The New York Daily News‘ Bob Raissman has the scoop about the firing of ESPN Radio 1050 AM’s Wallace Matthews and Tom Keegan from the “Wally & The Keeg” show that had previously been a part of afternoon drive, then mid-days on the station. It seems that the “local” talkers just aren’t competing with what WFAN, the longtime sports radio station broadcasting out of Astoria, have brought to the table.
Outside of a shoddy signal that couldn’t reach half of the New Jersey listeners, 1050 was attempting to get a mix of the national shows that the parent company put together, including those of Dan Patrick and mornings with Mike Greenberg & Mike Golic. With the voracious appetite that New York sports fans have when it comes to their radio, you would expect that two radio stations in town would be able to make it better for everyone. Apparently that’s not the case. It’s either a brand loyalty situation where enough people never switched over to 1050’s programming - or that the constant mix of national and local kept people from changing the channel because they were only interested in New York sports.
In any case, the fact that 1050’s website still has “Now On The Air: Wally & The Keeg” right now is a little disturbing. I think if you let people go you might want to remove the hosts’ page and their images from the header.
Additionally, ESPN has added Max Kellerman to their lineup, weeknights from 7-8pm - which will eat an hour into Jim Rome’s show that is on the nights when there are no live sporting events.
[Thanks, Jerry!]
