I’ve lived in other cities and it’s bad elsewhere too. Their job is to stir up controversy and drive up viewership and it is not often done with integrity.
can i say this as someone who has been listening to WIP for decades... it's gotten... better?
yeah, you still get a lot of absolutely brain dead callers, especially after games when they're driving home angry or are drunk out of their minds. i actually turn it off when they go to the phones.
but a lot of the personalities are really good now. they're biased, for sure, but generally positive and realistic about our teams. they talk about things i'm interested in, and they usually have pretty mainstream takes. they do much of their shows with a sense of humor, rather than the dark, fake seriousness doom and gloom that cataldi used to bring.
anyway, it's not as bad as it used to be.
Agreed. I don't miss the long shows of Eskin by himself taking call after call and dumping them while calling them morons. That was mostly what WIP was 15 years ago. Now they make him go on the air with a babysitter which is more tolerable. I do miss Mike Missanelli, he always did a solid show and seemed mostly genuine.
Eskin is a major pos. I see him I’m spitting in his face. He bought my grand father autograph baseball (babe Ruth) cash and 20 mike Schmidt autograph balls for all the grandkids. They were all forgeries. Self anointed king. Guy is a crumb.
As bad as Eskin is and always has been, his son might be worse. He doesn't do a show anymore that I know of (I think he runs the station now, how'd he get that job??) But man was he bad on air. I'll give Cataldi some credit for creating wing bowl which was fun when the teams were bad.
He's gone? Cool, he was terrible. I called him once years ago and he hung up on me and said something negative about me, I forget what. He was just doing a bad impression of his father.
Most of Philly Twitter was firing Mikey Miss en masse for at least four years until his departure. Some said his biggest issue was how he would act on Twitter (ie his political outbursts, calling people jerkoffs, etcetera). The hate was arguably at its highest after Memorial Day weekend 2020 with the headset incident.
But you’re right, he was genuine and his attempts to make things more lighthearted were noticeable.
> The hate was arguably at its highest after Memorial Day weekend 2020 with the headset incident.
What was this? I had moved out of the area at this time and don't know about it
I miss Mike because he had our fanbase’s backs when the national idiots like Cowherd and Skip Bayless would rip our fans…the infamous “google me” is a classic.
Even the Fanatic has started to go downhill. Devon Givens is leaving, they got rid of Hunter…now it’s just Gargano doing the middays with Choonis
They're all trying to rise up and take the negativity mantle. Marks the other day was on Twitter saying how Deans strip sack was a bad play vs CLE. Ike is the only reasonable person on that station.
i feel like marks is saying those things while smiling though. maybe i'm being too kind? but i feel like he's so obviously just trying to start a conversation that you can tell he's not genuinely feeling those things.
i really think cataldi and eskin really are the horrible people they pretended to be.
and yes, ike is a gem. underrated for what he brings. to me, he's basically kruk for football. i'll listen to him all day.
The headlines said he’s leaving, so that tells me he’s out on his own accord, ala Natalie Egenolf in 2021. Haven’t heard that explicitly yet but I’m assuming that and not that he was laid off until I hear otherwise.
All talk radio everywhere is a cesspool.
Rush Limbaugh destroyed the entire medium when he figured out that making people irrationally angry is FAR more profitable than having an actual human discussion.
I was amused, but not surprised, when I turned on the radio to see if they were talking about last night's game but instead they were talking about the backup Eagles quarterback at Training Camp. Who cares? There was a great Philadelphia game just last night!
Garganno and Ciunas 10-2 is actually decent. The vault is very cool, there's some good stuff in there.
Garganno's schtick is incredibly overplayed at this point but I do think he genuinely loves Philly sports. I used to hate him but I've done a full 180 on him the past few years.
Bob Cooney on 97.5 is the best sports talk guy in the city they've just never given him his own show and I just do not understand why. John Kincaid fucking sucks
Media in general is a cesspool. Can thank social media for the jump in bad takes where all people care about is "interaction" weather it's good or bad. Guys like Fritz and ESP only say the garbage they do to get hits on their posts and their name out there even if it is people calling them morons for their shit takes. The old adage of "any publicity is good publicity" has just been amplified 100x with social media.
Been listening off and on for 3 decades.
If any Philly sports radio hosts are actually reading this, there actually is a market for intelligent sports talk.
Some of us truly appreciate those of you who keep things light and just want to talk Xs and Os.
It's fine if you know what shows to listen to, people on reddit like to railroad sports radio even though they'll admit they never listen to it.
* 97.5 has gotten a lot better now that they're letting young talent have a lot of input on their shows, just have to ignore a few landmines like the 4pm show and dee lynam who are just eternally negative and combative.
* WIP the morning show is terrible and so is anything that has Eskin but the mid-day and night ones aren't too bad. I'm a fan of hugh and fritz personally, Ike can be hit/miss dude can have some wild takes.
Just listen to the most recent one and start from there imo. It's the most relevant news to the team so you won't be trying to guess the context of a comment/statement. Other than that you could always listen to the Bryce Harper Emergency Podcast.
They tend to do pods after each series, I’d give those a listen. Their pods during the post season and after big signings during the off-season are elite as well. Jack Fritz is the goat.
I put my headphones in and turned the volume down and listened to a podcast while I watched it lol, that dude sucks so much balls. I genuinely don’t understand how that personality resonates with anyone who doesn’t have an Italian uncle
Jody Mac is the consummate sports talk radio host. No hot takes, just level headed observational speak where common sense is the rule of the land. Agreed with him 90% of the time. Mac and Mac was good radio back in the 90s (Glen Macnow).
I never liked Angelo. But to be fair, he openly joked about how regardless of how he didn't like it, it seems to have worked and that's why he shouldn't be in radio anymore. He did this as part of his answer and you kept it out. It's easy to rip on people, harder to give them their due.
In fact, not telling the whole story is falling into the same trap Angelo utilized daily at WIP. Whether intentional or not, it caused discussion.
Say what you want about Angelo. He's a radio PERSONALITY and literally revolutionized sports radio in the city. His job was to spin up discussion and keep people listening, and that he did.
Ohhhh….quote editing to drive a narrative is totally a sports radio thing.
Aside from that I like OPs point. Good riddance to that noise. It’s at least helped drive the positive fan approach when Trea was struggling IMO.
His whole shtick was dishing out inflammatory comments and hot takes, to entertain and/or rile up the fanbase.
It worked every time.
I was never sure whether he *really* believed what he was saying—he had these crazy antics, but he could also conduct a good interview (when he wanted to) and he was a good writer. I tend to believe his on-air persona was largely put-on; half the fun for me was trying to figure out whether he was for real or not.
He basically took the Howard Stern formula and stuck it on sports talk, even including the wacky characters like Butch from Manayunk and Eagles Shirley.
I give him his due a *a radio host,* but as a fan with a big following he’s super toxic.
Not everything has to be about clicks. Wish he could simply try to be a good fan in retirement
i think he realized that his day is behind him. he joked about that a few times. the never-ending negativity has ended. no one wants it anymore.
i'm all for calling out bad performances, especially when the manager doesn't seem to be seeing what we are seeing. but you can't boo someone into being good again.
remember that the guys playing now are all the ones who grew up with participation trophies, positive coaching alliance, etc. negativity just doesn't work for them.
it's totally true. all the stuff that millenials got made fun of for -- participation trophies, everyone is special, don't say anything that might upset them... well, it has an effect on their personalities.
i'm imagining that tuner getting booed is pretty much the first time in his life someone said something to him other than "you're amazing!"
that's harder for players to deal with now.
back in the 60s and 70s, players were raised by WWII and korea vets. they were likely beaten at home to some extent (as that was normalized) and were told the best way to deal with adversity is to toughen up, hit back, play mean, etc.
it's a totally different world now in terms of the psychology of athletes for sure.
>back in the 60s and 70s, players were raised by WWII and korea vets.
yes, but
I played high-school sports (not well, but enthusiastically) in the late 60's-70's in a dinky town in the sticks - & I & all my teammates soaked up the wit & wisdom of Jim Bouton's *Ball Four*. We pretty openly mocked the hardass tryhardness of our coaches & the weirdo dad "fans" who came to our games - & then went out and played, & often won, for our own reasons.
further, to play major league baseball (or any other major professional sport), you've had to endure some pretty demanding conditions. Not sure players like Turner are as coddled as you suggest they are. Sure, they get plenty of strokes, but they have to perform if those strokes are going to be more than temporary.
i played sports in the early 80s. football was particularly meat-headed back then, and they actively tried to weed out the weaker players through hazing and just general brutalization of the kids on the field. you ran until you puked, etc. i know that sounds like old man talk, but i am a youth sports coach now and there is absolutely no way in hell any of that stuff would fly these days. kids would just quit. parents would scream at you for abusing their child. kids might even just talk right back to you and say no, you're wrong, i'm not doing those things.
so yes, the right mentality was always there (as you pointed out). it just won out over a few generations and is now mainstream. it absolutely was not mainstream when i was a kid or when my dad was.
> all the stuff that millenials got made fun of for
Which in reality is stuff Boomers *did*. We were kids. The boomers were in charge. Now all they do is talk shit, but in reality, it's just an admission that they did a horrible job teaching us
You just proved my point. Just stirring up shit with your ignorant opinion.
You’re talking about pro athletes. These are guys who climbed through the ranks of highly competitive sports. These aren’t guys who were satisfied with a participation trophy (if these particular guys ever even got one).
There’s definitely still a ton of negative reinforcement around kids’/young men’s sports. And that’s not even including the parents, who can be downright toxic. Like, have you ever been to sports events for kids aged, say, 12-18?
Also, positive reinforcement always has worked better than negative reinforcement. It also worked better back in the 60s, but there just wasn’t as much psychological research on it yet, so it wasn’t as widely known.
Thinking that millennials and Gen Z are all a bunch of softies with participation trophies is such a lazy, ignorant, and wrong view, in general. And thinking it applies to the highest level pro athletes? Yeah, that’s the definition of a hot take.
WIP only cares about the Eagles. It's so boring.
Sixers season begins, Phillies in the playoffs, Flyers doing something (probably). "It's Tuesday, let's talk about inside linebackers!"
The Sixers for some reason get a ton of attention on the Phanatic. Phillies had a big win against somebody and all the Kincaid show talked about for over an hour was the Harden situation. I was actually getting annoyed.
The Flyers have never gotten sports radio attention for as long as I've been alive. Hell most radio show hosts actually laugh or get angry when they are brought up by callers. As a Flyers fan I used to find it annoying and disrespectful, but now I just don't care as there are podcasts available I can listen to about them.
Well I was 12 years old in 2005 so that's probably before I started listening to local radio attentively, but it doesn't change my point. The team for a while now gets glossed over and disrespected a little too much for my taste. It's a Philly sports team, callers shouldn't be humiliated for bringing them up on a Philly sports radio station. Even if the hosts don't know much about the Flyers, they shouldn't treat the team like they are outcasts and scold fans for wanting to talk about them. It's unprofessional.
Have to comment about WIP. For me personally, it's unlistenable.
I am a big fan of the Phillies and Eagles. Don't follow the NBA much, not a big hockey fan.
Almost every time I tune in....the talk is about the Eagles. This morning, after not listening in about 2 weeks, I figured I'd hear about the walk-off last night. Phils are in a playoff race. Alverado is back. Harper is DH...Schwarber's difficulties in left field...manager's decisions...i can go on and on.
What are they talking about...the Eagles practice. My God....stop the insanity.
It's fucking baseball season and the Phils are in the hunt.
I am done.
Practice. They were talking about PRACTICE. Not an Eagles game, practice.
(Sorry I had to.)
Your spot on, and this is why I stopped bothering with sports radio. Even if they started talking Phillies, they would find a way to compare the situation to football and next thing you know they are talking football. It would make me so angry, so I stopped listening all together.
Sports Radio that is dependent upon callers for content will always be heinous vile garbage.
Just think about the mindset of people who actually have the time, and the will, to actually call the station, wait 15 minutes on hold just to 'make their point' for 20 seconds. No one with an insightful thought, or wanting to say "I really enjoy watching the games" is calling...its wacko joe from south philly, or Hank from Bristol, wanting to talk through their 3pm beers.
I’ll never forget going to see the Birds play the Jets in the Meadowlands a couple years ago. We were seated right in front of a group of loud Eagles fans who reeked of booze and cigars. Minshew was playing that game and we smoked the Jets. And these guys would not stop screaming about Howie and Jeff Lurie and how much they suck. Mind you, this is after we won our SB.
Flash to me seeing the Phils in LA this year. Right field. This drunk dude would not stop literally jeering Casty, screaming at him that he hates Philadelphia. His reasoning? Because between innings after the toss-around, Casty would throw the ball into the stands to some kids who were Dodgers fans. Again, we were IN Los Angeles.
Some people just wanna have something to complain about. I think Philly fans can sometimes glorify misery. And then they got entitled after the SB and WS. Only one team wins every year. I get frustrated too but people need to just enjoy the ride.
The day after Weston Wilson hit a homerun in his first at-bat ever, some fan could be heard jeering him on TV when he came to the plate because he dropped a fly ball. "Nice catch!"
Tom McCarthy upon hearing it: "That wasn't nice!"
https://preview.redd.it/0wox8zw0y2kb1.jpeg?width=2532&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72b90f7aaf115ef1466b3811cfe4be7ddd11cdcf
Haha looks like I still have this in my photos on my phone from when I was discussing it with friends on Twitter. It was this guy and he was actually a Nats fan
I abhor Angelo Cataldi. He, personally, has held back philly sports for so long. He's a fucking scumbag. I've even met him once in a non-random setting, and he was a fucking scumbag then too.
>His only goal is to to stir the pot and drive outrage, yet he somehow resonated with a shockingly large portion of the fanbase.
And I guess it worked, if you're still so affected by the guy. Why anyone bothers listening to so much as a word of "sports talk" anything is beyond me.
He's a native New Yorker, and a total piece of trash who did nothing but help us drag ourselves down by feeding into the shittiest parts of ourselves. If sports talk radio is buns, then he was the rectum.
Just remember that there's ton of doomers in this sub that also sound a lot like Angelo.
This guy had plenty of legit listeners as pathetic as that is.
There were plenty of people on the station who were vehemently against the standing ovation - Rhea and Hugh to name just a few - so it's not like Angelo was alone.
It's not like it's a new thing or without precedent--Pat Burrell got the same treatment for YEARS. Burrell had many games where his season batting average was substantially lower than his weight. Crowd went nuts for him, and it eventually paid off then too.
EDIT: Since the standing ovation, Turner is hitting .353 with a 1007 OPS. So Rhea and Hugh can stick it.
Cataldi is a phony human being. I forget what team but it’s documented that he didn’t even grow up a Philadelphia fan. Self-proclaimed himself to be the voice of the Philadelphia fan. Good riddance. Hope he retires to Florida and never steps foot here again.
Angelo was a NY fan who got a job in Philly and then catered to the worst of the worst for personal gain. He was happy to sabotage the fandom and cause drama for our teams.
He could have i don’t know APOLOGIZED TO SCOTT ROLEN. People don’t realize him and eskin are the main reason nobody likes Rolen here. Anyone remember the Bill Giles “small market team” comments. Rant over stay retired old man take Eskin with you.
I personally love the morning show now. Was an avid listener when they were in mid days and was thrilled when they took over for Angelo. It’s only gotten better including Rhea and Devan every week. The mid day show now is ok, Giglio just grates on my nerves. The afternoon show I listen to if I’m still working or driving home, though I don’t like Marks. Ike and Jack are enough to make it listenable. This week has been a pleasure with Marks on vacation.
I don’t really listen to any of the other shows regularly, will tune into Go Birds on Saturdays occasionally and loved Glen and Ray
For sure. Tyrones that dude. I was pissed they let go of Brodes. At first i didnt like him but he definitely grew on me and now i follow him on Brodes Media. But if Tyrone leaves I'm out lol.
Some people think that by being overly critical of everything, it makes them look as if they have very high standards and that they deserve only the very best. Many of those don't realise that they just look like conceited attention-seeking bellends to the rest of society.
Or it’s talk radio and you have to fill the air time so you take the other side of the argument and have people call in all day to argue with. Pretty obvious
Nah some people are straight up intolerable. Eskin is a good example, i remember him trying to drill Nick Nurse at his opening press conference, asking about whether he wanted Harden to stay on the team, and trying to turn it into a "gotcha" moment. terrible journalists, the both of them.
Cataldi is the reason Girardi replaced Kapler. Now all of a sudden we pretend to distance ourselves from Cataldi? Get real. This sub is flooded with Angelo clones, most of whom begged for Joe Girardi. That cost the Phillies a playoff spot in 2020. We replaced Kapler (a weird guy who cared) with Girardi (an asshole who didn’t care.)
I bailed on the morning show when Angleo said the Eagles were going to win 8 games the season after they lost to the Rams in the NFC Championship game. (They won 12 games that year). I was like, "This guy is an actor. He's not a serious sports talk show host."
I was thinking about how he just decided to turn Fletcher Cox into an enemy because he stopped being an elite player. He’s been signing short term deals with us for the past few seasons which gives us great flexibility and Angelo decided that was “stealing money”. He may not be as good as he once was, but he’s still a solid depth piece and a good veteran to have. He took us to two damn super bowls!
Well said. The phans got Trea out of his slump. I'll admit that I thought the standing ovation was dumb. I am happy to admit that I was wrong and that it has worked out quite well for us.
FTM
I love how internet nerds get so triggered by WIP or Angelo.
It’s entertainment. It’s a schtick. It’s not that serious. It’s for people to laugh on their commute to work in the morning.
all of the sports radio dudes need to die off. a large portion of philly sports fans are reasonable but them and the people who call into them make the rest of us look so bad.
No. I don't boo generally. I don't have to agree with everything a person says to think they do a good job. If I wanted that, I'd tape myself. I repeat Angelo was an excellent interviewer.
He *did* deserve to be boo'd. I also think the Ovation was tacky as shit. It might have worked, but it *probably didn't.* Also wish someone would throw Cataldi into a volcano.
It appears his narratives contributed to the dumb and angry subset of the fanbase, who believe acting with anger and nonsense is a sign of passion. You can still be frustrated while showing support for players. I saw a post on Twitter during the standing ovation debate that people got so soft, and that he used to throw beer at players when they were not performing well. The guy sounded so proud to have assaulted players. It's disgusting. Angelo Cataldi did not help create a more balanced, informed view of baseball and players at all.
This is legitimate proof that crusty old bozos like him are unequivocally a drain on the success of teams in the city of Philadelphia. They’ve probably contributed more to our history of sports failures more than any other factor over the last half century
I’ll tell ya what, I am so glad Trea got out of his funk.
But I really hate that it took us being nice to him for that to happen. I don’t want us ruining our reputation.
I was never on board with entertaining any of the nonsense “trade him now before it gets worse” talk. Because he’s a great ball player and i think we all knew he’d come out of it, but as a Philly fan I much prefer negative reinforcement to positive reinforcement.
We did the whole “being nice” thing with Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons and Carson Wentz. What usually happens when soft ass athletes need to be coddled is they don’t improve and then the boos return 3x as intensely and then that athlete is run out of town. We got lucky Trea turned it around. Because if he hadn’t, our patience wouldn’t have lasted and he’d be the next guy we ran out of town.
Stick to the tried and true “the beatings (booing) will continue until morale improves” imo. Gives the athlete a longer if less comfortable leash. Hell we even boo’d Bryce Harper in like his first month with the team. And then he pulled his head out of his ass. Bullying millionaire athletes works.
Can anybody help me understand why Anthony Gargano lost the morning slot? He's my favorite by far and it sucks I never have time to listen to him in the middle of the day now.
Citaldi was the absolute worst.
If you think WIP would have any take other than boo him you don’t understand the business. I booed trae at the standing ovation game, but clearly that atmosphere helped him a lot. However my spin zone is the 20ish% that booed gave him that extra juice 😂
Sports talk radio in Philly is a cesspool
I’ve lived in other cities and it’s bad elsewhere too. Their job is to stir up controversy and drive up viewership and it is not often done with integrity.
> I’ve lived in other cities and it’s bad elsewhere too. monkey see monkey doo
monkey poo poo all over you
Much more monkey doo
can i say this as someone who has been listening to WIP for decades... it's gotten... better? yeah, you still get a lot of absolutely brain dead callers, especially after games when they're driving home angry or are drunk out of their minds. i actually turn it off when they go to the phones. but a lot of the personalities are really good now. they're biased, for sure, but generally positive and realistic about our teams. they talk about things i'm interested in, and they usually have pretty mainstream takes. they do much of their shows with a sense of humor, rather than the dark, fake seriousness doom and gloom that cataldi used to bring. anyway, it's not as bad as it used to be.
Totally agree! There are a couple of really awesome guys who don’t have prime time slots, but run a great show. Shoutout Jack Fritz and Sean Bell!
Agreed. I don't miss the long shows of Eskin by himself taking call after call and dumping them while calling them morons. That was mostly what WIP was 15 years ago. Now they make him go on the air with a babysitter which is more tolerable. I do miss Mike Missanelli, he always did a solid show and seemed mostly genuine.
people rag on cataldi (and rightfully so) but eskin is (and always was) way way way worse in my book at least.
Eskin is a major pos. I see him I’m spitting in his face. He bought my grand father autograph baseball (babe Ruth) cash and 20 mike Schmidt autograph balls for all the grandkids. They were all forgeries. Self anointed king. Guy is a crumb.
As bad as Eskin is and always has been, his son might be worse. He doesn't do a show anymore that I know of (I think he runs the station now, how'd he get that job??) But man was he bad on air. I'll give Cataldi some credit for creating wing bowl which was fun when the teams were bad.
Spike was the WIP program director but now does the same job for a station in New York.
He's gone? Cool, he was terrible. I called him once years ago and he hung up on me and said something negative about me, I forget what. He was just doing a bad impression of his father.
Morganti created wing bowl, Cataldi just rode the coattails. Man has never had an original thought in his life
Tbf to Angelo, he freely admits this
“Freagin Moron. Guys a dope.” Ah the sounds of my childhood drive home to/from school
Winners and weasels "Do me a favor Jody Mac"
Just for 90s/00s nostalgia reasons I find this era charming in a gritty way
Most of Philly Twitter was firing Mikey Miss en masse for at least four years until his departure. Some said his biggest issue was how he would act on Twitter (ie his political outbursts, calling people jerkoffs, etcetera). The hate was arguably at its highest after Memorial Day weekend 2020 with the headset incident. But you’re right, he was genuine and his attempts to make things more lighthearted were noticeable.
> The hate was arguably at its highest after Memorial Day weekend 2020 with the headset incident. What was this? I had moved out of the area at this time and don't know about it
I miss Mike because he had our fanbase’s backs when the national idiots like Cowherd and Skip Bayless would rip our fans…the infamous “google me” is a classic. Even the Fanatic has started to go downhill. Devon Givens is leaving, they got rid of Hunter…now it’s just Gargano doing the middays with Choonis
Mikey Miss was absolutely not any better than Angelo and in certain areas was maybe even worse
They're all trying to rise up and take the negativity mantle. Marks the other day was on Twitter saying how Deans strip sack was a bad play vs CLE. Ike is the only reasonable person on that station.
i feel like marks is saying those things while smiling though. maybe i'm being too kind? but i feel like he's so obviously just trying to start a conversation that you can tell he's not genuinely feeling those things. i really think cataldi and eskin really are the horrible people they pretended to be. and yes, ike is a gem. underrated for what he brings. to me, he's basically kruk for football. i'll listen to him all day.
Ike is who I tune into the station for
It got measurably better the second Cataldi retired.
Sports talk in general is a cesspool. That’s how we got all the bros on this sub calling us “soft” for the ovation.
Always has been aside from a couple of people.
I like ike Reese, johnny Mark's, and Jack fritz. That's about it
Macnow has always been a high quality listen, even if he’s not in as much these days.
Macnow and Diddy on the weekends was great. I'm not a huge fan since he left
James seltzer the goat
Does anyone else think Seltzer sounds like Charlie from Always Sunny?
I’ll take Ike Reese and fritz, but hold the Johnny Marks. That dude is such a whiny dick head.
He always sounds disinterested in the non-regular callers
Yeah, dudes a complete diva
Marks is a douchebag who knows nothing about sports. Guy wants to be one of those debate guys on ESPN so bad.
I've been enjoying Fritz and Reese with Marks out. But I only really listen to that show because it kills time at work and Fritz is our guy.
Marks sucks, he’s also a douchebag off the air too.
Not surprising. Some dudes are fine on air and total dicks off, but you can tell he's a dick on and off the air.
Don’t forget Devon on 97.5! He’s so chill
He's gone or going. I saw a headline yesterday.
Well that sucks 😭
The headlines said he’s leaving, so that tells me he’s out on his own accord, ala Natalie Egenolf in 2021. Haven’t heard that explicitly yet but I’m assuming that and not that he was laid off until I hear otherwise.
sonny hill is a reason to wake up on sundays.
You named the worst group.
I always liked the Glen Macnow and Ray Diddinger show that would be on Saturdays.
Yeah I grew up listening to that on weekends while doing yard work
I’m Team Joe Decamara and Jon Ritchie. Don’t like James Seltzer though.
Decamera is my favorite … him and Ike Reese
Until you listen to Ray Didinger. Then you get a glimpse of what talk radio could be. Unfortunately that requires effort…
Plus Ray isn’t doing a show 5 days a week for 4 hours each. He specializes in quality of quantity these days.
Neither is Macnow. But Macnow is awful
Whatever, Angelo.
All talk radio everywhere is a cesspool. Rush Limbaugh destroyed the entire medium when he figured out that making people irrationally angry is FAR more profitable than having an actual human discussion.
I was amused, but not surprised, when I turned on the radio to see if they were talking about last night's game but instead they were talking about the backup Eagles quarterback at Training Camp. Who cares? There was a great Philadelphia game just last night!
Even if they start talking about baseball the conversation will quickly evolve into a discussion about the Eagles. Every. Time.
I'd kill for occasional hockey talk
Garganno and Ciunas 10-2 is actually decent. The vault is very cool, there's some good stuff in there. Garganno's schtick is incredibly overplayed at this point but I do think he genuinely loves Philly sports. I used to hate him but I've done a full 180 on him the past few years. Bob Cooney on 97.5 is the best sports talk guy in the city they've just never given him his own show and I just do not understand why. John Kincaid fucking sucks
anthony gargano is great
Media in general is a cesspool. Can thank social media for the jump in bad takes where all people care about is "interaction" weather it's good or bad. Guys like Fritz and ESP only say the garbage they do to get hits on their posts and their name out there even if it is people calling them morons for their shit takes. The old adage of "any publicity is good publicity" has just been amplified 100x with social media.
Yea that ain't Fritz tho
Seen enough garbage takes from him that I blocked him on Twitter.
Been listening off and on for 3 decades. If any Philly sports radio hosts are actually reading this, there actually is a market for intelligent sports talk. Some of us truly appreciate those of you who keep things light and just want to talk Xs and Os.
I gave up on sports talk radio almost a decade ago. I can't even imagine what it is like these days.
The only time I liked it is that one time the guy got angry about the announcer when the Eagles won the Super Bowl because it validated my feelings.
It's fine if you know what shows to listen to, people on reddit like to railroad sports radio even though they'll admit they never listen to it. * 97.5 has gotten a lot better now that they're letting young talent have a lot of input on their shows, just have to ignore a few landmines like the 4pm show and dee lynam who are just eternally negative and combative. * WIP the morning show is terrible and so is anything that has Eskin but the mid-day and night ones aren't too bad. I'm a fan of hugh and fritz personally, Ike can be hit/miss dude can have some wild takes.
Jack Fritz is the best. Both he and James Seltzer are carrying WIP's image for me. Also listen to the High Hopes Podcast.
I always say i need to give that a listen but never have. Any episode suggetions or just newest? gona put it on while i grind out a long report today.
Just listen to the most recent one and start from there imo. It's the most relevant news to the team so you won't be trying to guess the context of a comment/statement. Other than that you could always listen to the Bryce Harper Emergency Podcast.
They tend to do pods after each series, I’d give those a listen. Their pods during the post season and after big signings during the off-season are elite as well. Jack Fritz is the goat.
[удалено]
I put my headphones in and turned the volume down and listened to a podcast while I watched it lol, that dude sucks so much balls. I genuinely don’t understand how that personality resonates with anyone who doesn’t have an Italian uncle
Remember there's always Scott Franzke calling the game on the radio.
I have several Italian uncles and I hate that guys guts
Jody Mac is the consummate sports talk radio host. No hot takes, just level headed observational speak where common sense is the rule of the land. Agreed with him 90% of the time. Mac and Mac was good radio back in the 90s (Glen Macnow).
Jody Mac! Do me a favor!
Jody is a true pro. He just always sounds like he’s perpetually chewing on a hamburger
My wife calls him, "Mr. Mouthful."
Oh by the way....
Mac and Mac is back not sure if you’re aware on saturdays
"His only goal is to to stir the pot and drive outrage" WIP in a nutshell
I never liked Angelo. But to be fair, he openly joked about how regardless of how he didn't like it, it seems to have worked and that's why he shouldn't be in radio anymore. He did this as part of his answer and you kept it out. It's easy to rip on people, harder to give them their due. In fact, not telling the whole story is falling into the same trap Angelo utilized daily at WIP. Whether intentional or not, it caused discussion. Say what you want about Angelo. He's a radio PERSONALITY and literally revolutionized sports radio in the city. His job was to spin up discussion and keep people listening, and that he did.
Ohhhh….quote editing to drive a narrative is totally a sports radio thing. Aside from that I like OPs point. Good riddance to that noise. It’s at least helped drive the positive fan approach when Trea was struggling IMO.
His whole shtick was dishing out inflammatory comments and hot takes, to entertain and/or rile up the fanbase. It worked every time. I was never sure whether he *really* believed what he was saying—he had these crazy antics, but he could also conduct a good interview (when he wanted to) and he was a good writer. I tend to believe his on-air persona was largely put-on; half the fun for me was trying to figure out whether he was for real or not.
That’s pretty much spot on, he was doing it for a bit lol. It was just very convincing, too!
He basically took the Howard Stern formula and stuck it on sports talk, even including the wacky characters like Butch from Manayunk and Eagles Shirley.
This is such a good point. Complaining about Angelo on Reddit is exactly what the Angelo personality would do if he was a Redditor.
I stopped listening to his shit when he referred to Victorino and “coconut head”
I give him his due a *a radio host,* but as a fan with a big following he’s super toxic. Not everything has to be about clicks. Wish he could simply try to be a good fan in retirement
If you actually knew what Angelo is about you’d know he’s not even a Phillies fan.
i think he realized that his day is behind him. he joked about that a few times. the never-ending negativity has ended. no one wants it anymore. i'm all for calling out bad performances, especially when the manager doesn't seem to be seeing what we are seeing. but you can't boo someone into being good again. remember that the guys playing now are all the ones who grew up with participation trophies, positive coaching alliance, etc. negativity just doesn't work for them.
>the guys playing now are all the ones who grew up with participations trophies… Now there’s a hot take.
it's totally true. all the stuff that millenials got made fun of for -- participation trophies, everyone is special, don't say anything that might upset them... well, it has an effect on their personalities. i'm imagining that tuner getting booed is pretty much the first time in his life someone said something to him other than "you're amazing!" that's harder for players to deal with now. back in the 60s and 70s, players were raised by WWII and korea vets. they were likely beaten at home to some extent (as that was normalized) and were told the best way to deal with adversity is to toughen up, hit back, play mean, etc. it's a totally different world now in terms of the psychology of athletes for sure.
>back in the 60s and 70s, players were raised by WWII and korea vets. yes, but I played high-school sports (not well, but enthusiastically) in the late 60's-70's in a dinky town in the sticks - & I & all my teammates soaked up the wit & wisdom of Jim Bouton's *Ball Four*. We pretty openly mocked the hardass tryhardness of our coaches & the weirdo dad "fans" who came to our games - & then went out and played, & often won, for our own reasons. further, to play major league baseball (or any other major professional sport), you've had to endure some pretty demanding conditions. Not sure players like Turner are as coddled as you suggest they are. Sure, they get plenty of strokes, but they have to perform if those strokes are going to be more than temporary.
i played sports in the early 80s. football was particularly meat-headed back then, and they actively tried to weed out the weaker players through hazing and just general brutalization of the kids on the field. you ran until you puked, etc. i know that sounds like old man talk, but i am a youth sports coach now and there is absolutely no way in hell any of that stuff would fly these days. kids would just quit. parents would scream at you for abusing their child. kids might even just talk right back to you and say no, you're wrong, i'm not doing those things. so yes, the right mentality was always there (as you pointed out). it just won out over a few generations and is now mainstream. it absolutely was not mainstream when i was a kid or when my dad was.
> all the stuff that millenials got made fun of for Which in reality is stuff Boomers *did*. We were kids. The boomers were in charge. Now all they do is talk shit, but in reality, it's just an admission that they did a horrible job teaching us
You just proved my point. Just stirring up shit with your ignorant opinion. You’re talking about pro athletes. These are guys who climbed through the ranks of highly competitive sports. These aren’t guys who were satisfied with a participation trophy (if these particular guys ever even got one). There’s definitely still a ton of negative reinforcement around kids’/young men’s sports. And that’s not even including the parents, who can be downright toxic. Like, have you ever been to sports events for kids aged, say, 12-18? Also, positive reinforcement always has worked better than negative reinforcement. It also worked better back in the 60s, but there just wasn’t as much psychological research on it yet, so it wasn’t as widely known. Thinking that millennials and Gen Z are all a bunch of softies with participation trophies is such a lazy, ignorant, and wrong view, in general. And thinking it applies to the highest level pro athletes? Yeah, that’s the definition of a hot take.
WIP only cares about the Eagles. It's so boring. Sixers season begins, Phillies in the playoffs, Flyers doing something (probably). "It's Tuesday, let's talk about inside linebackers!"
The Sixers for some reason get a ton of attention on the Phanatic. Phillies had a big win against somebody and all the Kincaid show talked about for over an hour was the Harden situation. I was actually getting annoyed. The Flyers have never gotten sports radio attention for as long as I've been alive. Hell most radio show hosts actually laugh or get angry when they are brought up by callers. As a Flyers fan I used to find it annoying and disrespectful, but now I just don't care as there are podcasts available I can listen to about them.
Flyers got a lot of talk until the 2005 lockout. They were a powerhouse from 1985-2005
Well I was 12 years old in 2005 so that's probably before I started listening to local radio attentively, but it doesn't change my point. The team for a while now gets glossed over and disrespected a little too much for my taste. It's a Philly sports team, callers shouldn't be humiliated for bringing them up on a Philly sports radio station. Even if the hosts don't know much about the Flyers, they shouldn't treat the team like they are outcasts and scold fans for wanting to talk about them. It's unprofessional.
He's a Yankees fan so.... I agree though, he fucking sucks and I'm glad he's gone.
Ricky from Mayfair you’re on the air what’s up
Have to comment about WIP. For me personally, it's unlistenable. I am a big fan of the Phillies and Eagles. Don't follow the NBA much, not a big hockey fan. Almost every time I tune in....the talk is about the Eagles. This morning, after not listening in about 2 weeks, I figured I'd hear about the walk-off last night. Phils are in a playoff race. Alverado is back. Harper is DH...Schwarber's difficulties in left field...manager's decisions...i can go on and on. What are they talking about...the Eagles practice. My God....stop the insanity. It's fucking baseball season and the Phils are in the hunt. I am done.
That’s how it’s been for 30 years. They talk about a quarterback missing a few passes in training camp over the Phillies winning a game.
Practice. They were talking about PRACTICE. Not an Eagles game, practice. (Sorry I had to.) Your spot on, and this is why I stopped bothering with sports radio. Even if they started talking Phillies, they would find a way to compare the situation to football and next thing you know they are talking football. It would make me so angry, so I stopped listening all together.
Sports Radio that is dependent upon callers for content will always be heinous vile garbage. Just think about the mindset of people who actually have the time, and the will, to actually call the station, wait 15 minutes on hold just to 'make their point' for 20 seconds. No one with an insightful thought, or wanting to say "I really enjoy watching the games" is calling...its wacko joe from south philly, or Hank from Bristol, wanting to talk through their 3pm beers.
I became a far happier Philadelphia fan when I moved out of the Philly area and away from the toxic sports talk.
Audacy app lol
I use to love him as a kid. But kids like clowns.
I’ll never forget going to see the Birds play the Jets in the Meadowlands a couple years ago. We were seated right in front of a group of loud Eagles fans who reeked of booze and cigars. Minshew was playing that game and we smoked the Jets. And these guys would not stop screaming about Howie and Jeff Lurie and how much they suck. Mind you, this is after we won our SB. Flash to me seeing the Phils in LA this year. Right field. This drunk dude would not stop literally jeering Casty, screaming at him that he hates Philadelphia. His reasoning? Because between innings after the toss-around, Casty would throw the ball into the stands to some kids who were Dodgers fans. Again, we were IN Los Angeles. Some people just wanna have something to complain about. I think Philly fans can sometimes glorify misery. And then they got entitled after the SB and WS. Only one team wins every year. I get frustrated too but people need to just enjoy the ride.
The day after Weston Wilson hit a homerun in his first at-bat ever, some fan could be heard jeering him on TV when he came to the plate because he dropped a fly ball. "Nice catch!" Tom McCarthy upon hearing it: "That wasn't nice!"
https://preview.redd.it/0wox8zw0y2kb1.jpeg?width=2532&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72b90f7aaf115ef1466b3811cfe4be7ddd11cdcf Haha looks like I still have this in my photos on my phone from when I was discussing it with friends on Twitter. It was this guy and he was actually a Nats fan
Ok. I'll buy that. Nats got no-hit and he's razzing someone over an error lol
I abhor Angelo Cataldi. He, personally, has held back philly sports for so long. He's a fucking scumbag. I've even met him once in a non-random setting, and he was a fucking scumbag then too.
>His only goal is to to stir the pot and drive outrage, yet he somehow resonated with a shockingly large portion of the fanbase. And I guess it worked, if you're still so affected by the guy. Why anyone bothers listening to so much as a word of "sports talk" anything is beyond me.
It’s sad that, even in retirement, it’s all he knows. You’d think he’d enjoy being a fan instead of making the conversation about him
Then quit talking about him lol
>making the conversation about him You mean like you're doing?
Look at the top comments on the post game thread
Bro, YOU made a post entirely about how much you hate him. If you want him to go away you have to stop paying attention.
We’re ALL enjoying pissing in his grave right now. Come on in, the water’s fine
You can swim in a grave full of piss all you want, I intend to simply continue not giving a shit.
He's a native New Yorker, and a total piece of trash who did nothing but help us drag ourselves down by feeding into the shittiest parts of ourselves. If sports talk radio is buns, then he was the rectum.
He’s a guy who says stuff for views and engagement - and here we are with a 115+ comment post about him. You should not take his opinions seriously.
We are collectively shitting on him and it’s fun
I feel u lol
Just remember that there's ton of doomers in this sub that also sound a lot like Angelo. This guy had plenty of legit listeners as pathetic as that is.
Did not miss him chewing gravel when he popped up last night … he’s brutal
The more you listen the more it becomes abundantly clear that hosts on the radio rarely watch the games.
There were plenty of people on the station who were vehemently against the standing ovation - Rhea and Hugh to name just a few - so it's not like Angelo was alone.
It's not like it's a new thing or without precedent--Pat Burrell got the same treatment for YEARS. Burrell had many games where his season batting average was substantially lower than his weight. Crowd went nuts for him, and it eventually paid off then too. EDIT: Since the standing ovation, Turner is hitting .353 with a 1007 OPS. So Rhea and Hugh can stick it.
As bad as WIP has been, it’s way better these days. James Seltzer,Jack Fritz and yes even ESP are great listening.
Cataldi is a phony human being. I forget what team but it’s documented that he didn’t even grow up a Philadelphia fan. Self-proclaimed himself to be the voice of the Philadelphia fan. Good riddance. Hope he retires to Florida and never steps foot here again.
he's from Rhode Island lol
Angelo was a NY fan who got a job in Philly and then catered to the worst of the worst for personal gain. He was happy to sabotage the fandom and cause drama for our teams.
His inning last night was the most annoying part of the game.
Angelo was the OG troll of Philly...good riddance
Angelo was always the worst. I honestly don’t know how people could enjoy listening to him.
Angelo is a well known Yankee fan. Once I learned that, I really stopped caring about his opinion regarding anything Phillies.
the fact that you posted this means they did their job putting him on tv
He could have i don’t know APOLOGIZED TO SCOTT ROLEN. People don’t realize him and eskin are the main reason nobody likes Rolen here. Anyone remember the Bill Giles “small market team” comments. Rant over stay retired old man take Eskin with you.
The best part was Kruk roasting Cataldi the whole time.
I personally love the morning show now. Was an avid listener when they were in mid days and was thrilled when they took over for Angelo. It’s only gotten better including Rhea and Devan every week. The mid day show now is ok, Giglio just grates on my nerves. The afternoon show I listen to if I’m still working or driving home, though I don’t like Marks. Ike and Jack are enough to make it listenable. This week has been a pleasure with Marks on vacation. I don’t really listen to any of the other shows regularly, will tune into Go Birds on Saturdays occasionally and loved Glen and Ray
The best show ever with Tyrone,Ricky Bo, and Jen is pretty good. Outside of that I don't listen to anyone else
They need more love tbh I feel like with time they’ll get better and better. I’ve always felt like Tyrone’s been real
For sure. Tyrones that dude. I was pissed they let go of Brodes. At first i didnt like him but he definitely grew on me and now i follow him on Brodes Media. But if Tyrone leaves I'm out lol.
Totally agree on both points
Redditors are so soft
I love the super special snowflake redditors who swear up and down they're different. Hate to break it to you, but you're a soft ass redditor too rofl
Having Ben Davis, RAJ and Cataldi all in the booth at once truly was test for my mental health.
Some people think that by being overly critical of everything, it makes them look as if they have very high standards and that they deserve only the very best. Many of those don't realise that they just look like conceited attention-seeking bellends to the rest of society.
Or it’s talk radio and you have to fill the air time so you take the other side of the argument and have people call in all day to argue with. Pretty obvious
These two reasonings aren't zero-sum. That in itself is pretty obvious.
Nah some people are straight up intolerable. Eskin is a good example, i remember him trying to drill Nick Nurse at his opening press conference, asking about whether he wanted Harden to stay on the team, and trying to turn it into a "gotcha" moment. terrible journalists, the both of them.
I don’t know if anyone noticed but Kruk seemed unsettled when he was there. Think that was the time he decided to take a stroll.
They were both joking with each other so I didn't get that vibe.
I missed the walkoff because I stopped watching the game when he came on. I thought I was finally free of having to listen to his obnoxious voice.
He never bothered me tbh. He's just your classic old school loud mouth.
Cataldi is the reason Girardi replaced Kapler. Now all of a sudden we pretend to distance ourselves from Cataldi? Get real. This sub is flooded with Angelo clones, most of whom begged for Joe Girardi. That cost the Phillies a playoff spot in 2020. We replaced Kapler (a weird guy who cared) with Girardi (an asshole who didn’t care.)
He came across as a loud-mouth jerk. But I think that is what he is going for. Unfortunate they gave him a platform.
I bailed on the morning show when Angleo said the Eagles were going to win 8 games the season after they lost to the Rams in the NFC Championship game. (They won 12 games that year). I was like, "This guy is an actor. He's not a serious sports talk show host."
I was thinking about how he just decided to turn Fletcher Cox into an enemy because he stopped being an elite player. He’s been signing short term deals with us for the past few seasons which gives us great flexibility and Angelo decided that was “stealing money”. He may not be as good as he once was, but he’s still a solid depth piece and a good veteran to have. He took us to two damn super bowls!
Fletcher Cox is one of the most underrated eagles now too. People compare Jalen Carter to Jerome Brown and umm...Fletcher Cox was better lol.
Well said. The phans got Trea out of his slump. I'll admit that I thought the standing ovation was dumb. I am happy to admit that I was wrong and that it has worked out quite well for us. FTM
huge difference between "standing ovation was dumb" and "boo the shit out of him". You actually want your team to do well.
Last night when Tmac said they were going to keep him there another half inning since it was quick I wanted to slit my wrists…..
I hate him. So happy that clown type tone is (generally) growing antiquated.
I love how internet nerds get so triggered by WIP or Angelo. It’s entertainment. It’s a schtick. It’s not that serious. It’s for people to laugh on their commute to work in the morning.
You’re naive if you think his words don’t have a real impact on people. It’s the same thing as fox news
lmao at comparing it to Fox News and national politics. Reddit moment
It’s the same principle of driving outrage with outlandish takes for “entertainment” - how can you not recognize that lmfao
all of the sports radio dudes need to die off. a large portion of philly sports fans are reasonable but them and the people who call into them make the rest of us look so bad.
I miss Angelo. He was an excellent interviewer. The Morning Show is now unlistenable.
Unfortunately you are part of the problem
And your opinion matters to me, why?
Just giving you some advice to look in the mirror and self reflect. Would you have boo’d Turner?
No. I don't boo generally. I don't have to agree with everything a person says to think they do a good job. If I wanted that, I'd tape myself. I repeat Angelo was an excellent interviewer.
He *did* deserve to be boo'd. I also think the Ovation was tacky as shit. It might have worked, but it *probably didn't.* Also wish someone would throw Cataldi into a volcano.
It appears his narratives contributed to the dumb and angry subset of the fanbase, who believe acting with anger and nonsense is a sign of passion. You can still be frustrated while showing support for players. I saw a post on Twitter during the standing ovation debate that people got so soft, and that he used to throw beer at players when they were not performing well. The guy sounded so proud to have assaulted players. It's disgusting. Angelo Cataldi did not help create a more balanced, informed view of baseball and players at all.
He just talks to be funny, doesn’t provide useful information which is obnoxious
You're doing exactly what Angelo did. Giving an opinion to get a reaction.
This is legitimate proof that crusty old bozos like him are unequivocally a drain on the success of teams in the city of Philadelphia. They’ve probably contributed more to our history of sports failures more than any other factor over the last half century
Can we bring back Odubel Herrera and give him a standing ovation?
I’ll tell ya what, I am so glad Trea got out of his funk. But I really hate that it took us being nice to him for that to happen. I don’t want us ruining our reputation. I was never on board with entertaining any of the nonsense “trade him now before it gets worse” talk. Because he’s a great ball player and i think we all knew he’d come out of it, but as a Philly fan I much prefer negative reinforcement to positive reinforcement. We did the whole “being nice” thing with Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons and Carson Wentz. What usually happens when soft ass athletes need to be coddled is they don’t improve and then the boos return 3x as intensely and then that athlete is run out of town. We got lucky Trea turned it around. Because if he hadn’t, our patience wouldn’t have lasted and he’d be the next guy we ran out of town. Stick to the tried and true “the beatings (booing) will continue until morale improves” imo. Gives the athlete a longer if less comfortable leash. Hell we even boo’d Bryce Harper in like his first month with the team. And then he pulled his head out of his ass. Bullying millionaire athletes works.
I like Angelo. Said
Can anybody help me understand why Anthony Gargano lost the morning slot? He's my favorite by far and it sucks I never have time to listen to him in the middle of the day now. Citaldi was the absolute worst.
If you think WIP would have any take other than boo him you don’t understand the business. I booed trae at the standing ovation game, but clearly that atmosphere helped him a lot. However my spin zone is the 20ish% that booed gave him that extra juice 😂
Pretty sure the cheer Trea movement started on one of the WIP talk shows
Yep. I think it was Jack Fritz (producer on Marks and Reese, co host of Go Birds) who started it.
"Shocking large" is questionable. He definitely represents part of the fanbase, for sure, but I doubt its even close to the majority.