I look at the recent moves by Beasley, and I can't help but wonder what they are thinking. They just cut ties with Tyrone Johnson, who had quarterbacked their afternoon show, "The Best Show Ever?" Prior to that, he was the Producer/Sidekick on Mike Missanelli's afternoon show. Tyrone is a really talented guy, whom I thought always did a great job and always represented his station well.
The Fanatic is up against a juggernaut in WIP. WIP has been doing sports since 1986 and has become entrenched in the minds and listening habits of Philly sports fans. Those call letters, WIP, actually date back to 1922 when radio was in its infancy. Back then, department stores launched the radio stations. WIP was the Gimbels station. There was also WOO from John Wanamakers, WFI (later WFIL) from Strawbridge and Clothier, and WLIT from Lit Brothers. A little useless radio history trivia. That's what you get from a "radio geek" who is also a part-time trivia host.
Anyway, even though WIP has been around since 1922 with various formats, those call letters now mean Sports. Sure some of us are old enough to remember the days of 610 WIP as a music station, with guys like Ken Garland, Wee Willie Webber, Tom Lamaine, Dick Clayton, Bill St. James, and my friend, the late great Bob Charger. But for most of us, when you think WIP, you think sports. And when you think sports, you think WIP.
That's what The Fanatic has been up against. And for a little while it seemed like 97.5 would be a viable competitor to WIP. They were the ones who first moved to FM, forcing CBS Radio at the time to kill 94 WYSP, and move 610 WIP to 94.1 FM. Before the move to 97.5 FM, when that company's sports station was known as "950 ESPN", they brought the aforementioned Mike Missanelli back to the Philly airwaves for PM Drive. Then the Fanatic took the Sixers from WIP, and eventually the Flyers too.
But the past few years, Beasley Media has been in cost cutting mode. It makes you wonder how they expect 97.5 to compete. Just look at the afternoon show. When Mikey Miss was let go (he has since come back in middays), they grouped Tyrone Johnson with Ricky Bottalico, Hunter Brody, and Jen Scordo. After less than a year they cut Brodes, who has since landed a part-time gig at WIP. They they cut Jen, who I thought was the one who held the show together. She is actually still with Beasley, part-time at WMMR. And now they let Tyrone go.
What is their MO here? How can they compete? How does Beasley expect a station with barely any staff left to do battle with the 40 year habit that WIP has become? The shame of it is, there are some good shows on the station. I've always been a Mike Miss fan. You have to wonder now if he is destined for his old timeslot. Will they move him back to afternoons? John Kincade was the very first guest on my old PHL17 sports show. So I may be a little biased, but I've always enjoyed his work. His partner, Andrew Salciunas, is very talented and will be a star one day in sports radio. I think John should still quarterback their morning show, and that's not a knock on Andrew at all. I'm just a big Kincade fan, and it was his show to begin with.
Beasley has also stopped local programming at 10 pm, opting for ESPN Radio overnight. WIP, on the other hand, is live and local 24/7. As a former overnight guy, I can tell you in a market the size of Philly, people listen at all hours of the day and night. A sports station in Philly needs to be local all the time. National sports talk has never worked here, and never will.
I have to wonder how much longer The Fanatic will be around. You can only cut so many people. What Beasley does with the rest of its daytime lineup will be very telling. My prediction...they move Mike Missanelli back to Afternoons and pair him up with Ricky Bo, and keep Bill Collarulo in middays with Ray Dunne.
WIP's owner, Audacy, isn't much better. They have removed most live personalities from B101, The New 96.5, and Big 98.1. They've even made KYW Newsradio automated overnights. But they were at least smart enough to leave WIP alone. The one station Beasley leaves alone, for the most part, is WMMR. Ironically, decades ago WMMR was the FM sister station of 610 WIP. In fact, when 93.3 first went on the air, it was actually known as WIP-FM. The call letters became WMMR...which stood for the station's owner at the time, Metro Media Radio.
The Fanatic's call letters, WPEN, also date back to the 1920's. As I mentioned earlier, the Fanatic was the evolution of a sports station that began on 950 AM. The call letters for 950 were WPEN, dating back to 1929. Beasley has since sold that station to "Family Radio", and it now carries a Christian format.
When you combine AM and FM, WIP has been doing sports for nearly 40 years. The Fanatic has been doing it for over 20 years. WIP seems stronger than ever, while 97.5 seems vulnerable. I like having 2 FM sports stations in town, and a sports crazy town like Philly should be able to support both of them. The question is, will Beasley give its people at The Fanatic the tools and resources to compete with a giant like WIP. Time will tell.