WBAL NewsRadio’s program director in Baltimore. He also spent 13 years at ESPN, working in Dallas-Fort Worth and Bristol, Connecticut. In November of last year, Masteller told Barrett Media that he decided to program at 97.5 The Fanatic from his prior retirement due to his relationship with former market manager Joe Bell. Bell stepped down from Beasley Media in July of 2024.
The last few years at 97.5 are a clusterfuck, but the CliffsNotes is that Chuck Damico was serving as program director and then went back to WMMR at the end of 2023 to take over for the retiring Bill Weston. Joe Bell, who himself was getting ready to retire, went to Masteller and basically asked him if he had one more job in him (this is me paraphrasing). Masteller said yes, and ran 97.5 the Fanatic from afar, living in Williamsport and commuting to Philadelphia for in-person meetings and whatnot, maybe a couple of times a month. Bell was then unceremoniously dumped by Beasley about 6 months later and Paul Blake took over as Cluster Manager of Beasley’s Philly stations, overseeing the Fanatic, WMMR, XTU, MGK, etc.
Speaking of the latter two, Damico now runs both of those stations as well. He was PD at both MMR and MGK when Beasley announced back in May that he’d also become PD of XTU, which made me laugh thinking that the endgame would be Damico running every single station in Philadelphia. If they simply handed the Fanatic back to him, he’d be in charge of four radio stations at the same time.
What the Fanatic should do with this new hire, if they even make one, is ensure that the person actually lives and works in Philadelphia. That should be the bare minimum requirement, otherwise you are insulting all of us, like the Inquirer, with their editors who don’t even live in the Delaware Valley. Though, to be fair, Masteller’s situation was unique. He was at the end of a long and respectable radio career when Bell called him up, so the commuting thing, I assume, was the concession for a favor. He only had two things to work with in terms of resources, which were jack and shit. Most of his decision making involved shuffling around the current talent and trying to keep the ship afloat.
Fanatic people have told me in the past that they found Matt Nahigian to be a very good program director. He is currently out in San Francisco running 95.7 the Game, which is a solid Audacy station, so I can’t imagine he would come back, but that would be my first choice for this hire. Matt Nahigian.
Knowing Beasley, they will not spend a lot of money on this role. They will likely make an internal hire or give someone an extra role. I could honestly see it being something like Jonny Marks: morning host / program director. One of those joints.
What do you think?
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