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Fauria & Minihane Relive Past Tensions On Podcast

Brandon Contes

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In the most recent episode of Kirk Minihane’s podcast, Enough About Me, the former WEEI morning personality spoke with current afternoon host, Christian Fauria taking the audience behind the scenes in their relationship.  

Today the two consider each other friends and it sounded that way during their 75 minute conversation, but Minihane and Fauria’s relationship has been rocky since meeting in 2014, including physical altercations and on-air blowups.

June 26th, 2015, their most public altercation occurred during WEEI’s morning show, Dennis and Callahan which Minihane co-hosted at the time.  While Fauria was in-studio with his co-hosts, Lou Merloni and Glenn Ordway for a crossover segment, Kirk told the former NFL tight-end, he was only on-air because of his football career.  The discussion escalated into a heated and uncomfortable argument, leading to Minihane being suspended for one show.  While rehashing the argument on the podcast, both admitted they sounded crazy, Fauria added he hates listening back to the audio, calling it an embarrassing out of body experience.

Their personalities didn’t mesh well at the start, with Fauria being used to a locker-room mentality of teammates working together and Minihane preferring to test people’s limits.  The public ribbing caught Fauria off guard, while Minihane viewed the slander as entertaining radio that benefited both shows.  A radio war within a station can be controversial, but it can also push the audience to want to hear reaction from the hosts involved.

A year later, Paul Chartier the producer of Ordway, Merloni and Fauria (midday show at the time) provided Minihane with audio of the trio discussing wanting to be on afternoon drive.  The morning show, now Kirk and Callahan, played the audio on-air leading to the next installment of Fauria vs Minihane.

After Kirk’s show ended, rather than walking directly out of the studio, Minihane “snickered” as Fauria walked in.  “Next thing I know I am up against the wall,” recalled Minihane.

Others quickly intervened, but not before Minihane said something he categorized as “really dumb,” without sharing what that was.  

“My goal was to get in your face as much as possible so you actually gave me an excuse to put my hands on you, so if you would have touched me at all, if you would have grabbed my arm, then you were gonna end up going to the ground,” Fauria said on the podcast while looking back on the incident.

As cooler heads prevailed, Fauria apologized to Minihane the same day of the incident, admitting he overreacted.  Minihane apologized for what he said, still not letting us in on what it was, only agreeing with Fauria that it was a cheap shot.

Feeling better about the situation, Fauria went to host his show, believing they moved on from the near fight.  While Fauria was on-air, Minihane went to HR, which he admits now was an unfair move, but Kirk still believes nothing in radio should ever get physical.  “It’s radio, here’s your weapon in radio…you’re bigger than me, you’re stronger than me, you can beat me up, your weapon [in radio] is your brain and your microphone.”  

As Fauria and Minihane began to learn each other’s limits, their relationship developed.  The former NFL tight-end realized hosts willing to call each other out can be a good thing.  It keeps hosts on their toes and creative, providing ammunition, discussion and debate, Fauria explained while admitting WEEI doesn’t have a radio war dynamic right now.

Minihane was permanently removed from the WEEI morning show last fall after his second leave of absence for mental health reasons.  Still an employee of Entercom, plans were announced for Minihane to host a daily show on Radio.com, but nearly five months later its yet to launch.  

“You need to be on the air,” Fauria told Minihane during the podcast, adding “I think there is a side of you that knows eventually the opportunity to come back will arrive”

“I don’t think so,” Minihane responded, “I don’t want to do it.”

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

Sports Radio News

Doug Gottlieb: I Would Give Up Radio For Coaching Job

“I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up.”

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Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb recently interviewed for the vacant head coaching job at Wisconsin-Green Bay and detailed the experience on his podcast.

“I got a chance to talk to (Wisconsin-Green Bay AD) Josh Moon several times during the year after they had made their coaching job available and my approach to how I’ve done these things — and this is not the first time I’ve gone down this path, but this was a different path,” Gottlieb said on his All Ball podcast.

“This is a low-major, mid-major job, and there’s no connection there. I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up. I love doing it and I think there’s a very smart world where if I’m coaching I can still do this podcast and still do it with basketball people all over the country and the world, and it’s kind of like a cheat code.”

He continued by saying that seeing Shaka Smart be successful at Marquette has motivated him to continue to search for the right fit as a college basketball coach.

“That’s what I want to do. And last year when I was coaching in Israel, that also continued to invigorate me…this is something that I would really like to do. It has to be the right thing. It has to be the right AD who hits the right message.”

He continued by saying that a sticking point of negotiations was he wasn’t willing to give up his nationally syndicated radio program for the job. He was willing to take less money for his assistants pool, but also to continue doing his radio show.

Gottlieb did not get the position with the Phoenix, noting that he was a finalist but was never offered the job. The position ultimately went to Wyoming assistant coach Sundance Wicks. Wicks had previous head coaching experience and had worked with Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon at Division II Northern State. He admitted he wasn’t necessarily “all-in” on the job due to the current ages of his children and whether the timing was right to uproot his family to move to Northeastern Wisconsin.

The Fox Sports Radio host does have coaching experience. He has worked as a coach for the U.S. men’s basketball team at the Maccabiah Games, sometimes referred to as the Jewish Olympics.

Gottlieb’s father — Bob — was the head men’s basketball coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1975-1980, compiling a 97-91 record.

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Sports Radio News

Waddle & Silvy: Scott Hanson Told Us to Lose His Number

“We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

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Aaron Rodgers took immense pride in the fact that he told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter to “lose his number” while discussing his future earlier this week on The Pat McAfee Show. ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy said they’ve experienced similar treatment from guests on their radio show.

While discussing the Rodgers interview with McAfee, the pair admitted that NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson once told their producer to stop trying to book him for interviews on the program.

“I believe the presentation was ‘Do me a favor: lose my number after this interview’,” Tom Waddle said. “So he tried to do it politely. Scott Hanson did. Get out of here. That concept is foreign to me. How about ‘Hey, next time you text me, my schedule is full. I can’t do it, but thanks for thinking of me’. ‘Lose my number?’ You ain’t the President, for Christ’s sake. I’m saying that to anyone who would say that. ‘Lose my number?’ We’re all in the communication business. I just don’t know — why be rude like that to people? What does that accomplish? You know what it accomplished? We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

Co-host Mark Silverman then mentioned that the show once tried to book Hansen and NFL Red Zone host Andrew Siciliano together in the same block, with the idea of doing a trivia game to see who the supreme Red Zone host was. Siciliano agreed, but Hansen declined.

The pair also confirmed that an NFL Network personality had told them to lose their number, but couldn’t remember if it was Rich Eisen or not.

Silverman later joked that maybe Hanson was getting a new phone with a new number, and was politely sharing with the producer that he could lose the current phone number because he would share his new number in short order.

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Sports Radio News

Seth Payne: Aaron Rodgers ‘Makes Gross Inaccuracies’ When Calling Out Media

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations.”

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Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is always mad at the media for the inaccurate things he says they report, but according to Sports Radio 610 morning man Seth Payne, no one is more inaccurate than the quarterback himself.

Friday morning, Payne and his partner Sean Pendergast played audio of Aaron Rodgers responding to a question about a list of players he provided to the Jets demanding they sign. Rodgers called the idea that he would make demands “so stupid” and chastised ESPN reporter Dianna Russini, who was the first to report it.

“Now to be clear, Dianna Russini didn’t say demands in her tweet. She said wishlist,” Pendergast clarified.

They also played a clip of Russini responding to Rodgers on NFL Live saying that she stands by her reporting and it is her job to reach out to confirm that it is true.

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations,” Seth Payne said.

He added that if Rodgers is being serious, he is doing some serious nitpicking. He claims that he didn’t give the Jets a list, but that he spoke glowingly about former teammates and told the Jets executives that he met with who he enjoyed playing with during his career.

Payne joked that maybe he wrote down the names in a circle pattern so that it was not a list. Pendergast added that he could have had Fat Head stickers on his wall that he pointed to instead of writing anything at all.

In Payne’s mind, this is a case of Russini catching stray frustration. Neither in her initial tweet nor in any subsequent media appearance did she use the phrase “demands”.

“What he’s actually responding to in that instance is Pat McAfee is the one that described it as a list of demands,” Seth Payne said.

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