Ad Disclosure
Some Thoughts on Kevin Cooney Leaving 97.5 the Fanatic
Published:
Radio Warzz:
Cooney throwing a bit of shade there? It SEEMS as though he’s suggesting that 97.5 the Fanatic does not necessarily value his “experience & knowledge of the market,” but only he knows for sure. Maybe I’m reading into something that’s not there.
If you missed it yesterday, we reported that 97.5 is cutting weekday evenings from its programming, and some people “with knowledge of the situation” explained to us that the Fanatic will soon be running through their normal lineup of Kincade/Salciunas, Marks/Brace, then Unfiltered before going to a two-hour “best of” show from 6-8 p.m. They will no longer be scheduling people like Brendan Gunn, or Cooney, or Shukri Wrights, or Dei Lynam to anchor the “Philly Sports Tonight” shift that airs when the Sixers and Flyers are not playing.
The Fanatic isn’t doing anything with weekends at the moment, so presumably there will be some shifts for that group of talent to fill on Saturdays and Sundays. They’ll use some of the weekday hosts in those time slots as well, for instance, when the Eagles start up again in the fall.
I don’t know how much weekday evenings moved the needle at 97.5, but I personally believe you need Kevin Cooney-type guys in Philadelphia sports talk radio. You need the crusty veterans who have been around the block and can tell you who batted 5th for the Phillies back in 1987. I think it was either Mike Easler or Lance Parrish. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I oftentimes think about WIP and the robust roster of old school guys they’ve had over the years, guys like Rickie Ricardo, Jody Mac, Rob Charry, Paul Jolovitz, Glen and Ray, and maybe now Rob Ellis and Mike Sielski would be in that category. WIP has the weekday hot take rage baiters and then the more straightforward sports talk guys do the nights and weekends. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
In the case of the Fanatic, they have a lot of younger guys who anchor those non-daypart shows and the presence of Lynam and Cooney (and Mike Gill sometimes) provides the veteran match, but I don’t know. Maybe I’m the only one who cares about this.
quick aside – I was at the Sepultura show in Reading last night. This guy’s hat fell off in the mosh pit, and the unwritten rules stipulate that when someone falls down or loses an item, you stop and pick it up, or pick them up. So I paused to get this guy’s hat and some other dude CRUSHED me in the jaw with an elbow. This motherfucker! I believe he was disrespecting the rules of the pit.
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