Radio legend apologizes for 'unwanted advance' to stadium employee

Howard Eskin returned to his weekend show on SportsRadio 94WIP on Saturday for the first time since June 29.

A few days after that show, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Eskin was accused of making an unwanted advance toward an Aramark employee at Citizens Bank Park in May, which led to the local sports media icon getting barred from the stadium for the rest of the Major League Baseball season. According to the report, the 73-year-old was accused by the female employee of giving her an “unwelcome kiss.”

While WIP’s parent company, Audacy, acknowledged the accusations and the decision by Citizens Bank Park, they never formally suspended Eskin.

“We support Audacy’s decision to suspend Howard Eskin from Citizens Bank Park,” the Phillies previously said in a statement earlier this month.

When Eskin missed the following weekend’s show, it was noted as a preplanned vacation. When he missed the second straight weekend, it was reportedly due to not wanting to interfere with the retirement of long-time WIP host Glen Macnow. While he missed a third consecutive weekend after that, WIP continued to say that he had not been suspended.

In the wake of the controversy, the Philadelphia 76ers announced that they did not intend to grant Eskin access to the team’s training facility “until further notice” and asked Wells Fargo Center to follow suit . Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles have allowed him to attend training camp and he has continued to take part in Eagles Radio Network broadcasts.

Eskin finally returned to WIP airwaves on Saturday, July 27 , and also broke his silence on the allegations and report, offering an apology without getting into the details.

“I’d like to briefly address the recent reports about an incident at Citizens Bank Park,” Eskin said at the start of Saturday’s show . “Now, I’m not going to get into specifics other than to say that I recognize my actions have offended and upset her. I feel awful about that. I really do. I apologized to her at the time of the incident, and I apologize again now. I’m truly sorry that this did occur. I know a lot of you want me to say more about this, but I don’t intend to comment on this any further, and hopefully you understand.”

With that, Eskin launched into a discussion about the Philadelphia Eagles training camp.

Spiks Eskin, Howard’s son and afternoon drive co-host at WIP, addressed the allegations and situation earlier in the month.

“There is a story out there about my dad,” Spike said during his show . “You probably read it, you probably heard about it. The truth, though, is that he and I are different people who do different things.”

“Even though he did this job and I do this job, I am not him, he is not me. I think we have made that very clear over the years, for better or for worse. So, I don’t feel comfortable at all speaking on the issue itself, as I would not if it was anybody else here at WIP. It is his issue with the radio station and the people involved, it is not my issue.”

[ Audacy , Barrett Media ]

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