February 3, 2023 • 34 mins
Angelo Cataldi joins us on the “Fifth Hour with Ben Maller, and Danny G Radio.” Angelo has been the sports radio soundtrack to Philadelphia. For 33+ years he’s been the morning man on the legendary WIP. We talk about his storied career as a firebrand talk show host holding the Eagles, 76ers, Phillies, and Flyers accountable. The changing of the business over the years, from calling out athletes to hosts now carrying the water for them. His legendary role in the “Wing Bowl,” promotion, and the infamous Donavan McNabb NFL Draft shenanigans, which still has legs all these years later. Cataldi shares some memories of working alongside Hall of Famer Tony Bruno who would go on to launch ESPN Radio and Fox Sports Radio. Follow Angelo’s final radio shows on 94 WIP in Philly Mon-Fri: 5:30-10 AM ET. Follow Danny G Radio on Twitter @DannyGradio, Follow Big Ben on Twitter @BenMaller, and listen to the original "Ben Maller Show," Monday-Friday on 500+ terrestrial Fox Sports Radio affiliates, iHeart stream, and SiriusXM Radio channel 83, 2a-6a ET, 11p-3a PT!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearing house of
hot takes, break free for something special. The Fifth Hour
(00:23):
with Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere.
Back at it on a new weekend of the Fifth
Hour with Ben Maller and Danny g Radio. Because four
hours a night on the overnight or not enough eight
(00:46):
days a week. Tell a friend, Tell a friend, Tell
a friend. From the Mallard podcast Studio, the podcast Dojo
deep in the North Woods, we thank you for finding
the podcast and subscribe me. Now it's still football season.
There's no game this weekend. They've got that Gayzy Pro Bowl.
(01:08):
But for our purposes, we we don't have Benny Versus
the Penny. We're not gonna do Benny Versus the Penny
the Pro Bowl edition. That's not happening. So Benny Versus
the Penny will return for the final time this football
season on the podcast next weekend. We've got some big
things planned, Fingers crossed. I don't know what's actually gonna happen,
(01:29):
what's not gonna happen. As far as the Super Bowl programming,
there have been some rumors that I might make an
appearance in Arizona. That has not been confirmed as of
right now. I have some family in the greater Phoenix area.
I might drive in and record some special editions of
the Fifth Hour podcast, but we'll worry about that in
(01:51):
a future edition of the podcast. Now, chances are that
you're listening to this right now. You enjoy audio content,
so God bless you. And if you listen to the
overnight radio show, you're like radio, and you're likely like
sports radio. And I love the chance today to talk
(02:13):
to a legend in the business. Now. I've never lived
in Philadelphia. I've visited Philadelphia over the years, but I've
never been a local resident. But I am aware, being
in radio of the magical audio powers that our friend
who's gonna hang out with us today has his name
(02:33):
is Angelo Cataldi. Enough you not spend any time in Philadelphia,
you might not know who that is, but he is
a legendary figure on the radio dial in Philadelphia. He
has been the morning guy at the number one sports
station in Philly w i P going back for over
thirty years. In fact, I believe he's over thirty three
(02:55):
years now at the Mike and Angelo is retiring. Was
actually going to retire back at the end of so
like a month ago. I know we're in February now,
but at the end of last year he was going
to retire. But he said, listen, the Eagles have a
pretty good team, and he made a deal where since
(03:16):
he's a legend, they allowed him to do this. They
don't normally allow this in radio, but he said he
will continue to do his morning show, which does very well,
as long as the Eagles are in the playoffs. Playoffs. Well,
they're in the super Bowl, Hello, super Bowl fifty seven
next weekend against Kansas City. As we all know, we
(03:37):
don't know what's going to happen in that game, but
we do know that when that game ends, win or lose,
that Angelo Cataldi will be leaving the radio dial in Philly.
And he's worked with Tony Bruno. We're gonna get into
that at some point. Also been part of what I
think are two of the greatest radio promotions ever done.
(03:58):
I am so jealous that he was able to do
this back in the olden days, the infamous Donovan McNabb heckle.
If you're old enough to remember when the Eagles drafted
Donovan McNabb back in the day, I gotta get into this.
At some point, Angelo sent a group of listeners, some
crazy guys to the NFL's draft up in New York
(04:20):
and booed the heck out of Donovan McNabb. It has
been many years. McNabb played his entire career, retired from
the NFL, and this story still has legs. It's one
of the legendary tales of the NFL draft over the year.
So we'll get into that as well, but we need
to start right now. When you talk to a guy
(04:41):
like Angelo Cataldi, you gotta talk about his current situation,
and he's watching these ego games throughout the playoffs and
he's got some skin in the game. So Angelo, welcome
to the podcast. First of all, it's great to have
you on. I am excited to chat with you. What
has it been like for you to watch these games
(05:02):
knowing that you've got some, as I said, some skin
in the game. And if the Eagles did not beat
the Giants or stumbled against the forty niners. That's it,
You're done. What's that been like for you? Yeah, Ben,
I don't think it's anything the Eagles really wanted. I
was no motivating factor and they run here. Believe me,
(05:24):
we have. Over thirty three years at Philadelphia Morning Radio,
I have made many enemies in the Eagles or the Days.
But it's a heck of a run, and you know,
and I decided that's where I wanted to go. I
figured that way, maybe if the Eagles went on a run,
I could kind of slip out the back door without
anybody noticing. And that's stilled the plan, although they've kind
(05:46):
of noticed. But the plan is if they win, which
would be awesome, I'm leaving that. Say, they have the parade,
so they'll be all thinking about the parade and all
the great speeches, and then I'll flip out the thought
people will forget I was over there. Well, no, they won't.
But but normally I've been in the business a few years,
but you've got some years on me. But normally in
(06:08):
radio you don't get a final show. This is unusual, right,
I mean, you've seen it. I'm sure you've seen it.
More than I have. The unceremonial departure. You know, guys
been at the station for years and they get rid
of him. What's this been like for you? Yeah? It's weird,
right because I'm like a control freak and I plan
a shop and then like halfway through we stall. Last
(06:31):
three or four weeks, nobody of call and stop crying
and off you meant so much for my life and
all this, which is awesome. I mean, who ever thought
you don't really say to them, I go, I'm so
happy that you know, I still could have had this
kind of impact. But me and my co wrote we
(06:51):
did it just for the money, right, We just if
they stopped having us, we weren't going to come in.
We're got doing it because it was a job. They're
paid well and all these other accolades that came out
of it. You don't know until you're leaving this many
people would want to come forward and tell you, you
know how much you meant to them. And I didn't
(07:13):
really have an inkling of it. I just knew that
I came out every every day and I did the
michell I could do, and the most taconate sports city
in America. It was a great job for me. And
if they helped other people along the way, God bless them.
I'm thrilled that it happen. Yeah, so I did some
work in Boston a little bit. I know you're from
Rhode Island, Angelo, but Philadelphia is insane. I mean, it's
(07:35):
it's its own animal there, and you've been talking to
these people every morning for all these years. What what
is it that's different? I know you worked in a
bunch of cities, but what is it about the Philadelphia especially?
I think the Eagle fans more than the Sixers in
the in the in the Phillies. But what is it
about their their outlook as fans that that causes this?
I mean, it's it's much different than almost anywhere else
(07:58):
in America. Then you're right on the exact point of
my time in Philadelphia. I was in Rhode Island. I
didn't like it there because I felt there was a
ton of hero worship going on. Larry Bird walked on water.
That was the holier. I covered the Celtics when I
was a writer at the Providence Journal, and I never
(08:21):
felt I was a good fit there because I'm really negative.
I like to criticize. I like to hold people to
a very high standard, probably an unattainable standard. And then
when the Inquirer, Philadelphi Inquirer came to me and offered
me a job, my first reaction was, Oh my god,
I think this is the perfect fit for my personality.
(08:43):
But I did seven years there, and then the radio
thing came along, and almost from day one I worked
with Tom Brookshare, maybe the most optimistic man you would
ever meet in sport, and I was there to counterbalance
all of his happy talk and it connected, you know,
And and all these years later, the Eagles just made
(09:06):
it the Super Bowl. We're still ripping the defensive coordinator
pretty much every day. That I just I like the
mentality in Philadelphia is probably as extreme it could be
constantly under all conditions, old figures than our town accountable.
I love that. Yeah, I love it too. In fact,
(09:28):
just to sum that up, and I think we'll play
the clip here on the podcast. But Nick Sirianni, a
couple of weeks ago, I'm sure you obviously talked about
this a bunch of your show, But for those that
didn't hear it, the Eago coach after a playoff game
called you out Angelo by name. I'm sure that's probably
happened a lot over the years, but what did you think?
What was your reaction? He just won a playoff game
(09:51):
and your name was in his head. He was thinking
about you that I don't have to tell you that
when they're mentioning your name, end up pronouncing it correctly.
This is good for the show with Nick is saying,
and I have I have a pretty good relationship with
it becomes out of go utter every game and talks
(10:12):
about the game. But what Nick was saying is that
are what we thought was important, which really and the
big picture isn't. So I'm going wrong for all these years,
this may be the first time a coach went out
of his way to say that I was. You know
from my face that I was wrong, and he might
be right. I just don't It comes down a style.
(10:34):
I've been ripping the defensive coordinator because I think he's
too passed it. I like the real aggressive blitzing style.
Did hold the last two opponents in the playoffs to
seven points each game. So it's harder for me to
what I'm trying to tell you is Nick was probably
right then, But I mean I'm just reacting the way
(10:55):
I was trained to long before I even got to
fill it. I just always look at things from the
negative perspective, and it taught me thirty three years here,
so it couldn't have been the wrong approach. Yeah, and
and I lean that way to Angelo, you know, late
at night on on our show. But it feels like
the business is changing. Uh. And maybe I'm wrong on that.
(11:17):
I mean, you're you're obviously been in Philly all this time.
But I get the sense a lot of the national
guys that I deal with, and even a lot of
cities that I people I know around the country, that
critical sports talk is going away. There's a lot of cheerleading.
There's a lot of people carrying the water for teams.
So do you agree with that or you disagree with that? One?
(11:39):
Agree with it? Ben? Uh? You know it's not the
reason I'm getting out. I'm getting out because I'm somebody
one years old. But I don't think I would sit
much longer. Even in Philly. We're still behind the curve
on becoming more positive sports talkers. We're still behind the
curve on it. Not just is it it's so simple,
(12:01):
more fun when I'm ripping something and I can be
completely honest, more fun and if they react to it
sooked the media or out where it's even more fun.
Then you developed a little bit of a few. To me,
that's entertainment what we do. It's not journalism, it's entertainment.
(12:23):
And if we can have them back and forth, to me,
that's fun for the LITMA. And that's the way I've
always done the show. I think if last months logo
would be much harder to do that. Yeah, I get
that sense. I I blame Angelo the team websites that
they took over a lot of the media coverage and
the Dallas Cowboys tweeted out a negative thing about Dark
(12:44):
Prescott and you would have thought that it was a
war crime the way it got covered right, and it's
it's insane. And when you were at the New York Post,
what was it? What was it like when you're in
New York back in the back in the day, criticizing guys.
So I came to Philadelphia. I would never plum this here,
but I did a lot of analysis pieces and don't
play great. They loved it. Puddy Ryan, I covered the
(13:09):
Eagles what Puddy Roy was a coach and I just
pounded at him. Then I read every chance I could get,
I caught him. But um, it's not the same. Now.
I've been the most brocal cript in the whole country
of the Andy Reid. He didn't like what he is
a coach here. I would like the one bit since
Elian and we just did a Paul yesterday. Do you
(13:32):
like Andy Reid in percent of Philadelphia fans that they do? What?
That's I've been saying. It's not convinced that anybody I'm right,
but it's still fun to me. You know, Andy Reid
gets to the super Bowl, gets the Eagles, and some
of the people are going, wow, well he's gonna have
a chance here to go out with read lose it.
(13:54):
Oh yeah, but where if he wins? Exactly? Doing the
morning show all these years and I do the overnight,
so I'm a night person. I'm wired more at night,
and to me, I've done mornings. At one point I
did a brief run where I was up early in
the morning doing a morning shift, and I I hated it. Angelo,
(14:16):
I am not a morning person. And I know you're
very regimented with your routine and how you schedule things
and all that. How have you been able to pull
it off for three decades. That's an insane run. Here,
I gotta tell you, it's a massive decrefice, at least
the way I have done it. But I didn't know
how to do it any other way. And I get
up at two thirty in the morning. I don't watch
(14:37):
most of the night sports events live. I watched them
when I get off, and um, I mean I developed
a system for that. But I found that I couldn't
nap well, I couldn't do that. So I'm going to
bed at six, go to sleep about six thirty, a
read for a little while, get up at two thirty,
and then prepare the show, and then go in and
(14:58):
do it. And at ten o'clock I'm pretty much done.
I mean, especially at this say, it's an awful lifestyle.
It's a it's a major sacrifice, and do you know
how to do it any other way? Unfortunately, I really
don't have much of a life, so it made it
easier for me to I wasn't sacrificing that much. I
watched a lot of TV. I got a wonderful wife,
(15:19):
I got great grandkids, and I definitely see them a lot.
I guess I'll get to seem a lot more. But um,
we felt like that was the job description. I how
to do it. And now that you're you're gonna be retired,
So are you gonna stay up late at night? Now
you're gonna change your schedule. You have to change your schedule.
I would think a little bit anyway, So have you
thought about that? Yeah, listen to your show. Time I
(15:43):
go to bed. Maybe I'll go to bed around the
time I got up, maybe about two or three. Who
is the sportswriter though, So that wasn't my schedule. I
used to go to bed around two or three in
the morning. Recovered a night sports event. I don't even
know how long it's going to take. Uh, you know,
reconfigure my brain so that I could stay up later,
(16:03):
because even on weekends, if I make it the ten o'clock,
that's that's an achievement. It's hard. It's hard about that.
That may be the thing I'm looking for most. I'm
going to go on a normal people time. Yeah, the
normal schedule. I didn't want to ask you this. If
you've been in the business for a long time. I
wanted to pick your brain, like what do you and
you mentioned this kind of earlier. You you kind of
referenced it a few minutes ago, like what what stands out? What?
(16:27):
Why has your show been successful? What makes a good
show to you? That is the secret sauce that has
been the key for you. It's not complicated. Do not
worry about whether the owner or White Trip show, the
owner of this sports franchise, or the general manager or
the manager or the coach, any of the players, doesn't
(16:51):
mean the damn thing what they think of your show.
Do your show for the customers, for the listeners, and
for the course, bind with them and next with them.
Give them what they want, which is strong opinions in
an entertaining way. If you could do them, you got it.
That's the whole formulas not that complicated. Then just worry
(17:15):
about who's listening, as long as it's not associated directly
with the team. What the team thinks doesn't mean a
damn And how well you're doing in radio and the
other thing we learned Angelo a couple of years ago
during COVID and I was blown away by this. We
had more people listening to our our show, um with
(17:35):
no sports going on, and it was it was I
thought we were going to go out of business. When
they shut sports down, I was like, well, that's it,
do a sports radio show. But I think we we learned.
I think a lot of people learned right that people
they don't necessarily tended the sports are important, but they
still tune in. They're still listening to hear what you
have to say. Yeah, we kept a good audience, but
(17:59):
I didn't like it because the one thing the reason
I went into sports radio so I wouldn't have to
deal with real issues, real stuff life and that thing.
And we couldn't avoid getting political because cause were cooled
in and they'd say I'm not getting the vaccine. I'm
getting the vaccine. But only really had almost like a
(18:20):
tug of war over the president and all this stuff.
And I did not default. You. I couldn't go to
sports because there was no sports. And that period, like
the first two to three months before sports started to
seek back in, that was the hardest time in my
time here because I just yeah, we could do it.
We had an audience, but it wasn't it wasn't fun,
(18:43):
It wasn't what I wanted to do. It was it
wasn't a career I chose. So I was re relev
when things started to come back. Yeah, that part of
it is because no matter what you say when you
go down a politic, especially the last couple of years,
when you talk about anything political, you immediately half half
the people that think you are heathen. No matter what,
they think, you're on the wrong team and they want
(19:04):
to attack you. It's it's a brutal thing. It's it
hasn't always been like that, hasn't angelo When you were
a young guy guest starting out, it wasn't like that. Right,
It's gotten worse, hasn't it. No, it's much worth now, right.
But here's the thing. When they would then say to me,
you don't know what you're talking about, I would say
to them, absolutely, you're right, I don't. I don't know
(19:26):
anything about I don't know anything about vaccine. I fell
on the store pretty much every day because I didn't know,
always reacting the way somebody would be reacting there was
in any line of work during the pandemic. But what
I stow off because I also take emails. I gave
(19:46):
out my email addressed every day and I get a
lot of emails, and they were big. You need to
learn how to block people. I didn't block like until
like two either I didn't block anybody, and I got
to learn how to do it because these people were
making you know, you know, even in the worst circumstanses
(20:06):
in fourth nobody gets that up that this is. I
can't compare to anything because I wasn't doing political talk
until the pandemic. But it may be more than ever
to be that they didn't choose that line of work. Yeah, so,
I I didn't want to bring up since we have
you on here, Angela, we have a mutual friend, uh
doing the Overnight show. I've been at Fox Sports Radio
(20:28):
since it started twenty some years ago. And Tony Bruno,
who I know, you know you worked with him for years.
I love Tony. I used to listen to Tony when
I was, you know, kind of getting my way up
in the business, working my way up in the business,
and I I'm a big fan of his work. I
I know you worked together for a long time. You
know him very well. You got any good Tony Bruno
(20:48):
stories you can share with us? Uh, Tony, Tony was
unbelievable all right. First of all, the reason he joined
our show, which happened very shortly up to Tom Brookshire
retired was because management a w I P felt we
better get somebody in there who actually knows how to
do radio. Then I was not really a radio guy
with no radio background. I would work with Rookie, so
(21:11):
I learned a little bit about it, but I wasn't
ready to just be the main host. And Tony came
in he was I'm telling you, Ben, there was a
sequence around the second year. It was only a couple
of years where he was late more days than he
was on time, which is absolutely incredible in morning radio.
(21:33):
If you're not there at six o'clock in morning radio,
you may as well not show up. You gotta be
there that that's when all the prep happens before the show.
That he would come in, but he had such a
big personality that he was so quirky. Well you and
you loved you know what you want to do up
to leave the studio and do stuff out on the
(21:55):
streets and we had no storm wonder and don't eat that.
Tony had a real hard time. He lived in a
real snow area, lower Gwynett, which is outside of the
state of Philadelphia, and he said, listen, I'm not gonna
be able to get in today. Um, but I want
to contribute to the job people who in my area
(22:16):
if they need to get struggled out, and then the
whole he's reporting from people's driveways, troubling them out and
having the time of his life. That is that he's
one of the quirkiest guys I ever met, one of
the best professionals I ever met. And when he left
at the end of the two dies everywhere, he ended
(22:38):
up at the ESPN Radio Um. When he left, it
was one of the more devastating moments in my career
because you don't replace Tony Bruno. It's too big a personality,
too much fun to work with. But we all and
I Immorgany and I my co host. We learned so
much in the years we worked with Tony. Yeah, Tony
was great. I was on the air after he was
(22:59):
out here doing in l A doing the show after
the Lakers had won a championship and a we were
broadcasting on the street Angelo and a riot broke out.
This is back in the Kobe Shack days, and there
was a massive fire right in the middle of the
street and Tony Bruney, we were all freaking out. You know,
we had never seen anything like this and Tony, you know,
I guess he'd been in a write or two back
(23:21):
in the day, and he he was like totally calm,
and he was like, you, I didn't think anything of it.
And people are dancing around to a bonfire in the
middle of the street, and Tony just handled it like
a pros pro. I did also, And since we have
you on also, I wanted to bring up what I
think is the greatest radio promotion. I don't think you
guys do it anymore, but the Wing Bowl, which was
your show, right you were the show that I mean.
(23:43):
This is being a fan of sports radio. This this
thing took a life of its own. You guys, didn't
you fill the arena? The Sixers playing with this thing?
This thing became massive. How did that all begin? It
all began almost said on We with the Eagles were
not going anyway year the year, so early in our tenure,
(24:04):
I'm Organy came up with the idea that we should
have a chicken wing eating contest because Buffalo was in it.
Of you, this was a sequence where they lost fourth
grade super Bowl. So we said, well, what's then, I'm
when food is chicken wings? So we had we used
to have a remote broadcast on Fridays at the window
Franco Plaza Hotel writing the lobby. So we decided to
(24:25):
have this little eating contest with We gave away a
dusty old harbachi that was in the back of the prize,
not closet um. They were like six contestants and it
kind of, you know, kind of resonate. We got a
pretty good crowd. Not at the hotel wanted a chicken
wing eating contest lobby, but we got a good crap.
(24:46):
The next year we put in a sports bar. We
got a thousand people to see people eat chicken wings.
It's seven o'clock in the morning. Then a couple of
years later we went to a nightclub. Then we went
to an actual rock venue, and then we went to
the spectrum. The mayor back then, Edarndell, said, we get
(25:08):
a couple of available dates for the city of a year,
I'll give you the spect We're going to fill a spectrum.
The first year we wrote half of it all. We
had to spill over crop. By the twelfth year of
the twenty six year tenure, we were we were selling
out every seat twenty thousand in the Wealth Father Center
(25:31):
and we did for the next fourteen years right to
the last year. We had to end it because it
became more and more politically incorrect. We had scantily clad
women counting the chicken wings and and then we had
a gentleman's clubs started to um, they started to sponsor
(25:54):
eaters that were in it. We had thirty eaters, We
had big processions coming into the arena. Uh. It was
a four hour extravaganza. And uh we started to get
a real bad pushback for some of the politically incorrect
stuff we were doing. So it it finally it kind
of gassed its final breath about four years ago. Well,
(26:15):
you're right, man, in terms of getting publicity and stuff
like that. We were getting world publicity for a number
of years for those wing boasts that we did, and
it was another it's another example of a filing event.
I don't know that that would work in most other cities. Yeah,
I gotta tell you, Angel, I mean I didn't. I've
been to Philly a few times, I've never I haven't
lived there, and I knew about this thing, and I
(26:37):
would it would be on the news. They out of
here that showed the highlights on the nightly news. Back
when that mattered and now on the internet even and
I know it's been gone for a while, but the
clips were all on the internet. You guys had it
was like a boxing match. These guys would come in
and they'd have like big entourages. It was. It was wild,
(26:57):
wild and crazy. Now speaking of promotion, that was the
stelling point was to take some average people and give
them their fifteen minutes, you know, to make them the
heroes of the day. It was always called just two
days before the Super Bowl because the Eagle never went
to it. You know, when they finally wanted in seventeen,
we said, this is the perfect dex. Let's get out
(27:18):
and that's going gonna You've done some other zany things
being a morning guy, Angelo, And I gotta ask you
about the the draft, where I think Donovan McNabb still
hates you. Right, you you sent you were you did
you go to the draft and you sent listeners to
the draft, the NFL Draft, and you wanted was it went?
You went? You were part? So you wanted Ricky Williams.
(27:40):
Am I getting that part right? You guys were painting
for Ricky Williams. How did that go down? Yeah? This
was that a b life on my resident. But I
mean the story was that the mayor Ed Randell called
up that he said, I really would like the Eagles
to uh to draft Ricky Willie him had a second
(28:01):
pick of the draft, and I would like you guys
to campaign. He said this right on the air. Wow,
you gonna say no to the mayor, permous to may
or whatever you need. So we hired a box and
we decided to bring the thirty most bizarre off the
charts Philadelphia sports pads we could fund, and we did.
(28:24):
We got we called them the dirty thirty right, and
and they all got on the bus. In fact, what
ended up happened was we only had twenty nine and
there was a homeless guy on the corner when we
said to him, because if you get on the bus,
you can have all the eat and drink you want.
We're driving to New York comparitor. We're probably gonna be
(28:44):
at the draft for an hour or two, but just
take the ridot us. And he was our thirtieth guy.
And that guy Grant an eight, he was a king
that that. So we went up there. We went up there,
We got into the felt form. It was done in
the front form back then, and we had the mayor
and even arranged to get us dirty tickets so we
could get into the draft. This is when it was
(29:06):
just starting to become a real fan event, and we
were stupid. Man. We thought, we really thought they were
going to draft Ricky Williams, and no one had ever
considered a plan B. So when pull Tigery the commission
comes down, he says, was the second pick of the
draftgo select Outoman McNabb. We were so disappointed. In the moment,
(29:28):
we uh a boo grouped like none ever heard. It's
still if people could see it on YouTube, it was instant,
how loud that boo was mcnabs coming out, and and
that the boo and he's like he can't believe it,
but this is his dream come true and the fans
(29:49):
are doing the crop and it was just an unfortunate
turn of events. But what it ultimately exposed was how
sensitive McNabb was and how he never his sensitivity, even
though he had a great career. Its sensitivity of Philadelphia.
It hurt his popularity and and us. We survived the situation,
(30:13):
and most people from that day on have called off
idiots for that and justifiably. What was the bus ride
back to Philly? What was that like when they drafted mcnifa.
What happened was that was unfortunate too, because they were
by then the boys were very very drump and and
you can't understand, man, these guys were not in great shape.
(30:35):
These were not like physical stats of it. And there
was one really fat guy in there named dough Boy, right,
he was the guy who actually competed in wingball. But
wouldn't you know, we pull off at a light next
to a bus of senior citizens. So they all thought,
how much fun would this be if we moaned these
(30:57):
old timers. So this guy with a huge rear ant right,
pulled his pants down and sticks it up against the
bus window and the emergency but he precked it too
hot and the glass breaks. I don't hopefully all the
(31:21):
people and the senior citizens but survived. We drove hast
the way back with with the wind. It was early,
it was cold, and they were all believe me, then
by the time they got back, many of them did
not even recall that they ever went to the event. Now,
the better question, Angelos, and when you when you went
(31:44):
to management and said we had a small problem on
the bus. But how did they handle that? I'm sure
don't no problem, will take care of it or did
heads roll in? Jeez? Well, we had a program director
back to have Tom Bigbie. He loved anything that got
us attention, negative or positive, so he embraced it. He
(32:05):
thought it was great. In fact, we even considered doing
it the following year, but we were banned for life
from um from the draft. The only time we avoid
it is when they had it in Philadelphia a few
years ago. No, they we have being for life. We
can never go back to the trap. That is what
(32:25):
a way to to leave the NFL Draft behind though,
that is uh, exactly what you gotta do, all right.
I know we don't have a lot of time left,
but I wanted to We should probably get out of that.
But I did want to ask you as you retire
from radio after the Super Bowl, Angelo, what do you think?
What do you think's gonna happen to sports radio? We
you think it's gonna happen in the business. It's changed
(32:46):
a lot with podcasting. Everyone's got a podcast now. We
talked about the negativity kind of leaving sports radio, So
what do you think happens ten twenty years from now
to the business well in Philadelphia, which is really all
I really know. But it will always exist because it's
the best place to alive to to react in the
(33:07):
moment to what just happened in sports, and people love that.
And uh in our city, if you handed down from
generation to generation the love of the Eagles especially, but
all the all the sports team in our city, UM,
it will probably be It will definitely be less loud,
it will be quieter, it will be less plamboyant because
(33:29):
the world has changed now and it's harder to pull
up this stuff so he used to do, and it
will be Um. I think what you said before probably
a little less negative what they got the you got
on these podcasts now that they are going to be
competition because if you want, if you have a niche
interest in a niche interests, you could go and listen
(33:49):
to the podcast with people on it that you really
admire entertaining them. It'll change, but it will not go away.
There's a lot of other stuff that will go way
because the world is changing. But I think sports talk
will always be around because it's a way for you
to react live to something you all sort of like
(34:10):
if you're in a ball watching a game, you react
in the movement. Sports radio will always be able to
provide that opportunity, and I think that's why it will
always be there. Well, Angelo, much respect, a great career,
and you've still got some time left before the super
Bowl and then after it. So thank you for coming
on and good luck and retirement. And it was a pleasure.
(34:31):
I really enjoyed it. Thanks
Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
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(00:23):
with Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere.
Back at it on a new weekend of the Fifth
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(00:46):
days a week. Tell a friend, Tell a friend, Tell
a friend. From the Mallard podcast Studio, the podcast Dojo
deep in the North Woods, we thank you for finding
the podcast and subscribe me. Now it's still football season.
There's no game this weekend. They've got that Gayzy Pro Bowl.
(01:08):
But for our purposes, we we don't have Benny Versus
the Penny. We're not gonna do Benny Versus the Penny
the Pro Bowl edition. That's not happening. So Benny Versus
the Penny will return for the final time this football
season on the podcast next weekend. We've got some big
things planned, Fingers crossed. I don't know what's actually gonna happen,
(01:29):
what's not gonna happen. As far as the Super Bowl programming,
there have been some rumors that I might make an
appearance in Arizona. That has not been confirmed as of
right now. I have some family in the greater Phoenix area.
I might drive in and record some special editions of
the Fifth Hour podcast, but we'll worry about that in
(01:51):
a future edition of the podcast. Now, chances are that
you're listening to this right now. You enjoy audio content,
so God bless you. And if you listen to the
overnight radio show, you're like radio, and you're likely like
sports radio. And I love the chance today to talk
(02:13):
to a legend in the business. Now. I've never lived
in Philadelphia. I've visited Philadelphia over the years, but I've
never been a local resident. But I am aware, being
in radio of the magical audio powers that our friend
who's gonna hang out with us today has his name
(02:33):
is Angelo Cataldi. Enough you not spend any time in Philadelphia,
you might not know who that is, but he is
a legendary figure on the radio dial in Philadelphia. He
has been the morning guy at the number one sports
station in Philly w i P going back for over
thirty years. In fact, I believe he's over thirty three
(02:55):
years now at the Mike and Angelo is retiring. Was
actually going to retire back at the end of so
like a month ago. I know we're in February now,
but at the end of last year he was going
to retire. But he said, listen, the Eagles have a
pretty good team, and he made a deal where since
(03:16):
he's a legend, they allowed him to do this. They
don't normally allow this in radio, but he said he
will continue to do his morning show, which does very well,
as long as the Eagles are in the playoffs. Playoffs. Well,
they're in the super Bowl, Hello, super Bowl fifty seven
next weekend against Kansas City. As we all know, we
(03:37):
don't know what's going to happen in that game, but
we do know that when that game ends, win or lose,
that Angelo Cataldi will be leaving the radio dial in Philly.
And he's worked with Tony Bruno. We're gonna get into
that at some point. Also been part of what I
think are two of the greatest radio promotions ever done.
(03:58):
I am so jealous that he was able to do
this back in the olden days, the infamous Donovan McNabb heckle.
If you're old enough to remember when the Eagles drafted
Donovan McNabb back in the day, I gotta get into this.
At some point, Angelo sent a group of listeners, some
crazy guys to the NFL's draft up in New York
(04:20):
and booed the heck out of Donovan McNabb. It has
been many years. McNabb played his entire career, retired from
the NFL, and this story still has legs. It's one
of the legendary tales of the NFL draft over the year.
So we'll get into that as well, but we need
to start right now. When you talk to a guy
(04:41):
like Angelo Cataldi, you gotta talk about his current situation,
and he's watching these ego games throughout the playoffs and
he's got some skin in the game. So Angelo, welcome
to the podcast. First of all, it's great to have
you on. I am excited to chat with you. What
has it been like for you to watch these games
(05:02):
knowing that you've got some, as I said, some skin
in the game. And if the Eagles did not beat
the Giants or stumbled against the forty niners. That's it,
You're done. What's that been like for you? Yeah, Ben,
I don't think it's anything the Eagles really wanted. I
was no motivating factor and they run here. Believe me,
(05:24):
we have. Over thirty three years at Philadelphia Morning Radio,
I have made many enemies in the Eagles or the Days.
But it's a heck of a run, and you know,
and I decided that's where I wanted to go. I
figured that way, maybe if the Eagles went on a run,
I could kind of slip out the back door without
anybody noticing. And that's stilled the plan, although they've kind
(05:46):
of noticed. But the plan is if they win, which
would be awesome, I'm leaving that. Say, they have the parade,
so they'll be all thinking about the parade and all
the great speeches, and then I'll flip out the thought
people will forget I was over there. Well, no, they won't.
But but normally I've been in the business a few years,
but you've got some years on me. But normally in
(06:08):
radio you don't get a final show. This is unusual, right,
I mean, you've seen it. I'm sure you've seen it.
More than I have. The unceremonial departure. You know, guys
been at the station for years and they get rid
of him. What's this been like for you? Yeah? It's weird,
right because I'm like a control freak and I plan
a shop and then like halfway through we stall. Last
(06:31):
three or four weeks, nobody of call and stop crying
and off you meant so much for my life and
all this, which is awesome. I mean, who ever thought
you don't really say to them, I go, I'm so
happy that you know, I still could have had this
kind of impact. But me and my co wrote we
(06:51):
did it just for the money, right, We just if
they stopped having us, we weren't going to come in.
We're got doing it because it was a job. They're
paid well and all these other accolades that came out
of it. You don't know until you're leaving this many
people would want to come forward and tell you, you
know how much you meant to them. And I didn't
(07:13):
really have an inkling of it. I just knew that
I came out every every day and I did the
michell I could do, and the most taconate sports city
in America. It was a great job for me. And
if they helped other people along the way, God bless them.
I'm thrilled that it happen. Yeah, so I did some
work in Boston a little bit. I know you're from
Rhode Island, Angelo, but Philadelphia is insane. I mean, it's
(07:35):
it's its own animal there, and you've been talking to
these people every morning for all these years. What what
is it that's different? I know you worked in a
bunch of cities, but what is it about the Philadelphia especially?
I think the Eagle fans more than the Sixers in
the in the in the Phillies. But what is it
about their their outlook as fans that that causes this?
I mean, it's it's much different than almost anywhere else
(07:58):
in America. Then you're right on the exact point of
my time in Philadelphia. I was in Rhode Island. I
didn't like it there because I felt there was a
ton of hero worship going on. Larry Bird walked on water.
That was the holier. I covered the Celtics when I
was a writer at the Providence Journal, and I never
(08:21):
felt I was a good fit there because I'm really negative.
I like to criticize. I like to hold people to
a very high standard, probably an unattainable standard. And then
when the Inquirer, Philadelphi Inquirer came to me and offered
me a job, my first reaction was, Oh my god,
I think this is the perfect fit for my personality.
(08:43):
But I did seven years there, and then the radio
thing came along, and almost from day one I worked
with Tom Brookshare, maybe the most optimistic man you would
ever meet in sport, and I was there to counterbalance
all of his happy talk and it connected, you know,
And and all these years later, the Eagles just made
(09:06):
it the Super Bowl. We're still ripping the defensive coordinator
pretty much every day. That I just I like the
mentality in Philadelphia is probably as extreme it could be
constantly under all conditions, old figures than our town accountable.
I love that. Yeah, I love it too. In fact,
(09:28):
just to sum that up, and I think we'll play
the clip here on the podcast. But Nick Sirianni, a
couple of weeks ago, I'm sure you obviously talked about
this a bunch of your show, But for those that
didn't hear it, the Eago coach after a playoff game
called you out Angelo by name. I'm sure that's probably
happened a lot over the years, but what did you think?
What was your reaction? He just won a playoff game
(09:51):
and your name was in his head. He was thinking
about you that I don't have to tell you that
when they're mentioning your name, end up pronouncing it correctly.
This is good for the show with Nick is saying,
and I have I have a pretty good relationship with
it becomes out of go utter every game and talks
(10:12):
about the game. But what Nick was saying is that
are what we thought was important, which really and the
big picture isn't. So I'm going wrong for all these years,
this may be the first time a coach went out
of his way to say that I was. You know
from my face that I was wrong, and he might
be right. I just don't It comes down a style.
(10:34):
I've been ripping the defensive coordinator because I think he's
too passed it. I like the real aggressive blitzing style.
Did hold the last two opponents in the playoffs to
seven points each game. So it's harder for me to
what I'm trying to tell you is Nick was probably
right then, But I mean I'm just reacting the way
(10:55):
I was trained to long before I even got to
fill it. I just always look at things from the
negative perspective, and it taught me thirty three years here,
so it couldn't have been the wrong approach. Yeah, and
and I lean that way to Angelo, you know, late
at night on on our show. But it feels like
the business is changing. Uh. And maybe I'm wrong on that.
(11:17):
I mean, you're you're obviously been in Philly all this time.
But I get the sense a lot of the national
guys that I deal with, and even a lot of
cities that I people I know around the country, that
critical sports talk is going away. There's a lot of cheerleading.
There's a lot of people carrying the water for teams.
So do you agree with that or you disagree with that? One?
(11:39):
Agree with it? Ben? Uh? You know it's not the
reason I'm getting out. I'm getting out because I'm somebody
one years old. But I don't think I would sit
much longer. Even in Philly. We're still behind the curve
on becoming more positive sports talkers. We're still behind the
curve on it. Not just is it it's so simple,
(12:01):
more fun when I'm ripping something and I can be
completely honest, more fun and if they react to it
sooked the media or out where it's even more fun.
Then you developed a little bit of a few. To me,
that's entertainment what we do. It's not journalism, it's entertainment.
(12:23):
And if we can have them back and forth, to me,
that's fun for the LITMA. And that's the way I've
always done the show. I think if last months logo
would be much harder to do that. Yeah, I get
that sense. I I blame Angelo the team websites that
they took over a lot of the media coverage and
the Dallas Cowboys tweeted out a negative thing about Dark
(12:44):
Prescott and you would have thought that it was a
war crime the way it got covered right, and it's
it's insane. And when you were at the New York Post,
what was it? What was it like when you're in
New York back in the back in the day, criticizing guys.
So I came to Philadelphia. I would never plum this here,
but I did a lot of analysis pieces and don't
play great. They loved it. Puddy Ryan, I covered the
(13:09):
Eagles what Puddy Roy was a coach and I just
pounded at him. Then I read every chance I could get,
I caught him. But um, it's not the same. Now.
I've been the most brocal cript in the whole country
of the Andy Reid. He didn't like what he is
a coach here. I would like the one bit since
Elian and we just did a Paul yesterday. Do you
(13:32):
like Andy Reid in percent of Philadelphia fans that they do? What?
That's I've been saying. It's not convinced that anybody I'm right,
but it's still fun to me. You know, Andy Reid
gets to the super Bowl, gets the Eagles, and some
of the people are going, wow, well he's gonna have
a chance here to go out with read lose it.
(13:54):
Oh yeah, but where if he wins? Exactly? Doing the
morning show all these years and I do the overnight,
so I'm a night person. I'm wired more at night,
and to me, I've done mornings. At one point I
did a brief run where I was up early in
the morning doing a morning shift, and I I hated it. Angelo,
(14:16):
I am not a morning person. And I know you're
very regimented with your routine and how you schedule things
and all that. How have you been able to pull
it off for three decades. That's an insane run. Here,
I gotta tell you, it's a massive decrefice, at least
the way I have done it. But I didn't know
how to do it any other way. And I get
up at two thirty in the morning. I don't watch
(14:37):
most of the night sports events live. I watched them
when I get off, and um, I mean I developed
a system for that. But I found that I couldn't
nap well, I couldn't do that. So I'm going to
bed at six, go to sleep about six thirty, a
read for a little while, get up at two thirty,
and then prepare the show, and then go in and
(14:58):
do it. And at ten o'clock I'm pretty much done.
I mean, especially at this say, it's an awful lifestyle.
It's a it's a major sacrifice, and do you know
how to do it any other way? Unfortunately, I really
don't have much of a life, so it made it
easier for me to I wasn't sacrificing that much. I
watched a lot of TV. I got a wonderful wife,
(15:19):
I got great grandkids, and I definitely see them a lot.
I guess I'll get to seem a lot more. But um,
we felt like that was the job description. I how
to do it. And now that you're you're gonna be retired,
So are you gonna stay up late at night? Now
you're gonna change your schedule. You have to change your schedule.
I would think a little bit anyway, So have you
thought about that? Yeah, listen to your show. Time I
(15:43):
go to bed. Maybe I'll go to bed around the
time I got up, maybe about two or three. Who
is the sportswriter though, So that wasn't my schedule. I
used to go to bed around two or three in
the morning. Recovered a night sports event. I don't even
know how long it's going to take. Uh, you know,
reconfigure my brain so that I could stay up later,
(16:03):
because even on weekends, if I make it the ten o'clock,
that's that's an achievement. It's hard. It's hard about that.
That may be the thing I'm looking for most. I'm
going to go on a normal people time. Yeah, the
normal schedule. I didn't want to ask you this. If
you've been in the business for a long time. I
wanted to pick your brain, like what do you and
you mentioned this kind of earlier. You you kind of
referenced it a few minutes ago, like what what stands out? What?
(16:27):
Why has your show been successful? What makes a good
show to you? That is the secret sauce that has
been the key for you. It's not complicated. Do not
worry about whether the owner or White Trip show, the
owner of this sports franchise, or the general manager or
the manager or the coach, any of the players, doesn't
(16:51):
mean the damn thing what they think of your show.
Do your show for the customers, for the listeners, and
for the course, bind with them and next with them.
Give them what they want, which is strong opinions in
an entertaining way. If you could do them, you got it.
That's the whole formulas not that complicated. Then just worry
(17:15):
about who's listening, as long as it's not associated directly
with the team. What the team thinks doesn't mean a
damn And how well you're doing in radio and the
other thing we learned Angelo a couple of years ago
during COVID and I was blown away by this. We
had more people listening to our our show, um with
(17:35):
no sports going on, and it was it was I
thought we were going to go out of business. When
they shut sports down, I was like, well, that's it,
do a sports radio show. But I think we we learned.
I think a lot of people learned right that people
they don't necessarily tended the sports are important, but they
still tune in. They're still listening to hear what you
have to say. Yeah, we kept a good audience, but
(17:59):
I didn't like it because the one thing the reason
I went into sports radio so I wouldn't have to
deal with real issues, real stuff life and that thing.
And we couldn't avoid getting political because cause were cooled
in and they'd say I'm not getting the vaccine. I'm
getting the vaccine. But only really had almost like a
(18:20):
tug of war over the president and all this stuff.
And I did not default. You. I couldn't go to
sports because there was no sports. And that period, like
the first two to three months before sports started to
seek back in, that was the hardest time in my
time here because I just yeah, we could do it.
We had an audience, but it wasn't it wasn't fun,
(18:43):
It wasn't what I wanted to do. It was it
wasn't a career I chose. So I was re relev
when things started to come back. Yeah, that part of
it is because no matter what you say when you
go down a politic, especially the last couple of years,
when you talk about anything political, you immediately half half
the people that think you are heathen. No matter what,
they think, you're on the wrong team and they want
(19:04):
to attack you. It's it's a brutal thing. It's it
hasn't always been like that, hasn't angelo When you were
a young guy guest starting out, it wasn't like that. Right,
It's gotten worse, hasn't it. No, it's much worth now, right.
But here's the thing. When they would then say to me,
you don't know what you're talking about, I would say
to them, absolutely, you're right, I don't. I don't know
(19:26):
anything about I don't know anything about vaccine. I fell
on the store pretty much every day because I didn't know,
always reacting the way somebody would be reacting there was
in any line of work during the pandemic. But what
I stow off because I also take emails. I gave
(19:46):
out my email addressed every day and I get a
lot of emails, and they were big. You need to
learn how to block people. I didn't block like until
like two either I didn't block anybody, and I got
to learn how to do it because these people were
making you know, you know, even in the worst circumstanses
(20:06):
in fourth nobody gets that up that this is. I
can't compare to anything because I wasn't doing political talk
until the pandemic. But it may be more than ever
to be that they didn't choose that line of work. Yeah, so,
I I didn't want to bring up since we have
you on here, Angela, we have a mutual friend, uh
doing the Overnight show. I've been at Fox Sports Radio
(20:28):
since it started twenty some years ago. And Tony Bruno,
who I know, you know you worked with him for years.
I love Tony. I used to listen to Tony when
I was, you know, kind of getting my way up
in the business, working my way up in the business,
and I I'm a big fan of his work. I
I know you worked together for a long time. You
know him very well. You got any good Tony Bruno
(20:48):
stories you can share with us? Uh, Tony, Tony was
unbelievable all right. First of all, the reason he joined
our show, which happened very shortly up to Tom Brookshire
retired was because management a w I P felt we
better get somebody in there who actually knows how to
do radio. Then I was not really a radio guy
with no radio background. I would work with Rookie, so
(21:11):
I learned a little bit about it, but I wasn't
ready to just be the main host. And Tony came
in he was I'm telling you, Ben, there was a
sequence around the second year. It was only a couple
of years where he was late more days than he
was on time, which is absolutely incredible in morning radio.
(21:33):
If you're not there at six o'clock in morning radio,
you may as well not show up. You gotta be
there that that's when all the prep happens before the show.
That he would come in, but he had such a
big personality that he was so quirky. Well you and
you loved you know what you want to do up
to leave the studio and do stuff out on the
(21:55):
streets and we had no storm wonder and don't eat that.
Tony had a real hard time. He lived in a
real snow area, lower Gwynett, which is outside of the
state of Philadelphia, and he said, listen, I'm not gonna
be able to get in today. Um, but I want
to contribute to the job people who in my area
(22:16):
if they need to get struggled out, and then the
whole he's reporting from people's driveways, troubling them out and
having the time of his life. That is that he's
one of the quirkiest guys I ever met, one of
the best professionals I ever met. And when he left
at the end of the two dies everywhere, he ended
(22:38):
up at the ESPN Radio Um. When he left, it
was one of the more devastating moments in my career
because you don't replace Tony Bruno. It's too big a personality,
too much fun to work with. But we all and
I Immorgany and I my co host. We learned so
much in the years we worked with Tony. Yeah, Tony
was great. I was on the air after he was
(22:59):
out here doing in l A doing the show after
the Lakers had won a championship and a we were
broadcasting on the street Angelo and a riot broke out.
This is back in the Kobe Shack days, and there
was a massive fire right in the middle of the
street and Tony Bruney, we were all freaking out. You know,
we had never seen anything like this and Tony, you know,
I guess he'd been in a write or two back
(23:21):
in the day, and he he was like totally calm,
and he was like, you, I didn't think anything of it.
And people are dancing around to a bonfire in the
middle of the street, and Tony just handled it like
a pros pro. I did also, And since we have
you on also, I wanted to bring up what I
think is the greatest radio promotion. I don't think you
guys do it anymore, but the Wing Bowl, which was
your show, right you were the show that I mean.
(23:43):
This is being a fan of sports radio. This this
thing took a life of its own. You guys, didn't
you fill the arena? The Sixers playing with this thing?
This thing became massive. How did that all begin? It
all began almost said on We with the Eagles were
not going anyway year the year, so early in our tenure,
(24:04):
I'm Organy came up with the idea that we should
have a chicken wing eating contest because Buffalo was in it.
Of you, this was a sequence where they lost fourth
grade super Bowl. So we said, well, what's then, I'm
when food is chicken wings? So we had we used
to have a remote broadcast on Fridays at the window
Franco Plaza Hotel writing the lobby. So we decided to
(24:25):
have this little eating contest with We gave away a
dusty old harbachi that was in the back of the prize,
not closet um. They were like six contestants and it
kind of, you know, kind of resonate. We got a
pretty good crowd. Not at the hotel wanted a chicken
wing eating contest lobby, but we got a good crap.
(24:46):
The next year we put in a sports bar. We
got a thousand people to see people eat chicken wings.
It's seven o'clock in the morning. Then a couple of
years later we went to a nightclub. Then we went
to an actual rock venue, and then we went to
the spectrum. The mayor back then, Edarndell, said, we get
(25:08):
a couple of available dates for the city of a year,
I'll give you the spect We're going to fill a spectrum.
The first year we wrote half of it all. We
had to spill over crop. By the twelfth year of
the twenty six year tenure, we were we were selling
out every seat twenty thousand in the Wealth Father Center
(25:31):
and we did for the next fourteen years right to
the last year. We had to end it because it
became more and more politically incorrect. We had scantily clad
women counting the chicken wings and and then we had
a gentleman's clubs started to um, they started to sponsor
(25:54):
eaters that were in it. We had thirty eaters, We
had big processions coming into the arena. Uh. It was
a four hour extravaganza. And uh we started to get
a real bad pushback for some of the politically incorrect
stuff we were doing. So it it finally it kind
of gassed its final breath about four years ago. Well,
(26:15):
you're right, man, in terms of getting publicity and stuff
like that. We were getting world publicity for a number
of years for those wing boasts that we did, and
it was another it's another example of a filing event.
I don't know that that would work in most other cities. Yeah,
I gotta tell you, Angel, I mean I didn't. I've
been to Philly a few times, I've never I haven't
lived there, and I knew about this thing, and I
(26:37):
would it would be on the news. They out of
here that showed the highlights on the nightly news. Back
when that mattered and now on the internet even and
I know it's been gone for a while, but the
clips were all on the internet. You guys had it
was like a boxing match. These guys would come in
and they'd have like big entourages. It was. It was wild,
(26:57):
wild and crazy. Now speaking of promotion, that was the
stelling point was to take some average people and give
them their fifteen minutes, you know, to make them the
heroes of the day. It was always called just two
days before the Super Bowl because the Eagle never went
to it. You know, when they finally wanted in seventeen,
we said, this is the perfect dex. Let's get out
(27:18):
and that's going gonna You've done some other zany things
being a morning guy, Angelo, And I gotta ask you
about the the draft, where I think Donovan McNabb still
hates you. Right, you you sent you were you did
you go to the draft and you sent listeners to
the draft, the NFL Draft, and you wanted was it went?
You went? You were part? So you wanted Ricky Williams.
(27:40):
Am I getting that part right? You guys were painting
for Ricky Williams. How did that go down? Yeah? This
was that a b life on my resident. But I
mean the story was that the mayor Ed Randell called
up that he said, I really would like the Eagles
to uh to draft Ricky Willie him had a second
(28:01):
pick of the draft, and I would like you guys
to campaign. He said this right on the air. Wow,
you gonna say no to the mayor, permous to may
or whatever you need. So we hired a box and
we decided to bring the thirty most bizarre off the
charts Philadelphia sports pads we could fund, and we did.
(28:24):
We got we called them the dirty thirty right, and
and they all got on the bus. In fact, what
ended up happened was we only had twenty nine and
there was a homeless guy on the corner when we
said to him, because if you get on the bus,
you can have all the eat and drink you want.
We're driving to New York comparitor. We're probably gonna be
(28:44):
at the draft for an hour or two, but just
take the ridot us. And he was our thirtieth guy.
And that guy Grant an eight, he was a king
that that. So we went up there. We went up there,
We got into the felt form. It was done in
the front form back then, and we had the mayor
and even arranged to get us dirty tickets so we
could get into the draft. This is when it was
(29:06):
just starting to become a real fan event, and we
were stupid. Man. We thought, we really thought they were
going to draft Ricky Williams, and no one had ever
considered a plan B. So when pull Tigery the commission
comes down, he says, was the second pick of the
draftgo select Outoman McNabb. We were so disappointed. In the moment,
(29:28):
we uh a boo grouped like none ever heard. It's
still if people could see it on YouTube, it was instant,
how loud that boo was mcnabs coming out, and and
that the boo and he's like he can't believe it,
but this is his dream come true and the fans
(29:49):
are doing the crop and it was just an unfortunate
turn of events. But what it ultimately exposed was how
sensitive McNabb was and how he never his sensitivity, even
though he had a great career. Its sensitivity of Philadelphia.
It hurt his popularity and and us. We survived the situation,
(30:13):
and most people from that day on have called off
idiots for that and justifiably. What was the bus ride
back to Philly? What was that like when they drafted mcnifa.
What happened was that was unfortunate too, because they were
by then the boys were very very drump and and
you can't understand, man, these guys were not in great shape.
(30:35):
These were not like physical stats of it. And there
was one really fat guy in there named dough Boy, right,
he was the guy who actually competed in wingball. But
wouldn't you know, we pull off at a light next
to a bus of senior citizens. So they all thought,
how much fun would this be if we moaned these
(30:57):
old timers. So this guy with a huge rear ant right,
pulled his pants down and sticks it up against the
bus window and the emergency but he precked it too
hot and the glass breaks. I don't hopefully all the
(31:21):
people and the senior citizens but survived. We drove hast
the way back with with the wind. It was early,
it was cold, and they were all believe me, then
by the time they got back, many of them did
not even recall that they ever went to the event. Now,
the better question, Angelos, and when you when you went
(31:44):
to management and said we had a small problem on
the bus. But how did they handle that? I'm sure
don't no problem, will take care of it or did
heads roll in? Jeez? Well, we had a program director
back to have Tom Bigbie. He loved anything that got
us attention, negative or positive, so he embraced it. He
(32:05):
thought it was great. In fact, we even considered doing
it the following year, but we were banned for life
from um from the draft. The only time we avoid
it is when they had it in Philadelphia a few
years ago. No, they we have being for life. We
can never go back to the trap. That is what
(32:25):
a way to to leave the NFL Draft behind though,
that is uh, exactly what you gotta do, all right.
I know we don't have a lot of time left,
but I wanted to We should probably get out of that.
But I did want to ask you as you retire
from radio after the Super Bowl, Angelo, what do you think?
What do you think's gonna happen to sports radio? We
you think it's gonna happen in the business. It's changed
(32:46):
a lot with podcasting. Everyone's got a podcast now. We
talked about the negativity kind of leaving sports radio, So
what do you think happens ten twenty years from now
to the business well in Philadelphia, which is really all
I really know. But it will always exist because it's
the best place to alive to to react in the
(33:07):
moment to what just happened in sports, and people love that.
And uh in our city, if you handed down from
generation to generation the love of the Eagles especially, but
all the all the sports team in our city, UM,
it will probably be It will definitely be less loud,
it will be quieter, it will be less plamboyant because
(33:29):
the world has changed now and it's harder to pull
up this stuff so he used to do, and it
will be Um. I think what you said before probably
a little less negative what they got the you got
on these podcasts now that they are going to be
competition because if you want, if you have a niche
interest in a niche interests, you could go and listen
(33:49):
to the podcast with people on it that you really
admire entertaining them. It'll change, but it will not go away.
There's a lot of other stuff that will go way
because the world is changing. But I think sports talk
will always be around because it's a way for you
to react live to something you all sort of like
(34:10):
if you're in a ball watching a game, you react
in the movement. Sports radio will always be able to
provide that opportunity, and I think that's why it will
always be there. Well, Angelo, much respect, a great career,
and you've still got some time left before the super
Bowl and then after it. So thank you for coming
on and good luck and retirement. And it was a pleasure.
(34:31):
I really enjoyed it. Thanks
Host
Ben Maller
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