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Francesa Opens Up About New Role With WFAN

“According to Francesa, his daily WFAN gig from 6 – 6:30pm will be fast paced and unlike his previous shows, probably won’t take a lot of calls.”

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No official announcements have been made by WFAN as to how they’re replacing Mike Francesa in afternoon drive, but the radio icon himself has been open about his new role, which will include a 30-minute weekday show. 

As WFAN looks to retool their lineup for the second time in two years, Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts are expected to take over the 2 – 6pm timeslot with Maggie Gray and Marc Malusis likely headed to the midday. But as Francesa recently stepped down from his afternoon post, he has continued to make it clear that he’s not leaving the station completely. 

On Tuesday, Francesa appeared as a guest with Julie Stewart-Binks on her fubo Sports Network show, Call It a Night to promote the upcoming film he has a small role in Uncut Gems. During the appearance, Francesa removed himself as a potential candidate to be the next head coach of the Giants, but did discuss his future with WFAN and their parent company Entercom. 

According to Francesa, his daily WFAN gig from 6 – 6:30pm will be fast paced and unlike his previous shows, probably won’t take a lot of calls. 

“My show always moved very quickly anyway,” Francesa told host Julie Stewart-Binks. “That’s how I did things. I disposed of callers very quickly. I moved everything along very quickly. That’s just my way. I went through a very high volume of stuff. I think the show has to move. I hate when it drags.”

Keeping with the plan of moving quickly, the half hour show will only have five-minutes of commercials, but Francesa said he’s still working on the format. 

“I’m gonna change up how I do it, there’s not going to be a lot of calls. There will be some, but very few. Maybe even only one a day. I thought about maybe that. I’m still formulating the half-hour. I’m going to make it something we haven’t done before.”

In addition to maintaining a daily presence on WFAN, Francesa will also have an expanded role with RADIO.COM, which he previously stated will include content on both sports and politics. 

Francesa told Stewart-Binks that he has a fascination with finance and politics. While he’s satisfied with show options in the finance space, Francesa believes there’s room for improvement with available political content. 

The radio host has never shied away from stating his support for President Trump, but when it comes to the political content he wants to create, Francesa says he’ll play it right down the middle. While most political shows and networks are heavily in favor of the left or right, Francesa hopes to be an unbiased voice.

Stewart-Binks asked Francesa about the often spewed ‘stick to sports’ mandate. “Tell ‘em to shut up, I don’t care what they think,” Francesa answered.

Francesa’s RADIO.COM hour is expected to air weekdays at 5pm ET, preceding his six o’clock show on the FAN and totaling 90 minutes of airtime a day for the longtime sports radio host.

Sports Radio News

Doug Gottlieb Details Interviewing For College Basketball Head Coaching Vacancy

“I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up.”

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Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb recently interviewed for the vacant head coaching job at Wisconsin-Green Bay and detailed the experience on his podcast.

“I got a chance to talk to (Wisconsin-Green Bay AD) Josh Moon several times during the year after they had made their coaching job available and my approach to how I’ve done these things — and this is not the first time I’ve gone down this path, but this was a different path,” Gottlieb said on his All Ball podcast.

“This is a low-major, mid-major job, and there’s no connection there. I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up. I love doing it and I think there’s a very smart world where if I’m coaching I can still do this podcast and still do it with basketball people all over the country and the world, and it’s kind of like a cheat code.”

He continued by saying that seeing Shaka Smart be successful at Marquette has motivated him to continue to search for the right fit as a college basketball coach.

“That’s what I want to do. And last year when I was coaching in Israel, that also continued to invigorate me…this is something that I would really like to do. It has to be the right thing. It has to be the right AD who hits the right message.”

He continued by saying that a sticking point of negotiations was he wasn’t willing to give up his nationally syndicated radio program for the job. He was willing to take less money for his assistants pool, but also to continue doing his radio show.

Gottlieb did not get the position with the Phoenix, noting that he was a finalist but was never offered the job. The position ultimately went to Wyoming assistant coach Sundance Wicks. Wicks had previous head coaching experience and had worked with Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon at Division II Northern State. He admitted he wasn’t necessarily “all-in” on the job due to the current ages of his children and whether the timing was right to uproot his family to move to Northeastern Wisconsin.

The Fox Sports Radio host does have coaching experience. He has worked as a coach for the U.S. men’s basketball team at the Maccabiah Games, sometimes referred to as the Jewish Olympics.

Gottlieb’s father — Bob — was the head men’s basketball coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1975-1980, compiling a 97-91 record.

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Sports Radio News

Waddle & Silvy: Scott Hanson Told Us to Lose His Number

“We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

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Aaron Rodgers took immense pride in the fact that he told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter to “lose his number” while discussing his future earlier this week on The Pat McAfee Show. ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy said they’ve experienced similar treatment from guests on their radio show.

While discussing the Rodgers interview with McAfee, the pair admitted that NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson once told their producer to stop trying to book him for interviews on the program.

“I believe the presentation was ‘Do me a favor: lose my number after this interview’,” Tom Waddle said. “So he tried to do it politely. Scott Hanson did. Get out of here. That concept is foreign to me. How about ‘Hey, next time you text me, my schedule is full. I can’t do it, but thanks for thinking of me’. ‘Lose my number?’ You ain’t the President, for Christ’s sake. I’m saying that to anyone who would say that. ‘Lose my number?’ We’re all in the communication business. I just don’t know — why be rude like that to people? What does that accomplish? You know what it accomplished? We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

Co-host Mark Silverman then mentioned that the show once tried to book Hansen and NFL Red Zone host Andrew Siciliano together in the same block, with the idea of doing a trivia game to see who the supreme Red Zone host was. Siciliano agreed, but Hansen declined.

The pair also confirmed that an NFL Network personality had told them to lose their number, but couldn’t remember if it was Rich Eisen or not.

Silverman later joked that maybe Hanson was getting a new phone with a new number, and was politely sharing with the producer that he could lose the current phone number because he would share his new number in short order.

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Sports Radio News

Seth Payne: Aaron Rodgers ‘Makes Gross Inaccuracies’ When Calling Out Media

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations.”

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Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is always mad at the media for the inaccurate things he says they report, but according to Sports Radio 610 morning man Seth Payne, no one is more inaccurate than the quarterback himself.

Friday morning, Payne and his partner Sean Pendergast played audio of Aaron Rodgers responding to a question about a list of players he provided to the Jets demanding they sign. Rodgers called the idea that he would make demands “so stupid” and chastised ESPN reporter Dianna Russini, who was the first to report it.

“Now to be clear, Dianna Russini didn’t say demands in her tweet. She said wishlist,” Pendergast clarified.

They also played a clip of Russini responding to Rodgers on NFL Live saying that she stands by her reporting and it is her job to reach out to confirm that it is true.

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations,” Seth Payne said.

He added that if Rodgers is being serious, he is doing some serious nitpicking. He claims that he didn’t give the Jets a list, but that he spoke glowingly about former teammates and told the Jets executives that he met with who he enjoyed playing with during his career.

Payne joked that maybe he wrote down the names in a circle pattern so that it was not a list. Pendergast added that he could have had Fat Head stickers on his wall that he pointed to instead of writing anything at all.

In Payne’s mind, this is a case of Russini catching stray frustration. Neither in her initial tweet nor in any subsequent media appearance did she use the phrase “demands”.

“What he’s actually responding to in that instance is Pat McAfee is the one that described it as a list of demands,” Seth Payne said.

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