Howard Eskin
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Howard Eskin is an American sports radio personality for WIP-AM 610 in Philadelphia. Airing from 3 p.m. till 7 p.m. Eastern time, the “Howard Eskin Show” is the highest-rated afternoon drive radio program among men in the market. Along with fellow host at morning, Angelo Cataldi, he is one of the two most popular personalities at 610 WIP. He is a frequent contributor to the The George Michael Sports Machine.
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[edit] Career
Howard Eskin is the original WIP sports talker. Eskin, dubbed the market’s “hardest working sportscaster” by local media for his eternal hustle on the job, started the sports talk revolution on SportsRadio 610 WIP in 1986.
Today, Eskin hosts WIP’s sports talk show weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m., the highest-rated afternoon drive radio program among men in the market. In addition to his dominant radio presence in Philadelphia, Eskin has excelled as a multi-media personality throughout his career, moving easily between radio and television in addition to writing a column for the Philadelphia Daily News in the early 1990s.
The Emmy-Award winning sportscaster first made the transition to television in 1982 when he joined KYW-TV. Eskin made a name for himself in radio by breaking stories and stirring public opinion with his commentaries. He brought that same hustle with him to television where, with his efforts, breaking news was often found on the sports desk.
One of Eskin’s managers at KYW even credits the sportscaster with keeping the Eagles in Philadelphia by breaking the story in the 1980s that the owner was trying to sell the team. “If Howard had not stepped in when he did…Leonard Tose would have snuck the Eagles out of town,” says Frank Traynor. “Howard broke the Eagles story…and, by doing so, I believe helped to keep the team in town.”
Eskin later helped launch Fox Station WTXF-TV’s Ten O’clock News as part of its original anchor team from 1986 to 1991. Later, he rejoined KYW-TV in 1992, and then moved to WCAU-TV in 1996 where he served as a host and contributor to Sports Final until April, 2005. He has also been a contributor to the The George Michael Sports Machine on NBC; serves as a frequent commentator on ESPN’s Cold Pizza; co-hosted a nationally-syndicated radio show, Let’s Talk Sports, and been called on for his opinions by such diverse programs as NBC’s Today Show and PBS’s MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. He has also been a part of WMMR-FM's Morning Zoo starring John Debella, and gave his insight for an HBO documentary featuring the 1985 Villanova University national championship basketball team.
Eskin's recent breaking stories included one that former Philadelphia Phillies general manager Ed Wade would be fired if the Phillies did not make the playoffs. Wade was subsequently fired by the Phillies on October 10, 2005. He unsuccessfully "campaigned" for the GM position, but it was eventually filled by former Toronto Blue Jays GM Pat Gillick.
Another story was reporting the negotiations and subsequent breakdown between Comcast and a group led by Julius Erving and Will Smith to buy the Philadelphia 76ers.
[edit] Controversy
Howard is best known for his controversial comments in regards to teams, coaches, athletes, sportswriters, broadcasters, and sometimes non-sports related issues. Howard is also considered by some of his listeners to show either favoritism or bias towards an individual in one of the aforementioned occupations, and that anything that person does (positive or negative) will not change his personal viewpoint of that individual in regards to their success or failures in their occupation. It is not uncommon to hear Eskin defend one of his "favorites" against a popular critical opinion, or disregard a milestone accomplished by someone who he doesn't "like."
In the past, Eskin was suspended for 30 days by WIP and ordered to pay an undisclosed amount of money for claiming that Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson and his lawyer tampered with witnesses and other malicious charges while Iverson was in court.
He was also suspended and forced to give an on-air apology to the organizers of the Miss America Pageant for saying on the air that the contest was rigged.
Off the air in 1997, Howard's name surfaced involving a murder case of Marlene Stumpf. Stumpf was a 46 year-old married woman from Pottstown, Pennsylvania posing in chat rooms as a 25 year-old cheerleader named "Brandice", and engaged in some provocative chat room discussions with Howard. Howard had sensed the woman was depressed and typed, "Why don't you give me your address, and I'll send you a little something." Howard kept his word and sent Stumpf some flowers. A few days later, Stumpf was found murdered. Her husband confessed to the crime and was arrested.
Eskin has also been known to lead long-term "campaigns" to have players traded from Philadelphia teams such as former Phillies' outfielder Bobby Abreu for apparent lackadaisical defense and lack of clutch hitting, and Sixers' guard Allen Iverson for his allegedly selfish play. Eskin's last public stunt was organizing a mock funeral to celebrate Terrell Owens's demise with the Eagles during their 2005 season. His newest project is mocking the Philadelphia Phillies for not taking chances with their payroll and running their sports franchise like a "department store."
Another outrageous Eskin trait is a wardrobe that includes expensive jewelry and clothing, particularly fur coats for Philadelphia Eagles home games. In his "honor", Philadelphia Daily News writers dubbed Eskin "The King of Bling,". Eskin sold a bobblehead doll of him wearing a fur coat, with the proceeds going to charity, in 2004 and 2005. The first 100 dolls in the 2005 version came with a special small diamond chip in his "bling" necklace.
To Eskin’s credit, he has sponsored numerous charity and fund-raising events off-the-air to benefit a particular humanitarian cause throughout the years, most recently for victims of Hurricane Katrina. On the air, he has advocated for issues such as public smoking bans and medical tort reform.
[edit] The Show
Though Howard regularly initiates calls with comments such as "never had a bad day in my life" or "another day in paradise", he is known to be short-tempered and easily angered on his radio show if a particular caller does not agree with his viewpoints. He frequently refers to a caller as a “genius” or "chief" (both sarcastically), a “dope”, an “idiot”, a "nitwit" or a "moron"; usually this only occurs if Howard is provoked enough or already in a bad mood. Confrontational conversations with callers often end up with Howard cutting off the person in mid-sentence and interjecting "beat it!" as the sound of the terminated telephone connection is heard in the background.
He is known to ask female callers about preparing dinner or washing the laundry and he calls obviously black callers "dawg" while sarcastically closing those conversations with the urban vernacular "holla". In addition, Italian callers are often addressed as "cuzz" and Dallas Cowboys' fans are termed "cock-a-roaches". Overall, Howard tends to think most people are "zeros trying to become ones." He also mocks jittery Flyers fans, saying that big games are "five-underwear" games while giving them this wise advice: "If you're scared, get a dog."
The station's website has a so-called "Dope-O-Meter" in which fans can click on an animated bobblehead and two thermometers, one marked "Dope" and the other "Genius," would count the number of "dopes" (and related words) and "geniuses" Eskin said on his shift.
It is not known if this is Howard’s true personality or is staged by him and his program director to draw a high number of callers (perhaps to intentionally irritate him) and add drama to the show. Regardless, Howard’s show continues to receive high ratings.
Howard’s years of fame and popularity in the Philadelphia sports scene allows him to frequently have special guest athletes or other sports figures on his program, with memorable interactions with Charles Barkley, Freddie Mitchell, and Bernard Hopkins.
