This being Disney and ESPN, there were meetings about the name for Mike Golic and Trey Wingo's program. Lots of meetings. How did everyone feel about first names? Last names? Ampersand or no ampersand? Which order? Something else?
"They settled on 'Golic and Wingo,'" said Wingo, the ESPN veteran who later this month replaces Mike Greenberg as Golic's weekday morning radio-TV simulcast cohost. "You know, we probably could have gotten there by ourselves. I don't care. I made a pitch for 'Wingolic. ... Maybe that will be the hashtag.' "
The name-change discussion was necessary because Greenberg, Golic's broadcast partner of 18 years, officially goes his own way after their show Nov. 17, the Friday before Thanksgiving, bringing an end to "Mike&Mike."
The rechristened (and meeting-approved) "Golic and Wingo" begins in the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. slot Nov. 27, the Monday after Thanksgiving. The radio program initially will be seen on ESPN2 but eventually will migrate to ESPNU.
"I have been at ESPN 20 years and it's not often you can be somewhere that long and still have something completely new to launch yourself into," Wingo said during a recent visit to Chicago. "I'm looking forward to it."
No word on the fate of the soon-unemployed ampersand. Maybe Greenberg will find use for it on his not-yet-titled New York-based ESPN morning show, which was announced as a Jan 1 launch but now appears unlikely to make its debut until spring when a build-out of new studio space should be complete.
Wingo will continue to host "NFL Live" only through the Super Bowl, though he expects to keep his NFL draft, Pro Football Hall of Fame and "NFL Prime Time" duties.
Given ESPN's stake in NFL and college football content, there has been some speculation that pairing him with Golic, who was drafted out of Notre Dame and played nine NFL seasons, signals an even greater emphasis on football than before on the morning program. That, however, overlooks Wingo's time as a "Baseball Tonight" host, "SportsCenter" anchor, covering the NBA and an array of other assignments.
"The only ESPN show I didn't do was (motorsports') 'RPM 2night' and we don't have that anymore," Wingo said. "For lack of a better term, it's like they say in radio, we're going to play the hits.
"Whatever the big stories are, we're going to do. And the NFL, no matter what people are saying about it, still moves the needle like no other sport. ... The NFL and college football are what people talk about and care about and what people are invested in."
There are a number of reasons that have been offered as to why NFL Sunday afternoon game ratings have declined. Politics and protests, overexposure, relocation, a need for new marquee stars and weak matchups are among them.
Papa John's International Chief Executive John Schnatter said the league's inability to deal with the player protests is hurting his business. Investors have been sour on his business since last December when its share price hit its all-time peak. The price has dropped by almost a third since then, through all sports' seasons.
Wingo said "whatever dip there is in NFL viewing is the same as viewing for everything else" as people consume media in new and different ways.
That's why ESPN isn't content to let "Golic and Wingo" rely merely on traditional radio and cable TV audiences. Other places to find it are ESPNRadio.com, ESPN's app, SiriusXM Ch.80, Apple Music, Slacker Radio and Tunein, not to mention the podcast version available through ESPN's radio website and app.
Wingo is not the great media visionary in his family. That would be his father. Hal Wingo Jr. was a founding editor of People magazine, which launched in 1974.
"There was no weekly magazine at that time that did that sort of personal human interest, celebrity-type stuff and it took off," Trey said. "It became the most successful magazine launch of all-time and probably will be forever because people aren't launching magazines anymore."
The elder Wingo started as a Texas newspaperman who talked his way into a job at Time-Life, initially working on the company's in-house newsletter. Eventually he would go on to run the Los Angeles bureau and then the Hong Kong bureau during the Vietnam War.
"We moved back to the States in 1970 and he was with Life magazine until it folded," Trey said. "They kept my dad and a few other people on and said, 'Listen, we need a new magazine, so come up with something.' And they came up with People."
One can only imagine how long it took them to agree on the name People, which is short and simple and says what needs to be said. Say what you want about "Golic and Wingo," it is better than "Wingolic."
"Better than 'Trike', too, although 'Trike' might better sum up what we're trying to do," Wingo said. "On three wheels, just going around in a circle."
