Profile on Iona alum Tim McCarthy

By Troy Mauriello

Iona college alumni Tim McCarthy has been running point at one of the nation’s largest sports talk radio stations for nearly two decades.

McCarthy has served as the general manager of ESPN New York since the day it was founded, all the way back in September of 2001. He now is the senior vice president/general manager, audio play-by-play & New York/LA radio, overseeing both ESPN 98.7 FM New York and ESPN LA 710.

But McCarthy’s path to one of the most coveted positions in the sports broadcasting world was not at all a straight line. In fact, that path began to be forged in the unlikeliest of places: when McCarthy served as a part-time limousine driver shortly after graduating Iona.

“I was driving a limo for a company, Orange & Rockland...picking up the executives at the airport,” McCarthy said. “And I did that through college, and I kept doing it...I’d go to Kennedy on a Saturday night and pick up this guy or whatever.”

“One of these guys I used to pick up, this guy Jim O’Grady, ran RKO Radio and Television. And we would talk, we would talk about sports all the time,” he said. “And we were talking and he was like ‘you should think about getting into broadcast, you’d be pretty good.’ And I’m like ‘I don’t know anyone.’ And basically he took my resume and threw it around, and two places called me, and one was WPLJ and that’s where I started.”

From there, McCarthy’s path to the top of the radio world took off. With a BA in Marketing from Iona College and an MBA from Long Island University, he joined WPLJ as an account executive in 1990. Three years later he was the sales director for both WPLJ and 77WABC.

By 1998, McCarthy was the GM of news/talk at 77WABC. Under his leadership, WABC exploded to become the number one news talk radio station in the country, featuring controversial yet highly entertaining talents such as talk host Rush Limbaugh.

“Back in the day when I worked with Rush Limbaugh, everyone used to say ‘oh I can’t stand that guy,’” McCarthy said. “You know what I used to say? ‘Well I don’t care, you’re listening to him. You can hate him all you want, just keep listening.’”

That mentality for hiring talent seems to have followed McCarthy throughout his time with ESPN Radio. He has an admitted interest in hiring big personalities, who certainly are not universally loved by audiences, such as Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and Michael Kay.

“When you do a Q Rating on someone, which is like the popularity and whatever, and everyone likes them, they’re probably not very good,” McCarthy said. “You want people saying like, ‘Man that guy is the biggest ass, but I listen to him every day.’”

But the tradeoff in hiring big personalities is an obvious one: they aren’t exactly the easiest employees to manage. Oftentimes the big egos you see on TV or hear on radio are reflected off the air as well.

McCarthy explained his process for managing some of the biggest personalities in sports broadcasting.

“I treat everyone the same. So all these big personalities, Stephen A is a great example, Stephen A is a huge personality and some people are scared of him, right? The thing is, Stephen A is a really good guy...and if you at least explain why you’re doing certain things, he gets it. They all get it,” McCarthy said. “They can get up in your face, but my job is to deal with difficult personalities. If they’re all easy, they’re probably not good. I mean that’s a fact”

But managing those big personalities is only part of the job. Along with handling talent, McCarthy deals with program directors, corporate executives and marketing teams. However one of his biggest challenges is jockeying for ratings with the other sports talk radio station in town, WFAN Sports Radio.

Citing a nearly 13-year age difference in the average listeners of ESPN Radio and WFAN, McCarthy explained it’s important for his station to create “younger, hipper, more compelling programming.” Instead of looking at ESPN Radio as a direct competitor of the FAN, which has been on the air since 1987, McCarthy aims to control the next generation of sports fans.

“My view has always been not to ‘out-FAN’ the FAN. They were here first, and they’re good at it, and they’ve been around forever and it’s all good,” he said. “ I mean just look at, there’s some shows [on ESPN Radio] where there’s not one guy over 40 years old. The oldest person we have at the station is Michael Kay, and he’s been doing this a long time...So they’re kind of like the Ford and the Chevy, and we’re kind of like the Tesla.”

It’s safe to say that line of thinking has worked out well for McCarthy. ESPN Radio’s flagship show, The Michael Kay Show, has taken over the number one ratings spot in the past year, and the rest of the station is not far behind in its success.

McCarthy outlined the mentality he has carried throughout his career, one that has turned him into one of the most successful members of the sports broadcasting world.

“I think some of that is just doing right by people and you hope that same thing comes back to you,” he said. “And listen, you gotta work hard. My goal from the very beginning was that I’m gonna work harder than everyone else...My view was always this: the kid from Harvard always gets the first shot. The kid from Iona might not, but I’m gonna out work him.”

In speaking on Iona, McCarthy noted that the most important knowledge he picked up from his former school came outside of the classroom.

“At Iona they’re such good people that post-graduation we would still talk, we’d be referred to for stuff, we would have those conversations,” he said. “And I think the experience of being with good people that actually care about each other is a difference-maker.”

“I think Iona taught you to care about your community, to care about those you went to school with, stay in touch. I think they’re doing a better job than they used to with that. But I think all those things matter,” he said.

No matter your background or where you went to school, McCarthy says success all comes down to hard work, and who you surround yourself with.

“If you surround yourself with great people with the same value set that you have, you’ll do fine,” he said. “Like I said just treat people the way you want to be treated, work hard.”