WFAN is about to undergo a major programming change as they’re forced to fill the afternoon show that Mike Francesa hoped Adam Schein would be hosting.
On Thursday, Craig Carton surprisingly announced he was leaving WFAN later this month to focus on his FS1 morning show. When WFAN decides on Carton’s replacement, it will mark the station’s fifth afternoon show since naming Francesa’s successor for the first time in 2017. And none of those shows featured the person Francesa picked to be his successor, Adam Schein.
Schein, who is in his 19th year with SiriusXM, joined the latest episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast, which will be released in its entirety Friday, June 16. During the interview, which was taped before Carton’s announcement, Schein was asked about being recruited by WFAN at various points in his career and whether he ever spoke to Francesa about joining him as a co-host.
“Mike and I talked about a lot of things for a lot of years,” Schein said. “I love Mike and he’s always been amazing for me. We had dinner at Del Frisco’s…I remember saying to my agent, of all the places Mike picked to have dinner, he picked the restaurant in the building at SiriusXM.”
According to Schein, the meeting with Francesa occurred in 2014, about five years before WFAN’s recruitment of him was widely reported by Andrew Marchand and the New York Post.
“He laid out a plan in 2014 and said, ‘Hey, this is how I want it to go. I want you to replace me.’ That was one of the most surreal and amazing conversations of my life,” Schein said of his 2014 dinner with Francesa. “And that again, was my dream job. It was wild…your childhood dream is your childhood dream. You can’t change that, but dreams in the present change and opportunities change.”
Schein wouldn’t say he was ever “close” to leaving satellite radio for WFAN, but the veteran sports host admitted he brought offers to SiriusXM in 2019. According to Schein, the New York sports radio station was willing to let him continue his daily show on SiriusXM, host afternoons on WFAN, and do his nightly show for CBS Sports, a schedule that sounds daunting.
Ultimately, Schein stayed with SiriusXM, where he hosts his 9 a.m. – noon show on Mad Dog Sports Radio, while WFAN attempted to replace Francesa with Evan Roberts and Joe Benigno. Less than one year later, Carton made his WFAN return to co-host with Roberts,= and now in 2023, the station is again searching for its next iteration of afternoon drive. With many names being rumored to replace Carton, one thing is clear: it won’t be Schein, who recently signed a four-year contract extension with SiriusXM.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Schein said. “That’s why I’m thrilled with the new contract at SiriusXM and I hope we’re talking in 20 years about the 40-year history of Schein on Sports.”
Listen to Schein’s full appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast Friday, June 16, which includes discussions about interviewing Aaron Rodgers, working with Pat McAfee, befriending Larry King, and much more. Subscribe to the Awful Announcing Podcast and to Awful Announcing’s YouTube channel for the latest clips and highlights.
