In the afternoon of August 29, 1986, Howard Eskin flipped on a microphone in the Wellington building and hosted the first sports-talk radio show on 610 WIP.
35 years later and Howard is doing the same thing. Eskin, better known as "The King", will be celebrating his 35-year anniversary with WIP by hosting his Saturday show at the Borgata on August 28th.
"I'm proud to have started what we all helped turn into an unbelievable powerhouse in the radio broadcast industry," said Eskin. "It all started when I did the first sports talk show on 610WIP. There are so many people to thank, and I thank everyone who helped build this."
It's been a long and successful career for Eskin, and WIP has remained at the center of it since he helped launch sports-talk radio in Philadelphia. The Northeast High School graduate hosted afternoon sports talk for 25 years until he stepped away from a daily show in 2011. In addition to his weekly Saturday morning show, Eskin has co-hosted the station's Eagles pre-game show, roamed the bench as the Eagles radio sideline reporter and makes weekly appearances across WIP's daytime shows.
"It was the beginning and now I look back thinking how if we built it, they will come. It just kept building."
Eskin has many memorable moments on-air but ranking above all was Steve Carlton and Ted Williams meeting each other for the first time at his remote show. He broke stories and voiced controversial opinions that often bore great on-air moments, like arguing with Terrell Owens for 26-straight minutes after the 2005 season.
There have been many memories created and there are many more yet to come.
