Miller: Howard Eskin Signs Off; Nice Job, Genius
Across the Delaware Valley at 4:45 p.m. on Monday, sports fans rejoiced. Howard Eskin announced that he would no longer host a daily talk show on WIP-AM.
“Good riddance,” they said.
“Beat it,” they said.
“About time,” they said.
To that, I call them one of Eskin’s favorite terms. “Nitwit.”
Just because you don’t like him, or because he yelled at your brother-in-law once when he called the station, doesn’t mean that Eskin wasn’t the best in the business for a long, long time.
“Twenty-five years ago this month I did the first sports talk show on WIP,” a very emotional Eskin said on the air. “After September 2nd, I will be giving up the 3:00-7:00 shift.”
Eskin was adamant in saying that he would be staying at the station, just in a different role. But his time in the spotlight has ended. CBS Radio local president Marc Rayfield reiterated that Eskin would remain a WIP employee and said that he is thrilled that Eskin is staying.
“[His] career’s not over,” said Rayfield. “We did just tender him a long-term contract. He’s going to be a swing guy. He’ll break stories on the radio station. I’m thrilled that he’s remaining.”
And Rayfield insisted – he even swore on the lives of his children – that this move was Eskin’s idea.
Eskin and Ike Reese got routed in the latest radio ratings, finishing an absurdly bad 13th in afternoon drive for men 18-34 — the demographic that’s supposed to be their sweet spot. And Eskin has never played well with others — Reese had to be restrained from going after Eskin more than once over the last couple years. He had screaming matches with Angelo Cataldi and Mike Missanelli, and football players tried to punch him.
But despite all the haters and the snide comments, this is the end of an era. And as a sports fan swimming in this 24/7 media world, you owe Eskin. That’s right – because he was on the cutting edge and he was courageous and he fought and he scrapped and he created a regional dialogue that we were all involved in for most of our lives.
He wasn’t like all those other broadcasters who never went to games. He wasn’t like all those old schoolers who just regurgitated what was written in the press releases they were handed. And he still isn’t like all the local TV sports anchors at Eagles games who never even leave the lunchroom during a game, choosing instead to watch the game on TV and gossip with each other.
Woody Allen famously said that 90 percent of success is showing up. Eskin showed up. On Saturday nights in February when the Sixers played the Clippers, Eskin showed up. When the Phillies were running Steve Jeltz out there night after night and losing 90 games a season, Eskin was there every night.
He certainly wasn’t the perfect journalist — playing favorites with Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt and Andy Reid, while toeing a very uncomfortable racial line when bashing Allen Iverson.
But Eskin was on the cutting edge of radio in one market for more than 30 years. You don’t realize this, but that doesn’t happen anywhere. Virtually no one else in the entire country can claim as long a run at the top of the heap in one market.
Eskin was first on the FM dial, at WWDB in the late 70s, making a name for himself at a station that nobody listened to. He helped launch Fox 29’s Ten O’Clock News in 1985, putting that fledgling idea on the map. He helped launch WIP as a sports station a year later. He worked at Channel 3, Channel 10 and WMMR-FM. He ruled the local sports marketplace.
His place in the sports media landscape isn’t as dominating as it once was, but he still breaks stories. He still moves the needle. He’s still a lightning rod, and that’s a good thing.
And don’t worry — he’ll still be around to infuriate you.
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