Mad Dog out at WFAN

[Frayed Knot]

From Bob Raissman at the NYDN


WFAN announced Thursday that it has released Chris (Mad Dog) Russo from his contract.
This means the end of his 20-year partnership with Mike Francesa on the highly successful �Mike and the Mad Dog Show.�
Russo, whose contract was to run until the Fall of 2009, has been rumored to be headed to Sirius XM Radio. Sources said Russo has no signed agreement with the satellite company.
Russo will not make a final appearance on WFAN.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Bad job by FAN.

[metirish]

I hope Mike can stop in to explain to us what happened.

[metirish]

From Best at Newday.

The announcement of Russo's departure coincided with the announcement of a new contract for Francesa, whose deal was believed to be expiring around the end of the year.

For now, he will be the sole host of the show, including Friday. But over time new elements might be added.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I always hear their show on my way home. I definitely sensed some awkwardness when it came to them talking about their partnership over the past weeks.

I sorta thought it would be Mike resigning to do more TV or something.

[MFS62]

Of the two, I always liked Russo better than Francessa.
You may think he is an asshole, but at least he isn't a pompous asshole.
When flying solo, Russo was not too bad as a host - none of the foolishness he maybe felt he had to provide as a counterpoint.

Later

[G-Fafif]

It's like finding your painful warts have disappeared but that your godawful rash has spread.

[metirish]

I could definitely picture Francesa having more clout with management than Russo.

[Guest MadDog]

FIRED!

...

Like a DOG!

That's a bad job by them. A bad job. You want to fire me?

...

Fine.

Fire me.

I know when I'm not wanted.

...

Say something funny, Mike.

[Elster88]

G-Fafif wrote: It's like finding your painful warts have disappeared but that your godawful rash has spread.

Maybe the off button on your radio can cure that rash.

[Guest Kong76]

FAN needs to do something about the morning thing they got with Boomer
and that guy no one has ever heard of but he thinks he's someone because
he goes to a game from time to time with Boomer.

Mike and Dog had a good run, I'm glad to hear it's over.

I'm rootin' for Dog to do better somewhere than Mike. Can't wait to hear
how Mike handles the "guess the ratings" thing without Dog. Not.

[seawolf17]

I kinda like the morning show on days I forget to get my mp3 player out of my bag. They're not bad.

I'd rather Dog solo than Francesa; Mike's a blowhard who's really hard to listen to and doesn't give a crap about anyone's opinion other than his own. Dog will at least open up discussion and debate, if for no other reason than he has no idea what he's talking about.

[Guest Kong76]

It will be interesting to see what the press has to say about it in the next
couple of days. I hate to say it, but really there will never be as big a show
on radio or the internet in terms of success unless someone reinvents
sliced bread or something.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I've remarked here before that Carton ain't so bad. He's got pretty good energy, knows we can't take hm too seriously.

I find Francessa solo awful, though the non-Kay guy on 1050 is a complete retard and Kay I just disagree with so much.

[seawolf17]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I find Francessa solo awful, though the non-Kay guy on 1050 is a complete retard and Kay I just disagree with so much.

The Kay guy on 1050 is a complete retard too, FWIW.

[Farmer Ted]

Post reporting that Mad Dog to take a $3 million a year gig on Sirius. Serious!

[nymr83]

i'd rather have seen Francesa go if only one was gonna leave, but this is still half way there.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

I never got to play my Mad Dog drinking game, the one where you take a shot every time he admits he hasn't done any prep work whatsoever for the show. Like, when they're talking about a game that Russo admits he didn't see or when they interview an author and he says something like, "Now, I haven't read it, but people say it's great!"

Oh, well- I'll have to do the "Chug During Dead Air" game for Francesca.

[soupcan]

From what I'm hearing today it seems like Russo got an offer from SIRIUS that WFAN wouldn't or couldn't match. Since the relationship between he and Francesa wasn't so great anyway, WFAN released him from his contract.

I listened to their show when they were in studio together but always preferred them when they were each by themselves.

Francesa is pompous and condescending and Russo is ill-informed and prone to over the top hysteria. As a team they seemed to bring out the worst in one another. Seperately, although they were both still irritating, they tended to be more reserved.

Of the two - I preferred Russo's 'every fan' approach as opposed to Francesa instructing me on why my thoughts and opinions were wrong. I wish that if one of them were leaving it would've been Francesa but I'm not that passionate about it. I'll listen to Russo on SIRIUS since I have it but if I didn't I wouldn't buy it just for him.

On Carton and Boomer in the morning - they are atrocious. Carton thinks he's funny but he's just obnoxious and rude. Boomer is a conceited boob with the most inane opinions.

I read somewhere that Regis Philbin told Boomer that he should be careful because Carton is going to wind up getting him (Boomer) fired. I can totally see that.

Phil Mushnick on the Mike & the Mad Dog breakup - funny because he starts out trying to compliment them but just can't bring himself to actually do it:

] GOOD OR BAD, MIKE & DOG MADE HISTORY August 14, 2008 -- OK, so maybe it wasn't always for the best reasons, but Mike Francesa and Chris Russo still had a good run - a great run, even - and for nearly 20 years. Hell, for better and worse, they made radio history. Like Burns and Allen, Klavin and Finch and Bob and Ray, Francesa and Russo - no longer together after WFAN let Russo go Thursday - together changed the course of radio. They were the first nationally known team in the history of sports talk radio. It's a forever fact. MORE: 'Mad Dog' Runs Away From Mike So what if they got along like Martin and Lewis? And so what if they benefited from a media market - the world's largest - that could never provide genuine competition? Though WFAN in large part was saved by "Imus in the Morning," it relied upon Mike and the Mad Dog for everything else. And now both shows, 16 months apart, are gone. Twenty years ago, Russo was buying weekend air-time on WMCA, sending tapes to sports media critics, eager for ink, hungry to make something happen. And for all his knee-jerking and brainless defamations and butchered pronunciations and ability to get lost in an elevator, he made it happen. And we're told Sirius, bless its brainless bankroll, will pay Russo $3 million to rant about things he has, in almost 20 years, proven he knows little about. Good work, if you can get it. If Howard Stern hasn't yet crushed AM or FM radio, neither will Russo. That Russo long felt that he was treated with less intellectual and financial regard by WFAN than Francesa became a self-fulfilling reality. His deferments to Francesa's most specious opinions and flip-flops, his steady indulgence of Francesa's delusions of grandeur, became standardized. Russo became Ed Norton to Francesa's Ralph Kramden. And now Norton's on his own. A new gig for a half of a history-making team may guarantee a lucrative future but not a successful one. As a Sirius host or working from a telephone booth, Russo lacks the capacity to be much more than another forced sports radio act, another holler guy. Warts and all, Francesa, still aided and comforted by a paucity of legitimate competition, will remain a habit-formed listen here for however long he remains. But together, and for nearly 20 years, Francesa and Russo made history. They made a whole lot something out of what previously existed as nothing. phil.mushnick@nypost.com

Edited August 15, 2008 by Guest

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

[Guest AG/DC]

I began crying at three minutes.

[soupcan]

Too many bon mots there to list.

That was great.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I gotta say it. I'm gonna miss that zany knucklehead.

[Frayed Knot]

]I listened to their show when they were in studio together but always preferred them when they were each by themselves. ... Francesa is pompous and condescending and Russo is ill-informed and prone to over the top hysteria. As a team they seemed to bring out the worst in one another. Seperately, although they were both still irritating, they tended to be more reserved

I tend to think that they alternately brought out both the worst AND the best in each other. More reserved seperately, yes, but also more boring beyond short stretches.

I'll miss the pairing at times. It's one thing for someone to do a radio program solo - but even anexperienced one for 5-1/2 hours daily is going to fall into a rut real quickly. There's talk about there being "other voices" on the show but it's going to be Mike's show exclusively. There'll be no replacement and therefore little check on his extremes.

One thing I'll miss about Chris is he's the only one on that station who'd take a few minutes out and review the general state of MLB on a semi-regular bases. Usually when by himself - but sometimes steering the dual broadcast that way - he liked to take 10 minutes out every few days to observe that; 'hey, Houston's hot; this new rookie in Anaheim is tearing things up; White Sox are in free fall and the manager's in trouble' or whatever the case may be. It's amazing that in an industry which treats analyzing every football game played (even some left coast deal between two also-rans) like an analysis of it to within an inch of its life how MLB is treated like it barely exists beyond the borders of NYC by virtually everyone else.

[seawolf17]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote:

I heard this live, sitting outside Trinity Catholic High School in Stamford. This was great, great radio.

[Frayed Knot]

Mike with a 10-minute or so intro explaining the whys and wherefores.
Now Mad Dog on via phone to say goodbye and breaks down crying part-way through.

[nymr83]

wow this barely sounds like him (dog), i never realized how much being in-studio as opposed to on the phone changes your voice

[soupcan]

Russo calling in live on the cellphone right now is crying.

They are speaking to each other like Francesa is the wife who has been cheated on and kicked the husband out, has forgiven him, but it is what it is.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

What were the whys and wherefores?

[Frayed Knot]

Nothing really specific, except that both parties deny that personal dislike played any role.
- time to move on
- 19 years is a long time
- (MD) I need new challenges