Mike and the Mad Dog is an American sports radio show hosted by Mike Francesa and Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo that aired in afternoons on WFAN in New York City from September 1989 to August 2008. From 2002 the show was simulcast on television on the YES Network. On the radio, the show was simulcast beginning in 2007 on WQYK in Tampa, Florida, and from 2004 until 2007 on WROW in Albany, New York. The popularity of Mike and the Mad Dog, along with other sports talk shows on WFAN, is credited with helping to popularize the sports radio format across the United States.
History
Before Mike and the Mad Dog Before Francesa and Russo were paired, Russo was an overnight/weekend and fill-in host. He caught the attention of Don Imus, who was impressed with his vibrant personality and brought Russo onto the Imus in the Morning show as its sports reporter.
Meanwhile, Francesa was a midday and weekend host at WFAN, and was known to be knowledgeable but somewhat dry on-air. Like Russo, Francesa got the attention of Imus when he made an on-the-air bet with Francesa that Seton Hall University's basketball team would not make the Final Four in the NCAA tournament. Imus promised Francesa a new Porsche if Seton Hall made the Final Four, which they did. Though Imus found a way around the bet, the dialogue between the two is considered to be among the classic moments in the history of Imus in the Morning.Jim Reed (1999), Everything Imus: all you ever wanted to know about Don Imus, Birch Lane Press, pp. 65–66, ().Jack Craig (1990-03-30), CBS' Francesa is plainly a success basketball, football expert defies network standards for appearance, accent, The Boston Globe.
Paired together
In August 1989, WFAN (which was owned at the time by Emmis Communications) was looking for hosts to replace the controversial Pete Franklin in the afternoon drive time period. Mark Mason, then the program director, floated the idea of teaming Francesa with Russo. At first, the station management thought the idea was crazy because they were no-names at that time. However, because of Francesa and Russo's popularity on the weekends and on Imus in the Morning individually, the station management decided to pair the two together. The show was dubbed Mike and the Mad Dog and debuted on September 5, 1989.Tim Sullivan (2013), Imus, Mike and the Mad Dog, & Doris from Rego Park: The Groundbreaking History of WFAN, Triumph Books, Chapter 3, pp. 46 (). However, the decision to pair them on an afternoon show was a surprise to the two men, and a risk. Things were rocky at first. According to Francesa:
“We had a tough beginning. It was a shotgun marriage. We didn't get along very well, and we were kind of thrown together. Although, I think the thing that changed everything was how quickly the ratings were off the charts. By spring, nine months into the show, we were No. 1 — and No. 1 in a big way — and we realized that no matter what we did, we weren't going to get away from each other.”
While Francesa's brand of sports commentating was considered hard-hitting and serious, Russo's was considered lighter, unconventional, and more entertaining. Regarding the prior perception, Russo said,
"I’ve always said it: Mike is a lot funnier, and a lot wittier, than people thought. And Chris was a lot more knowledgeable and sharp, sports-wise, than people thought. So I think that combination, at times, got a little overrated—that Mike was the encyclopedic one, and Dog was the goofy one. Which I think that was the perception for a long time. After a while, they realized, hey, Mike’s funny! And Dog knows what he’s talking about! Once that was established, I think the show was sharp."
The show became a staple of the New York sports scene. Francesa says, "We always brought that intensity, that bravado, that fierce individual personality to our show, and that's what I thought made it so good."
George Vecsey of The New York Times once described Russo's voice as "a bizarre mixture of Jerry Lewis, Archie Bunker and Daffy Duck." His voice has also been described as "Donald Duck on steroids."
Both Francesa and Russo credited Imus for making the pairing possible. Russo said, "Imus was very, very, very, very important to the development of FAN... He solved a lot of problems for the company." Francesa said, "Without Imus, there's no Mike and the Mad Dog, there's no FAN, and I'm telling you, there's no format... Dog and I came through the toughest school there is: the Imus school of radio."
Broadcast times Originally it was broadcast weekdays from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Because of its popularity, WFAN extended its starting time twice, first to 2:00 p.m., and then to 1:00 p.m. At the end of its run, the program aired from 1:00 to 6:30 p.m. on WFAN, WQYK in Florida, and YES Network.
Mike and the Mad Dog in the morning In the wake of Imus' firing in April 2007, Mike and the Mad Dog was also broadcast in the mornings from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. for two weeks between April 16 and April 27, and again on May 21 and May 22, 2007. The afternoon portion of the show ran from 2:00 through 6:30 p.m. The morning portion of the show was nationally syndicated and news-oriented. While in the morning drive slot, they inherited some of the staff from Imus in the Morning, including news anchor Charles McCord, sports anchor Chris Carlin and engineer Lou Rufino. The syndicated broadcast was available to the handful of former Imus in the Morning affiliates who had not had a chance to pick a new morning show. Francesa and Russo hosted the morning drive program several more times, either together or taking turns solo, until Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton took over the timeslot with their show on September 4, 2007.
End of the run On June 22, 2008, sports columnist Neil Best of Newsday reported that Francesa and Russo were considering ending their radio show. The reports stated that the relationship between the radio duo had soured during Spring 2008, and was the likely cause of the split. Although Russo's contract with WFAN ran until October 2009, Francesa's contract situation was unclear at that time. Newsday contacted Francesa on vacation, where he stated "no comment". On June 23, Russo, doing the show alone, denied the rumors. He said that he and Francesa had been "fighting like cats and dogs" until early May, but that their relationship had since improved. "Nineteen, 20 years, you're going to have your issues occasionally", he said. "You gotta get through those issues." Some fans have suggested that the rumors were created as a contract negotiation ploy or a publicity stunt. On June 27, 2008, Francesa acknowledged the show was at a "crossroad", and could not guarantee the show would last through the summer. Francesa also stated he and Russo had not spoken since reports of their possible breakup came out.
On July 11, 2008, Francesa and Russo reunited for their first show together since news of their possible breakup came out. They did their show from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for the DHL All-Star Fan Fest. They would do three more shows together around All-Star weekend. Both Francesa and Russo were coy about their future beyond the summer. Reunited and it Needed an Enema – Mike and the Mad Dog Return On August 5, 2008, they would do their final show together at the New York Giants' training facility in Albany, New York.
On August 14, 2008, Russo reached a mutual agreement with WFAN to let him out of the remainder of his contract. Russo insisted it was solely a personal decision and said, "This has nothing to do with Mike and I hating each other... This is about doing something different. I'm 48 years old and there are not going to be too many more opportunities to break away. It's time to try something else, but it was a tough decision to make." On August 15, 2008, Russo phoned Francesa on the show to say goodbye. A highly emotional Russo began to break down on air as he talked about his partnership with Francesa.
Separate ways At the same time, while Russo left WFAN, Francesa signed a five-year deal to stay at WFAN and continue to host the afternoon drive-time show called Mike'd Up: Francesa on the FAN. On August 19, 2008, Russo signed a five-year contract worth about $3 million per year with SiriusXM to host an afternoon show called Mad Dog Unleashed and headline a new sports talk channel called Mad Dog Radio on both Sirius and XM satellite radio. Russo said there was nothing WFAN could have done to keep him after Sirius XM provided him an opportunity to not only do a show, but have his own channel, which he could not pass up.
Reflections In an interview with Best on November 19, 2008, Francesa insisted that there was no smoking gun, no juicy, untold key regarding the breakup with Russo. However, Francesa believed a contributing factor was a fallout from Imus' firing in April 2007 because Russo wanted to pursue the morning slot alone, but the WFAN management was hesitant to break up the pairing. Francesa sensed that Russo was disappointed.
Francesa said, "In retrospect, I think it set us off on a bad path that last year. I don't mean that caused Dog to leave. He left because he had an opportunity ... But we had a very rocky last year. I think what might have caused some of that was his feeling, stronger than I knew at the time, that he wanted to go to mornings more than I did."
In reflection, Francesa said, "We had 20 years of something that was great. We're linked forever. That's just life. So the idea that people want to paint Mike vs. Mad Dog, who's the good guy, who's the bad guy? You know what? There is no bad guy."
In another interview with Jerry Barmash on June 29, 2012, regarding Russo leaving the show, Francesa said, "I didn’t begrudge him leaving for one second. I never had an issue with that. It just wasn’t handled properly, which I think he now understands it and would readily admit."
Francesa said he and WFAN operations manager Mark Chernoff got word through back channels of Russo's plan three months before it was made public. But Russo kept quiet until the end. Russo declined to be interviewed.
In an interview with Bob Raissman on June 30, 2012, Russo said that the decision to part ways with Francesa was the biggest one of his life, which was made by himself. He still asked, "You think I did the right thing?"
Russo said, "It's almost like in the last four years, it's almost like I’ve forgotten I was at FAN for so long. This (Sirius/XM's Mad Dog Radio) is a different kind of element, a different kind of show. It's all-consuming. It's so different than what I was used to", Russo said. "You forget what you accomplished in that 20-year period. It's almost like I forget I was at FAN for 20 years."
In the same interview with Raissman, Russo did not rule out a reunion with Francesa. Russo said, "You never want to say never. You know how the radio business is. So, you never say never, but I haven’t thought about it in my crystal ball, let's put it that way... But I’ll tell you right now, if Mike and I did shows together we would have no trouble picking right up where we left off."
In the Rolling Stone interview on July 13, 2017, Francesa said, "We were two individuals who, in our core, always thought we could be enormously successful without the other one... People feel very personal about the radio people they listen to. You become a part of their life... I've had guys come up to me on the street and say, 'I didn't have a dad, you raised me.'"