The Press Box - Boomer Esiason on Callers, Cohosts, and 15 Years at WFAN

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

Bryan is joined by WFAN radio host Boomer Esiason to talk through his career starting as an NFL quarterback transitioning to broadcast and radio host. They revisit Esiason’s first experiences in media, reflect on his time working with Craig Carton tackling stories such as Rex Ryan’s foot fetish, discuss working alongside current cohost Gregg “Gio” Giannotti, and touch on covering different teams and sports. Host: Bryan Curtis Guest: Boomer Esiason Associate Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the host that brought you to Coding Westworld. And Westworld, the recapables. Comes the Ringer Prestige TV podcast on Westworld. I'm Joanna Robinson. I'm Danny Hyfitts. And I'm David Shoemaker. Welcome to Westworld Season 4 in the Prestige TV podcast feed, where we're going to break down every episode of Westworld season four.

Every Monday, the day after the show comes out on the prestige TV podcast feed. Wherever we get your podcast, but get them on Spotify. Hello, media consumers. Welcome to the press box. Brian Curtis of the Ringer here, along with producer Erica Servantes. I'm in New York City, here on the last stop of my summer sports radio tour.

On Monday morning, I went to the headquarters of the famed WFAN, and I met the guy who was emerging from his studio after doing four hours of morning radio, Boomer Asiason. Boomer Asiason had a 14-year career as an NFL quarterback. He does lots of TV stuff, but 15 years ago this September,

He took over the morning show at WFAN, replacing Don Imus. We sat in Asiason's office and talked about what it's like to do radio with his current co-host, Greg Giannati. His former co-host, Craig Carton. What happens when shows at the same radio station go at each other and how you become number one in the toughest city of them all? Here's Boomer Osce. All right, Boomer, since you just finished your radio show, I almost feel like the sideline reporter interviewing the quarterback. on the field. Yep.

How do you feel after four hours of live radio? You know, it's exhausting, actually, sometimes, especially during the football season because I have so many more things going on. Right now in the middle of July, it's not too bad. But I will say, once you get out of there, you want some downtime. So you got me right at the moment that I want some downtime.

So I could be a little edgy right now. You woke up at what time this morning? 415. 415. Yeah. Yeah, so it's been doing that for 15 years, and it's, it never gets easier. It just, it's a beast. And for those of us who work in morning radio, we know that it's part of the job.

But the good part is, especially on a Friday, is that you essentially have a three-day weekend. Because you get all Friday. Right. You get all Friday. And as long as you're not screwing around on Thursday night, you're good to go for the weekend. And from this point, will you go and have what we would recognize? as a normal human day, or do you just go take a nap? No. So today, oddly enough, I'll end up, I have meetings at my foundation office in New York

City. So they'll start around 12 o'clock. I'll go 12 to 3 with that. And then I'll probably get home by about 4.30. I have some dinner. And then hopefully, since there's no men or Yankee game, maybe I'll watch a movie or something on Netflix or Prime. How many Mets and Yankee games do you feel you need to watch during a season? It depends on if they're good. If they're good, you have to pay attention because everybody wants to talk about, you know, what the potential trades are, who are the potential playoff matchups, you know, whether the team is doing what it's expected to do. Did the general manager do the right thing, building the team? Can they make changes at the trade deadline?

You know, and we've had the one thing I will say is Brian Cashman has stood tall through it all since I've taken on this job, 15. years ago. We've had so many general managers come through here that have totally screwed up their respective franchises. It's amazing that he's been able to last this long and keep the team as competitive as he has. Yeah, so they're both good this year. So you've got to watch a lot of games. Yes. So, yeah, I would say probably at least three quarters of the games. And the interesting thing is, you know, when they're on at the same time, you know, I'm lucky enough to have two TVs. so I can watch both at the same time. And, you know, with the sound off, of course, of the Yankee game,

because I want to listen to the MEC game. And I love Ronnie and Keith. And Gary, I think they're really terrific at what they do. So I'm always texting Ronnie and bothering him when he's on the air. So he hates that. But I will say that it is interesting. You know, as long as they're good, it's fun to watch. Yeah.

And then if they're not good, it's a lot of baseball. No, then the screaming and yelling starts. And, you know, trade this douchebag, get rid of that guy, trade this other one. And then you don't want to get, you know, mired into that kind of stuff, especially in morning radio. You don't want to get caught up in all the trade, you know, talk and all the different scenarios that are going on. It's not bad to talk about it, you know, between the two hosts and get into it with Jerry a little bit. But, you know, when Jill and I are talking about, it's one thing. When the fans start calling in and start bringing in their trade requests and, like, out of their mind, things that they think can happen, it gets a little bit cumbersome.

What about 16 number one picks with Donovan Mitchell? Exactly. Exactly. So the poor Nick fan, which I'm one of, by the way. We've been maligned for a good 25 years now, and it's well deserved. Nobody does it better than we do or does it worse than we do. So it is really, they have been stuck admired in mediocrity or less, and the hires that they have made over there just really make no sense. Let me ask you a little bit about your background. Played in the NFL from 1984 to 1997, which matches up pretty well with the early days of sports radio in this country. Yes. What were your experiences like with sports radio when you were playing?

Well, I know Mike and Chris get a lot of love for creating sports talk here in New York and maybe being the preeminent sports talk host. And that's fine. I was a part of their program in the early 90s. But before that, it was Bob Trumpy at WLW radio out in Cincinnati, 700 WLW. you and that's a 50,000 watt station. And he used to do a nighttime sports talk show and he was great at it. So I was, that's really the first place that I became exposed to it and how aggravated the fans could be.

Because as a starting quarterback, I don't care in which city you play in. It doesn't matter if it's a small city or a big city. Small city actually sometimes is worse because you can't hide. So if you play poorly, everybody knows who you are. Everywhere you go, everybody knows who you are. So sometimes those markets are a little bit tougher to play.

But that was really the first time that I was truly exposed to sports talk radios when Bob did it, probably six to nine on 700 WLW. And he took calls and you would hear from irate fans. Trumpy, if people don't know, did the NBC games with Dick Inberg. So he's a big TV star too. Right. He was also a great football player and one of the early Cincinnati Bengal tight ends. So, you know, he, I kind of took his path, much like Chris Collinsworth took his path,

because Chris Collinsworth inherited that radio program from Bob Trumpy in Cincinnati. Yeah. And that helped him, I think, get to the point where he is today as one of the preeminent broadcasters in our sport of football. So you retire in 1997 from the NFL. You did Monday night football. You did the CBS studio shows. In 2007, Don Imus gets fired from the station. what got you interested in this job?

Oh, man, that's some story. You know, so I had been exposed to WFN, of course, when I was with the Jets from 1993 to 1995. And Mark Chernoff hired me to do a paid spot with Mike and Chris on Fridays. Initially, it was supposed to be Mondays, and I said, no, I don't want to do Mondays. Let's do Fridays.

You're too close to the game, yeah. So let's do Fridays. And, you know, so I had three coaches in three years. and it was a revolving door over there at Hofstra where we practiced, and we weren't very good. And I suffered, everybody suffered from it for three years. And I only got worse because you went from Bruce Coslett, who I loved, to Pete Carroll, who I love, to Richie Cotite, who I had no relationship with, and ultimately realized that he had no idea what he was doing. And they put a lot of, you know, I guess power and pressure on him to turn the team around and it just never happened. So I end up leaving.

But the point being is that I was exposed to WFAN. So when I finally retired in 97 and moved back to New York full time, I was doing ABC. So therefore, I would call into I miss in the morning on Mondays during football season. So I knew I miss from my days earlier, had a good relationship with him. I got the show. I knew it was fun, especially when they got the sports. It wasn't very serious. So I could have a little fun with him.

and really became one of the add-ons to the show over the years. In 2007, I was on a golf course in Arizona. I was calling back to the radio station to make a bid for his radio thorn. And Eddie Scazeri was the producer for that day for some reason. I don't know why. And this was when he was suspended for his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. and his wife, Deirdre, was the host. And I was calling in to make my bid.

And Eddie said, we're not taking any calls now, Boomer. I said, why is that? He goes, because Imas just got fired right in the middle of the week. And what was odd about that was Joel Hollander and Steve Rosner, who obviously had their own foundation, the Carly Foundation for SIDS, were in the studio. And literally two minutes later after I had hung up, Steve Rosner called me on his cell phone and said, hey, are you? Would you consider morning radio? And I'm on a golf course in Arizona, mind you, just enjoy him life. And I said, well, are they going to pay me like Imas?

And he goes, well, there could be something along those lines. And I said, well, I'll have a little interest. I'll take, you know, I'll take a look at it. And from that point on, like the rest of history, like, they made me a very fair offer. They gave me an opportunity to do something that I never thought I was going to do. and they paired me with a maniac. And for 10 years, you know, I loved every minute of it, never had a bad day at work,

and really enjoyed my time with Craig and learned a lot about this business. I miss his show, obviously, was not a sports show? Was there ever a notion that you would be hosting something in the morning that would not be strictly a sports radio show? Well, so it was interesting. They gave me a week's worth of shows before they decided that they wanted me.

Although I think Mark Chernoff, you'd have to ask him yourself, I'm not sure, but I think he had targeted me as the guy that he wanted from the sports side and that they wanted to make the whole station sports. But I did do three shows with Monica Crowley. And so, and Monica was brilliant and is brilliant, but she was not a sports person. And I can be political at times if I want to be. So it was kind of more of a, we were interviewing each other about different things.

And that's not really what people wanted to hear. And although Mark said it sounded like it was a smart show. show. It wasn't the show that he was looking for. So he kind of had an idea, along with Chris Olivero, that it was going to be Craig Carton. And I didn't have no idea who Craig was at all. I didn't know he did the sports junkies with Sid Rosenberg. I didn't know any of that stuff. And he was doing that when I was playing. So I wouldn't even have known that anyway. So I did a week's worth of shows. Chris Russo I did a show with and I called my agent and said, if I had to work with him, I'd want to shoot myself. I said, I can't, this is just too exhausting. Then I did a show with Chris Collinsworth,

who was kind enough to come in and do a show because he and I had done shows in Cincinnati together. And I had a great time with Chris, and I tried to convince Chris to move to New York. He didn't want to do that. And then I did the three shows with Monica Crowley. So I think Mark knew I was the guy. The question is, who was going to be my partner? And I think Oliveiro felt like all along it was going to be Craig Harton, but they just had to hear the two of us together. You start the show with Carden, September 4th, 2007. You had been largely a TV guy to that point. Yes. Did you find you had to reprogram your brain to do radio? So I was a TV guy for the most part, but I was also doing Westwood One radio broadcast on, you know, for football. So, and I was working with guys like, you know,

Kevin Harlan and Marv Albert and, and people like that. So I had known all about radio, what radio was about and how radio makes its money and all of those different kind of tentacles that radio, has within it, what I didn't realize is what a four-hour radio show was going to be required, what was going to be required for me. And, you know, working with a radio guy like Craig, now that I sit here and I think back to the beginning in Al Dukes and Eddie Scazeri, we didn't start with Jerry, but we wanted Jerry. So when you think about the kind of people I had around me, so I had really good insulation as to if I was going to make a mistake, they would cover for me or they would, we would talk after shows about, you know, maybe we want to do

this thing, don't talk so much about that thing. Let's kind of keep it this way. And they were really gracious about it the first six months. And I learned a lot. I really did. I learned a lot from Craig. I got to say, he knows how to dial up a radio show about as good as anybody I've ever been around. So I was with an All-Star team. That's the way I looked at it. And I just had a follow suit and then bring whatever I brought to the broadcast, which was the other stuff, the former professional athlete, the guy that's on television, the guy that has a lot of friends, and, you know, and Craig can make fun of those friends, make me uncomfortable and see if he can make, he always says, you know, the thing he did for me is humanized me as a person on the radio.

And I'm like, I still don't understand what that is, but I think in his eyes, he think he did something for me towards the audience that maybe, you know, he thought was important. And I think that's what made our show so good for 10 years. The newspapers early on said, okay, here's what's going to happen. Carton's going to try to drag Boomer into morning radio stuff where Boomer doesn't want to go. And you're going to say, no, no, no, no, let's not go there. Is that how the dynamic played out? You know, the first month or so, it did, you know, because he was doing bikini contests and everything over it in Jersey. I'm like, dude, I'm not into bikini contests and all that other stuff.

I'm not getting involved with that. But he had his way of like, interjecting all the uncomfortable stuff towards me, which I think made it even more fun for the listener. You get to watch you squirm a little bit. Yes, exactly. And part of that, you know, he and I learned how to improv a lot of things on the fly. And that's when you know, you really know the guy you're working with. Like, I could do that with Gio now.

It's taken us a few years to get to that point. But we now can both improv on the fly, especially with, you know, in the main. middle of the summer when there's baseball is not like in a hiatus right now baseball starting we can get into other things and we can have a lot of fun with it uh Craig and I had that basically six months in I finally realized okay this is what we're doing it is a show that's what you have to remember at all times it is a show and Craig and Gio are kind of like stand-up comedians doing their thing for four hours and I'm just sitting there playing off of it and having fun with it. So I have to do the sports stuff, but then I have to follow them when they go off road. Yeah, which is fine. You know,

Craig and I used to have this bit about going to this Turkish massage place. And, you know, and I would be like, I can't believe you were looking at me the whole time. What are you looking at? And why are you looking at me? And, you know, he would claim that he wasn't. And then I would claim that he was. And we'd have a lot of fun with that. And I think, you know, I'll never forget, we were going into opening day at Shea Stadium in 2008. And, you know, I know the owners. He didn't know any of the owners at that point in time. I knew all the people of significance in New York City politics that were going to be there. And we had a two-week discussion about where he was sitting for the home opener. And I'm like, well, you're sitting to my left. You're not sitting to my right because to my right, that's where

everybody else is sitting. And I don't want you near them. I have a reputation. I have a reputation. That kind of thing. But it wasn't serious at all. It was totally improv. And then we're going to go one way or the other with it. And he was like, you know, don't worry about it. I'm not going to embarrass you, that kind of thing. I know that he would never embarrass me.

But the listener doesn't know that. So that was part of the gig and part of the schick going into that. And then, of course, coming out of that, he was acting as if he was embarrassing me. Like, you know, he was checking out, you know, one of the wives of one of the big real estate, you know, tycoons. in New York City and saying that she was hitting on him and it was a really weird, awkward situation. And then I have to kind of, you know, meander through all of that. And that's part of the uncomfortable nature of what he brought to me in the morning, which made it so enjoyable.

So there's a real dynamic there. But then you're embellishing the dynamic for radio. Yes, of course, for the show. And I think that, you know, there were some uncomfortable moments. I'm not going to lie, in real life, there have been. And there were some that day. but I think he was doing it also for effect, but he also's a little bit like loose, like he's like out there. So you have to recognize that there's always a potential for a situation to arise,

which makes it extremely unpredictable, which makes it a lot of fun. Last week there was a very weird and very alleged story about Zach Wilson, the Jets quarterback, dating. That might not be the right verb, his mom's friend. What do you do with a story like that?

Well, you kind of, have fun with it. And you let the callers kind of take you in a direction. You know, you don't have to go somewhere if you don't want to. I usually don't like to delve too much into people's personal lives. But I mean, this is all over the place. And because of Zach Wilson's mom's penchant for social media and for Zach going out on social media and reacting to some of this stuff, I mean, it makes it okay to talk about it and have some fun about it. But I will say one of the most uncomfortable days I ever had was a Tuesday morning when I was coming back from a Monday night football game when I was doing both of the jobs. So I would get here probably around, you know,

510, 515 after a long night to do a Monday night football and flying through the night to get back here. And I'll never forget walking into this very, this, this very office, not this one here, but one down behind me. And I can hear Craig and Al like laughing. and giggling. And I'm like, what are they laughing and giggling about? And of course, Craig goes, we got something. We got something. And this is right up Craig's alley. And he knows it's going to make me really uncomfortable. And sure enough, he plays a video for me. And I hear the voice and I know the voice. And what the voice is talking about is going to make me really uncomfortable that we're going to have to open the show with this. And nobody's heard this. We have this first.

And this is the Rex Ryan foot fetish video. Could you imagine this coming in on a Tuesday, no sleep? These guys are bouncing off the walls and we open up the show with this. And I just basically said, I guess, fourth and a foot is going to have a whole new meaning now. And it just took off from there. And those two days, I think I remember it being two days, were about as uncomfortable as any radio I've ever done in my life. And I think that even came before, if I remember correctly, came before the Jerry Sandusky stuff in Pennsylvania because that was really uncomfortable, those conversations and

those discussions. But that's what morning radio is. It's kind of like, you just never know. I mean, like, it's nothing is planned, nothing is scripted. I don't have Al Dukes as a producer breathing down my neck to discuss something. We kind of have a formulation of we understand what we're going to talk about, but then there are going to be those moments where something's going to happen and you're going to end up discussing about something that is completely out there and uncomfortable, which makes, I think, a lot of fun for the listener. Do you hear that fear in the back of your mind that I'm going to say the wrong thing, even if I'm trying to say the not wrong thing in a moment like that? All right, so I did that once, and I learned from that. And that was a Daniel Murphy situation where,

you know, he was going to miss opening day because his wife was giving birth. And I, I said, you know, just kind of matter-of-factly, you know, how about having a C-section or something like that? And because C-sictions for women seem to be very popular. And I just said it. And I said, I remember having a player on my Super Bowl team who didn't miss the Super Bowl game, but his wife was giving birth in a hospital back in South Carolina or Atlanta, wherever they were living. And I kind of, it was one of those Tuesday mornings where I was exhausted and I was just talking and said something. stupid and said it's so matter-of-factly that all of a sudden people were coming after me.

And that was probably the one time where I wished I didn't delve into somebody's personal life because that's where I felt like I violated everything that I always didn't want to cross. And I didn't want to bring, and I called Daniel to apologize to him and I apologize to the audience. But when something like that happens in today now, in today's sports, I still get referred back to. Oh, you remember when Boomer questioned Daniel Murphy missing opening day? So that still hangs with me and still sticks to me. But that's the one thing that I regret most of all the 15 years that I've been here that I've said, that I said it so casually, but yet I was invading their personal life, which I should have never done.

Was this job the first one where you were directly responsible for ratings? I think I was responsible for ratings on Monday Night Football for CBS NFL today. but never has ratings been as big an issue as they were here in the radio world, which I wasn't aware of until I got here. And what was that like? Well, that was tough. You know, that was every quarter like Chernoff would come in and say, these are ratings.

This is what's going on. And I'm like, guys, we'll be fine. Don't worry about it. Like, I didn't worry about it. And I still, to this day, don't worry about it. Like, the radio guys worry about it. I know that we do a good product. I know we're on a great, powerful station and people who want to hear about sports and other

different things and want to laugh in the morning, they're going to come and join us. And the ratings speak for themselves. I do know that. And we have been, I think, number one for what we do since Craig and I started here. And Gio and I have just amplified that. It's just grown even more. So I feel great about it, but I don't really. worry about it and I'm not too concerned about it.

You mentioned those early days of production staff giving you notes after a show. Here's how to talk about things differently. What kind of notes were they giving you? What wasn't really? They wouldn't, they would just say, hey, look, man, you know, you got to give Craig some airtime. You know, we were fighting for airtime initially. And, you know, I was probably coming on too strong. And we didn't meld at first.

But, you know, the interesting thing is when I think back to when we did our first audition, We did it on July 4th, 2007 at the WNEW Studios. And we went up there, and Olivero and Turnoff were with us. And they gave us a couple of content ideas. And we just started talking about it. And it was supposed to be like a two-hour deal. And after about 20 minutes, we came out. And they said, that's it.

That's the show right there. But it took us a while for me anyway to get comfortable with Craig. And then Craig getting comfortable with me. And initially, I was going to bring out the show like on an even hour. He was going to do the odd hour. And then I realized pretty quickly that, wait a minute, this guy is the radio guy. Let him do it. It's like having a great running back.

You know, why would I not want to give him the ball 25 times? It makes my job easier. And it took me about a month or two to realize that he was a true professional that I had to let him do his thing and then I could play off of him. Dynamic almost sounds like play-by-play and color analysis. doing a football game. It's very similar. And, you know, I have to say when I first started in broadcasting was 91, 90 and 91, and it was the World League of American Football. And I worked with Brad Nestler and he was great. He was awesome. And I thought, man, this transition from the

field to the booth is going to be really easy. And then about seven years later, I retired and went into the Monday night booth. And the reason I went into the Monday night booth was because the producer and director, Ken Wolfe and Craig Janoff, who were doing ABC, also did the USA Network for the World League of American Football, and they're the ones that hired me. So I knew them. So it was a natural for me to go to that booth and work with Al and Dan and take over for Frank. And when I got into that booth, initially it was a lot of fun. It was great. And then it was me and Al by ourselves. And then I saw the insecurities of the industry. I've never been so startled in all my life how the second half of that season unfolded and all the different things that were going on that I had no control over.

So it was when I got with Marv and I got with Howard David and I got with Kevin Harlan, my faith was restored in broadcasting because I left Brad Nestler having this great idea, had the Monday night football deal. And then the next three guys that I worked with were awesome. And then that's the way it worked with Craig. And that's the way it's working with Greg now. So I work with two guys that I really did admire and respected. And they respected me. And as long as they showed me that same respect, I knew it would be successful. I asked Al Michaels about it before the Super Bowl this year. And he said, my theory was that Boomer had retired a little too early. Like he wanted to still be on the field too. He was kind of half in the booth and half on the field. Is that how you see it?

I mean, we all have different ideas. You know, I mean, I have no, it all worked out great for me. I mean, it would have been great to have a 25 or a 30 year career there. But they changed. You know, so much changed about them. And then they moved to, you know, ESPN. And then it moved to Sunday night football. It was all over the place.

That second year, I thought we started out great. And then all of a sudden, a turn took a right turn somewhere in the middle of that season. And I still, to this point, don't even know why. And then when the season was over, you know, yeah, I was fired. Leslie Visser was fired. But so was Craig and Kenny. So there was more to it behind the scenes than meets the eye. And anybody who was involved with it knows that.

And that's why I think I reacted the way I did when I did get fired and was so very adamant about protecting everybody else's reputation as well. But at the end of the day, like I said, it all worked out for me because Joel Hollander hired me to do Monday night football on the radio. And that's where my whole life changed around for the better. And I think I sit here today 15 years later or whatever that was probably 24 years later, a lot better off. I would think the tricky part about taking a job like this would be stepping into a station like WFAN. was a very serious New York sports fan. Yes.

And those fans saying, what gives you the right, Mr. Boomer Osceyerson, to talk about New York sports? Would you feel that? I grew up here. I grew up here, man. I am a Met fan.

I am a Nick fan. I am a Ranger fan. I wasn't a fan of either the Giants or the Jets. I was more of a Baltimore Colt fan because of Bert Jones. But, you know, I grew up here. I know what it's like to be a fan and I'm still a fan. So, like, I had, that's the one thing

that Mark Chernobyl said. He goes, I'm shocked. that you knew as much as you did about all these other sports. I said, well, Mark, man, I grew up a fan. I mean, come on. I mean, I was going to the garden when it opened in 1968. I was going to Shea Stadium wearing a met uniform and, you know, in a glove.

I played basketball, baseball, and football. And I was going to Ranger games when I was seven years old. So I don't, like, I know all these teams. I know the fabric of these teams. I know the history of these teams. And I feel like I could talk about it better than anybody, if not better, or with greater credibility than anybody else ever that has been a professional athlete. Very few guys, for whatever reason, are unable to speak about all of these different sports

the way that I can. And, you know, and I'm a former player. So I have a unique perspective. But I also have a fan's perspective, especially when it comes like the Knicks and the Rangers, just simply because I've been a fan for so long. And I get so frustrated at time, just like all the other fans out there. So I feel like, hey, man, I can talk with the best of them. And you feel comfortable talking baseball, basketball, hockey on the radio right away.

100%. 100%. That's pretty amazing. Because I know if I had to talk about my childhood teams, I give you 15 minutes. But I don't know if I gave you four hours of radio today with very demanding listeners and demanding fans, seeing if I was making a mistake. Well, we did make a mistake and a very big one at that. We used to run a like a trivia question prize giveaway thing. of our interns screwed up one of the answers, and Craig and I didn't know the answer. And when

somebody called in and gave a right answer to a question, we said, no, you're wrong. We said, here's the right answer, when in fact, the listener was correct and our answer was wrong. It had something to do with, I think, I'm trying to think what it was. I think it was the hitting streak, the 61 game, Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak. Who did it end against? We had the wrong answer, the list of the right answer. So this was early on. And this is a when things kind of changed for me and Craig because Mike and the mad dog just absolutely eviscerated us in the afternoon. Like total douchebags, just total. And I remember coming in the next morning going, well, I guess we got a little egg in our face. And I looked at Craig. He goes,

I got an egg on our face. This is war. I'm like, man, they work for our station. We don't care. You know, and he took it to a whole new level. And that's when we really became. boomer and carton. I mean, people don't realize that. And I remember there were, there were times where he was doing a number of, like, impressions. Like, he does a Susan Waldman impression. You know, it's crazy. They're, they're out of, they're out of left field. But there's a Chris Mad Dog Russo impression. But Chernoff said you can't do any of it. He wouldn't let us do any of it. And we had, we had bits. We had everything. And no, no, you can't touch them. They're untouchable until they touched us. And then,

The first or second ratings book came out, and we were number one. And Craig says, now you can't tell me what to do. I was like, oh, God, here we go, man. This is going to be like, the shit's going to be stirred. And it was from that day on. Because WFAN is one team. But then there are teams within the team. Yes.

So as you say, that gives you an identity that this morning team is different than the afternoon drive to. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And Mike and Chris had been there a long time and been extremely successful. And Craig holds a lot of grudges. I don't really care. It kind of rolls off my back. I don't really care. But that's part of the insecurity of this business that I'm finding out about as we go on through the years. And Craig just started hammering him, just left and right. And he would do the Mike impression. He would do the dog impression. And it was just insane. And it was. funny. It was hilarious. And I could be the laugh track. And the more insane he became, the funnier it became. And the more the listeners in the morning enjoyed it. And then whatever Mike or Chris made a mistake, oh, believe me, he was all over it. With the audio. Yeah. Oh, yes. With the audio and everything. And I think one of the funniest ones is when A-Rod came in to discuss his steroid use. And Mike said, you know, A-Rod, are you doing steroids?

And they ride quickly said, no. And Mike said, okay, that was it. And the next thing, you know, I get the next like 50 shows that was discussed at nauseam on our show because Craig would hold a grudge and he would never forget. But it was funny. That was the thing. It was funny. And there were at that point, every line that was supposedly drawn in the sand had been crossed. And it became really like the extension of what I thought we were going to be, but then what we turned into.

And what we turned into was must listen radio. And I think Gio and I have done the same. Like, Gio is just as funny, just differently. And his impressions are more spot on than Craig's were. Craig's were just out of left field. But it's been great working with both of them, really, when you think about it. At the height of the back and forth, how awkward did it get with friends? Francesa when you'd see him?

You know, I didn't see him much, but I will say the day that Craig got arrested, for some reason, he showed up and standing outside of this office because this used to be his office. And he says, it looks like you're going to have to get a new partner now. It was very funny the way he said it. And to his credit, he never really took shots at Craig, never really did. And he could have easily done that. but he never did that and I'll never forget that I thought he was I thought he was really kind to Craig under the most adverse and extreme circumstances so I'll never forget that but I don't know if Craig will ever forget the previous stuff that was running before that but that's radio I guess this is 2017 yes Cardin gets arrested yes for his involvement in the concert ticket scheme ultimately convicted and goes to prison I remember the video from that morning you're sitting next to Phil Sims what were you thinking that morning on the air. I don't think Phil was in there that morning. That morning, he was not in there.

He came later that week. The next morning, perhaps. The next morning, yes. When you read a statement about Carton's arrest. Right. So what happens, you know, we got here that was right after Labor Day. So we have a long Labor Day vacation. We come in on that Tuesday. Craig's here. Everything's fine. That Wednesday is the Wednesday that he does not show up. And Kim Carton, his wife, calls Al and says he's not coming in the day. And I come walking in here and Al says, Craig's not coming in. in today, I think he's sick. I'm like, what do you mean he's sick? He wasn't sick yesterday. He's fine. What, what the hell's going on? And he goes, well, Kim called and it's just not coming in. And it's, she was, I'm like, all right, whatever. So we start the show. And, you know, I opened the show,

it's Bumer and Cardin, you know, numb nuts is not here today because I was so aggravated at him for not being in. And then lo and behold, around seven o'clock coming across the crawl on the bottom of the screen, you could see that Craig Carton. been arrested by the FBI at 3.15 this morning or whatever. And churn off comes into the studio and says, don't say anything. Don't say anything. And I'm like, don't say anything. I mean, how do you, we're a talk show. My partner is not here. He's just been arrested by the FBI. And what do you think I'm going to say? I got to say something. So I, we come back and I look into the camera, plus we're on TV, of course. And I said, you know, it has been reported that my,

partner has been arrested by the FBI, I don't have any more information on any of that. I said, as more information comes available, I'll be more than happy to share it. But at this point, we're all in shock at the station, so something along those lines. And all I can say is that I have not been contacted by the FBI. I don't think any of the guys here have been contacted by the FBI. So whatever Craig has gotten himself into at this point in time, we'll end up finding out, I'm sure, quite shortly. And I left it at that. And then the next day, Phil Sims was in. And he sat in with me, I think the rest of that week. And we kind of got through the week. But, you know, it was,

it was about as bizarre a moment that you could have on live television and live radio. And it was, it was a really dark moment because a really good friend of ours got himself into deep shit. and none of us had any idea of the depth of what he was dealing with until ultimately we found out over time all the different things that he was doing without our knowledge. And that's the really weird thing about all of this. You work with somebody for so long and you do so many things with them, softball, and you go to dinner and you're doing remotes and you're hanging out together. and yet he was able to like compartmentalize us and our show and what we were doing with his, you know, his gambling issues that we didn't even know were there. I knew that he was winning money because every time he won money, he would come in and tell us. And I'd always, I would always yell at him.

I'd say, look, put some money away for those kids and their colleges. Don't be an idiot. Don't blow it all. And who knew that he was doing what he was doing and how he was doing it. And at the level he was doing it, that was. That was really the shocking thing for all of us. How long between his arrest and you talking to him on the phone? Months.

Months. Yeah, we had to get, you know, you have to understand. So I try to tell people this all the time. And even to this day, you know, my name's everywhere his name is. And I'm in every article about him being arrested by the FBI. So I don't know if people are saying, you know, boomers are part of this, boomers this. I'm running a foundation. I'm trying to run a business here. I'm trying to work at CBS. You know, what are my bosses at CBS thinking? Am I in this ticket business with him? Am I gambling with him? You know, you got the NFL ties. You got a million different things that, you know, that I'm involved in that now all of a sudden are put at risk because of him being arrested by the FBI and committing fraud. So that's the last thing you want to be a part of in that situation. So it, you We didn't talk for quite some time.

And, you know, he left me, sent me an email. And this was before he was getting mental help. And the email was angry. Like, I, you know, he said, you're, you always said you're a foxhole guy. And I said, I am a foxhole guy until the guy that's in the foxhole with me brings a hand grenade. Then I get down the foxhole because I don't want to get blown up with them. I mean, so like there was a, all. this kind of intensity around everything that was going on with him. You know, he would go on other

radio stations and give interviews and I just, I just didn't want to talk about it. Any time I talk about, you know, Craig, up until he went to jail, was all with reverence and appreciation for everything I learned from him and all the things that we had built. And initially, I don't know if people know this. I mean, this radio station wanted me to go to the afternoons. They wanted me to take over for Mike when Mike left. And I was literally inches away from going to the afternoon. And this was while Craig's away. And, uh, you know, and was trying to figure out a partner and all that other stuff. Meanwhile, I'm trying to run partners through in the morning. And one of our, uh, long time, uh, employees here, Vicki Bayello said, you're going to be working with, with, uh, Geo. I know you're going to be working with Geo.

Geo's going to be the guy. Geo's going to be the guy. She knows radio better than anybody. And it turned out that it was going to be geo, but I really came very close to going to afternoon radio. And the reason I didn't is because of a conversation that I had at the NFL today with David Berson. So he's the guy right underneath Shaw McMannis at CBS Sports. And just like in a random kind of conversation in the middle of all of this, he says to me, I think this is probably late 2017, maybe early 2018. Because, you know, Boomer, you should really be proud of what, you know, you did over there at WFN and like what you and Craig created.

Because that's your real estate. And that's, you know, something along those lines. And he was, I don't know, maybe just trying to pump me up or whatever. And he wasn't saying that I needed to stay in the morning because we're on CBS Sports Network. He wasn't saying that. He was just saying, you built something and look who you replaced and look what you did to the ratings over there. That's amazing. And when I got home that night, I called my agent and I said, Steve, I don't want to do the afternoons. I want to stay in the mornings. And I said, I built something

here along with these other guys and I don't want to lose that. And I think that we still have enough here that if we find the right person, we can continue our success. And that right person turned out to be geo, which was perfect because he's a Long Island guy. He knows. the station. He knows all the listeners. And he too, just like Craig, knows how to start a radio program and does it great. So we found the right guy and I stayed in the morning. 2020, Carton gets out of prison and then eventually he takes the afternoon slot that you were just referring to on WFAN. What's your relationship like with him now? Well, they wanted us to go back together. They wanted to put us back together in the morning. And I considered it. I really

did. I considered it. And the only reason that I thought it was my choice, at least that's the way it was played to me. It could have been somebody else's choice. I don't know. I said, you know what? I don't want to do that. And it's not because I dislike Craig or don't want to have fun with Craig in the morning. It's that I feel like I owe geo, you know, the right to be here in the morning because our ratings have been a huge success. And why would I want to, like, blow up a who basically got a seat and had to work his way through this whole entire station to get to this level. And he's so good at what he does. I don't want to change that now.

And I think we got a great thing going on here. And I even told Chris Olivero this, I said, as much that I know that would be amazing for the station, I think if you really think about this for a second, if you put Craig in the afternoon, it'll be an acquired taste for a while. but if you put them with the right guy, it's going to be great. And you're going to own both the afternoon and the morning. And I'm not saying that I'm a program director. I just felt like, from my own perspective, that's how I felt,

we would be the strongest of our best selves here at the radio station. And it turned out that now Evan has been kind of like morphed into like a Craig Minion. And even the weirdness of Evan, you know, is funny now. because of what Craig brings to that station and Evan. So it's not for everybody, but if you take a look at the ratings, both in the morning and the afternoon, I'd like to think that I was a little bit of a sousayer in that regard, because I just figured that having all the personalities

the way that they are right now and then adding Tiki and Tierney to the mix, I don't think the station has ever been this strong. I really don't. Yeah, the ratings that just came out. They crushed in the afternoon. And, you know, if you go back and you'll listen to their, first week. I called in on their first day, I think. And I said, it would just be a matter of a time before you guys wipe out ESPN. And they've been doing it, you know, consistently now. And it's like,

it's a powerful station for sure, but it still comes down to the personalities on the air. And people have got to like or dislike them so much that they have to listen. And I think that's what we have now. It's reported by the New York Post the other day that Carton's going to have a morning show on FS1 on television that is going to air at the same time that your show's on the radio? What do you make of that? Craig came in and told me and said, you know, I have an opportunity. And, you know, Craig has a family to feed. He's got debts that have to be paid. He has to take up opportunities. I have no problem with that at all. And, you know, I don't know who his partner will be. I don't know if it's going to be one of those scream at each other shows or what's going to happen.

But, you know, I wish him nothing but the best. I don't worry about that. Like I told you earlier, I don't worry about any of the competition. I just worry about what we do. And, you know, You know, if Craig has success on FS1 and he has a good partner and they're great and they do well, good for him. I'm happy for him. I'm happy he's got his life back together. You know, his kids are unbelievable. He's got four great, amazing kids. And they've withstood what he went through, doing a large part to his wife and how strong she is.

But, you know, those kids are amazing kids. And watching their dad reclaim his notoriety and success, I'm really, really happy for that. How is your rapport with Gio different than it was with Carton? It's just Carton's crazier. You know, Gio can get a little bit self-deprecating. Craig is not as self-deprecating as Gio is. That's a gentle way to put it. It is, but it's also funny.

You know, and Gio has some really good opinions and funny opinions. So Gio's at a different point in his life, too, because he's got two kids at home. You know, they're four and one. and he's living a good life now and he's finally made it, so to speak. And then the appreciation and respect I have for him is how he started. You know, he started as an intern, worked his way up, then went to Pittsburgh for five years, then came back, worked on CBS Radio Network where nobody heard him. And then happened to be at the right place at the right time.

And he's an unbelievable partner. So that's all I asked for is just a partner to give me respect. but they are different. But in the same way, they're very funny and they know radio. And that's the important thing from my perspective. I feel you have a good opinion about this because you are an ex-athlet who's been interviewed on the radio umpteen times, thousands of times. How do you feel about interviewing athletes on your morning radio show?

First of all, we hate interviews unless we get the person in. If we get the person in, then we could play off them a little bit over the last couple years, of COVID and the restrictions and all that of the stuff, we've been very hesitant to have athletes on or anybody on via the phone or Zoom or any of that stuff. So as we are right now, we are flying and we're just doing it without guests. But I have another show for that anyway, so I can handle that when I need it. This is a TV show. Yeah, call Game Time. So you can do a longer in-depth interview. Yes. You could do on the radio and less awkward in terms of the- Well, it's still awkward because it's Zoom, but most of this stuff on game time is not controversial. It's more about

the athlete that I'm talking about and their history and how they got to where they are today. So it's a little bit more of an evergreen type of interview program, but anytime I need to get away from this nonsense, I can always go there and it could be just me and it could be me and, you know, could be an Olympic athlete, could be a baseball player, could be a hockey player, could be a former athlete, could be an active athlete, could be a coach, could be pretty much anybody, a writer that, you know, has written books that have of interest to like that particular genre and that particular audience, but it's been very successful and well received. So I do have that aspect of it as well. So that's interviews. After doing this 15 years, how many calls do you feel

you should take over the course of four hours. You know, if you listen to the guys I work with, they think I get call or Iice that I want to hear a lot of calls. And I do, especially the funny ones. What I see, the great, the line, the subject line matter, you know, take poking fun of Jerry or Al or screaming about geo, I'm hitting that, I'm hitting that in a minute. But, you know, you've learned that you just don't want to be overburdened by the calls. You know, it's not, you know, we're not overnight where a caller becomes a part of the show.

Unless the caller is really good and we have a rapport with that caller, then we may let them come on a couple times a week maybe if Al allows it because he has his own little way of doing things. But I just think that we have such a good flow between the five of us now that sometimes the callers will get in the way of that, especially if we have a good thing going on. But today, you know, you just never know what the subject matter may be. Like, you know, we're talking about air filtration systems and cars. And Gio had no idea what that button was in his car. And he goes, you know, I'm driving the car and it stinks. I'm going to just hit the recirculation button. He's like, what the hell is that?

I'm like, you don't know what that is. And that becomes like a 20-minute discussion point. And people are calling in talking about it, which is what morning radio is about. And that's the improv part of it that is so enjoyable. And those calls are particularly tailored to the segment you're doing. Yes. It's not like, I'm calling in about Joe DiMaggio, you know, right? We will not take those.

Al will not take those calls. You know, there was a point in time where I think Al probably took about a thousand calls on the Giants offensive line and the problems that Eli Manning was having. And he got so exasperated that he had to take a couple days off because it just got too much for him. And I'm like, Al, it's the offensive line of the Giants. Who cares? He goes, exactly. So I think he had to take a couple days off because it was just so intense.

And the giant fan was all over him because he was screaming about, stop with the offensive line already. So we had to take a couple days off. But that's the fun part of the show that nobody sees. That's what makes it fun. You know, we had a softball team at one time. And now it was a pitcher. And we were playing against the wounded warriors. And the wounded warriors have a guy by name of Josh Wedgie is probably their best softball player.

And Al pitches and hits him in his titanium leg. And now Al, Al has PTSD from hitting a wounded warrior with the softball. Meanwhile, the wound of warrior doesn't have legs, can't feel anything. And Josh Wesley is laughing at Al. And that laughing at Al and Al hitting him, basically I had to remove Al from the pitcher's mound because he could never do it again because it became a mental block. And every time he was up there, he saw Josh Wedgian. and him hitting him with the softball.

These are the people that I work with. Yeah. This makes it so fun. And at the end of the day, sports radio, morning sports radio is we could talk about the teams and stuff, but really it's about angst. And it's about embarrassment and angst. Yes. And me screaming at them. And then them yelling at me and making fun of me.

And nobody does that better than Eddie Scazeri. Eddie Scazeri is the guy that very rarely speaks himself, but speaks through the sound bites that he ends up having folders and folders and folders and folders for. So when he wants to go after me, he'll find the folder that fits the moment. Hey, Rich Guy, we feel sorry for you. And that's really Eddie speaking to me through the sound bites that he has. Is this show better when New York teams are great or when New York teams suck? I think it's better when the teams are better.

When the Giants went to the Super Bowl, you know, in 7 and 12, it was amazing. You know, when the Yankees were in the World Series in 2009, amazing. When they're in the playoffs and they're losing to the Houston Astros, not the fact that they lost, but the fact that they got there, amazing. You know, when the Rangers got to the playoffs this year, amazing. When my son-in-law and the Islanders got to the playoffs through COVID, amazing. You know, people want good stories. I mean, we're bombarded every single day by so much negativity around here,

just in our general everyday lives, that when there are good stories, and there are successful players and teams, man, the fan base, they are engaged. Only the people that truly are sycophants are the ones that are angry when things go south. You know, most fans want to hear good things about their teams, not bad things. Sure. And do you find you can talk about all sports equally and still maintain the ratings, or is it you have to front load football, Yankees, that kind of stuff? I'm being told that nobody cares about hockey for 15 years.

You've ignored them studiously. that time. Well, but part of it is that's how we talk about hockey. And when people tell me, nobody cares about it or when I talk about my son-in-law who plays for a team that, you know, I didn't like when I was growing up, I just think that depending on the, like, if you're in the middle of the NHL season, nobody's going to talk about the NHL overall, except for the sick of fan fan. But when the playoffs come and now everybody is interested, then you could really go in depth a little bit more within that in that in that sport but let's face it it's the yankees it's then football then the metts then the nicks and it's in that order if the nicks ever become good again in my lifetime

while i'm here at this radio station i can't wait to see it because i think that that's the one fan base that probably has the biggest amount of fans because nobody nobody roost for the people root for the nets, but it's a very small portion of the population. The sporting population that loves basketball are Nick fans, and that's 98% of them. And when they are humming and they're going, and only twice since I've been here, have they done that once with Carmelo Anthony and two years ago with Julius Randall? The other 13 years, they've been horrific because they've made bad decisions. and, you know, we're in the midst of a decision-making again by a guy, Leon Rose, that really is an agent. Is he a basketball guy?

I don't know. He knows basketball players, but I don't know if he knows the actual game of basketball. I always find it fascinating when there are fan bases out there that are just waiting to be reactivated. I felt the Rangers are a little bit like that this year. You could feel it on Twitter and everywhere else people coming out of the woodwork, and the Knicks are the ultimate example. Oh, God, yes. Oh, God. You know, we all think back to game one.

they beat the Celtics over time, I think it was, and it was the bing-bong game. And everything from the bing-bong game went downhill after the bink going. I think they won maybe the first four games or whatever. And then all of a sudden, the wheels fell off. And between that and Kari Irving and Kevin Durant and the drama with the Nets and James Hardin and then Ben Simmons and, you know, Kyrie quitting on the Nets three years in a row. I mean, it's just nuts, the drama that's in basketball. And if the Knicks were ever to be good, really sustainably good, it would be a remarkable transformation because you would feel the fan base.

It would come out. Everybody would want to talk about the Knicks. A couple more for you, Boomer. Last week, WFAN ran a commercial for live golf. How did you and GEO react when you heard that? Well, we were ticked. And we were ticked because, you know, previously I had been talking about because of my connection to 9-11, as you can see behind me. And because my offices were on that 1001st floor of the North Tower and I lost over 200 friends that day.

I will never forgive the Saudi government ever and I will never forget. So it's easy for me to have a passion and an emotion that I believe that the Saudi government was a part of 9-11. I really do. And I will never forget that and I will never let that go. So obviously, my initial reaction to Phil Mickelson and to all these other players, but that they were taking dirty money. And we all know it's sports washing. We all know what it is. And, you know, there's no reason to hide it. And so when we heard WFAN running that promo, Joe's like, did you just hear that? I'm like, do you think that the sales department actually listens to our radio station? And they listen to what we're going to? And they listen to what? we're saying this is us off the air. So he decided that he was going to go and just absolutely hammer the fact that now we're taking 30 blood money. And I thought it was the right thing to do. And I amplified it like I normally would. And then I said, you know, even Trump Bedminster, a great golf course, love it, bears the name of our former president. They're taking the Saudi blood money. And, you know, interestingly enough with what's going on on our country socioeconomic

wise. And you talk about gas prices and you talk about our president going over to Saudi Arabia, asking OPEC to increase their output. And then you put all this stuff together. And you realize, man, what are we doing? You know, what does everybody do? I guess everybody's after the almighty dollar and that's all that really matters. And I think I'll always remain critical and opinionated in regard to this. But I think this thing is starting to wane nationally. And the initial, flurry into the criticisms or starting to kind of dissipate a little bit. So I think Liv is going to be here as long as Saudi Arabia is pumping oil. They're going to be pumping money into this golf program for the next five to ten years. So you criticize the station.

Do you hear from the station after you criticize the station? No, because I think the station recognizes sometimes that, you know, we need that be real. I mean, that's what it is. And sometimes the guys in the afternoon criticize us. Sometimes we criticize them and it goes back and forth. It's all in good spirits. So nothing has ever gotten so intense. Even when Mike and Craigward, you know, had their things, there were a couple times where Chernoff tried to quell some of that stuff. But the more you quell carton, the worse it gets. So he recognized that it was a losing battle. And I would think that if anybody came in here to try to tell us what to say or how to say it, they'd find the same. situation to be true that you weren't you it's it's a non winning you're not going to win because we're

the ones with the microphone you either fire us or you suspend us but we're not going to take away our opinions that that's that matter especially in this case and that's when you lose the audience when they feel you're not being honest yeah pulling a punch right exactly I mean that's why I thought what geo did was was spot on I mean it is what it is we know what it is and we have to call it as we see it, if you will. And this is, this was an easy one for both of us and really especially easy for me. This is much less serious. But you said a while back, the Jets might cut offensive lineman Mackay Bechtin, who was their number one pick two years ago in training camp this year. Still think that's possible? I still think it's possible. I think, uh, as, as we have found that

over the last month or two, because there have been other reports now all of a sudden that have come out, that the jet hierarchy and coaching staff is frustrated by Mackay's lack of the, attention to detail and how he disappeared. And last year at towards the end of the year, he was well over 400 pounds. That's not what they want. And then this year he couldn't come back. He missed a flight. And a lot of people don't understand all the other frustrating aspects to all this story as I do.

And then when he finally did get back, he was 396 pounds. So yeah, they're frustrated. They're exasperated. And they don't know what to make of them. So we'll see in about a week when he comes back what he weighs. If he is, you know, still over 390 or 395 and he's not showing any improvement, I wouldn't be surprised if they cut him loose. Whenever I hear a proclamation from someone like you that's specific like that,

I think that is informed by people you know, things you know. Is that you guessing? Well, no, it's not. I don't guess. I really don't guess about a lot of things. I kind of feel like I know what's going on. but I also can read between the lines. You know, I've been in locker rooms for 14 years,

so that's the credibility that I'd like to think that I bring in a situation like this. So if the general manager, in this case, Joe Douglas is talking about a culture in the locker room and a certain type of player we want, and you hear all of that and it's great, and then all of a sudden one of these players that you've drafted and you brought in is not coherent or is not following and is basically incoherent because he's not around, about what you're trying to build here, then you become frustrated with that person. And we've seen that, you know, money is no object. I don't want to hear about salary cap implications or all that crap.

If a guy is not worth the money you're paying him and he is bringing everybody else down with him, we have seen across the board in professional sports, they'll get rid of a guy. And that's why I said what I said that, you know, and when I did say it, it kind of blew up because everybody felt like, wow, there's no way that that could be real. And then all of a sudden, people started digging into the story. And the more you heard from other people other than me, you heard that that could quite possibly be a significant move on the Jets part that they're not going to put up with any nonsense because they've got to make an example of them. You said you only worry about your own show. You don't worry about your competition.

But is your competition at this point in media history some other radio show or is it Twitter and Hulu and things? I don't even know. people would be doing. I don't even know. You know, I've been like, I don't spend too much time worrying about it. I mean, I know that there are other stations out there that are doing their thing and we're trying to do our thing, but I never really even give it much thought. You know, it's amazing. Like when those stories come out, you know, people, my friends of mine will text me. Oh, you guys are number one. I was like, what, that's what I expect to be. You don't have to remind me. I know. So I don't worry, like I said, I really don't worry about anybody else

doing what they're doing. It's kind of like what I tell my guys about athletes. It's one inning. It's one game. It's one season. And you got to look at it that way. Or it's one shift, one period, one game, and hockey. And that's the way I look at.

It's one day. It's one rating point. It's whatever here. And as long as we're having a good time and we're laughing, people will be with us because I know that's what they miss. You and Geo signed contract extensions last year. I'm going to push one day at a time aside for just aside. Right.

Okay. How long do you want to do this show? As long as I'm still laughing and as long as I enjoy coming to work every day, I'll continue to do it as long as they'll have me and pay me. I'm not doing it for free. I can tell you that. Do you feel physical effects of this many years waking up that early and getting in here? Yeah, I've had some issues over the years in terms of sleep deprivation and things of that nature that I've had to work through. But like I said, when I still walk in here in the morning, the uncertainty of what we're about to step into still is.

is resonating with me. And as long as that resonates with me and it doesn't become boring or tedious or exhausting to the point where, you know, you can't do anything else in your life, that's when I'll give it up. But I still enjoy it. I still enjoy the everyday aspect of being the first to talk about what happened the day before. 6 a.m. I'm going to be, I'm going to be first and then everything else is going to follow me. That's exactly right. We set the tone. I learned that. A lot of things don't break during our show. A lot of things. A lot of things will break the day before or the night before. But whatever happened the night before, we're the first ones really talking about it that people are hearing. You know, Sal does the

overnights and he'll have his people that are listening to him. But we're the ones with the big audience between, you know, six and eight 30 that everybody's listening to. And they want to hear about what's going on. And, you know, like we have a contract situation with Aaron Judge. We have a trade potential with Durant and Irving. We have a trade potential with Donovan Mitchell and Juan Soto. I mean, those are things that people want to hear about updates every morning

that we get to talk about before anybody else does, which makes it even that much more enjoyable to show up to work. Boomer or Sison, thanks for coming on the press box. Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

It's time for the second weekly edition of David Shumaker guesses, the strained pun headline. Yeah. Tuesday's headline about Bob Dylan banning mobile phones

from his concerts was how does it feel to be without a phone? Today's headline, David, comes to us from two people, from Mitch Carr and from Alex Abrammy. It's from the New York Post. It has to do with the story we talked about earlier in the week. Cam Smith winning the Open Championship, somewhat surprisingly, over Rory McElroy.

The Post actually did two headlines, so I'll allow you to guess, either one of them and only one involves Cam Smith's hairstyle. What was either one of the New York Post's strained pun headlines? Wait, what did

do I get any information besides that it was Cam Smith one? Yeah, what else do you need? And I said one involves his hairstyle. His hair, right, no. Which you looked at earlier in the week. What is it like a rats nest? Like a mullet? Oh, mulletgin? Mm-hmm.

Is it... Mullet Ginn. He didn't need a mullet again. He won the tournament. He made a bunch of birdies in a row. But mullet is right. Mullet. Rhymes with mullet.

Bullet, number one with a mullet. Number one with a mullet is correct. It doesn't really rhyme. You want to point that out, but okay. And then number one with a mullet. And what's the other one? Oh, it's just anything about him. It involves cam.

Let's say that. Cam. Cam. What if he were running for president? We might say... Yes, we can. Yes, he can. Yes, he can.

And did we just have that with Cam Newton in the football season? Yeah, yes, he camped. No. He's David Shoemaker. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic by Erica Servantes. We're back Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media.

See you then, David. See you later, Brian.