Carton Released Back Into Radio?
• The New York Post reports that former WFAN/New York host Craig Carton was granted early release from federal prison on Tuesday morning after serving less than a year of a his 3 1/2-year sentence for a ticket scam, “due to completing a number of programs offered by the federal penitentiary.”
The Post article, which is also posted on WFAN’s website, says Carton, 51, will either enter home confinement or a halfway house to finish out his sentence and then goes on to loudly speculate that Carton “may have a path back to WFAN as Chris Oliviero, his former producer, now heads up Entercom’s New York stations.” Oliviero formerly served as Entercom EVP of Programming until leaving the company in July 2018. On June 1 we reported that Oliviero had rejoined Entercom as SVP/Market Manager for the company’s New York group, which includes WFAN.
As the Post goes on to hypothesize, “It is believed that when Oliviero agreed to return to the company, he asked if he would be able to re-hire Carton at FAN. He was told he would be allowed to if he saw fit, according to sources. It is not a done deal and it is not exactly clear when Carton would be able to return to FAN, but with his release, there is a belief that a return to FAN could very well happen.”
Carton originally joined WFAN in 2007 and was teamed with NFL Hall of Fame QB Boomer Esiason, forging what was consistently the No. 1-rated morning program in New York. The fun came to a screeching halt on Sept. 6, 2017 when Carton was arrested and accused, along with his business partner Joseph Meli, of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of millions of dollars in bogus concert tickets in order to cover his own gambling debts. Carton and another business associate, Michael Wright, were also charged with securities and wire fraud in Manhattan federal court. Carton resigned a week later and was eventually replaced by Gregg Giannotti as co-host of the rebranded Boomer & Gio.
On April 5, 2019, Carton was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution to his victims. Naturally, none of the above speculation is anywhere close to being a done deal, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to watch this space for further developments.
