The Josh Innes Show - Radio Drama

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

The latest radio drama comes to us from WFAN in NYC. My buddy Gio, who does mornings, had some really strong words for Brandon Tierney, who was fired a few months ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I suppose we're in the golden era of media people shitting on each other. So social media makes that a lot easier. Back when I used to do it, it wasn't that big of a deal. Now everybody shits on everybody and it always makes news and it makes all these blogs. I say blogs. I sound like an old man when I say blogs. But it all kind of becomes like a huge story. Last week we had the WIP shit with Howard and Angelo and Spike and everything.

And so now there's one in New York at WFAN with a friend of mine. First of all, let me play a couple commercials and then we'll get into this. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. A healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started.

So a buddy of mine, Gio, who does the morning show with Boomer and Gio, and I don't know how we became buddies. I think he just like legitimately liked what I was doing in Philadelphia at one point back when I was there. And now we're buddies and we'll text on occasion and shit. I don't even know if I've ever met him in person, but we'll text and stuff. It's just funny how all that. shit comes to be. Well, I see this today. So Brandon Tierney is a guy that used to work at WFAN and got whacked, and they whacked him and brought back Craig Carton. Because Craig Carton has a true spell over WFAN.

Like, this guy has been there and back multiple times. It's like me with Iheart. I've been hired and fired and quit and everything like five times. But, and obviously, Craig's a big time dude there and has made them a lot of money and he's very successful. And this guy probably didn't. Brandon Tierney probably didn't. but Tyrney got whacked at the end of last year to make room for carton to come back and all that shit. Well, he was a guest on WFA in a couple days ago.

I guess it was a couple days ago on his old show, which is so weird. It's like you fired the guy and now he's like a guest on your show and he's probably pimping a podcast or some shit. And he was taking some shots on this in this interview at some of the guys at the station, I guess. And I think a couple weeks ago or a couple days ago, I guess he was saying that like, you know, the people. that were there for the golden age of WFAN were lucky and some shit that's pissing people up. Let me see if I can find that audio as well. But it's the audio of him talking about how the guys at WFAN were lucky, which is not wrong, by the way. Like luck goes into a lot of success of people, particularly in fields like media where you know, right place, right time.

And I don't think that's unfair to say, but his line about the guys at WFAN, back then, if you were on the air, you were almost by default a rock star. Well, yeah, it was a different era. It was a different world. Radio mattered a lot more than it matters now. And there were no podcasts and there were no Twitter. So obviously, duh. I mean, it's not really an insult, but it's an obvious comment. But anyway, so Brandon Tierney is on and I guess, and I didn't hear the audio, but apparently he was like banging on some dudes at WFAN while appearing on WFAN in an interview, which was so weird that they even had him on. But anyway, Let's see here.

A media drama. We are just in the golden age of particularly sports media drama with media on media, just people shitting on each other because what people have realized is people care more about this shit than they care about your actual shows. They don't give a shit about anything you're saying because you're saying the same shit that everybody says. There's no real. What's the huge difference between host A and host B?

Nothing really. They mostly have the same opinions. It's the same bullshit. It is what it is. It's the drama. It's the inner station. fighting. It's the host fighting with each other. That's what makes it. I don't know why that's the case. I think I do because we're in the Twitter world and people are fucking assholes and people

love to see drama, right? But anyway, so, Gio, my buddy, I'm like name dropping here, my friend Gio who's on the Boomer and Gio show. But think about a wild world, though, because Gio took over for Craig. When Craig got fired at WFAN for going to jail, that was an interesting documentary about Craig Carton, if you've never seen it. But, um, so, So he comes in to replace Craig, who's got this monster morning show. It's huge. And how he's kept it on the track and the numbers are still huge and it's great. Craig is now back there.

So you've got Craig who's used to do the job that Gio did is doing now. It's a weird world. But anyway, so this guy, Brandon Tierney, got whacked. And apparently he was a guest on WFAN last week. let's see let's see the last couple of years hold on

but the thing that he said there we go now it's got the actual audio here we go so I've done a really good job of not letting things like this bother me over the last couple of years but the thing that he said

that annoyed me and the reason why I wanted to bring it up is he said I was a bad teammate for pranking the show and being a caller who was busting his balls about drinking

with the team. Well, hey, like, I love Gio, because he and I are kind of similar in that way. Like, you know, like I used to prank call dudes on the station all the time. And I miss those days, because I had a lot of guys that could handle it. I would prank call, you know, Paul and, one time I prank called Paul in Houston. And I called myself Shannon and Pearland. I was like, hey, is this Paul Galant? Like, you're, you're a motherfucker. I don't shoot your ass. Like, and he was so excited that someone called and hated him so much. I was like, bro, that was me. And then of course we had the Stephen Hawking prank with

with Seth because he said that I was implying that he was drinking with the team and that's being a bad teammate. His take on that is exactly the reason why he couldn't cut it here. Because he is

someone who takes things way too seriously. Oh, I love this. This is the good shit. When guys get to just unload on assholes at the radio station, it's such a great feeling. Oh, it's lovely. He can't laugh at himself. That seems right. And he doesn't get it.

And if he did, and he showed a little bit more personality and could laugh at himself, maybe he would have had more success here. And by the way, remember back when those guys were getting slammed with the Carl Banks and Gary Myers thing, I stood up for them. I was the only guy in the radio station who sat here and had their backs. Went after Carl, went after Gary. Those guys didn't do it themselves. They didn't go back at them. But yet they have a live show appearance with Carl Banks, which is like the most P-word thing I've ever seen in my life.

Oh, let's say pussy. Let's go. You can say pussy. We don't need P-word here, Gio. I've said pussy plenty. As long as you're not talking about the actual vagina, everything's fine. Boy, I love when guys can go at it on the air. God.

And it's funny because like now it's just everywhere. But when I was doing that like in Houston, it was just, all this guy does is shits on the guys on his station. I was doing it in Philly. But now it's just commonplace. It's just everywhere now. Again, not that I invented the concept of shitting on people on the station or nor that it's anything to be super proud of or anything like that.

But still, it's like now it's just everywhere and it gets all the attention and that's what everybody retweets. And that's really a statement about just who we are as people, about society as a whole is we're more concerned with the videos of people shitting on each other than anything else. As I said, most people who are on a radio station, especially in sports media and this era, we're mostly just, you know, the same thing. We have the same basic take, same basic delivery. There's nothing super special about anything that most people are doing on the air.

The difference is that gets the attention to shitting on other things and drama. Everybody loves drama. That the guy who trashed you all and then created a perception of your show you're now doing a live appearance with. but okay. So here I was defending them. When you were out and some guy in the lebitard shows trashing you, I have your back. Always have my back. Always have my back.

When Stephen A. Smith trashed Tiki, Brandon went, I don't know how I like both of those guys. So if a bad teammate is the exact opposite of what I am and ask anybody that I've ever work with. So if a... By the way, I've never worked with the guy. but Gio has been loyal to me and we've never even met. I don't think we've met in person. I don't believe we have. We've talked via text and via DMs and shit like that.

Never met the guy in person. But I can tell you that that's a foxhole guy. That's a guy that will have your back. I have no doubt about that. And he's like me in the sense that he'll bust people's balls and make fun of them and do impressions of them and shit. But that's what makes him good. Alan Shipnuck came in here.

A Jeff Perlman came in here or a Mike Vicaro. came in here and wanted to find out what was going on here about who's the good teammate or not. Yeah. I guarantee you that person would do the interviews and find out that every person that I've worked with, whether it was Pittsburgh, CBS Sports Radio, all those guys I still talk to, or here would find out that I'm a great teammate and they would find out that everybody that worked for Brandon couldn't stand it. Now, I cannot say that about myself.

There will be people who will hate me from the time I'm. worked with them, but I will say that I have done some things that, you know, I think there's a lot of people that like me. Like, I'm making this about myself. I get it. There's plenty of people who fucking love me that I've worked with. There will be some who don't, but I think that's anywhere you go. I guarantee there's people who probably don't like GO as well. So if you want to go down the road, we'll go down the road.

So here we are. people hated working with that guy. He's the bad teammate. He would trash his producers. He would belittle them. So don't tell me I'm a bad teammate because you can't take a joke. Yeah, that's usually how it goes. So, like, it's just we always were good teammates with them.

And he would think opposite. Oh, you're playing the drops, jamming up the A-back. He doesn't have a sense of humor. He hasn't had a sense of humor ever. So much so that I got pulled out of Pittsburgh to save the CBS Sports Radio Morning Show because an executive told me we made a miscalculation with Brandon. He's not entertaining or funny. Man, I love this shit because I've lived these kind of lives too.

And by the way, Gio is great. And that's what's crazy. And I forgot. So he did mornings for CBS, the company CBS in Pittsburgh. And I think he was the morning guy when they launched that station in Pittsburgh. And then they moved him over to the CBS Sports Radio Network, which was a waste. But then that led him to WFAN, of course. Exact words.

And then I replaced him there. So do your bad teammate thing. You don't take a joke. Guess what? Guess who still has a team? This guy. So best of luck If I need a motivational speech

I know where to go Have fun in D.C. Boy, did that feel good? What do you got now? Tuts. Oh, God, I adore him. I do. And he's always been a good guy to me.

And look, we've all lived that. And it always feels good when you get to go off on people. problem is I never had like like it just it was happening in an era where people weren't doing that now it's everywhere I'm reading the thing today and it's like Emmanuel Acho is getting shit on by you know Leonard Fournette and there and like dude I think I think I think acho's a shithead like I think some guys like you know like I don't think that like I'll look at guys like Pat McAfee I don't think Pat McAfee's a bad person or anything and I think he's fairly genuine in the way he delivers a lot of his shit like is he a guy that protects a lot of players and people on his show. Sure. That is what it is. But I don't think that Pat McAfee is a genuinely

bad human or conniving human or deceptive human. Like, I don't think he's a bad dude. I look at Emmanuel Acho, and I feel like he's an untalented guy. Like, I think McAfee's got a talent. Like, McAfee went out on the road. He did stand up. Like, I think he's got a talent. And I think he's got the ability to draw people to him. And in many cases, for positive reasons. Like, I think his, his fan base. Like, he's not just a guy that has a bunch of people following what he says because he says incendiary shit and people react to that, right? I think that he's a likable guy that's got a giant group of people who enjoy him because he's a likable guy. Emmanuel Lacho is just a piece of shit. I don't think he's talented. I think he says incendiary shit and that, like his whole, like, I don't like people whose entire aura or their entire brand is built around just saying incendiary shit and being like, like the guy that's like, but I ain't afraid to say it. Like that kind of guy.

And I think the beef with with him and Leonard Fournett was that Fournett was basically like dude was a scrub and now he's on TV saying shit about people, to which he responds that Fournett was a disappointment and blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. But like when I see guys like that, his entire aura is like even Stephen A. Smith had a skill at one point. Like Stephen A. Smith at some point in his life was a newspaper guy, was a writer for a newspaper, did study to do this shit. And so did. And whether you like Skip Bayless or not, he did.

Like these are guys that were media people and were media trained people. And now Stephen A. Smith just says wacky shit. But at one point, he did have a skill. And I can respect people that at least had a skill at one point and got into this media world for different intentions and now have just evolved into whatever. the fuck he is. Emmanuel Ocho is the kind of guy I fucking hate, which is a former player who's not particularly interesting, whose entire aura is built around it, his entire vibe, his entire brand is just saying the, I'll say it because nobody else will type of shit.

And it's all fucking stupid. He's a fucking moron. I mean, credit to him, he's made a life for himself being this fucking moron. But he's a moron. He's uninteresting and he's a moron. Whereas, you know, there are guys that I think, like I think Pat McAfee is a genuine likable guy. I think his whole, the whole

schick they do is kind of dushy and it's not totally for me all the time. But like, his audience is not just built around people who hate him. Emmanuel Acho's audience is just people who hate him and people or people who have outlandish thoughts that he has as well. But, anyway,

more to come. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 9-8. 988, Canada's suicide crisis hubline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime.

988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada.