Sal Licata, Brandon Tierney speak out on Craig Carton’s WFAN return

With their WFAN futures up in the air, Sal Licata and Brandon Tierney addressed the elephant in the room to open their midday show Wednesday.

Craig Carton is finalizing a deal to return to the station for a third time and take over the afternoon drive slot, news broken by The Athletic during their Tuesday program. This comes more than four months after rumors of Carton returning began, with Licata saying at the time, “You’re not taking my spot.”

However, with Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber being pushed to the midday slot, as The Athletic reported, it’s uncertain where that leaves Licata and Tierney.

“Talk about your all-time backfires. I never thought I’d have a take worse than the NL East is over. And unfortunately, ‘Craigy, you’re not taking my spot’ as we were joking about months ago, who knows how that’s gonna end up here BT,” Licata said to begin Wednesday’s show.

“Obviously, we have to acknowledge at the start of the show, we’ve read what’s going on. We’ve been in the loop. This is not a surprise … that Craig would come back. To me, it was always inevitable when he left that he would come back. With that said, nothing is official. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to do this show with you every day, and we’ll continue to do that as long as we have that opportunity.”

Tierney said WFAN brass “trust” the duo to do the show “the right way,” and addressed why they did not talk about Carton on Tuesday.

“Listen, yesterday was a tough spot. I think a lot of people want to know why we didn’t get into it on the air as things were breaking in real time — because we’re being professionals. That’s the short answer,” Tierney said. “I spoke to an executive this morning. I know the contract’s not signed. I know that. But I also know that Craig will be coming back. So we’re not trying to fool anybody. What that means downstream, there will be many days and shows and segments to dive into that, give you guys more clarity.”

Before they got into Giants general manager Joe Schoen’s press conference from Tuesday, they joked that they had other things on their mind.

“At this point, do you give a rat’s ass what Joe Schoen said?” Tierney asked.

“My mother crying, my wife, I gotta talk everybody off the ledge. You think I’m worried about what Joe Schoen said about his crappy Giants?” Licata replied.

Chris McMonigle is a leading candidate to partner with the 56-year-old Carton starting next month, The Athletic reported.

Carton partnered with Boomer Esiason on the morning show from 2007 until 2017, when he left following his arrest on fraud charges related to a ticket resale scam he used to try to repay gambling debts.

He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in April 2019 and began serving two months later, but he was released after a year. A few months later, he secured his return to WFAN and partnered with Roberts in the afternoon drive before leaving in 2023 to focus full-time on his FS1 morning show that got canceled earlier this summer.

Keith McPherson’s departure opens up a nighttime slot, and The Athletic suggested Licata could get a look there.

“There will be a day where we’ll do this more extensively for sure. This is not our last show, we can promise you this,” Tierney said. “And as long as we’re here, we’re gonna do what we do, which is what we think a pretty damn good show.”