Craig Carton says ‘one of the lowest moments’ in prison was listening to WFAN morning show

From 2007 to 2017, Boomer and Carton was a smash hit in New York sports radio on WFAN.

That run came to an end when Craig Carton was arrested by the FBI and later convicted of fraud over a ticket-buying Ponzi scheme. In 2019, Carton was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, but he was released after one year to home confinement and returned to WFAN in 2020. And in 2025, Carton returned to WFAN for a third tenure after spending three years at FS1.

Carton remains at WFAN now, where he hosts The Carton Show alongside Chris McMonigle in the afternoon drive-time slot.

Boomer Esiason, meanwhile, has remained at WFAN the whole time. After Boomer and Carton came to an end with Carton’s exit, the show briefly rebranded as The Morning Show with Boomer before Esiason was joined by Gregg Giannotti as the new co-host. And since January 2018, it’s been Boomer and Gio.

On Monday, Carton admitted that “one of the lowest moments” of his time in prison was tuning in to hear a show he used to host.

.@craigcartonlive opens up about “one of the lowest moments” of his life: Listening to The Morning Show in prison pic.twitter.com/1bhm59Faj3

— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) August 10, 2026

“I’m gonna tell you a story I’ve never told publicly before,” Carton said to McMonigle. “One of the lowest moments of my entire life, when I was in prison. And I think you understand it. And neither guy did anything wrong. But to me, it was like a gut punch.”

“So, we’re in the middle of [the COVID pandemic], right?” Carton continued. “Now, the prison I was in, you could, through commissary, you could buy like, a little, $2 — costs 20 — AM/FM radio. Okay? Headphones, the whole thing. And there’s one weekend when I’m laying in my bunk, and I’m trying to find a station to listen to. I found a great country station out there. And then I come across a sports talk station. And I’m in prison. And it’s COVID. And all of a sudden, on CBS Sports Network, which had an affiliate, I hear Boomer and Gio. I didn’t like that.

“And I’m sitting there, and I’m like, ‘Son of a b*tch.’ How dumb a human being can I be? What did I do? Click! Chris Stapleton’s on the radio! Yeah! That’s how I fell in love with country music.

“That was a body blow. I hated that moment. Yeah. Heard it once, for 20 seconds. Couldn’t do it. Yeah. That was one of the lowest moments I had when I was in prison. Which, in relation to other people’s lowest moments in prison, not bad.

“That would hurt me to my soul,” Carton said in his closing comments. “Moron. I’m sitting here… Hoping that someone doesn’t hide a contraband in my locker and give me an extra year at this dump. And now I’ve got to listen to those guys on the radio doing what I should be doing.”