NYC Radio: Mets Pushing For Ex-Player on Radio Team

Apparently, MLB NY Mets COO Jeff Wilpon has big plans for one of the few things in his team's orbit that's seems to be functioning fairly well: the radio broadcast, according to capitalnewyork.com.

Sources familiar with talks between the team and WOR-AM, Wilpon is pushing to find a replacement for Josh Lewin, who partners on Mets broadcasts with Howie Rose.

With the Mets moving from WFAN 660 AM / 101.9 FM to WOR 710 AM, after the former booted them for the Yankees, Wilpon is apparently unhappy with the situation. And with just weeks until spring training, the situation is still unresolved.

WOR didn't respond to an email seeking comment about Wilpon's role in the search, and the Mets declined to comment.

The sources who spoke to Capital say there's a desire from Wilpon to incorporate an ex-player into the booth, a change from the pure-announcer backgrounds of Rose and Lewin. It's hardly a revolutionary idea, and in fact the ex-jock formula has worked exceptionally well for the Mets on TV, with the extrordinary, anti-homer combination of Gary, Keith and Ron.

But it flies in the face of how the Mets have typically deployed their radio announcers for the half-century they've been around.

Consider that for most of the team's 52 years, the Mets have excelled on the radio side with a broadcast-first approach to their radio team's background. Bob Murphy, Gary Cohen, Lindsey Nelson, Howie Rose are all iconic names in Mets broadcasting, without a single M.L.B. game played between them. Only Ralph Kiner stands apart as a Mets radio broadcaster of note with playing experience.

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