Mike Francesa will make his return to the WFAN airwaves today, and Entercom Exec VP/Programming Chris Oliviero said Francesa can be on the air at WFAN "as long as [he] wants to do it and as long as the audience wants him to do it," according to Andrew Marchand of the N.Y. POST. Oliviero said that bringing Francesa back to the station "had nothing to do" with the fact that ESPN Radio N.Y.'s “Michael Kay Show” beat WFAN's new afternoon show featuring Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott in the winter ratings book. Oliviero: “This was not a ratings decision” (N.Y. POST, 5/1). On Long Island, Neil Best notes the process of Francesa returning "began with Francesa and CAA Sports discussing with Entercom Chair, President & CEO David Field the launch of a digital, multi-platform content operation that would include audio, video and live events, not just another radio show." Oliviero said, “This is a completely different animal, with a lot of tentacles on it." Rather than a TV simulcast of the show, video from it "will appear only on the new app." Oliviero said he was "not disappointed" in the afternoon show’s winter ratings. Moving Carlin, Gray and Scott from the 2:00-6:30pm ET slot to the 1:00-3:00pm slot "widely and understandably has been viewed as a demotion." But Oliviero "pushed back against that notion, arguing that a two-hour show on WFAN still is valuable radio real estate." Oliviero: “Two hours of content on WFAN in New York? Pretty cool, pretty important." Oliviero: “I need to be crystal-clear about this: No one at WFAN, no one at Entercom, any management up or down the food chain, had any interest in ending our relationship with ‘CMB.’ That was never, ever on the table -- period" (NEWSDAY, 5/1).
