Thursday, July 15, 2021

NYC Radio: New WFAN PD Spike Eskin Starts July 1st


Brett 'Spike' Eskin, WFAN 660 AM / 101.9 FM's new vice president of programming said on Wednesday that he will take his time before making significant changes after taking over on July 1 from Chernoff, who was on the job for nearly three decades, reports Neil Best at Newsday.

"I would tell listeners nothing that I do, no decision that I make, I don't think will be big-splash type decisions," Eskin told Newsday in a phone interview. "The radio station doesn't demand that right now.

"When I took over WIP (in Philadelphia), we were in a really bad place, in a really compromised place. It was a radio station that needed drastic decisions. I don't think WFAN is in that position."

Eskin, 44, said he will spend his first few months getting to know his personnel. He likened his incremental plans to steering a cruise ship onto a new course by a couple of degrees, or seeing a co-worker lose 40 pounds, changes that might not be noticeable in the short term, until they are.

"I don't think that would be showing a ton of respect to the people that are there who are succeeding right now," he said. "So I would be confident in saying that if you look back in a year or two, you will see a stamp that I have made on the radio station, but it won't be something that you wake up and say, ‘Wow! That’s different!’"

Eskin had been program director at WIP – a corporate sibling of WFAN – since 2014 and is steeped in Philly-area media. His father, Howard, is a longtime and at times controversial sports media personality in that city.

He said he relished the challenge of the New York market and the opportunity to work with the station’s hosts, aided by his comfort level with Chris Oliviero, who oversees WFAN for Audacy, its parent company.

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