RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesCredit: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect, 97.5 The Fanatic, Spike Eskin
In case you have been living under a rock for the past few days, LeBron James is a Philadelphia 76er . Presuming you also did not have an FM radio signal under that rock, the reaction to that news on Philadelphia sports radio is about what you probably expected.
On the whole, Philly sports media was ecstatic to welcome James to town, hoping his presence is exactly what the Sixers need to finally get over the hump and win a title—or at the very least finally make the conference finals.
Unsurprisingly, however, there were some detractors. Chief among them was Spike Eskin of WIP, who also co-hosts The Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast, which has covered the team since the dog days of The Process era.
Sean Brace of 97.5 The Fanatic, a sports radio rival in the greater Philadelphia area, took issue with Eskin’s dismissal of James’s arrival during a recent on-air conversation.
“At the end of the day, we are die hard Philadelphia Sports fans, they are not”
Sean Brace goes off on “Spike” for going negative on a day that should be a celebration @Sean_Brace pic.twitter.com/vqWyKTfMiy
— 97.5 The Fanatic (@975TheFanatic) July 24, 2026
Here’s Brace’s screed in full, with credit to Kevin Kinkead at Crossing Broad for the transcription:
“I can’t believe how miserable those people are. Somebody sent me a video, and look I’ll call it, I don’t care, Spike (Eskin) literally said, like ‘this is the worst day of my life and I’m setting a calendar for the day that he is done on the 76ers.’ And this dude went on Twitter or TikTok or whatever and he’s like ‘welcome to Philadelphia LeBron,’ and I hate the fact that that gets amplified. I hate the fact that that is what’s gonna be out there. Because you literally had my station doing somersaults – not just my station, the whole (Beasley Philadelphia) cluster – MMR, Matt Cord, everyone’s going absolutely berserk, emails are firing. We’re the flagship station, of course, but at the end of the day we’re diehard Philadelphia sports fans. They are not. They suck. Screw them, dude. That is a negative, negative vibe that they are putting out. And it will be amplified and it bothers the hell out of me. Same old song and dance. Nothing new.”
Eskin also addressed the reaction to his comments, taking issue with critics who labeled his negative reaction to LeBron’s signing as “for the clicks.”
Just a quick thought on “doing things for clicks” pic.twitter.com/zPWdoIEPpr
— Spike Eskin (@SpikeEskin) July 25, 2026
Here’s a partial transcript (H/T: Kinkead and Crossing Broad ).
“Once every month or so I will say something on the radio, and WIP will put out a clip of it and it will make everybody mad for a day or two days or three days, which is fine, whatever. And if you don’t like I say, you being mad at it or disagreeing with me is totally fine. There’s always one criticism that drives me crazy though, it’s when it says I’m doing it for clicks. It’s clickbait and I don’t really believe this and I’m doing it for clicks. I just want to be honest with you, this is 100% true, I don’t get anything out of clicks. I get nothing. I get no extra people (??), I don’t even put them out (the clips), WIP puts them out, they have… a set of incentives, the digital people, not like financial incentives, but goals. I don’t put the clips out. I don’t get anything out of clips. I don’t make any money out of the clips. The clips don’t make the ratings go up or down. They don’t benefit me in any way. They make a bunch of people tweet at me that I should leave the city or whatever, but I am never doing anything for clicks.
…
“The thing that’s frustrating for me, and again, the folks at WIP digital are doing their jobs, and Audacy digital are doing their jobs, but I did that job for a little while and you know what will get reaction, right? So if I talk for seven minutes at the beginning of the show and I say that I’m happy that everybody else is happy, and I think Mike Gansey and Bob Myers did a great job and those sorts of things, and I also say it’s my most depressing day as a Sixers fan, that is what they’re going to use. That’s what they use and that’s what makes everybody mad. But I just want to be clear, I don’t do anything for clicks, I do everything for the show. I love the show…”
“The only people doing things for clicks, I want to be clear, are the people talking about what I said to get likes and clicks… If you want to look at the people doing it for clicks, (it’s) the people talking about me.”
Where does this leave us? In a pretty classic radio war. Eskin makes a fair point about not deciding which clips are going to be posted to social channels, and those clips lacking the full context of any larger conversations. Brace is also entitled to his opinion, and takes like his are what make the sports radio world go round. Clicks on social media might not directly lead to too much revenue, as Eskin says, but if those clips help fuel a budding feud, so be it. In sports radio, like in wrestling, such spats can be good business.
Like any media feud, this one will likely go on as long as the content is good. Eventually the Phillies will make a move at the trade deadline or Eagles coach Nick Sirianni will say something about ChatGPT , and the conversation will move on to a new topic.
That said, once the basketball season gets moving, LeBron’s presence in Philly is clearly going to make for some compelling radio.
The post The Fanatic’s Sean Brace calls out WIP, Spike Eskin: ‘We are die-hard Philadelphia sports fans. They are not.’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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