Brandon Tierney proud of how WFAN run ended but ‘that chapter is shut’

Brandon Tierney signed off from WFAN for the final time on Friday, closing that chapter of his broadcasting career.

On Monday, he’d started the next one.

Tierney launched the BT Unleashed digital show on Monday (also branded as “Unkillable to Unleashed”) and shared what the end of his WFAN era felt like and what he plans to do now.

“I would really, truly like to thank you guys. I felt the love, and it’s been absolutely awesome,” Tierney said to start his new show. “You know, I’ve talked about social media and how much I hate it, at least aspects of it. I’ve got to tell you, it was really awesome.”

Tierney left WFAN after he and his former partner, Sal Licata, lost their show and timeslot to returning host Craig Carton. Tierney wanted to make it clear that he had no plans to bash his former station despite disagreeing with the decision.

“Some of you are waiting to hear me bash WFAN. It’s not going to happen. That’s not what I’m about,” he said. “I love WFAN. I’ve got a lot of love for WFAN. Do I think WFAN made a mistake? Yeah, I absolutely do. I have no problem saying that, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t own WFAN, and I don’t get to make those decisions.”

Tierney remained with WFAN a week after Licata signed off, and he admitted that it was difficult to complete his tenure solo.

“It was hard to get certain things out, but I am very proud of the way I finished my run at WFAN. The easy thing would have been to tap out,” he said. “That’s not the way that I’m wired. That’s not the way that I’m built. I’m built to finish the race.

“I was almost in a trance and didn’t really want to leave the building at that moment. I wanted to soak it in because I’ll still do some shows on WFAN. I’ve got a great relationship with them. I knew that that part of my life, that chapter was shut, that was it. The book was closed. I remember taking a bit of a lap around the floor, just wandering around aimlessly. Basically, I’m like, ‘All right, check, you did it. Let’s go.'”

The plan now is for Tierney to do his new YouTube show live at 10 a.m. ET.  While he might still do some fill-in work at WFAN or other radio stations, no specific plans have been announced as of yet.

“It is my mission to find the next thing, and it’s exciting. I’m open to talking to anybody,” Tierney told Barrett Media. “The industry has changed tremendously. I was smart enough to know that I wasn’t going to have a twenty-year run at WFAN and find myself in my sixties with the option to retire. I always knew there would be a next chapter. Not a footnote, but a big chapter that’s going to look very different than the chapters I’ve written so far. I’m excited about that.”