Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney to replace Maggie Gray and Marc Malusis on WFAN
Tiki Barber attends the MCM x Rolling Pre-Super Bowl Event at SLS Miami on February 2, 2020 in Miami. Credit: Getty Images for MCM/Eugene Gologursky
Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney will replace Maggie Gray and Marc Malusis as WFAN’s midday show effective Jan. 3, the station’s parent company, Audacy, announced on Thursday.
Barber and Tierney currently do CBS Sports Radio’s national afternoon drive time show — which is simulcast on CBS Sports Network — but now will slide into the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift on WFAN.
Barber is the Giants’ career rushing leader, with 10,449 yards from 1997-2006. He and Tierney have worked together since 2013, originally as a morning team.
Gray and Malusis have worked the midday shift for the past two years and neither was under contract beyond this month.
Gray posted a tweet Thursday thanking everyone she had gotten to know at WFAN over the last four years — "from our callers, producers, board ops, engineers, co-hosts sales team and more" — and saying that "the next chapter was about to begin, and I can't wait to share it with you soon."
The shakeup in middays was not unexpected as new vice president of programming Spike Eskin continues to make changes at the channel.
Eskin succeeded Mark Chernoff on July 1 and shortly thereafter told Newsday he would take his time before making significant changes rather than act rashly.
"Tiki and Tierney have a perspective and sound that is tailor-made for New York City and their addition will further solidify WFAN’s iconic position as the area’s most influential sports platform," said Chris Oliviero, senior VP of Audacy New York, in a news release. "Both are already very familiar to the FAN audience, so their voices joining ‘Boomer & Gio’ and ‘Carton & Roberts’ creates a powerful must-listen to our weekday lineup for both listeners and advertisers."
With the departures of Gray and Malusis and the recent retirement of Steve Somers, the lineup will look like this:
Al Dukes and Jerry Recco from 5 to 6 a.m., Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti in morning drive time, Barber and Tierney middays, Craig Carton and Evan Roberts in afternoon drive, Keith McPherson at night, Sal Licata overnight.
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.
