Anthony Gargano, who launched his morning show on the station in April 2015, has been without a permanent co-host since Jon Marks walked away from the station last September to join SportsRadio 94.1 WIP. But after months of pairing Gargano with a stream of fill-in hosts, it looks as if station management is getting close to hiring a full-time replacement.
There’s no official timeline, but sources say the yet-to-be named co-host is expected to start before the beginning of the new NFL season.
According to numbers obtained by Philly.com, Gargano finished in a distant fourth place behind WIP’s Angelo Cataldi in the coveted men’s 25-54 demographic in the spring ratings book, dropping slightly from last year’s numbers. At one point, Gargano was actually closing in on Cataldi in the ratings.
The most surprising name mentioned more than once is Tony Bruno, the veteran sports talker who has been successfully podcasting since abruptly walking off his top-rated afternoon show on WIP in July 2015, a show he co-hosted with Josh Innes. Innes was subsequently fired by former co-host and current WIP program director Spike Eskin, and now hosts a sports talk show in Houston.
Bruno has been friends with Gargano for a long time, and both were actually neighbors at the Residences at Dockside. The two worked together in the past at Fox Sports radio (Bruno had a daily show and Gargano worked on weekends), which Gargano spoke about in a nearly 2-hour appearance on The Tony Bruno Show last week.
Bruno would consider joining Gargano if the situation were right. But accoding to Rob Tornoe, Brunoe would have a lot to overcome before he joined the station. Before his stint at WIP, Bruno worked for The Fanatic for four years as a midday host alongside Harry Mayes before walking away after a contract dispute in 2014.
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