Ongoing skirmish continues as Boomer Esiason responds to Chris Russo
Boomer Esiason on the red carpet at the "#LEGENDARYFUTURE" Roadshow 2018 New York on Feb. 22. Credit: Getty Images for Breitling / Dimitrios Kambouris
The ongoing radio skirmish involving current and past WFAN hosts continued on Wednesday morning with Boomer Esiason responding to Chris Russo, who on Tuesday had responded to Esiason responding on Monday to comments by Russo last Wednesday.
When a caller named “Chauncey from Manahawkin” told Esiason he sounded “like a big baby” in criticizing Russo and Mike Francesa earlier in the week, Esiason told him that he was defending the station in general and the afternoon trio of Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott in particular.
“They’re not making fun of me, they’re making fun of the people in the afternoon,” Esiason said. “So they can make fun as much as they want, but to attack somebody in the afternoon for two months when they’re just trying to get their show started is ridiculous. I mean, those guys left here on their own accord. You do realize that, Chauncey?
“I’ll touch on it again: I basically took them to task because the only time they really have made news is when they’ve attacked this radio station, for whatever reason. Yeah, (Esiason and former co-host Craig Carton) made fun of Mike and Chris, just like they’ve made fun of us. I get it. That’s all part and parcel.
“But their mean-spirited attacks on Chris, Maggie and Bart, especially Chris, because Chris was a part of their show (as a producer) for a long, long time. When we first started here (in 2007), me and Craig, (Carlin) didn’t really fit with us because he’s a ‘Mike and the Mad Dog’ guy, and Mike and the Mad Dog are (Don) Imus guys, and it was tough coming in here initially. I understood that stuff. I don’t understand the radio wars that go on between people.
“But to listen to those guys make fun of the afternoon show when both of those guys left here on their own volition, and Mike really was given a sendoff like for the Pope, literally the Pope. For 19 months he was given the ultimate respect due to a guy who had a very popular show.
“When I saw they took a shot at the afternoon guys — and the afternoon guys are not going to fight back, because as you (co-host Gregg Giannotti) told me, they have to get their chops — but the point being that somebody’s got to stand up for this radio station.
“The station is a great radio station. And the guys that have worked here for many years appreciate what those guys (Francesa and Russo) did. Hell, they even named the damn studio after (Francesa). I just took exception to the fact that they took shots at the people that replaced them after they left.
“They weren’t fired. Dog faxed in his resignation here because he couldn’t get along with Mike, and Mike decided to tell Katie Nolan (then of Fox) that he was retiring. I don’t know why any of this stuff happened. I wasn’t here for the Dog stuff to understand that mechanism between the two of them.
“But at the end of the day, them taking shots at the people in the afternoon on this radio station when they’re just getting started, I know there are a lot of people that may not like (the new afternoon show), because it’s a different sound. I get it. It takes time for people to find their way, and nobody around here seems to want to say anything about it.
“The fact that those guys would take a shot at (Carlin) after he was so loyal to them is just bizarre. It’s just absolutely incredible . . . It just goes back and forth, tit for tat. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m trying to stand up for the radio station, trying to stand up for the afternoon show.”
Giannotti said of Russo, “He is so obsessed with this place.”
At that point longtime engineer Eddie Scozzare chimed in, saying, “And it’s worth repeating that the only time anybody makes news, people who have left, is when they mention this radio station. Otherwise they’re talking to tumbleweeds. So enjoy oblivion.”
Said Esiason, “Hopefully they have another reunion show and they make it back together somewhere. Who knows?”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
