Report: ESPN to Break Up 'Mike & Mike.' According to a report in
SI.com by
Richard Deitsch – and picked up by numerous other news outlets –
ESPN is moving ahead with plans to move
Mike Greenberg from the ESPN Radio morning show he's co-hosted with
Mike Golic since 1998 and place him at the helm of the new morning
show on cable TV's ESPN. If true, what the sports giant does with the longtime – and reportedly
revenue-producing – morning show includes a couple of options. Deitsch's piece speculates that the odds-on candidate to move to mornings is current ESPN personality
Trey Wingo. He could partner with Golic or – if Golic is not retained – head up a new morning show. Golic's son, Mike Golic Jr., is a staffer with ESPN and it's being reported that Golic Jr. could join a re-tooled version of the morning program. Deitsch reports that it's not known when these moves will happen but his sources say the changes will happen sooner rather than later. Read the SI.com piece
here.
Four New Shows to Launch on 'Forbes on PodcastOne.' Building on the recent partnership with the
Norm Pattiz-founded digital platform
PodcastOne,
Forbes Media is preparing to debut four new podcasts on the "Forbes on PodcastOne" network. The new shows are: "The Forbes Interview," "Forbes Under 30," "Forbes Lists"
and "Forbes Sports Money," are will launch this month and next. Forbes Media chief product officer
Lewis D'Vorkin says, "Our focus this year is about taking Forbes content off domain and monetizing those experiences. Podcasts represent yet another avenue for us to diversify our revenue streams." PodcastOne executive chairman Norm Pattiz says, "Forbes' initial conversation podcast will feature
Adam Carolla, the most downloaded podcaster of all time, according to the
Guinness Book of World Records. Adam will discuss his own personal journey, the building of
Carolla Digital, and a lot of other extremely interesting things from questions put forth by 'The Forbes Interview' podcast host,
Steve Bertoni. Future shows will include leaders from business, technology, entertainment and sports – the kinds of people that you would likely see on the cover of
Forbes. We couldn't be more excited about this partnership."
Ryan Wrecker Exits WOWO, Fort Wayne. Fort Wayne's Federated Media makes changes in the management structure at heritage news/talk WOWO and program director Ryan Wrecker exits after more than four years at the programming helm. During his time at WOWO, Wrecker was instrumental in creating the station's podcast platform. WOWO won a Marconi Award from the National Association of Broadcasters in 2014.
Trump Press Conference Top News/Talk Story for Week of January 9-13, 2017. President-Elect
Donald Trump's first press conference after winning the November election was the most-talked-about story on news/talk radio this week, landing atop the Talkers Ten
TM. At #2 was the allegations of Russia's hacking the DNC emails tied with the Trump 'dossier' purported to detail his bizarre sexual behavior while visiting Moscow. Coming in at #3 was the Trump cabinet nominee hearings, followed by the Justice Department's announcement it would investigate its own and the FBI's handling of the
Hillary Clinton email server matter at #4. The Talkers Ten
TM is a weekly chart of the top stories and people discussed on news/talk radio during the week and is the result of ongoing research from
TALKERS magazine. It is published every Friday at Talkers.com. View this week's entire chart
here.
Michael Harrison and Sid Rosenberg Talk About Sports, News/Talk, Radio, Personal Demons, Redemption and Life. In a powerfully candid conversation, WABC, New York mid-morning co-host
Sid Rosenberg is this week's guest on the award-winning
PodcastOne series, "Up Close and Far Out with
Michael Harrison." For the past year, Rosenberg has been successfully co-hosting the station's 10:00 am to 12:00 noon program with his old friend,
Don Imus show executive producer,
Bernard McGuirk. The daily news/talk
program, "The Bernie and Sid Show," has done so well in attracting an audience and creating positive buzz in its first 11 months that WABC has just expanded it by an hour to a 9:00 am start. Rosenberg came up through the ranks of NYC and South Florida sports talk radio, recently making the transition to news/talk – although he still serves as a sports commentator on the Imus show that precedes the mid-morning program. Rosenberg has a colorful track record of landing big jobs based on his sheer talent and enthusiasm…and then losing them due to highly-publicized issues he's faced battling personal demons. It seems that Rosenberg has gained control over these problems and as Harrison puts it, "is on a healthy track to redemption and success." Harrison continues, "Sid Rosenberg is one of the most authentic, vibrant and 'human' radio personalities on the air today. He exudes infectious energy and captures the very essence of being a New Yorker – thus contributing greatly to WABC's local flavor. What a great radio story! I'm rooting for him to stay on his present path and go all the way." To listen to the entire podcast in its entirety, please click
here or click the "Up Close and Far Out" player box located in the right-hand column on every page of Talkers.com.
Legendary Louisville Talk Host Milton Metz Dies at 95. The
Louisville Courier-Journal writes in its obituary for
Milton Metz that, according to former WHAS colleague
Wayne Perkey, Metz was "a role model and father figure for a younger generation of broadcasters" that included himself,
Terry Meiners, and
Jack Fox. Metz began his lengthy career on WHAS in 1959 and the "Juniper 5-2385" show (named after the phone number) ran until 1993. His son,
Perry Metz, is quoted saying, "If civility is old-fashioned, you could say he was old-fashioned." Read the
Courier-Journal obit
here.
