Anthony Gargano Is Done With Radio But Far From Done With Philly

Anthony Gargano / Photograph by Linette & Kyle Kielinski

He wanted to be a foreign correspondent. Instead, South Philly son Anthony Gargano became one of our most recognizable names in sports-talk radio. But after a legal dispute with the Fanatic, his former employer, Gargano has moved from the airwaves to the internet.

Anthony, thanks for taking some time out of what I’m sure is a busy day.
Well, I’m not as busy as I used to be. [laughs] But I do still have plenty of projects I’m working on. I’ve always needed to do lots of things. I have a million ideas, and I like to act on them and use my creativity. That’s why I’m in this predicament in the first place. [laughs] It’s a personality flaw, I think.

I don’t think so. I’m the same way. Can’t sit still. Can’t be still. Drives my wife crazy. But maybe now is a good time for you to explain, to the extent that you legally can so you’re not violating any non-disparagement clauses or agreements, what this predicament is, exactly.
Sure. So I’m doing my radio show happily for 97.5 The Fanatic, and I meet these people from All City, a digital sports network active in Denver, Chicago and Phoenix, and they have an appetite for Philadelphia, where they’re starting PHLY Sports. It’s more journalism-based than the Fanatic, lots of storytelling. Nothing like the radio show. So I thought it would be a pretty cool thing to do, and I sat down with them to discuss.

I don’t know why, but I’m picturing this discussion happening over thick porterhouses at Barclay Prime.
The Saloon!

Of course. That would have been my second guess.
The Saloon is just such a Philadelphia staple. You gotta go with the veal there. You see, I go to different spots for different things. I veal at the Saloon. I pasta at Le Virtù or Aroma, which is Mr. Tony’s place on 3rd Street. And I coffee and gelato at Gran Caffè L’Aquila.

Do you eat anything other than Italian food?
[Laughs] Soup dumplings at Dim Sum Garden. Pho at the place on Washington Avenue in the shopping center.

Sixth Street or 11th?
Neither! The one at Washington and Columbus.

Pho Saigon.
The best!

So you have this big dinner at the Saloon with the All City execs and … what goes wrong?
The Fanatic just wouldn’t hear of it. I wanted to come up with some kind of content partnership between the Fanatic and All City, but the station didn’t feel that way and wouldn’t even sit down with All City. Instead, they sued me, even though All City isn’t going to be anything like the Fanatic.

They took me off the air in September and filed the lawsuit against me. And in October, we negotiated a settlement where I have to wait six months to do anything Philly-based, but I’m “allowed” to do this new daily internet-based national NFL show with Brian Baldinger, who played for the Cowboys, Eagles and Colts. Think of All City as television, but on the internet and all archived, so really like the Netflix of sports shows. They can also strip out the audio and release the shows as regular podcasts. Come April, I’ll be able to do lots of Philly-based content. [loud barking that continues for the entirety of the interview] Sorry; we’re getting our house here in Mullica Hill fixed a bit, and the dogs are going nuts.

Names?
So we have Gagootz, our sheepadoodle, and then we have Baci — it means “kisses” in Italian — our Bernedoodle.

Anthony Gargano with wife Tamara in Italy.

I can’t keep up with all these breeds.
I know, man. My wife, Tamara, is on top of the dog thing. And we got two big ones.

If the Fanatic yanked you in September, that wasn’t great timing.
I know! I really missed talking to everybody during the Phillies run and Eagles-Cowboys week and all that. I’ve been so stressed not being on the air.

I feel you. I write a daily news column called Philly Today. And when I go away, I am, of course, happy to be away and on vacation, but there’s almost this undying urge to wake up early and figure out what’s happening in the city so I can write about it.
It’s a real FOMO type of thing. You’re so used to being a part of something. I love our community. It goes beyond sports. It’s Philadelphia. It’s our town. And when you feel removed from it, there’s this emptiness.

You have me at a disadvantage here. Most of the time when I interview people in these pages, much has already been written about them, whether it’s Quinta Brunson or Patti LaBelle or Gloria Allred, so it’s easy for me to do my homework. But you, I’m more starting from scratch. That said, with a name like Anthony Gargano, and given that you greet people by saying “Yo, cuz!,” I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you’re from here.
[Laughs] South Philly!

Anthony Gargano at age nine

Never would have guessed that.
[Laughs] Born in South Philly. Migrated to South Jersey, like everybody else.

What part of South Philly?
St. Monica’s Parish.

That’s so Philadelphia of you to say.
In other words, 18th and Ritner.

Did you grow up playing sports and going to the games?
I lived sports. I went to every game I could. We would go to the Sixers games, the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers. Our whole lives were around this. There’s a picture of me somewhere wearing Sixers shorts, a Phillies hat, a fugazi Eagles jersey, and Flyers socks. I used to wear it all the time. The Philadelphia Tuxedo.

I know you worked in other cities. When did you leave Philly?
I stayed here for college. Went to Temple. And then it was off to the Associated Press in Chicago and then the New York Post. All sports stuff. I was traveling around the country, writing these long pieces for the Sunday edition and then covering the big games. But I had this dream of being a foreign correspondent. I interviewed at the New York Times, but they said, “We don’t hire people from the New York Post.” [laughs] They told me I needed to get “cleansed.” So I move back to Philly, living at 8th and Rodman, and wind up at the Inquirer in 1999, doing lots of general-assignment stuff and writing these big long features. And the editor was talking about making me a foreign correspondent at their Rome bureau.

Do you still dream about being a foreign correspondent?
Hmm. [long pause] No. If I were a foreign correspondent, I’d probably be covering a war. And I love my wife and my two kids: Anthony, who is 14, and Massimo, who is 10. So I think I’ll stick to sports and just pray about the wars. I was a huge Hemingway worshipper in high school and college, and I think that’s what gave me that drive to be a foreign correspondent. So when the Inquirer mentioned it, I was thrilled. But then two things happened. One, it was toward the beginning of the slide for newspapers, so the bureaus started to close. And then WIP offered me a midday show in 2000. I wanted to do the Inquirer and WIP, but the Inquirer said no.

I see a pattern.
It’s true! This is how I get myself into trouble. [laughs] But that’s how my radio career got started. The first day I’m on the air at WIP, a caller says, “Who are you? You sound like you should be cutting pepperoni on 9th Street.” And I remember thinking: My God. What did I do? This is horrible. I’m actually, like, a writer. A journalist! I really didn’t like it at first, but then I went to guys in the business, like Glen Macnow, Mike Missanelli and Al Morganti, and they helped me embrace it. And after WIP, I went to the Fanatic, in 2015. In all, I spent more than 20 years taking calls. Philly fans are so special.

It’s amazing how much we love these games. The games bring us together. They bond us. It can be religious and spiritual.”

We always say that. But do you really think that’s true? Or does every city think their fans are special, when in fact we’re all the same?
I know for a fact: Philly fans are completely unique. Sure, some of the places care, but nobody cares the way a Philadelphia sports fan cares. Fandom by nature is passive, but Philly makes it an active endeavor. Look at the Phillies. We made baseball cool again! Everybody wants to come to Citizens Bank Park. Everybody wants to be a part of the Phillies. Bryce Harper fell in love with us. It’s intoxicating. It’s Xanadu.

Oh, c’mon.
Victor, we have a giant mural of Bryce Harper. We have a giant mural of Jalen Hurts. It’s amazing how much we love these games. The games bring us together. They bond us. It’s even been said that crime tends to dip when our teams are doing really well. It can be religious and spiritual.

I remember the night of September 26th, we had all that looting, but it was also the night the Phillies clinched the Wild Card. The Eagles were still undefeated. And I remember saying to somebody, “Man, Philly would really suck right now if we weren’t winning.”
Right? It’s so true. Things can be miserable, but these games can bring us together.

As for the Phillies, what happened?
We’re not built to play small ball. You can’t hit three home runs and expect to be World Series champions. We got so close, though. I couldn’t believe we were beaten by the Diamondbacks! I was watching until the very end, and that loss was a wound that’s up there with the Eagles losing to the Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game that closed the Vet. It’s up there with the Phillies losing to St. Louis in Game 5 of the division series in 2011. And it’s up there with the Flyers losing to the Blackhawks in Game 6 in the 2010 Stanley Cup.

I missed the recent Eagles-Washington game and asked a friend how we looked. He said, “We won.” And I’m like, “That’s not what I asked you.” Just because you win doesn’t mean you look good.
You’re a true Philadelphian, Victor. Winning doesn’t matter. You gotta look good doing it. We aren’t satiated if we merely beat the Cowboys. We need to blow out the Cowboys.

Anthony Gargano with mother Florence in 1991, the day he left Philly for Chicago

Do you think you’ll be covering an Eagles Super Bowl come February?
Yeah. Nobody is better than the Eagles in the NFC, and I truly believe the Eagles are the best team in football.

And in this theoretical Super Bowl, we’ll be playing against whom?
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a rematch. Philly-Kansas City again. I can see that happening, and I can see the whole thing getting overshadowed and becoming the Taylor Swift Super Bowl.

I don’t want to dwell too much on them because I don’t follow basketball or hockey, but also because people don’t seem too enthused this year about either team. But any thoughts on the Sixers and Flyers? We do have some other sports teams.
The Sixers are experiencing a pause in The Process, but Nick Nurse is the best coach we’ve had since Larry Brown. We just need to have patience.

What happened to James Harden being our savior?
Unfortunately, James Harden is still James Harden, a great talent but one who is all about gluttony — gluttony for his numbers, gluttony in the way he lives. He was like Ben Simmons 2.0. Harden didn’t wanna be here. He wanted to be here. He didn’t wanna be here. The drama was amazing. As for the Flyers, they’re finally doing it the way they should: Commit to young talent. Build from scratch. With Danny Briere as the GM and Keith Jones as the president, we just have to get through some lean years, but we’ll get there. And don’t forget about the Union! They are winners.

If I were interviewing you five years ago, I wouldn’t have to ask this. But it’s 2023. Sports betting is everywhere. Do you bet on the games?
We’ve always bet on sports. It’s a kind of competition for those of us who can’t play the games, and it’s so much fun. It’s become wildly popular for a reason. Those advertising dollars from the sports-betting companies really help, too. [laughs]

I’m looking at the Inquirer website as I’m talking with you, and right at the top under the logo, you’ve got this vertical line of menu options, starting with News, then Sports, then Sports Betting, followed by the rest of the coverage. I click on the Sports Betting link, and there are all these “stories” generated by something called the Action Network. I guess it’s all sponsored content? It’s really hard to tell.
Yeah. I miss the old Inquirer. I miss the fat Sunday Inquirer and the fat Friday Daily News. It’s amazing the information we have at our fingertips today. But it’s also overwhelming. And we have no attention span. Most people no longer appreciate a well-written 5,000-word piece.

They read the headline and maybe the opening paragraph but then feel educated enough to offer some angry comment on social media about what you’ve written.
It’s so true. We as a society are just so disagreeable. Instead of fighting, we just need to hear each other out. There’s too much blind hate. It’s bad energy, man, and it’s so unnecessary. I don’t want to get overly dramatic about it, but sports really does bridge those gaps. Common ground. We can all agree that we love the Phillies, and we can all agree that we love the Eagles. At least it’s a starting point.

Where Were You When …

Anthony Gargano reflects on three big games.

1980 World Series

Photograph via Getty Images

Game 6 • October 21st; Veterans Stadium
Phillies 4, Royals 1

“We were all at my grandmother’s house on 18th Street in South Philly. All of us crammed in there together, watching the game on her TV. When the Phillies won that game in the ninth inning, we grabbed a bunch of my grandmother’s pots and pans and wooden spoons and went outside and just kept banging on them. Just banging and banging and banging. Everybody poured out of their houses and into the streets. There’s no feeling quite like it.”

2008 World Series

Photograph via Getty Images

Game 5 • October 29th; Citizens Bank Park
Phillies 4, Rays 3

“We watched the game right at Citizens Bank Park. Remember that this was the resumption of the game that got suspended due to the rain. At the time, I was working for Fox 29, doing all the field stuff, so I was actually on the field when we won. Amazing! I got to give Charlie Manuel a big hug, I’ll never forget it. Then it was off to Chickie’s & Pete’s and then Broad and Oregon, where we stayed all night. Drunk and happy. Pure joy.”

Super Bowl LII

Photograph via Getty Images

February 4, 2018; Minneapolis, MN
Eagles 41, Patriots 33

“I was with my cousin Joey and a bunch of childhood friends in a big suite at the AKA hotel in Rittenhouse. We were watching the game in the hotel, drinking lots of tequila. And once we finally won it, after Brandon Graham strip-sacked Tom Brady, we … went … nuts. We ran down to Broad and Walnut and hugged and kissed everybody until like four in the morning.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Published as “Game On!” in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Philadelphia magazine.