WFAN begins new era as Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott take Mike Francesa’s slot
Thirty years in — and 30 hours after everyone else counted down to 2018 — WFAN began a new era at 6 a.m. on Tuesday with assembled audio snippets of Mike Francesa counting down numbers to a virtual ball drop, then Auld Lang Syne playing in the background.
So: Out with the old, including Francesa, whose last afternoon show was Dec. 15. In with the new, starting with Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti in the morning, then Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott in the afternoon.
The latter show has gotten far more attention, and brings far greater risk, because it is such a radical departure from the old one.
Carlin, Gray and Scott know that they will face inevitable social media criticism. But the only report card that matters will come in April, when Nielsen Audio’s winter book is revealed.
At 2:03 p.m., Carlin said, “Mags, what’s up?”
To which Gray answered, “Just ready to get into this new year, new time slot, new everything, although maybe same old problem for the Jets and maybe some new problems for the Giants.”
That turned out to be a good stage-setter for the show, which over the course of 4 ½ hours — one hour less than the old Francesa show — discussed the Giants for 3 ½ hours, the Jets for one hour and hockey, college football and everything else going on in the world not at all.
Carlin, a former “Mike and the Mad Dog” producer, began by paying tribute to Francesa and his former partner, Chris Russo, saying, “Nobody replaces Mike Francesa . . . We’re not trying to be Mike. We’re not trying to copy him in any way, because you can’t. We’re just trying to carry on the tradition of excellence that has been established in our own way.”
By sticking to the NFL, they were able to keep things in Scott’s comfort zone. The questions about how he will fare when talk turns to baseball or hockey will have to wait.
As expected, Scott had moments of edginess, a line he hopes to straddle without crossing into controversy. He went down a treacherous road in joking about race.
“You can’t trust a black man over 40 with a mustache,” he said, later adding, “Most crooks are a black man with a mustache.” Carlin and Gray sounded uncomfortable, not knowing quite hot to respond to that.
In closing the show, Carlin said, “Day One in the books. We did it!”
Said Gray: “We didn’t burn the place to the ground.”
The morning transition figures to be more seamless, in part because Esiason remains.
Still, there will be pressure to perform in the coming weeks and months. With update man Jerry Recco filling in most days, the program was No. 1 in the autumn ratings book.
Craig Carton, who left the show after being arrested on federal charges Sept. 6, did far more of the talking than Esiason, whose role was a straight man of sorts. With Giannotti, as with Recco, Esiason did a much higher percentage of the talking.
As the show drew to a close, Esiason said of the new lineup, “A lot of things in flux over here, but everything is going to settle down and we’re going to have a great crew of guys.”
He added, “Gregg, congratulations; it’s awesome. So happy for you, man, and happy to have another Long Islander here in the studio.”
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.
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