Much like the world of pro wrestling, it can often be difficult to differentiate reality from fiction when it comes to The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.
But as it turns out, Jon “Stugotz” Weiner’s interest in leaving for a major New York radio station such as WFAN is hardly a bit. But at least this time around, it won’t result in his departure from Meadowlark Media.
Nearly two weeks after being publicly linked to WFAN’s open program director position, Weiner addressed the rumors of his potential departure for the first time. During Thursday’s episode of the Le Batard Show, Stugotz admitted that there was mutual interest between himself and the station but that he ultimately opted to remain in Miami with Meadowlark.
“WFAN, I have said this a number of times, is the reason that I got into this industry,” Weiner said. “I always imagined if I went there at this stage in my career, I would go there as a host. That was not the position that was offered to me. The position that was offered to me, that I have turned down by the way, was to run the entire station. Was to be the program director — they’ve had two, I would have been the third — to be the program director at WFAN. [Dan] and I spoke about it. I gave it a lot of thought. Times have changed in our industry. That job paid a lot more than it does today.
“I decided to stay, in large part, because of two things. One: Boomer Esiason refused to take a pay cut… the other reason I didn’t take it is I sat down, I’m thinking about this, I’m going over the positives, the negatives. My wife loves it down here, she loves the life that we have down here. But Dan, it really got down to this: Boomer not taking a pay cut, and I didn’t trust myself to not fire the people whose job I wanted at WFAN. And state income tax.”
The show’s hosts and producers reiterated that this wasn’t a bit, with Le Batard noting, “this is as close as Stugotz has ever come to leaving here. This is a dream job.”
In addition to the Le Batard Show, Weiner also appeared on WFAN’s flagship show, Boomer and Gio on Thursday to address his candidacy for the program director position.
“I really, really wanted to do it,” Weiner said. “But in the end, there were too many hurdles to clear and we just couldn’t clear them all.”
So there you have it — Stugotz is staying in Miami and in typical Le Batard Show fashion, the program managed to turn it into on-air content. All indications are that this was very much a real negotiation and that Weiner was closer to landing at WFAN than most people initially realized.
