I’m not sure how I missed this one yesterday (perhaps because it was so confusing having Uncle Phil and his nephew writing about the very same James Dolan interview on WFAN), but the New York Post’s Mini-Mushnick, Andrew Marchand dropped the following media biz tidbit.
ESPN sent down an internal directive this week that bans any of its on-air personnel from appearing as a guest on WFAN, The Post has learned.
As part of a larger memo that impacts its owned and operated stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Dallas, ESPN is preventing its analysts from appearing on non-ESPN radio stations in those markets.
This means that guests such as Peter Gammons or Kirk Herbstreit will have to go against company policy if they want to appear on FAN.
“It makes good business sense that ESPN should be the home of ESPN talent,” ESPN spokesman Dan Quinn said.
We can only presume the memo would also apply to WEEI, and if so, this is a particularly foolish move on the part of the Worldwide Leader. While the likes of Gammons, Olney, etc. are established names, they didn’t achieve said status solely because of their appearances on ESPN television.
What might Dan Patrick’s daily bookings look like, if for instance, Fox Sports issued a similar ban to their on-air talent?
On the other hand, if this means Skip Bayless is barred from further appearances as a substitute host for Jim Rome’s radio show, I doubt there will be one single complaint.