The Fifth Hour: Tabernacle of The Chicken Finger With Eddie Garcia
August 22, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readLunch at the Tabernacle of the Chicken Finger
On the 234th day of the year, Ben Maller sat across from Eddie Garcia at a Raising Cane's in Southern California, dipping fried poultry into Cane Sauce, and discovered that twenty years of overnight radio friendship doesn't evaporate just because a company lets someone go. The reunion had been long overdue. Garcia was "excommunicated, decommissioned" from Fox Sports Radio in November 2024, ending a partnership that, measured in dog years, lasted 79 years. They had survived multiple presidents, economic crises, the pandemic, the deaths of Kobe Bryant and other legends, the invention of the iPhone, and "approximately 47 different management philosophies and consultants." And now, finally, they sat down for a proper meal.
The Geography of Reconnection
Getting there required actual work. Garcia lives nowhere near Maller in Southern California, and the region's freeways are not transportation but "an endurance sport." Maller described the 405 as "very angry," the 5 as "emotionally unavailable," the 91 as wanting you dead. They needed the geographic midpoint between Casa Garcia and the Maller Mansion, which required "Maller Math, Satellite Technology, and possibly the Army Corps of Engineers." Destiny sent them to Raising Cane's, which Maller christened "the Tabernacle of the Chicken Finger."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (03:57) **Show Open & Dodgers Ownership Speculation** - Ben Maller opens the podcast and immediately pivots to a hot take on the Dodgers' financial future after seeing comments from team president Stan Kasten.
- 2 (07:05) **The Long-Awaited Reunion with Eddie Garcia** - Ben sets up the main segment: a power lunch with his former radio partner of 20+ years, Eddie Garcia, who was let go from Fox Sports Radio in November 2024.
- 3 (15:03) **The Injury Report of Life** - Ben describes how the conversation with Eddie quickly devolved into a medical roundup of mutual friends and acquaintances.
- 4 (20:17) **The Bleak State of the Radio Business** - The conversation shifts to the radio industry, which Ben describes as considerably less uplifting than the medical talk.
- 5 (22:36) **Reminiscing About the Show's Lunatic Callers** - Ben and Eddie spent a significant portion of lunch remembering the "bigger than life characters" who made the overnight show what it was.
- 6 (24:23) **Worrying About Missing Friends** - A somber moment as Ben and Eddie realized they haven't heard from long-time callers Jack the Judge and Leslie in nearly a year.
- 7 (26:22) **The Strange Bond of Overnight Radio** - Ben reflects on the unique, intense relationship of working overnight radio with someone for two decades.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Ben spills the exclusive details of his long-overdue power lunch with former radio sidekick Eddie Garcia — the who, what, where, when and why of the whole operation. It required the Army Corps of Engineers, some highly questionable Maller Math and enough travel to qualify as a Lewis & Clark expedition. The destination? The Tabernacle of the Chicken Finger, where Benny reveals exactly how much power 25+ years at Fox Sports Radio gets you. Spoiler: not much. Plus, we workshop the first-ever Milky Way NFL Draft featuring the Grays, Nordics, Insectoids and Reptilians. Which alien species goes No. 1 overall, and naturally, how do the Browns screw it up? Then it's Tooth Fairy economics: Santa Claus' overnight-working younger sibling has been collecting chompers for generations — but just how many teeth can the Tooth Fairy theoretically harvest from one kid? We crunch the numbers on that brain buster and more in this completely unnecessary, yet somehow must-listen edition of the Fifth Hour.
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