Philly Radio: Sports Stations Punt With Pope In Town

Philadelphia sports radio WIP 94.1 FM was been forced to call an audible thanks to the travel restrictions in place for Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia.

With regular overnights hosts Jon Johnson, Steve Trevelise and Rickie Ricardo unable to travel to WIP’s Center City studio at 4th and Market St., the station has been forced to lean on two producers and an online editor to fill the void, according to philly.com.

On Friday morning, CBS.com sports editor Andrew Porter got his first taste of hosting his own show, taking over WIP’s 2-5 a.m. shift. Overnight producer Vince Quinn, also hosting for the first time, anchored the same overnight shift on Saturday morning.

Saturday, producer Eric Golden (better know as “Turtle” from the “Mike & Ike Show”) got his first shot at hosting, taking over at midnight and hosting until 6 a.m. Golden lives in Warminster, but took the train into town on Thursday and is splitting time between a hotel and the studio to help the station through the weekend, including producing other shows.

WIP took steps to keep its daytime hosts far away from Center City over the weekend. Howard Eskin hosted his Saturday morning show from The Borgata in Atlantic City, while afternoon duos Glen Macnow & Ray Diginger and Rob Charry & Garry Cobb will host their shows from Delaware Park.

Despite their studio being located in Bala Cynwyd, WPEN ESPN 97.5 FM The Fanatic didn’t want to take any chances with the pope’s visit. The station made the decision to send everyone down to Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City to do shows on Saturday and Sunday, as well as Monday morning.