New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie co-hosted WFAN-AM's afternoon drive-time show yesterday alongside Evan Roberts, and he "seemed to be enjoying himself" as the duo filled in for Mike Francesa, according to Bill Ervolino of the Bergen RECORD. Christie, who will co-host again today, "knows a thing or two about sports." Several veteran broadcasters and longtime WFAN listeners weighed in on Christie's performance. Former DC-based WNEW-FM news anchor Andrew Fisher said, "As far as his on-air personality, I was unable to detect a personality until that guy called and took him to task for Bridgegate and Trump. Overall, I think he alternated between prosecutorial and masochistic." Independent Can-Am League Sussex County Miners play-by-play man Brett Leuthner: "He could be an acceptable replacement (for Francesa) if he had a longtime professional in the studio with him." Longtime N.Y.-based radio host Curtis Sliwa: "If I were program director, I’d hire him in a heartbeat. And I’d let him go solo" (Bergen RECORD, 7/11). In N.Y., Nick Corasaniti writes Christie was "blunt and bombastic, thin-skinned and tough-talking, self-deprecating and aggressively defensive." Christie "seemed studied" when he "stuck to sports." However, his banter with callers and Roberts over sports "largely lacked the edge it had when he talked about politics" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/11).
NEW CAREER PATH? In N.Y., Brett Cyrgalis writes Christie’s audition for "lasted less than two hours" before it "went off the rails." Christie was "trying to show he might be able to fill the drive-time void" set to be left by Francesa. What he got was "attacks from WFAN callers, his constituents as the sitting governor of New Jersey." Cyrgalis: "The talk about sports from Christie was fluent and able enough, but who cares what he thinks about the Mets?" There is "something fundamentally wrong with this type of nonsense being thought of as worthwhile" (N.Y. POST, 7/11).YES Network and ESPN Radio N.Y.'s Michael Kay said of Christie, "He knows his sports. There will be a curiosity" (Bergen RECORD, 7/11).
TALKING SHOP: Kay as part of a Q&A said, "Anyone in this business who says they don’t read the media columns is an absolute liar. Am I better equipped at this stage of my life to slough off the criticism? I would say yes." He added, "What Bob Raissman writes in the Daily News doesn’t affect me much. I don’t think he believes a lot of what he writes -- he writes for effect. For me to think there isn’t bias when he actually works for SNY, I can’t buy that. If you look at the totality of his work, he rips YES 90 percent of the time, maybe 10 percent of it is directed at SNY. There was one time I called Bob over something he had written -- it was completely wrong -- and asked him, 'why didn’t you just call me and check with me first?' He said, 'I don’t have to do that.' I asked why and he said, 'I’m not a journalist, I’m an entertainer.' On the other hand, I actually respect Phil Mushnick a lot because he believes the stuff he writes in the Post. I might not agree with him, but it’s not performance art like Raissman. If Phil criticizes me, I think about it." Meanwhile, Kay was asked about his feud with Francesa, whose timeslot overlaps with Kay's show. Kay: "What bothered me was the first time YES took our (ESPN Radio) broadcast (on simulcast). Francesa said it was because YES wanted someone they could control. I thought that was so disrespectful." He added, "If you watched Leno and Letterman head to head, Leno always beat him but Letterman had the better show. Our show is quantifiably better than Mike’s. It’s funny, not one guy bloviating. It’s three guys laughing, having a good time. We don’t dread it and that comes across to our listeners. We’ve made unbelievable inroads. People are noticing" (Bob Klapisch, Bergen RECORD, 7/11).
