ESPN New York Radio's 2023 resolution: Stronger local focus

ESPN New York radio began 21 years ago, and for 21 years many have suggested that for the station to succeed, it must focus more on local than national programming.

Starting Jan. 3, it will make a big move in that direction, going mostly local from 6 a.m. to midnight, the exception being Mike Greenberg’s show from 10 a.m. to noon.

And Greenberg is an avid Jets fan who grew up in Manhattan, so even that is a partial victory for local listeners.

“It goes to our mission statement: Serve fans anytime, anywhere,” Scott McCarthy, vice president of ESPN Audio, told Newsday. 

“It's sort of baked into our DNA to always be looking at that and trying to figure out what we could be doing better or differently to serve fans.”

For years, ESPN New York has struggled to compete in ratings with WFAN, in part because of its reliance on national shows, which always are a tough sell in this area.

McCarthy said after looking at the “competitive landscape,” against WFAN and beyond, executives decided at last to change the mix.

Dave Rothenberg and former Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro now will be heard from 6 to 10 a.m. rather than 5 to 8, putting them in a traditional morning drive time slot and head-to-head against WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti.

Bart Scott and Alan Hahn will follow Greenberg from noon to 3 p.m., with their show switching from national content to local, leading into the afternoon staple, “The Michael Kay Show.”

The headline of the changes is in the morning, where Rothenberg and DiPietro had performed relatively well against WFAN before national programming took over from 8 to 10 a.m. Now they have a clear, even playing field.

“We’re thrilled,” DiPietro told Newsday. “If you would have told me years ago when it was me and Alan [Hahn] doing nights that I’d eventually be doing legitimate morning drive in New York City, I would have said, ‘No, you’re crazy.’”

Hahn got DiPietro started in radio in the summer of 2014, when they filled in for Rothenberg on his evening show. DiPietro had last played for the Islanders a year earlier. He took quickly to what became a new career.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do once I retired,” he said. “Alan kind of dragged me into the studio . . . Now it's morning drive, which is crazy to think about.”

McCarthy praised DiPietro for his all-around sports knowledge, then added, “He’s one of the funniest human beings I've ever met.”

The relative success he and Rothenberg had in that early slot was one reason ESPN made the schedule changes, McCarthy said.

“We felt really good about that show even in the 5 to 8 slot,” he said, “but we are, because of that, really optimistic and looking forward to seeing what it could do 6 to 10.”

DiPietro acknowledged that getting out of bed for a 5 a.m. show was something he thought he would get used to but never did. 

“Every day I wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning to have the same talk [with myself]: ‘OK, don’t press snooze! Get up!’” he said. “So it hasn't gotten easier.”

But he credited colleagues such as Rothenberg and producers RJ Santillo and Raymond Santiago for making it all work.

“As tired as you are going in, once those microphones turn on and we start talking and laughing and having fun, it makes it all worth it,” he said.

Now he can sleep for another hour, a bonus in a home with three children under age 8.

“I don’t even know if it's actually set in yet that we're getting the opportunity that we’re being given,” DiPietro said. “But we're thrilled, man.”

ESPN long has been local in afternoons, but Kay has struggled badly in recent ratings periods against WFAN.

McCarthy acknowledged “the Nielsen numbers certainly haven’t been where we want them to be,” but he cited other metrics that illustrate the show’s popularity.

“I think that's a very good show,” McCarthy said. “Obviously, Michael’s a legend and Don [La Greca] and Peter [Rosenberg] have been doing this a long time as well. 
“So I'm not at all worried in any way about that show and its potential and the quality of it.”

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.