The End of an Era

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo

I'm not sure if I ever made more than a brief reference to my unhealthy sports talk radio listening habits at the old Reliablog, but they're very real. Today they took a blow along with the whole New York talk radio landscape. After weeks of rumors and speculation, Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo, longtime co-host (along with Mike Francesa) of the "Mike and the Mad Dog" program on WFAN was released from his contract with the station today. Russo has always been a lightning rod for criticism during his tenure at WFAN for a variety of reasons including but not limited to his constant mispronunciations, egging on of listeners/callers, and flat out ridiculous statements. Whether you loved or hated the Mike and the Mad Dog show though, you were lying if you didn't admit that it was often compelling radio.

Russo & Francesa aka "Mike & the Mad Dog"

For a long time I was one of many people who constantly talked shit about the show, claiming that Russo and Francesa were both clueless morons who went out of their way to tweak fans of all the area sports teams. Now I actually don't think any part of the sentence I just wrote is incorrect. What made me appreciate the show, however, was two things. First off, I went to school in the Philadelphia area and got a taste of what Philly sports radio is like: all Eagles, all the time. Yes, Mike and the Mad Dog had the tendency to focus more on baseball than anything else (not necessarily a bad thing for big baseball fans like myself, but I can certainly see why people would take issue with this), but for the most part they did a good job of getting around to the entire local and national sports landscape, with the exception of hockey.

As soon as I realized that part of the entertainment of the show was listening to the ridiculous spectacle of it all (particularly the callers) I was able to enjoy it much more. Like it or not, the show was a barometer for the New York sports scene and was extremely influential on the opinions of tens of thousands of (less than intelligent) sports fans. This phase of my listening to the show was greatly aided by reading the message boards at mikefrancesa.com, a website dedicated to the duo which features threads for every show where readers poke fun at the hosts, callers, etc. everyday. To say it's an acquired taste would be an understatement, but for those who enjoy it and get all the stupid inside jokes it's pretty fantastic.

With Russo out of the picture Francesa received a contract extension today and will continue to hold the 1-6:30 timeslot at WFAN. Many people will say (me among them) that Francesa made a power play to get rid of Russo as they both admitted that relations were strained between them. It has been rumored for awhile that Russo would move to Sirius if the two were to break up and that is still the word on the street. As for me, I highly doubt this will encourage me to subscribe to satellite radio, there isn't a sports radio host in the world that could get me to do that. As a result I will probably continue to listen to WFAN and rue the day that we got stuck with two ridiculously pompous Yankee fans on the two major sports talk radio stations during drive time (Michael Kay on ESPN radio being the other one). Today is indeed a sad day in my mind, truly the end of an era.