"This is not life or death" Mark Mason, the former program director at WFAN proclaimed during a call-in session with Mike Francesa on Friday afternoon, and he was right. The break-up of the long-running, influential, revolutionary radio show "Mike and the Mad Dog" was over, but it wasn't the end of the world.
At that moment, those were important words. Like the show itself, the afternoon session had taken on a more serious, self-important tone than was really necessary. No one was jumping off a bridge because Mike and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo would no longer being battling one another over sports each day. No one was leaving the country, no longer sure democracy could work when it had failed to keep the two talk-show hosts together for at least one more decade.
This was the end of a talk-show, nothing else.
But, listening yesterday afternoon, as Mike spoke for 15 minutes at the beginning of the show about how much his time with Mad Dog had meant and how much he assumed it had meant to the listeners, the medium, and the world overall - and later, when an emotional yet somewhat more sensible Mad Dog called in, letting loose his emotions yet going out of his way to thank the fans (something Francesa had not done during his monologue) - it became clear that something was, indeed, ending this day.
You see, sports talk radio has become a fixture in America and much of that is due to Mike and Chris. It isn't hard to imagine why so few people thought that the new format could work. Would people really tune in ALL DAY to listen to people talk about sports? Would anyone even know it was on?
Now, after 20 years, such questions seem somewhat comical.
Sports talk has become a fixture in every media market, from the major cities to college towns. People WANT to hear what others have to say about sports. They tune in and the show becomes almost like elevaror music. You can pay attention when you want and tune out when you want.
Mike and Mad Dog pioneered the industry and for nearly two decades, love them or hate them, you would have to admit they did it better than anyone else.
Their personalities meshed perfectly together.
Dog is a spastic, off-the-cuff, at times irrational sports fan who resembles the somewhat delusional fans who call the show. His personality was so over-the-top, yet seemingly so genuine, it was fascinating to hear and to watch him on the YES Network, which had telecast the show since 2001.
Francesa came to the show with more credibility and seemingly always offered that to the duo. Francesa had worked for CBS and had covered NCAA basketball for years. When he came, he brought his connections and his more a-matter-of-fact attitude, a no-nonsense, somewhat know-it-all attitude that played perfectly with Dogs more emotionally driven persona.
In interviews, the two would routinely tag-team victims, attacking any weakness or seemingly contradicting statement. The view of their performance was dictated by the person they were stripping bare; if it was a good-guy, a fan-favorite, then they many times seemed unprofessional and overly combative for no reason. If it were a goat, someone the fans had built a long-lasting resentment against (Isiah Thomas, Steve Phillips, etc......) then the two seemed to be exacting thier rightful pound of flesh in the name of the fans.
No matter what, however, their at times hostile tone seemed to always elicite more emotionally raw and perhaps revealing answers from professionals groomed to give little or nothing to the media.
During the 5 1/2 hour swan song for the show Friday, Francesa referred to it as a "must listen" and while the tenor of the comment might have made many recoil from the obvious self-indulgence, it was true. When something big happened in New York - a big trade, a big loss, a big win - you wanted to hear what Mike and the Dog had to say. You wanted to hear what each of them thought about the situation.
When the Yankees won their first world championship in 1996, you wanted to hear what, exactly, the two would say. When Mike Piazza was traded to the Mets, in no small part due to the pressure the talk-show tandem put on the Met organization to pull the trigger, you wanted to hear what their take would be. Francesa said he was "told" that the two had become a part of the New York sound track and, you know what, he was right. If you loved sports, you KNEW what the two had to say about the important New York sports issues.
What made the two terrific together will, perhaps, be what keeps either one from achieving great success separately. During the summer months, when the two rarely worked together, it was hard to listen to them individually. Dog was TOO over the top without Francesa, making stupid, outlandish comments without any backing. His show was too all-over-the-place, jumping from baseball to tennis to his personal golf outing the week before, and the show felt more national than local (something that might help Dog in the long run).
For Francesa, his slow, deliberate way of approaching an issue can be boring at times. His know-it-all personality off putting and his obviously high opinion of his own importance tiring. Without the personality of Dog, who seemed to enjoy the fans as much as he argued with them, Francesa's act will quickly tire.
Which one will be more successful? That is hard to say. Francesa is being handed a time-slot he and his partner made a habit. People tune in because, well, that's what they do. Even if Francesa's newly designed show is flat, he will more than likely stay close to the top of the New York ratings based on where he is on the dial.
Russo has more of a challenge.
Rumored to be going to Sirius radio, the Mad Dog will almost certainly have a national show. Will his New York fans follow him to not only a national show, but to a show that demands payment each month? For those who already have the paid radio subscription, Dog will probably attract them at least for a while. For those who don't, are they going to go out and buy the channels just to listen to him? Doubtful.
However, as I said before, Mad Dog did have a more "national show" feel to his solo acts anyway. He liked to talk about the NBA, something Francesa almost never acknowledges. He loves tennis, follows different teams across the country in the major sports, and was much more apt to make national, televised appearances discussing different issues. Also, Sirius Radio has just completed a merger with XM radio, meaning that the amount of current subscribers are about to double AND, through a lot of word of mouth, more and more people seem to be picking up on the satellite radio across the country. With different car manufacturers offering the sattelite radios with all new purchases, people are turning to the new genre much the way people began to turn to cable television and dish networks over time. That means that, while regular radio is certainly not in danger of dying off, it isn't likely to expand either. Sattelite radio seems to be the wave of the future, and Dog would be in on that cultural transformation.
The truth? I would bet on both being somewhat successful, but nothing compared to what they had been previously. The truth is, Mike and the Dog had been losing their influence over the last two years as it was. ESPN had put a ban on their personalities appearing on the show, feeling that it would provide their "competition" with unecessary advantages. Also, after a string of unprofessional interviews, less and less New York players and front office personalities seemed willing to go on their show. Brian Cashman, who had been a fixture on the Mike and the Dog , almost never went on any more. Hank Steinbrenner has refused to even acknowledge the show's existence, despite the fact that it is telecast on the YES Network. The Wilpons, owners of the Mets, haven't made an appearance in months, and neither have the Dolans, owners of the Knicks, and Mike D'Antoni, their new head coach.
Francesa called Friday's telecast a "sad occasion" and, in fact, it was. Sports is an escape, and whether your liked them or hates them, Mike and the Mad Dog was a GREAT escape. Let's face it, it was a part of that escape to get angry and aggravated at Mad Dog because he was picking on the Yankee fan, or at Francesa because he was going after Bill Wagner for playing "Enter Sandman" when he came out of the bullpen. It was a part of their appeal. Now, that escape is gone. They might provide a portion of that separately but they will never be able to achieve such heights without one another.
We, as sports fans, will have to flip around the dial a little more than usual between 1 and 6:30. Perhaps both will develop new and innovative shows, introducing fun and dynamic personalities, but more than likely the clock is now ticking on both of their careers.
And who loses in the end? The fans, as usual.
Here's hoping someone, somewhere, steps up and fills the void. Like them or hate them, Mike and the Mad Dog were a part of our daily routines and now. No longer, however, no longer.
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