Jerry Ferrara ‘very seriously’ considered replacing Craig Carton at WFAN

Jerry Ferrara may have seemed like an odd candidate to replace Craig Carton at WFAN, but his interest was real.

When Carton announced plans to leave afternoon drive on WFAN to focus on his morning television show on FS1 nearly two years ago, Tiki Barber quickly emerged as the most logical candidate to become Evan Roberts’ next co-host. But there were also reports about the station’s interest in Ferrara, more commonly known as Turtle from Entourage.

While the gig ultimately went to Barber, Ferrara recently joined the Awful Announcing Podcast and said there was a moment where co-hosting afternoon drive on WFAN was a legitimate possibility.

“Let’s just say it was pretty close,” Ferrara said about potentially joining WFAN two years ago. “We can just leave it at that. It was close to happening.”

According to Ferrara, however, he had already removed himself from consideration by the time Andrew Marchand reported about his candidacy. Ferrara guessed releasing his name as a candidate may have been a way of generating buzz about the opening.

“I took myself out pretty early on because I just wasn’t in a place to move back to New York at that time. I don’t know if they were set on their decision,” Ferrara said of WFAN before insisting his interest was real. “It’s a dream job for me. I was very, very seriously considering it because it’s WFAN. To me, that place means a lot.”

Ferrara has never hosted a daily radio show, but he was early to the podcast industry, launching his first show in 2012. Currently, the former Entourage actor co-hosts the Throwbacks podcast with Matt Leinart. But a weekly podcast is very different from the daily grind of radio.

“There was a question of like, ‘Hey, five days a week. Would you even want to do that?’” Ferrara recalled. “I’m like, ‘Guys, do you know what it’s like working on an acting set?’ Five days a week? We work five days a week, 60 hours a week. Now I know it’s not 11 months of the year, maybe its eight months a year… I know the grind; I respect it. I know it’s a grind. I know what I would have been getting into. But if this works out, I’m all in. I’m here every day doing the job. But I thought that was funny.”

It wasn’t the grind that ultimately caused Ferrara to pass on pursuing the job any further than his initial interest. It was the relocation and, maybe more importantly, the fact that he would essentially have to give up his acting career. Ferrara also told Awful Announcing he’s interested in a potential Entourage reunion. That can’t happen if you’re a full-time New York sports radio host. But that doesn’t change the fact that, like many sports fans who grew up in New York, WFAN afternoon drive is a dream job.