Staff Blog
Angelo Cataldi may not be the classy individual he makes himself out to be
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| angelocataldi.com |
| WIP’s Angelo Cataldi |
Growing up a Sports Fan in Philadelphia, I was a loyal listener to 610 WIP. I would lie in bed and listen to sports talk radio, impressed that there were people whose job it was to talk about sports — it seemed like the greatest job in the world. I liked that they had strong opinions and cared about the teams. Occasionally, I would call in (lying about my age to get on) and comment about subjects particularly near and dear to my heart.
I don’t think that I’m alone when I say that, increasingly, WIP has trended away from smart sports analysis. But when I come across something like this clip from the Thu., May 29 edition of Angelo Cataldi’s morning show (the transcript is after the jump; note that it is comedian Joe Conklin, not Cataldi himself, speaking in the excerpt):
Cataldi introduces the clip by announcing "here is the actual recording of me yesterday with ‘the Arab dude’ purchasing gas at 3 a.m." What follows is a back and forth between local comedian Joe Conklin impersonating Cataldi’s character and a racist mock-up of a gas station attendant. The two converse for a couple minutes as the Cataldi character tries to haggle down the price of gas until about the 1:25 point of the audio. In lieu of commenting, I’ll just provide the (approximate) transcript between Conklin’s Cataldi and the man he refers to as "the Arab dude":
AC: I don’t know why you’re wearing a turban Akmar, you ought to be wearing a mask.
TAD: Oh Chief, wasn’t it you who was in here the other week complaining about 25 cents for air?
AC: I’d call it highway robbery but I can’t even afford to get on the highway.
TAD: Well for an additional $35 it will be my pleasure to squeegee your windshield as well, bishop.
AC: You want to squeegee something? Squeegee that decimal point over your forehead!
TAD: You infidel! You die! I curse you!
AC: Up yours! {sounds of driving away}
When the show returns to the studio, the group is laughing and Rhea Hughes (I believe) says, "I don’t think we’ll be playing that again."
While obviously this is extremely offensive and ignorant (it conflates caricatures of Hindu and Muslim cultures), I also find myself wondering what the repercussions of this are going to be. Cataldi is a prominent radio figure in this town and pulls a fair amount of weight. Then again, so did Kidd Chris.
Will WIP respond? Cataldi is a money-maker for the company, in no small part because of his shock-jock mentality. Is there a line and did the morning host just cross it?
If they fired Kid Chris then they need to fired Cataldi.
james – thanks so much for writing. these sports columnists and talk show people tend to get a free pass. i find that quite ironic since their job is often based on how much they attack professional athletes in this town. i appreciate your reference to cataldi, who generally entertains me, but who also finds it way to easy to pawn off the kind of crap you’re talking about. i think their performance needs to be watched and commented upon, too.
jjweiss
I used to drop by the show once in a while, the rest of the crew can be interesting, but I tuned away from Cataldi several years ago when he said on air that a 10 year old kid who wore a Giants jersey to an Eagles game “deserved what he got”
a 10 year old kid
I don’t think there’s any question that he crossed the lines of decency. A line, incidentally, that WIP lowered a long time ago, in an effort to broaden its appeal to ignoramuses like Cataldi himself. The easiest way to cultivate an audience of sycophants is to create a common enemy and, use racists stereotypes to appeal to their ignorance. Cataldi is a scumbag.
I think that AC is funny and wierd at the same time. He seems normal for a minute that a second later he seems like mean man. Imlisten to him every day. I like his show
Mr. Cataldi it is so nice to know that you have never made a mistake in your life and that like jesus christ you are perfect. Donovan did say he was sorry @ his press conference. We as people (human beings) do make mistakes. ? for you have you ever played professional football. As an old southern woman would say, you need to walk a mile in someone’s shoes to understand what he/she is going thru. donovan has done a lot for this city regarding football (in 8yrs 5trips to the NFC-championship) what have you done for this city but talk S___!
Oh, get over yourself. I am so tired of this, “oh, I’m offended” garbage. I am a balding, short, white, heterosexual male and I am critized more than any group in this country but I don’t go around “boo-hooing” everytime someone says something about me. Grow a pair, will ya?!
I can only pray that Cataldi does not get a new contract. His RI accent and mispronounced words gets very annoying. He rarely talks sports and act like a 13 year old boy talking about girls. I am so fed up with his loud obnoxious attitude, I will do anything to get him out of town.