After 21 years as cohosts on WIP, Glen Macnow and Ray Didinger are enjoying their next chapter — in the theater

On a Saturday morning in 2015, Ray Didinger walked into the offices of WIP-FM (94.1) with a script in his briefcase. He handed it to his longtime sports talk radio partner, Glen Macnow.

“Tell me what you think,” Didinger said. “Be honest.”

He knew Macnow would. They’d been friends for decades, cohosts since 2001. But they’d also shared a love of theater, an unusual hobby in an industry full of hot takes and eccentric callers.

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So, when Didinger decided to write Tommy and Me — a play detailing his relationship with Hall of Fame Eagles wide receiver Tommy McDonald — he wanted Macnow to be the first to read it.

The cohost didn’t have many edits. He offered Didinger some minor suggestions, like incorporating more of his younger self in the show, but other than that, it was pretty complete.

Didinger was relieved. This was not his area of expertise. He’d worked for newspapers for 28 years — the Delaware County Daily Times, the Philadelphia Bulletin, and the Daily News — but constructing a screenplay was a different type of challenge.

It was a challenge that he and Macnow would navigate together. The two men are no longer cohosts but are still supporting each other, as they pursue a new chapter in show business.

It took Didinger about a year to complete his first draft. Instead of writing a game recap, he was now creating a dialogue. Instead of interviewing athletes, he was now interacting with actors, telling them when and where they should be on the stage.

But despite his dearth of experience, he knew how to tell a story, and this was an interesting one. Didinger, now 78, met McDonald at Eagles training camp in Hershey as a 10-year-old. Didinger would carry the wide receiver’s helmet as he walked to the practice fields.

Years later, long after Didinger had become a sportswriter, the two reconnected. Didinger led a campaign to get McDonald into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1998.

“I was pretty gentle [on the script],” Macnow said, “because it was pretty good.”

Tommy and Me debuted in August 2016 at FringeArts in Philadelphia. Since then, the play has been staged in six other theaters, for thousands of people. It is currently running at People’s Light in Malvern.

Didinger, who retired from WIP in 2022 (but still calls in periodically), likes to sit in the back during performances and watch the audience take it in. He pays especially close attention to the patrons who aren’t decked out in kelly green.

“There [are] a lot of guys wearing Reggie White jerseys, Eagles hoodies, Eagles T-shirts, ‘Free Big Dom’ T-shirts,” Didinger said. “They’re already invested in the story. But then there’s that other percentage of the audience, people that are just dressed to go to the theater.

“When I see them reacting to things that are happening in the play, then I feel good, because I know this isn’t about football anymore. It’s about the basic humanity between the two people.”

A year after Didinger made his screenwriting debut, Macnow returned to the stage. He had acted in plays in high school and college and had always wanted to get back into it.

Sportswriter Anthony SanFilippo, who worked as a producer for WIP from 1997 to 2001, invited Macnow, now 69, to a show at the Players Club of Swarthmore. The radio host was expecting to see a rudimentary production. It was anything but.

“There were these very impressive sets and well-produced plays, with very solid acting and music and choreography and live orchestras,” Macnow said. “I mean, we have live orchestras for these things.”

SanFilippo was directing his first play, The Dining Room, and wanted Macnow to audition. Macnow decided to go for it, and was immediately hooked. He quickly upped the stakes by going out for a musical, Guys and Dolls, in 2019.

He was not a singer, but he hired a tutor to help him. He used vocal warm-up exercises to train his voice.

“I’m not Enrico Caruso out there, but I can now go to a singing audition and feel like I can pull it off,” Macnow said.

He added: “I can’t dance. I notice that they tend to put me in the back row, which is perfectly fine for everybody.”

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Macnow, who retired from WIP in July, is now preparing for his eighth show. It is pure coincidence that he and his former radio cohost began to pursue theater around the same time, but a welcome one, nonetheless.

They enjoy the challenge of working in a new field. Macnow is surrounded by actors who are better than he is — most of whom know nothing about sports. Didinger can’t say the same — it is not uncommon to hear an Eagles chant after his play — but described screenwriting as “out of his comfort zone.”

“We’re talking about the same concept,” Didinger said. “In his case, it’s performing on stage. In my case, it’s writing a play.”

The former cohosts have supported each other through it all. Macnow goes to Didinger’s shows, and Didinger goes to Macnow’s. Macnow recently edited the first draft of Didinger’s second screenplay, Spinner, which is about his relationship with a hockey player in the 1970s.

“Another winner,” Macnow said. “It is a very different kind of story, but another winner.”

While the two friends are working in the same professional field (again), there are some key differences in how they’re going about it. Didinger has no desire to act. He got his fill last Friday, when the actor who plays Didinger in Tommy and Me had a family emergency.

The former radio host was presented with two options: Cancel the sold-out show or take the stage (in the role of himself).

He took the stage, and the show went off without a hitch. The audience gave him a round of applause before he even said a line.

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“People seemed to like it,” Didinger said. “But the other three actors were great. I mean, they really were very supportive, and I could tell the audience was rooting for me.

“They understood that I’m not an actor. They understood that I was filling in for the guy who normally plays me. So, they weren’t expecting [Robert] De Niro.”

Macnow was not surprised by his friend’s response.

“What were they going to say?” he said. “‘Not believable as Ray Didinger?’ ‘Doesn’t sell himself as the character?’”

Macnow will continue to act, but Didinger likely won’t write another play after Spinner — unless the right story presents itself. His cohost is fine with this. It gives them plenty of time to work on what he hopes will be their next project.

Macnow turned to Didinger.

“There’s a friend of mine who wants to pitch you and I doing The Odd Couple,” he said, of the play-turned-television show about two incompatible roommates. “Still available. He’d still do it.”

“No,” Didinger said. “[Acting] was nerve-racking. I’m not anxious to do it again.”

“You make it sound like a trip to the dentist,” Macnow said. “Like you’re getting a root canal.”

A few hours later, Didinger returned to the idea.

“I will say this,” he said. “If we were to do it — which we’re not — but if we were to do it, there is only one way you could cast it.”

“Yes,” Macnow said, with a nod.

“I would have to be Felix [Unger],” Didinger said, of the well-organized, fastidious roommate — not the unkempt sportswriter Oscar Madison. “I would absolutely have to be Felix.”

Macnow smiled.

“Perfect,” he said. “We can pull that off.”