Craig Carton and Evan Roberts' WFAN show to be simulcast on SNY
Craig Carton in the WFAN studios on Oct. 29, 2020. Credit: Entercom/WFAN 101.9 FM/660 AM
SNY will simulcast two hours of WFAN’s afternoon drive time show starting in early May, co-hosts Craig Carton and Evan Roberts announced on Thursday.
The show, which is heard on the radio from 2 to 7 p.m., will be seen on SNY from 4 to 6 p.m.
Carton joined Roberts on the station in November, and since then WFAN has been searching for a suitable TV simulcast home.
"We’re thrilled with the partnership," Carton said on the air. "We look forward to working with SNY and being a part of all their Mets coverage, of course, and just being on TV and bringing the show to the next level of our evolution.
"In a lot of ways it validates the content of this show in a very short amount of time. Having been through this before, I can tell you on a personal note that I am thrilled they think as highly as they do of our show and want to put us on."
Historically, SNY has not been interested in simulcasting radio programs, but this will provide the station with original programming heading into its Mets coverage. The tentative start date is May 3.
The YES Network simulcasts Michael Kay’s ESPN New York show starting at 3 p.m.
MSG used to simulcast the WFAN morning show that featured Carton and Boomer Esiason. CBS Sports Network now simulcasts Esiason and Gregg Giannotti nationally.
Carton's addition helped cut Kay’s ratings lead in half among men ages 25-54 in its first month on the air, then went ahead by a tenth of a rating point in January. But radio ratings traditionally are contested in complete, quarterly "books," not monthly ratings.
It is unclear what impact the TV simulcast will have on WFAN’s radio ratings, just as it has been when it comes to Kay’s show.
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.
