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The next step in the nearly complete makeover of WFAN includes a Giant legend.
Tiki Barber and longtime New York talk show host Brandon Tierney will replace Maggie Gray and Marc Malusis as WFAN’s new midday team beginning after the New Year, The Post has learned.
For Barber, 46, it is another step in a comeback that saw him go from media darling when he stepped off the field in 2006 and onto the “Today” show to something of a pariah.
His media career was upended by uneven on-air performance and a very public affair. He will now, though, be a central part of New York sports talk to go along with his work as a CBS NFL game analyst.
Tierney, who grew up in Brooklyn, had a regular gig with FAN’s cross-town rival ESPN New York and spent time as a host in San Francisco.
The last eight years, Tierney and Barber have hosted together on CBS Sports Radio Network. This will be advantageous, as they will arrive in the FAN studios for their 10-2 time slot with an already developed rhythm.
The duo will end their national afternoon show, which is simulcast on CBS Sports Network, this month.
Gray is expected to have another role with FAN or its parent company, Audacy, while Malusis could go back to part-time hosting. Malusis also works for SNY.
Gray and Malusis were on the clock this year, and their ratings have only been OK, failing to provide a strong liftoff for FAN’s afternoon program “Carton & Roberts.” Gray and Malusis were informed of FAN’s decision following their show Thursday afternoon. Their contracts were up at the end of the year.
Gray was originally hired by FAN in 2017 to join Chris Carlin and Bart Scott during Mike Francesa’s initial retirement. After one ratings book, Francesa un-retired and replaced “CMB,” which had good ratings when it moved to middays. Scott and Carlin have since moved on to ESPN Radio.
FAN likes the idea of adding Barber to its team because not only does he have credibility as a former All-Pro athlete, his big name helps with advertiser meet-and-greets.
FAN will go to bat with a lineup that features former MVP quarterback Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti in the mornings, “Tiki and Tierney” in middays and Craig Carton and Evan Roberts in the afternoons. Its later slots are held by newcomer Keith McPherson in evenings and Sal Licata on overnights.
“Boomer & Gio” remain near or atop the radio ratings. After “Carton & Roberts” won its ratings battle during most of its first year together among males 25-54 with ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show,” the FAN show is on pace to lose the fall afternoon book with just one month to go.
Since Chris Oliviero, who oversees WFAN for its parent company, Audacy, and FAN VP Spike Eskin took over, the station has had a complete makeover. Oliviero returned to the station in May of last year, which foretold Carton’s comeback after he was released from prison.
Over the past year and a half, FAN has seen Francesa, longtime program director Mark Chernoff, Steve Somers, Joe Benigno and John Minko leave the station.
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