One of my New Year’s resolutions was to lay off WFAN in 2010. It was primarily due to the fact that I have said my piece about the station, and know it will never change as long as the current leadership is in charge. Their decline will be slow since they have established themselves over twenty years, and there is no sports competition on the radio. Additionally, I think all the hosts, outside of the obnoxious Craig Carton, are actually good people who are just following the lame format set forth by Team Chernoff. Even Francesa, who has become increasingly lazy the last decade, has his moments of quality radio.

With that said, just like the smoker who quits cigarettes on New Year’s Day, only to take a drag a day later, I can’t let yesterday’s Francesa “Mets News” tease go unpunished. I actually didn’t know about it till Matt Cerrone reported it on Metsblog. This is the type of silly radio that annoys me, because it treats us, the listeners aka customers, as if we are infantile morons. That may be a fair assumption since 90% of the callers appear to lack education and social skills. I believe this is a small minority of FAN listeners, and the majority of sports fans want good analysis, solid guests, and some fun. When you trick listeners to stick around for a “Mets announcement” that turns out to be an appearance by Omar Minaya, it tells me the health of the station is poor, something I have speculated for well over a year. Why would a “number one show” need to resort to these tactics? Were you not confident the fans would stick around for five and a half hours of Jets bashing?

It’s pretty obvious the Mets chose to leak the Jason Bay news to their flagship station, although you would think someone with the resume, connections, and stature of Francesa shouldn’t need an “assist” from the home team. It almost was like a company picnic where the boss gets four strikes, and the employees patronize him with constant “do over’s” until he gets a hit. Even more embarrassing is the Mets created this monster by playing along. Perhaps they thought it would appease an angry fan base, but it just ticks them off more when their team looks amateurish.

So my message to Francesa, WFAN, and the Mets is to knock it off. The fans are savvier than that. They don’t need childish radio tricks to get them excited about the team. Furthermore, a station that is confident with their product should feel no need to behave in such a manner. Do you think ESPN is loved for their constant teases during its broadcast? We are in the age of the “menu” where fans pick and choose what they want to hear, not you. I understand this is hard for an organization stuck in a time warp, but it’s a cold reality. If you want to break some news get Francesa to do some work after the show because, quite frankly, it’s not like he is breaking a sweat during it. There was a day when stories were actually broke on WFAN, but it’s been a long time and I doubt the work ethic exists to consistently pull off what a Ken Rosenthal, Jon Heyman, or Buster Olney produce routinely.

Instead of subjecting us to Craig Carton, shut in callers, and “stupid radio tricks”, how about you give us more days like you did when announcing Jason Bay’s signing? Go back to how it was during the “golden era” of WFAN radio. Maybe then I can finally “make good” on my New Years promise.

Mike Silva is a freelance writer and radio host since March of 2007. This website is his own personal "digest" of New York Baseball He's also hosts NYBD Radio on Blog Talk Radio and 1240 AM WGBB. Check out his sports media commentary at www.sportsmediawatchdog.com. Check out his official website, www.mikesilvamedia.com

Mike Silva

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Tags: Buster Olney, Craig Carton, Jason Bay, Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal, Mike Francesa, New York Mets, WFAN