Craig Carton to leave WFAN at end of month

Craig Carton called WFAN “his home” on Thursday, but he also announced that he will leave that home effective June 30.

Citing the toll that his split shift as an FS1 morning television host and an afternoon radio host has taken, he chose the former as his new exclusive daily platform.

“It’s a happy day and a very sad day for me,” Carton said during a special edition of his show with Evan Roberts from 1 to 3 p.m. “It’s one of the most difficult days I’ll ever do in radio, because I’m leaving WFAN.”

Carton said the decision had nothing to do with any discontent with Roberts or WFAN, but rather, “It has everything to do with me and my personal life.”

Since September, he has been rising at 2:30 a.m. to do his FS1 show, which is seen nationally from 7 to 9:30 a.m., and not getting home from WFAN until after 7:15 or 7:30 p.m..

Carton has four children. He said he is separated from his wife, Kim, but that she has allowed him back into the family home to be closer to his children.

“I’m forever in her debt,” Carton said. “Although we haven't figured out all our issues, she's allowed me to be a dad again, an active dad again, which I take great pride in.”

Carton, 54, has been under financial pressure since he was arrested on federal fraud charges in 2017 and eventually served about a year in prison for his crimes.

FS1 surely was able to offer him a higher salary than was WFAN, whose parent company, Audacy, has financial pressures of its own.

Carton said he has been working on a handshake agreement with WFAN since his contract expired in November, which was made possible by his close professional and personal relationship with Audacy executive Chris Oliviero.

Carton credited Oliviero, whom he called “a saint,” with bringing him back to WFAN after his prison term ended and pairing him with Roberts in November 2020.

Even though Roberts was not the first choice to join Carton, the two soon established ratings dominance over their ESPN New York counterpart, “The Michael Kay Show.”

“I’ve genuinely had a great time,” Roberts said. “And to have a great time and also have success is the perfect marriage.”

WFAN did not announce a successor to Carton, but Gary Myers, a longtime NFL writer, reported on Twitter late Thursday that midday co-host Tiki Barber will get the job, with an announcement coming Monday. The New York Post was first to report the Carton news on Thursday morning.

Carton started at WFAN in 2007, paired with Boomer Esiason, a partnership that lasted 10 years.

“I love radio; it's all I've ever done,” Carton said. “Making a decision to walk away not just from radio, but very specifically from WFAN, is not an easy decision. 

“It wasn't when I made it. Now that that day has come where I'm acknowledging it and talking about it, it has not gotten any easier.”

He expressed gratitude for how far he has come from mid-2020, when “I was nothing more than a number. I was known as ‘79501054’ and I woke up three years ago today in federal prison, a place that I was for a year based on bad decisions I made. 

“When I was that number, I dreamt about the possibility, among other things, of one day being able to restart my career. That might have seemed silly at the time, but that dream helped me survive prison.”

Beyond that was the dream of salvaging his relationship with his children and eventually his marriage.

“As I laid in that bed as nothing more than a number,” he said, “in addition to dreaming about the possibility of restarting a professional career, the real dream was how do I rebuild my connection to the people I love the most, the people I disappointed the most, the people I let down the most. 

“How do I ever look my kids in the eye again and say, ‘Your daddy's back. He was a knucklehead, but he's back.’ And those dreams powered me through prison.”

Carton will continue to do his weekly half-hour Saturday morning WFAN show about addictive gambling, “Hello, My Name is Craig.” 

It is not yet clear whether SNY’s simulcast of WFAN from 4 to 6 p.m. will continue without Carton on the show.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.