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Why Craig Carton And Second Chances Are Worthwhile

“If his gambling problems are behind him, Craig Carton, the New York radio host has paid his debt to society and should be allowed to resume his WFAN career — as should others in a selectively punitive industry.”

Jay Mariotti

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The fine print at the bottom of a casino house ad? The rambling voice at the end of a public service announcement? Craig Carton was too far gone to heed the warnings, or the concerns of family members and close friends wondering why he was helicoptering directly from Atlantic City to his morning radio shift at WFAN, a sideways commute of the worst kind.
A disease had swallowed him. And before he could come up for air, a man in his early 50s who had everything in life but hair — a wife and kids, big-city success, riches, a Tribeca palace — was headed to a prison cell in central Pennsylvania.

Gambling made him do bad things.

But that doesn’t mean Craig Carton is a bad human being for life.

I am comfortable in expressing that because, unlike knee-jerk media executives who can’t blacklist an “unhireable rogue’’ quickly enough, I contacted him days before he left for Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. Hooked on documentaries and involved in creating them, I saw Carton as a compelling subject and wanted to know why prosperity and fame weren’t enough for him, why he needed to gamble like a fiend and pay off debts by duping victims in a $7 million ticket-brokering scam. Having been in sports radio myself, I knew how gambling could ravage certain colleagues, once lecturing a car full of young producers — two have become leaders in the industry — about the personal wreckage awaiting them if they kept calling bookies every day. I waited years for my one-time program director to pay back a $3,000 loan.

Popular New York sports radio personality Craig Carton arrested by ...

When we spoke by phone, Carton was resigned to his fate — a 3 1/2-year sentence — but also inferred he was a media victim of sorts. This was understandable, given his treatment in a Manhattan courtroom by U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, who mocked how a caller might greet him on the air: “Good afternoon, Mr. Carton, Colleen from New York. First time, long time.’’ Really? Did he even have a chance after that stunt? Once a high-profile public figure is caught in the hooks of a sensational tabloid story, all innocent-until-proven-guilty expectations are gone, regardless of the facts. I would know, having been through a lower-level media circus myself, and it was important for me to hear Carton’s side, knowing how news sites never completed a story that ended favorably for me, with my triumph in a civil case and a complete expungement of all charges.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting in the slightest that Carton didn’t deserve his sentence. But when he was released from prison this week after serving barely a year of his term, I did not yelp in protest. He has paid $5 million in restitution to his victims and will keep paying. He lost his family, his livelihood, and he’ll be branded a Ponzi scheme embezzler for life. With good behavior, he completed all requirements and programs demanded of him inside the prison walls. And he isn’t finished yet, with his next step a halfway house or home confinement, according to the New York Post. A year in prison — and three years of hell since his arrest — does constitute a firm measure of punishment for a non-violent crime.

“He paid his debt to society,’’ said Boomer Esiason, his former co-host, who received a call from Carton within hours of his release. “What I heard was a happy and relieved Craig Carton. He did everything he possibly could in jail to mitigate his sentence and try to get out as early as he possibly could.’’

So lash out if you must. Call Carton a privileged white male getting a break in a summer of racial unrest, sprung early — surely by his pal, Chris Christie — so he can resume radio stardom. Accuse me of conveniently forgetting his victims and his mountain of gambling losses. Sorry, I will not join close-minded, holier-than-thou wall builders who think Carton should be banished to a homeless encampment and never work again in a media industry that, candidly, has character issues on every level.

Media Confidential: NYC Radio: Craig Carton Judge Is A WFAN Listener

Yes, we must determine if he has still has a gambling sickness, which must be purged from his life for a corporation such as Entercom to grant him a second chance. But if he’s clean, Carton deserves the same shot that other media people receive upon overcoming illness — such as John Skipper, who was summoned to run the DAZN streaming service after a cocaine-extortion case (or so he said) ended his ESPN reign. Why not give Carton an afternoon slot and a new slate? He’s talented. He has generated monster ratings. He is raw, unabashed New York. And WFAN needs him, as Mike Francesa fades away and ESPN’s Michael Kay commands the afternoon-drive sports lead in the nation’s top radio market.

“I do believe he deserves a second chance, whether it be here at our station or another station,’’ said Esiason, who has settled in comfortably with Carton’s morning-drive successor, Gregg Giannotti. “He’s too talented not to be on the air somewhere.’’

If anything, I cast aspersions on media executives who have no equilibrium in handling such cases and have shown no such mercy toward equally talented media people. Networks are cowardly in not caring when athletes who carry substantial legal baggage — Ray Lewis, for one — are routinely hired as analysts. Yet they are quick to make examples of those who haven’t played professional sports, the very definition of a corporate double standard that strains the legal definition of tortious interference. As for Carton, let’s be honest: He and others in his situation need a sugar daddy to push them through the politics.

In which alternative universe would someone grant redemption to a host convicted in a Ponzi scheme? Don’t be shocked if it’s the universe of Carton’s former producer, Chris Oliviero, who runs the show at WFAN and has made no secret of reunion possibilities. I think we already know how this will go. Oliviero will place Carton in afternoons opposite Kay. HBO will move forward with the Carton documentary, timed with his return to radio, and it likely will involve his good friend, “Entourage’’ star Kevin Connolly. He will apologize, resume his extensive charity work and record his own PSAs about gambling’s evils. Christie will give him a bro hug — I doubt Chris Christie socially distances — and New York will embrace Carton’s second act as only New York can.

I cringe when thinking about young people getting into the business. Imagine being 21 and an independent thinker and dreaming of covering sports for a living, only to realize quickly how internal politics overwhelm idealism. Stuff happens. People screw up. Short of a heinous crime, you should not lose your career over it.

So I’m down with Carton returning to the air.

Ryen Russillo and Bill Simmons (Kind of) Preview the 2019-20 NBA ...

Whereas I’m just down on Bill Simmons, another sports media star in the news this week. I’ve always enjoyed Boston, from long river walks to pastry aromas in the North End, but one contradiction always has baffled me. How can a bastion of higher education also produce people who’ve trashed, if not completely ruined, the once-distinguished craft of sports media? The city produced Dave Portnoy, a piece of work who parlayed a proud moment in his life — publishing a naked penis shot of Tom Brady’s son, then age 2 — into a drunken-frat-boy empire called Barstool Sports. And it produced Simmons, a former bartender who decided to disrupt a town of estimable sportswriters by becoming the original Voice Of The Obnoxious Local Fan, which launched a reckless, overreaching career that finds him in a national firestorm over the scarcity of black employees at his digital site, The Ringer.

Simmons has talent and sports passion. And he helped create ESPN’s seminal documentary series, “30 For 30.’’ His problem: He shouldn’t be in charge of anything but turning on the coffee machine. When success as the “Boston Sports Guy’’ character landed him a column at then-fledgling ESPN.com, his bosses should have thanked the heavens for his large readership and let him flourish in that role. Instead, they created a multi-platform monster — and allowed that monster to devour Bristol. If his pieces were unique, his TV appearances passable and his literary work (“The Book Of Basketball’’) a masterpiece, it was Simmons’ lack of professional savvy that repeatedly sabotaged him.

He referred to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as “a liar,’’ a red flag in any law shop. As founder of ESPN’s Grantland site, he published a story that outed a transgender woman who committed suicide as the piece was bring prepared, requiring him to write a lengthy, awkward apology. Now, five years since his ouster at ESPN, Simmons is being attacked for his hiring practices amid a powerful racial reckoning in America. And again, it’s a controversy he could have avoided — and kept out of the New York Times, which detailed staff turmoil at The Ringer — by thinking with his brain and not his ass. But then, he used to write for Jimmy Kimmel, who is embroiled in his own racial issues — a blackface controversy and his past imitations of black voices, including a Snoop Dogg bit in which he used the N-word several times.

It’s unfathomable that two white Ringer podcasters, Simmons and Ryen Russillo, would broadcast a June 1 episode on racism and police violence without inviting a few black voices as fellow hosts. They called it, “A Truly Sad Week in America,’’ and they only made it sadder with ignorant commentary. Russillo’s mistake was to applaud Simmons, saying, “Look at you, Bill, look at the people you’ve hired, look at the company that you’ve started, look at the jobs and opportunities that you’ve given a diverse group, which I know you’re always looking to do. I’m not bulls—ting, I’m not kissing up to you here. These are facts.’’

Actually, to use the L-word, these are lies. The podcast angered Ringer staffers, with writer John Gonzalez tweeting, “If you’ve heard someone say The Ringer is a super diverse place, sadly that person does not know what he’s talking about. We have a long way to go, and I hope we get there.” Then the union representing Ringer workers weighed in with numbers: “In 2019, 86 percent of speakers on The Ringer Podcast Network were white. We have zero black editors. We have zero black writers assigned full time to the NBA or NFL beats.’’

Which makes the Man of The People, Bill Simmons, just another Malibu media mogul who doesn’t pay appropriate attention to racial inequality. At Grantland, he cultivated an us-against-the-world mentality among his staff and usually had the support of the bosses who enabled him, Skipper and John Walsh. But all three exited ESPN in a curious span, and suddenly, Simmons has no one to bail him out. He sold The Ringer site and podcast network to Spotify for almost $200 million, and now, he’s pretty lonely by the beach, dragging down the investors who showered him with riches.

I don’t doubt Simmons when he says he has sought diversity, as he did successfully at Grantland. But the union says The Ringer, which employs about 90 people, has only six black editorial staff members. Evidently, he isn’t trying hard enough to outbid competing sites — including ESPN’s “The Undefeated’’ — for the best talent. Wrote the union: “Diversity in the newsroom is essential to covering police brutality and systemic racism, including in the worlds of sports and pop culture. The Ringer has a lot of work to do.’’

By this point in their careers, Simmons and Russillo should know how to approach sensitive subjects with care. Same goes for their former ESPN colleague, Scott Van Pelt, who might want to eliminate this from his self-description at the top of his Twitter feed: “Mr. Whitefolks.’’ It’s a takeoff from a documentary on the lives of pimps and prostitutes, and if Van Pelt isn’t aware, “Mr. Whitefolks’’ is the only white pimp in the show. At one point, the character discusses a “Million Mack March’’ on Washington.

I’m guessing it will be removed from Van Pelt’s feed before you read this. Because, like so much else in our country, it’s just thoughtless and wrong. The least sports media can do, now more than ever, is think and make things right. Admit your mistakes and move on, as Carton has.

“I made mistakes,’’ he said. “Mistakes in my judgments, decisions and how I was living my life. I was wrong. I have, will and should continue to pay a dear price for those mistakes.’’

He deserves no applause when he returns to the air. But he deserves our ears — specifically, 12 million sets of them, or the number of problem gamblers in America.

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Kim Mulkey Now Has Everyone Anticipating Washington Post Story

I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it.

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photo of LSU women's college basketball coach Kim Mulkey
Credit: Dailymail.co.uk

The Washington Post, you might’ve heard, has a story coming out about controversial LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey. The reason you might’ve heard is because Kim Mulkey told you. The Tigers coach read a fiery prepared statement just before her team started the Women’s NCAA Tournament. In the statement, Mulkey threatened to sue The Post for defamation before the first word was even published.

Now, I’ve never run a public relations firm but that did not seem like a good idea. The Washington Post story on Mulkey is one of the bigger stories in sports right now and nobody even knows what’s in it. The reason the story, apparently unflattering to Mulkey, is even on anyone’s radar screen is Mulkey herself.

It all started with an innocuous social media post by Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde right in the middle of the most anticipated two days in sports, the NCAA Tournament Round of 64. On his X account, Forde posted: “Hearing some buzz about a big Washington Post story in the works on LSU women’s hoops coach Kim Mulkey, potentially next week. Wagons being circled, etc.”

You know what generally will go unnoticed at 4:00 on the first Friday of the NCAA Tournament? A post on X about a women’s basketball coach. But don’t tell Mulkey, she saw Forde’s post and decided to fight fire with nuclear weaponry. The result: the average person like me now is really interested in what has Mulkey so incensed. By “average person like me” I mean that I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it. Maybe:

“LSU Women’s Coach Discovers Ark of the Covenant”

Or:

“Mulkey Reveals True JFK Assassin(s)”

Perhaps:

“Famed Women’s Basketball Coach Reveals the Mystery Behind Slow Drivers in the Left Lane”

Literally any of those catch my attention more than whatever will likely be the Washington Post headline about Mulkey. But now Mulkey is “Mad as Hell and is not going to take this anymore” so I now have an interest I would never before have had in this story. It has been fascinating to watch the online speculation about the subject of the article and all we really know, as of now, is that it will be written by Kent Babb. This is a dream come true for Babb; he writes an article that is, presumably, not flattering about Kim Mulkey and, before it is even published, she gives the article the greatest commercial anyone could give it. Babb couldn’t have entered into a business agreement with Mulkey and had this turn out better for him.

For those who don’t follow Babb, he is a former NFL reporter who now is an award-winning writer for the Washington Post. In his 14 years with The Post, he has written sports features and authored a couple of books. One of those sports features stories was a deep dive into what he viewed as a large inequity in the level of pay for LSU head football coach Brian Kelly and his LSU players. It is this piece Mulkey described as a “hit piece” and, based on that piece, referred to Babb as a “sleazy reporter.” Babb, and many others, resented the fact his story was labeled as a hit piece. In fact, Babb essentially confirmed he was the author Mulkey was referencing when he shared the original article on X with the comment: “Hit piece?”

Whether a printed piece or a recorded interview, I can’t imagine a better promotion for it than the subject of the interview threatening a libel/slander lawsuit, especially before it is even released. That simply screams “This piece is salacious!!” Also, libel and slander suits get settled all the time, right? Of course they don’t, they seem to never even get filed. That little thing called discovery is a scary thing for most public figures.

The NCAA Tournament has been very entertaining, and I think the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will be terrific. For only the fifth time ever, the top two seeds have advanced to the third round which sets up for a remarkable weekend. For me, I guess it will now include a Washington Post article, not a sentence I’d normally say.

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Ian Eagle Crushing It for CBS As Replacement for Jim Nantz

Eagle continues to be a shining example of what a network play-by-play announcer should be.

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Photo of Ian Eagle and the CBS Sports logo

I’ll admit, it’s been a little strange not hearing Jim Nantz during this year’s NCAA Tournament. Nantz stepped aside to concentrate on golf and the NFL after a long run covering the Final Four. Change is sometimes hard to accept, we are all creatures of habit, and I’m sure it’s a little weird for Nantz himself this time of year. But change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. When it comes to Ian Eagle, not that I’m surprised, so far, so good.

Eagle is no stranger to CBS viewers. He’s been with the network since 1998 calling college basketball games and the NFL through the years. That certainly made the transition a little easier for everyone involved. CBS, the viewers and Eagle himself. Familiarity in these cases doesn’t breed content, it breeds a more comfortable broadcast and an easier handle on the change itself.

For Eagle, one of the other benefits for him was working with familiar folks, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson. Eagle estimates that he and Raftery have called 600 basketball games together, because they were longtime partners on the NBA’s Nets broadcasts. Eagle has also previously worked with Hill in college basketball, the same for Wolfson.

“To do this with Bill, Grant, and Tracy, it really is going to feel very seamless. In many ways, it will feel like we’ve been doing it together for many years,” says Eagle on a conference call before the Big Dance.

It sounds seamless too. It’s not underrated to have a good rapport with the folks that you’re working with. Everyone is trying to get used to a new voice and the idiosyncrasies of a new announcer. It’s much less of a chore, when you know and have worked with your co-workers and partners before.  You know what to expect from them, and they know what to expect from you. That’s good.

I think Eagle is killing it in his new role. You could even tell during the Big Ten Tournament that led up to the “Big Dance” that he was not only ready, he was ready to roll. It’s easy to hear how much he loves doing what he’s doing. That’s the case in all of the sports he calls.

Eagle continues to be a shining example of what a network play-by-play announcer should be. He has the ability to combine his talent with some personality, but never at the expense of the action he’s calling. His broadcasts always hit the mark, as he rises to the occasion when the moment calls for it.

What do I mean by personality? He manages to make us laugh, even in some tense moments of a game. He also manages to articulate our thoughts in some situations, like this example from the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. 

Sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson had a report during the UConn/Northwestern game about the superstitions of Huskies’ coach Dan Hurley. He wears the same red dragon underwear and suit as he did last year. Wolfson said Hurley’s wife travels with a portable washing machine to make sure his clothes stay clean. Leading Eagle to ask the question on all our minds:

“Who has a portable washing machine?! I didn’t even know that existed!”

Also in that game, Eagle had a couple of other great moments. UConn big man Donovan Clingan had a couple of swats on one play.

“Denied! Clingan! Denied! Two for the price of one!” Quick thinking and entertaining at the same time. Later when a ball got pinned between the basket and the backboard, Eagle said, “Oooh! A Brooklyn wedgie!”

Great stuff. None of his ‘ad-libs’ sound like they are forced. It’s within the flow of the action and just seem to come to him. It’s pretty amazing to be that quick on your feet, when you’re trying to make sure to get the call correct above all else. I’m sure we’re all in for many more treats like that along the way from Eagle.

In general, when fans are watching a tournament game, they probably aren’t thinking about the preparation that goes into a broadcast. Especially for a play-by-play announcer. The first weekend network announcers calling a couple of games in the same day. There’s also only a day in between the first and second rounds to prep for teams that you may or may not have seen during the college season.  The turnaround is quick and demanding.  

“It feels like an information avalanche in many ways,” Eagle said recently on 670 The Score. “The fact that I’ve done it for so long would make you think, ‘oh, he’s got it down, he has the system, he found the secret sauce.’ No, it feels the same way every year.”

Eagle says even veteran announcers like himself have to manage stress levels and work efficiently once they know which games they’ll call. “The two or three days leading up to the tournament, I must admit, are probably the most angst-riddled of the year because it’s a little bit out of your control.” Eagle told 670 The Score.

Yes, the stress level is great on the broadcasters, but how about what Clark Kellogg continues to do at the NCAA Tournament and the Final Four? For the 8th year, he’ll join Kevin Kugler and Jim Jackson on Westwood One’s broadcast of the Final Four and Championship Game on radio. At the same time, Kellogg will be a studio analyst for the television coverage. How does he pull it off? Following the pregame show broadcast on TV, Kellogg will make his way courtside to the radio broadcast position to join Kugler and Jackson. Then, he will rejoin TV for halftime before repeating the process in the second half and postgame. 

Working this tournament isn’t easy for these broadcasters. It’s a big stage for sure, but as you’ve read, there’s big pressure that goes along with it. The audience is usually huge, and announcers are constantly put under the microscope. Fans want to make sure that you know their team, pronunciations and all. Stories. Bios. All of it. Cut these folks a little slack, information gathering with little time to do it, isn’t exactly simple. They do a damn good job.

Eagle himself, is doing a tremendous job. The 3-man booth works so well because of his ability to keep it all together. He can set up either Raftery or Hill with a serious basketball question, or deliver a great ‘straight line’ to bring out their personalities. It’s a gift. Eagle has that knack for knowing when to go ‘rogue’ and go for that entertaining line, that seems to fit in perfectly. Speaking of fitting fine, those rather large shoes he had to fill, they’re becoming the perfect size.

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Andrew Salciunas Aims to Thrive in Morning Drive on 97.5 The Fanatic

“We are two radio guys that kind of know what we’re doing.”

Derek Futterman

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Andrew Salciunas
Courtesy: Beasley Media Group

When 97.5 The Fanatic midday host Anthony Gargano agreed to a deal to contribute to PHLY Sports, a local digital venture within ALLCITY Network, he was promptly suspended by Beasley Media Group and subsequently sued for breach of contract. Although the two sides eventually reached a settlement and officially parted ways, the future of the daypart was still in question. In the interim time period, the station granted Andrew Salciunas the opportunity to lead a four-hour solo program with producer Ray Dunne. Salciunas had served as Gargano’s producer in the midday slot and still has a strong relationship with the sports media personality today despite no longer working together.

The onerous aspect of the situation, however, was in recognizing that Salciunas was being afforded a chance to prove himself as a host in the marketplace. In the past, he had filled in when Gargano took vacations, but it was not for an extended period of time. Although he was familiar with the flow of a midday program, achieving a successful, yet sudden assimilation into a regular timeslot without a partner was an invigorating circumstance.

“I knew that it was going to be a learning experience because it’s one thing to host a show on Saturday or it’s one thing to host a weekly podcast and you have a week’s worth of content at your disposal,” Salciunas said. “It’s another thing to [be] hosting every single day and needing to come up with new ideas and new angles and new twists on things, so it was a challenge knowing that I was going to have to do that for however long the process was going to be.”

Salciunas received help from program director Scott Masteller, a sports radio veteran who has helped elevate brands and nurture budding talent. Several months later, Masteller asked Salciunas how he would feel about working with morning program host John Kincade. Salciunas replied by saying that it was something he would be interested in doing, and he later added that he already wakes up early and could easily work in morning drive. Salciunas was somewhat nonplussed when he discovered that Masteller’s intention was to have him anchor the program rather than Kincade, who has been hosting in the daypart since January 2021.

In the weeks and months ensuing, Salciunas and Kincade were involved in meetings to plan the new program, which officially made its debut on 97.5 The Fanatic last week and is titled Kincade & Salciunas. Both hosts knew about the program for roughly two months, and Salciunas is surprised that it was kept a secret for as long as it was. Outside of their scheduled meetings, Salciunas was able to speak with Kincade between their shows since they occurred after the other as well. From the onset, he wanted to make his thoughts about the program clear to ensure a smooth transition amid a quest to inform and entertain the audience.

“The first thing I told John when they told us that this was the plan moving forward was that, ‘This is going to be our show,’” Salciunas recalled. “Yes, I might be the guy running the ins and outs out of commercial breaks. I’m the guy that brings on the guests; I’m the guy that brings on the callers, but this is our show. We both have ideas, we’re both passionate about Philadelphia sports teams, we’re both high-energy people, we’re both opinionated and we’re also respectful of each other.”

While there is natural disagreement between Salciunas and Kincade on a variety of sports topics, they make sure not to fabricate their discussions and engender debate for the sake of the show. Instead of feigning their contrarian discourse, there is a legitimate willingness to be genuine with their audience while continuing to put radio first. Salciunas, Kincade and show producer Connor Thomas all contribute ideas for the program to appeal to the audience and continue building the show as a whole. Thomas also had familiarity in working with Kincade since he served as an associate producer on his previous morning program.

“I’m not a former journalist; he’s not a former professional athlete,” Salciunas said. “We are two radio guys that kind of know what we’re doing. Even though our opinions might differ on sports-related stuff, we see doing radio in a similar way.”

Upon Kincade officially joining 97.5 The Fanatic, he demonstrated his magnanimity and commitment to his colleagues by offering to take all of them out to lunch individually to learn more about them. It was a gesture that surprised Salciunas and something that stuck with him, ultimately helping familiarize themselves with one another and subsequently creating a viable on-air product.

“He’s one of those guys who likes getting to know people, and I think that’s helped a lot,” Salciunas said. “We already had that sort of knowledge of one another [and] we already had that relationship, and because we’re just both so bought in and both so hungry, that’s made it so much easier that we’re willing to do whatever it takes to make the show work.”

Before arriving at 97.5 The Fanatic, Kincade had worked at sports radio both at the local and national levels while also hosting a podcast with Hall of Fame center and Inside the NBA studio analyst Shaquille O’Neal. Bringing him back to his home marketplace and realizing success in the morning daypart was valuable as the sports media ecosystem underwent stretches of change. Transitioning to the new morning show iteration without colleagues Bob Cooney and Pat Egan presented its challenges, but Salciunas has had no qualms that Kincade was invested to win. As a result, the transition has been relatively simple in terms of building palpable chemistry among the on-air team.

“He believes in anybody that he works with,” Salciunas said of Kincade, “and knowing that somebody has worked that long as long as he has in sports radio that he values the young person’s opinion, not just in sports but in terms of radio, that goes a long way.”

There is constant communication between the morning show team leading up to a program outside of typical pre-show meetings and twice-weekly conversations with their boss. Salciunas arrives at the station well before the start of the program and compiles ideas from the previous day into a document, along with ideas from others that come during their commutes. Additionally, they continuously monitor the news cycle and determine what to address on the air while also interviewing special guests throughout the week.

Effectuating a fully prepared show rundown by 6 a.m. EST has been marginally difficult, along with the fact that it can be difficult to book guests on short notice before sunrise. Because of this, the program frequently outlines its guests early in the week and makes adjustments as necessary while maintaining fealty towards conveying their true, authentic personalities.

“I’m a little bit more energetic on the radio because I understand the entertainment portion of doing what we do and having to properly express myself,” Salciunas said. “I’m probably not going to scream at a bar, but when I converse with callers; when I converse with John [or] producers… that’s who I am as a person. There’s just a microphone in front of me.”

When he first started working at 97.5 The Fanatic as an intern, Salciunas did not have a goal of eventually becoming an on-air talent. He was content with his role as a producer, which was borne out of an internship where he worked with Jon Marks and Steve Vassalotti. Both station members served as mentors that he utilized to gain information and advice, a fortuitous outcome after Salciunas impetuously applied for the opening.

While Salciunas was matriculating at Temple University, he needed at least three internship credits in order to qualify for graduation. Reflecting back on his education days, he does not regard himself as the best student and recognized that he needed to intern with the radio station to set himself apart. Honing his focus in sports media took time since he had varied interests in areas such as reporting, podcasting and play-by-play announcing, but he ultimately gravitated towards the sports radio format during his time in Philadelphia.

Salciunas made a favorable impression on those with 97.5 The Fanatic and ended up being hired as an associate producer where he learned more about the format and its programming. Eric Camille, a former executive producer at the station, is someone Salciunas regards as seminal to his professional development.

“He was the guy that hired me out of my internship, and then once I started working, he really helped me,” Salciunas said. “He kind of took me under his wing and helped me out a lot.”

Once Salciunas was hired as a full-time producer, he began to work with Mike Missanelli on his midday program, providing an invaluable learning experience to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the sports media industry. As a veteran host who has captivated Philadelphia sports fans and media consumers at large, Salciunas noticed that collaborating on Missanelli’s program was a different experience than the other shows he had done. Whereas a morning drive show is oftentimes one of the first points of reaction on a given day, Missanelli knew that he would need to approach his daypart differently and adopted a paradigmatic style implementing second-level topics.

“It’s not just going on the air and reacting to an Eagles loss,” Salciunas explained. “It’s reacting to a storyline within an Eagles loss or reacting to a storyline within an Eagles win that may generate conversation. Trying to figure out topics that generate conversation but are not just the, ‘Oh wow, I’m angry they lost today,’ and give out the phone number. It’s [trying] to find topics that make people think and make yourself think and make the audience think.”

When Missanelli left the station, Salciunas began his stint working with Anthony Gargano where he began occasionally hosting select programs. The rationale behind his decision to go behind the microphone was that when the Eagles won a Super Bowl championship, the station needed someone to host from 2 to 5 a.m. Salciunas decided to volunteer for the program, presuming that it sounded fun. From that shift on, he continued his work as a producer while also refining his craft behind the microphone in a major market. It deviated from a philosophy perpetuated by former program director Matt Nahigian of limiting the amount of time producers were on the air, assuming that consumers listened to hear the hosts.

“Now you have to be a producer,” Salciunas affirmed. “You look at both radio stations in Philadelphia – a lot of the hosts now were former producers, and so you learn so much of the craft and then you figure out your own role. You figure out how you handle yourself as a host, so I think producing first before becoming a talk show host should be the way to go moving forward.”

Beasley Media Group’s 97.5 The Fanatic shares the Philadelphia marketplace with Audacy-owned SportsRadio 94WIP, and both stations have had intense battles in the ratings over the years. Salciunas shared that most people between the two stations have worked with their competitors at some point in their careers, and there is an evident respect that exists between the two entities. With both outlets introducing new morning shows within the last two years though, Salciunas understands there is a chance to gain ground on the WIP Morning Show, which finished ahead in the four Nielsen XTrends quarterly ratings books last year.

“Clearly if somebody’s behind a microphone in Philadelphia, everybody’s talented, and we’re going to do whatever we can to try to bridge that gap a little bit, and we’re seeing some good strides already,” Salciunas said. “I think having a new show is a big part of that trying to grab that initial audience, but then it’s holding on to that initial audience.”

Being able to achieve this outcome, however, requires a commitment to showcasing talent and different personalities. Salciunas referenced how there was a point in John Kincade’s stint hosting mornings in the daypart’s previous iteration where he gained ground on his crosstown competitor Angelo Cataldi with WIP. Kincade, of course, used to work with Cataldi’s show as a contributor and received a chance to take the air while with the outlet.

“I’ve seen the turn of tides of ratings over the years for every show [and] every time slot, so there’s always an opportunity, but that means we always have to be on our game; that means we always have to be doing the best show possible,” Salciunas said. “We can’t go in the next day and say, ‘Wow, that show was really good yesterday. Let’s have some fun today; let’s make this a lighthearted show.’ No, we always have to be thinking about, ‘Alright, what can we do next to put on another great entertaining four-hour radio show?’”

Over the last several years, there have been several leadership changes at 97.5 The Fanatic responsible for overseeing the slate of programming and station operations. Scott Masteller currently leads the outlet, someone in whom Salciunas has confidence that he can continue to elevate the standing of the station. In his earlier years working with 97.5 The Fanatic, Salciunas had an innovative spirit but was discouraged from taking steps to align with the multimedia evolution. For example, when he offered to do a podcast several years ago, someone at the station questioned his judgment and the reasoning behind the idea.

“I was told by someone, ‘What’s the point in doing that? We’re a radio station,’ and I knew back then that that was a mistake to say,” Salciunas explained. “You shouldn’t say, ‘We’re a radio station;’ that was years ago, so seeing that bosses and market managers and hosts and producers all realizing, ‘Alright, we have to adapt,’ that excites me.”

Possessing the background as a producer lends shrewd and calculated judgment on how to include members of the audience into the program. While there are still open phone lines for callers to chime in, the program has introduced a text line and also engages with the audience through the live chat functionality of YouTube. Having Thomas as a producer of the show has helped in this area as well, with Salciunas sharing that he has a strong understanding of how to create and optimize content for various platforms of dissemination.

“We have a great YouTube audience where they basically have their own community all of a sudden,” Salciunas said. “They’re constantly talking about the show, and sometimes we grab what they’re saying on that YouTube feed because that’s another area of today’s new media where you have another avenue to communicate with people.”

As Salciunas grows accustomed to the early start on 97.5 The Fanatic and his new colleagues in morning drive, he is filled with enthusiasm and the prospect of possibility. The radio station has been the only outlet by which he has been employed since the start of his media career, and he hopes to work there for as long as possible. National radio and television intrigue him going forward, but his priority centers on thriving in the new role.

“I want to try to get 97.5 The Fanatic – because it starts in the morning – back up in the map; back in the top five of the ratings books – and that’s going to take some time,” Salciunas said. “We’re a new show – we’re going to have to figure each other out.”

Salciunas expressed that the last year-and-a-half has been “hectic” in the midday daypart, but there has also been excitement surrounding the ephemerality as well. Taking the microphone in a major market with a dedicated sports fanbase such as Philadelphia is a privilege he does not take for granted, and he aspires to continue excelling in the marketplace for years to come.

“I just started, so I’m not thinking about the next step just yet,” Salciunas said. “I want this to last for a long time – for a very long time. If I never have to leave, that would be great.”

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