Al Morganti signs new deal with 94.1 WIP ahead of Angelo Cataldi’s retirement
“I agreed to a lifetime deal. It’s five years,” Morganti joked about his new WIP contract.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/3JNQEG5LLZBJXJ3CMFLNRS2Z54.jpg)
Longtime 94.1 WIP morning show host Angelo Cataldi is leaving the station the week after the Eagles’ season ends, but his longtime cohost Al Morganti is sticking around.
Morganti, who has been a fixture at WIP since the early 1990s, signed a new deal that will keep him on the radio for the next five years, which even he thought was optimistic.
“I agreed to a lifetime deal. It’s five years,” Morganti said on air Thursday morning.
Morganti will not join fellow morning show cohost Rhea Hughes on the station’s new morning show, which will feature current midday hosts Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie. Instead, Morganti said he would host an unspecified weekend shift and a new podcast centered around the Flyers.
“I’m excited about this. I get to do a lot of Flyers stuff on the podcast, so it’s really cool,” Morganti said. “I don’t have to get up early.”
Morganti is also a Flyers analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia, where he appears on the network’s pre- and postgame shows. But he might be best known for his role creating Wing Bowl, the wing-eating spectacle that paired scantily clad wingettes with wildly intoxicated Eagles fans for 26 years before it was finally canceled in 2018.
Cataldi is retiring after more than 30 years at WIP, where he has anchored one of the most popular radio shows in Philadelphia history. And even he thought Morganti’s contract might be a bit too long.
“Al told me he was working on a five-year deal, and I said to him, ‘My god, that’s optimistic,’” Cataldi joked Thursday morning. “I mean, the guy’s like 70. That’s good, but it shows the company really loves him.”
With DeCamara and Ritchie moving their show to the morning, WIP’s new midday show will feature current evening host Joe Giglio and former Eagles Pro Bowler Hugh Douglas. Afternoon host Jon Marks recently signed a new deal to remain on during drive-time alongside former Eagles defender Ike Reese. WIP hasn’t announced who will fill its vacant evening slot.