Every day, WFAN associate producer, Chris McMonigle runs the board for their early afternoon show, Carlin, Maggie and Bart from 1 – 3pm before doing the same for Mike Francesa from 3 – 7pm, and every day it’s a non-issue.
Tuesday morning, McMonigle and his wife welcomed their second child into the world, causing the FAN producer to understandably miss work. Without McMonigle, Francesa was put in the “utterly ridiculous” position of needing to share a part-time board-op with the show before him. Francesa began his first show back from Memorial Day Weekend by lambasting his radio station for being cheap and questioning their paternity leave policy.
“Maybe they can schedule the right guys to come in and do the show at the right time, maybe the program director can do that,” Francesa said after having to start his show late because the board-op was running from one studio to the other. “It’s the biggest show in the country, you can’t pay someone to do the board by himself? Separately? How ridiculous is this?”
Francesa congratulated McMonigle and his wife on-air, although he still calls his engineer ‘McGonicle,’ even after working together for more than a half decade. Still, Francesa wondered how long he’ll have to tolerate working with a substitute board-operator.
“These new rules, you get a lot of time off, I don’t know when you’ll see [McMonigle] again, I have no idea,” said Francesa, who has in the past complained about paternity leave. In 2014, Francesa and WFAN morning show host, Boomer Esiason were independently critical of Mets second baseman at the time, Daniel Murphy for missing two games because of the birth of his son. Both hosts stood by their opinions and drew the ire of social media that largely defended Murphy.
“The female deserves all the time she wants,” Francesa made sure to note on Tuesday. “She should get six months, I’m all for that, but the male gets a lot of time off too.”
Francesa will soon have the opportunity to revisit the discussion, but for maternity leave as opposed to paternity leave. The show that he shares Chris McMonigle with, CMB will be without Maggie Gray for a period of time as she and her husband are expecting their first child later this summer.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.