It took a full week, but we finally have clarity on the turmoil at The Score. Whether we have closure remains to be seen.
Executive producer Shane Riordan and co-hosts Danny Parkins and Matt Spiegel of the “Parkins & Spiegel” afternoon show apologized in the first segment Thursday for their behavior last week.
Riordan returned after being off the air since last Friday for making crude remarks toward Dan Proft, a host on conservative-talk WIND, who had insulted him and the station the day before. Parkins and Spiegel added to the vitriolic rhetoric that day but remained on the air.
The show members, The Score management and station owner Audacy had refused to comment, but the silence ended when Parkins opened the show.
“We got the whole band back together. We will talk sports in just a little bit,” he began. “We are all glad that Shane is back. The three of us have something to say off the top; we’re going to address what happened last week briefly. And, Shane, I know that you want to begin.”
“I feel horrible,” Riordan said. “Last week, I made an immature joke and offended a lot of people. I’m better than that. I’ve hated sitting here for the last week knowing that I made anyone feel less than. A moment on the radio show went too far, and that’s something that was caused by me.
“You’ve got no clue how bad a I feel for putting you guys, my crew on the show, in a position that you had no business being in, and I’m sorry to anyone who was made to feel horrible due to a decision I made.”
Spiegel thanked Riordan, then shared his thoughts.
“We’ve all talked and learned a lot in the past few days,” he said. “A ton of different situations and bits of content come our way. We work really hard to be informative and entertaining, and sometimes a line is crossed. We try to help each other in those situations. There are many ways to steer conversation. I plan to work even harder to keep that kind of thing in mind.”
Said Parkins: “I obviously own my role in what happened. Our goal is to have fun, and I think that’s what we do the vast majority of the time. Even if a line was crossed, which it was. So I’m glad that the crew is back. And with that, we’ll get back to doing what we do, which is talking sports and having fun and doing whatever it is we do around here between 2 and 6.”
Then, in one of the oddest segue ways you’ll hear, Spiegel turned the conversation to the Cubs.
“That was one of the most brutal and painful baseball losses I can recall,” he said.
There’s no good way to change the subject without going to commercial or using some musical interlude, so that will have to do. Those who were offended will decide for themselves if the apologies were sufficient. Riordan certainly sounded remorseful. He bore the brunt of the punishment, and rightly so. Hopefully, he’ll be better for it.
Spiegel seemed more focused on steering the conversation, not the conversation itself. And Parkins saying, “Even if a line was crossed, which it was,” sounded like sorry not sorry. Again, words matter. But they did the right thing by speaking about it on the air and taking ownership of their mistake, unlike station management and ownership, which stayed silent for a week.
And we’ve yet to hear Proft show contrition for firing the first shot.
