6 Outside Talents WFAN Should Consider for Afternoon Drive or Other Spots

WFAN is going to be in a state of flux, as Mike Francesa is leaving again. Andrew Marchand and Neil Best have been doing the original reporting. Best floated Evan Roberts as a potential drive-time host; Marchand has said that as well, also noting that Maggie Gray is signed for another year, Bart Scott's deal is not signed yet, and John Jastremski could be in line for a promotion from overnights to some point during the day. If WFAN is going to consider people from the outside, here are six names they should explore:

Ryan Ruocco and CC Sabathia

Ruocco and Sabathia co-host the popular R2C2 podcast on the Uninterrupted platform. Ruocco is the presumed next voice of the Yankees, whose flagship station is WFAN, and Sabathia pitched for them for the last decade and won a World Series with the team. After recently retiring from baseball, Sabathia is as good a bet as anyone to become the next Shannon Sharpe -- a former athlete who can ably analyze sports that he didn't play. He has a contributor deal with ESPN, but this is a pairing WFAN should absolutely explore.

Kevin Clancy

KFC from Barstool lives and breathes New York sports. From the outside, it would be astonishing if he left Barstool where he is an OG member, and Barstool traditionally is not keen on sharing talent. Nonetheless, if there were a way to make a split work, he is a really strong radio host alongside Kayce Smith and Jared Carrabis in Barstool's SiriusXM lineup. He would be a bold -- and I think successful -- choice to go up against The Michael Kay Show in the long run.

Sarah Kustok

Kustok has gained a footprint in New York sports on Nets broadcasts on YES, and has really done a nice job on SiriusXM's NBA Radio. One thing that would have to happen if she were under consideration for a job at WFAN is she would have to get very deep into the Yankees, Mets, Giants, and Jets. The latter two are pretty manageable because football games happen once a week, but with Yankees and Mets you have to be prepared to answer 8,000 calls about why Carlos Beltran messed up some bullpen decision over the course of a marathon baseball season.

Brandon Tierney

Tierney understands the landscape of both the local scene and WFAN's parent company. He hosted sports talk radio on ESPN New York for about nine years, and is already in the Entercom family as the co-host of Tiki & Tierney daily program on the national CBS Radio network.

Nick Kostos

This would be a bold risk similar to WFAN exploring the KFC option. However, it bears mentioning that he's a dyed-in-the-wool New York sports fan. Like Tierney, he is already in the Entercom family as co-host of You Better You Bet on Radio.com's digital sports network, and has infectiously high energy. Kostos was a guest on the Glass Half Empty podcast last week. When I asked him at the 29-minute mark if he'd entertain the possibility of working for WFAN, he said he was floored when he earned an internship there and that of course he'd listen if they were interested: