Newsday’s Neil Best is comfortable with WFAN’s choice of Boomer Esiason as the station’s replacement for Don Imus, but is puzzled by rumors that WKXW’s Craig Carton might be added in a sidekick role, “given how Imus left.”
Carton’s long rap sheet includes perceived insults of Asians, Hispanics, Poles, gays, Catholics, Italians, Jews, women, the Philadelphia Flyers and various politicians. (Then-acting New Jersey Gov. Richard Codey was apoplectic in 2005 when Carton suggested Codey’s wife try marijuana to ease her depression.)
Jun Choi, a Korean-American running for Edison mayor in ’05, inspired a riff in which Carton used an exaggerated Asian accent and said, “I don’t care if the Chinese population in Edison has quadrupled in the last year; Chinese should never dictate the outcome of an election. Americans should.”
Later, Carton said of Asians, “I don’t like the fact that they crowd the — blackjack tables in Atlantic City with their little chain smoking and little pocket protectors . . . There should be Asian-only rooms in casinos.”
Carton later apologized. Jun Choi won in an upset behind a galvanized Asian community. This year, Carton and his “Jersey Guys” partner, Ray Rossi, angered Hispanics with a stunt called “La Cucha Gotcha” that encouraged citizens to expose illegal immigrants.
In a profile in the Star-Ledger of Newark April 8 – four days after Imus’ “nappy-headed hos” comment – Carton criticized his parents for never saying “I love you” when he was a child, suggesting such slights contributed to his personality.
Lunchtime will never be the same for me. Nor drivetime. Carton made that station what it is. He also raise a lot of money for various organizations. Unfortunately, things will never be the same. I listened to the show during my lunch hour every day in my car (since I couldn’t receive the station at my desk). Whether it was hot as hell outside or cold as ice. I sat in my car and listened faithfully every weekday for an hour.
This dude was and remains to be one of the funniest personalities to hit the airwaves. Although he could entertain us with any subject, it will take a strong format and restraint for him not to get in trouble and still entertain us like he did with Ray Rossi @ 101.5. They should have paid both men and watched the syndicated broadcast cash cow take off!! There was once in a decade chemistry that he had with 101.5 that reminded me and others at Rutgers of the early days of Sean Hanitty at WABC radio when he did a late night slot. They made us care who NIGGITY, SHEROD,DOUBLEDOWN Jersey Guys could have been the next big thing for many years and Carton and Rossi were smart enough to keep it going! No doubt both Carton and Rossi will be successful in their separate endevors. But together they grew on you the second you terned on the radio.