Mike Francesa, the iconic sports radio host, has announced he is leaving his drive-time platform after ruling the New York City airwaves for about 30 years on WFAN (660 AM, 101.99 FM), now owned by Entercom, by the end of the year.
It’s not clear yet who will take over the slot in January, but Evan Roberts (the co-host of the WFAN midday show with Joe Beningno) is apparently the front-runner.
Francesa, who coined the phrase “back after this” when leading into a commercial, is moving to Entercom’s clunky Radio.com app, but will apparently have some undefined, limited role on the FAN.
Francesa retired in December 2017 after a much-hyped farewell tour, only to unretire about four months later and doing his WFAN show from a home studio. In that context, Since coming back, Francesa has been literally phoning it in.
A Self-Parody
For the history rewriting Francesa, a.k.a. the sports “pope,” as some media pundits nickname him, it’s one condescending, eerily contradictory statement after another, even during the same broadcast. It’s unintentional comedy.
Plus, the self-unaware, humorless broadcaster refuses to own up to bad picks and predictions, along with constant celebrity name dropping, access to inside information (often after the fact), as well as bragging about his great seats in Yankee Stadium or at the Super Bowl that he “never talks about.”
What’s even more weird is that Pope Mike often demonstrates seeming unfamiliarity with many of the college or pro sports teams that he’s supposed to be “religiously” covering.
When called out about an inconsistent pronouncement, which are well chronicled with clips on the hilarious BackAftaThis Twitter feed (@Funhouse), Francesa’s default position is “I Nevah Sed Dat.”
As a result, Francesa’s show has devolved into a target-rich environment for pranksters to call in.
Instead of catching on that he’s being played, playing along, and/or laughing at himself, Mike tends waste time complaining that the trolls are wasting time waiting on hold to talk to him and how such trolls don’t bother him.
To give you a sense of how Francesa goes about his business, Francesa — for example — has claimed that the proposal for the Tampa Bay Rays playing some games in Montreal is a bad idea and then latter declaring it’s a great idea, that Jets QB Sam Darnold would be a big star in NYC, followed by insisting that he never said that Darnold would be a star, and that Giants QB Daniel Jones either had no arm or a great arm. He also opined that Houston Astros superstar Jose Altuve was not a star and that Ichirio was not Hall of Fame caliber.
As far as his NFL picks are concerned, a listener would probably be better off betting on the opposite or just randomly placing money on teams based on their nicknames or uniform styles rather than heeding Mike’s advice.
Never Surprised
Above all, the out-of-touch Francesa qualifies his sports predictions by including a disclaimer that he wouldn’t be surprised if the opposite happens.
From 1989 to 2008, Francesa teamed with Chris Russo on one of the most all-time successful sport talk shows, Mike and the Mad Dog. Russo subsequently left for SiriusXM (and later the MLB Network) and Francesa, after flew solo since September 2008.
Out to Pasture
New York Post columnist Andrew Marchand first broke the news that Francesa’s drive-time run was coming to an end.
“Give this to Mike Francesa on his second tour with WFAN, he hit for the cycle.
1. His overpriced app failed.
2. He has been mocked worse than ever on social media.
3. He is being crushed in the ratings.
4. And he has left WFAN in disarray.
“As Francesa moves into semi-retirement, he leaves whimpering, even somehow addressing a published report of flatulence on the air. It is all very awkward.
“The end of his full-time radio career will be a cautionary tale for future hosts, the same way baseball fans reference Willie Mays with the Mets. It has been ugly.
“Francesa confirmed Tuesday what The Post first mentioned in September. In two months, he is moving most of his content base to Radio.com with a sliver remaining on WFAN.
“At the moment, Francesa is being crushed in the ratings by ESPN New York’s ‘Michael Kay Show….’
“Entercom hopes Francesa can make Radio.com more relevant, but it is more likely to make Francesa more irrelevant.”
About the Money
According to New York Daily News media columnist Bob Raissman, Francesa has signed a three-year deal with Entercom at far less than he has been earning and that “Entercom has been ‘penny pinching’ on talent salaries…With Francesa headed to Radio.com, and an abbreviated FAN show at a reduced price, Entercom can cut its talent budget at WFAN as contracts expire. No matter how many gasbags wind up replacing Francesa, their combined salaries won’t come close to what the Pope was making.”
He added that Radio.com could “turn into RadioSiberia.com” for Mike Francesa.
