Tirico To Host Two-Hour ESPN Radio Show In Patrick's Old Slot

Tirico To Host Two-Hour Radio Show On ESPN Radio

Before deciding to add a two-hour ESPN Radio show to his daily to-do list, ESPN NFL, NBA and golf announcer Mike Tirico said he sought counsel from several people, including his fellow "Monday Night Football" broadcaster Tony Kornheiser. Kornheiser, who had his own ESPN Radio show from '98-04, said he advised Tirico to remember two things about radio. "One is that your true personality comes out in radio," he said. The other is that the focus that radio shows demand will help Tirico's other roles at ESPN, "as long as it's not four hours of radio.  My radio show made me a better sports columnist." That could be one of the reasons why Tirico will do a two-hour show from 1:00-3:00pm ET, rather than the three-hour effort of the man he is replacing, Dan Patrick. Stephen A. Smith will do the final hour, from 3:00-4:00pm. For his part, Tirico will balance his jobs by doing his show from a studio in his suburban Detroit house several times a week. He also plans to host the show while traveling. "Technology is a good thing," he said. Tirico said his show will mainly be about sports, but he's open to talking about non-sports subjects. "My strength is interviewing people and having intelligent dialogue," he said. "I can guarantee you that when I'm doing the show, I'll have Fox News and CNN up on the monitors." ESPN Radio Senior VP & GM Mo Davenport said the show will take shape over the next month, but he expects it to attract some of the biggest names as guests. "This is going to be a national show with national scope," he said.