Philly Radio: Why WIP Chose DeCamara and Ritchie For Mornings

WIP's new morning show team: Joe Weachter, Joe DeCamara, Jon Ritchie, James Seltzer and Rhea Hughes

The Audacy-owned station 94WIP announced Thursday that midday hosts Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie and their producer James Seltzer would be joining morning show holdovers Rhea Hughes and producer Joe Weachter to succeed Cataldi when he retires at the end of the Eagles current season. Al Morganti, who has been with Cataldi for the show’s entire 31-year run, will move to an undefined role at the station.

Program Director Rod Lakin is now charged with finding a replacement for DeCamara and Ritchie middays. Below, Lakin discusses all aspects of the Cataldi decision and more in a wide-ranging interview with the Business Journal.

Rod Lakin

What was the process that led you to pick Joe and Jon?

We've talked to a lot of people and we had many qualified internal options as well. So I never really felt pressure that we wouldn't have a good choice. But I think we as a group had strategic clarity on it pretty early on. We wanted to find a show for mornings that could be the voice of the fan, which Angelo has been for so many years. A show that had strong enough opinions that could help define the sports narrative of the city and a show that had a great personality. In all three of those, I would say DeCamara and Ritchie checked those off. Morning drive especially, people's moods really peak early. It's usually mornings when they're the most optimistic. And so you have to have a show that has the ability to have fun and not take themselves too seriously.

What is it about Joe and Jon that you think will translate from midday to morning drive?

I think for a lot of shows, especially in morning drive, the best are the ones that have a better personality sense than a straight sports talk show and then a better sports sense than any personality-based show. And that's the profile of DeCamara and Ritchie. They've always had a great chemistry match. Joe is a very unique individual who's grown up a sports fan. And Jon is somebody who played at the highest level that our species knows — the NFL. So the yin and yang and the cliché Joe versus jock type aspects of their show, I think is a perfect match for morning drive.

What role did Philadelphia Market President David Yadgaroff and Audacy CEO David Field have in this decision?

It's a huge decision for the company so we got feedback from so many different people. The closest was with David [Yadgaroff] because obviously we're in-market but at the same time it was a it was a group collaboration of the candidates on the table. And then at the end of the day, the decision was made locally and with full support.

How important is the chemistry between producer and on-air talent?

I think Joe, James and Jon have a perfect chemistry match for their show and play really well off of each other. In terms of Joe Weachter, he’s been with WIP since the beginning — before Angelo. And he's been the glue behind the scenes forever. So somebody with that type of knowledge, I think it would have been very foolish not to look at him as an asset to the new group.

When do you hope to have the new midday team in place?

I don't have a specific timeline when it comes to that. But obviously we're coming up to the end of the year and ideally you've got a plan ready to go so whenever the Eagles season ends, we'll have a midday show announced and ready to start.