Crossing Broad
Editor’s note: I hate this column and didn’t even ask for this column, but Tim is mostly right
I’m going to suggest something controversial, a take so hot in this corner of the internet that Eliot Shorr-Parks would be proud:
Joe Giglio, the 94.1 WIP Midday Show host who earned a well-deserved heaping of scorn on Wednesday for suggesting that the Eagles should consider benching Jalen Hurts, is very good at his job.
Let me explain before rushing to the comments to declare me a clickbait artist. This post is not an attempt to aggravate, but to understand. It’s worth considering for a moment the attention economy in which we live, the acts that secure market share, and the reason why they’re successful.
Our esteemed editor Kevin Kinkead is one of the best in the business at breaking down the entertainment product masquerading as sports talk at WIP. He declared the station “entry level performative outrage at this current point in time.” He also asserted that “they drag everyone down into the Eagles muck and scrape the bottom of the content barrel with fake outrage and idiotic declarations.”
Kevin was responding to a broadside delivered on X by WIP colleague-turned-competitor Jon Marks, whose show runs opposite Giglio’s program with former Eagle Hugh Douglas:
Here’s the thing: I agree with Kevin and Jon. Their assessment of Giglio’s bit specifically and the modus operandi at WIP generally is impossible to dispute. We all know what they’re doing. “Fake Take Radio,” as Jon hilariously dubbed it.
It’s cheap, silly, lowest-common-denominator material appealing to a fan’s basest instincts. When the Eagles are good, Giglio and company exploit the joy. When the football team is struggling, which is better for business, they stoke the outrage. Happiness, after all, gets boring. It doesn’t rate well in the long term. WIP instead aims to place the Philly sports fan in his or her natural state: miserable and frustrated.
At its core, the WIP business model prioritizes the gut over the brain. It’s the surest path to securing a mass audience. To paraphrase a line from Pearl Jam, Kevin’s favorite band: “We don’t want to think. We want to feel.” (editor’s note: that song stinks)
Why does it work? For the same reason why McDonald’s is so successful. They offer a product people want. The food isn’t particularly nutritious, but, in its way, it’s good.
Just as fast food is affordable, WIP is accessible. You don’t need to be a student of football to understand the conversation. Giglio and Douglas aren’t breaking down the All 22 film and taking their listeners on a deep dive of their findings. This is a program designed for the person on the go, listening in the car on the way to work or while running an errand.
And that person has choices that extend well beyond the offerings on the traditional dial. Satellite radio changed the game, but the explosion of the internet has revolutionized it in ways with which we...
