Evan Roberts is getting his Saturdays back.
The WFAN afternoon drive host will no longer do Saturday shifts, he announced earlier this week. Roberts had been doing the mid-morning/early afternoon weekend shows for 16 years, dating back to his time doing middays with Joe Benigno.
“I very quietly retired from doing Saturdays,” Roberts said on air Wednesday, via Newsday. “It was a great run. I enjoyed doing it with Joe at the end, but it was just too much.”
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The semi-retired Benigno, who returned to WFAN in August to work a limited schedule and had been working Saturdays with Roberts, will now take over the shift as a solo host. Benigno is on the schedule for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday (March 25).
The Saturday show is a bit of a WFAN institution. Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo did it for years as a counterpart to Mike Francesa’s Sunday NFL program. Roberts followed Russo and now Benigno will hold down the fort. The station’s juggernaut afternoon show will still have a Saturday presence; Craig Carton’s weekly half-hour program focused on problem gambling and addiction precedes Benigno.
Carton and Roberts are riding high after yet another complete beatdown of ESPN Radio New York’s “The Michael Kay Show.” Carton and Roberts tripled up Kay, Don La Greca and Peter Rosenberg in the February ratings. WFAN had a 7.2 share in the key men ages 25-54 demographic. ESPN drew a 2.1.
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James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jameskratch.
