OT: Sports Pope returning to WFAN

[The Viking]

He’s at his best when he explodes against local teams
Maggie has talent, they should force him to come back with her and tell her to call him out for being ludicrous when necessary.
That should have been part of the negotiation.

 

[MattMang23]

That's kind of what I surmised from my brief listens plus exposure to his suspension antics/stories. So presumably its a shtick, but just not certain his intellect is more engaged than his Barnum & Bailey instincts to make him worthwhile.

Yeah, he can wear on people. He's a Stern knockoff and, while he may end up crashing and burning eventually due to the brashness of his on-air character, he's breathed life into a show that was left for dead.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Yeah, he can wear on people. He's a Stern knockoff and, while he may end up crashing and burning eventually due to the brashness of his on-air character, he's breathed life into a show that was left for dead.

That's the thing with Stern though, he's exactly the person he plays on the air - at least in terms of his inner dialogue. Maybe he morphed more into his on-air personality over the years, but his core outrageous thoughts and instincts were always honest. It was so much more fun on NBC when he had a internal (pig vomit) and external (FCC) nemesis. Now I think he retains listeners similarly to the way another old foil Imus did for years (jeez, was he still on until recently?!).

 

[EBonz30]

He’s at his best when he explodes against local teams
Maggie has talent, they should force him to come back with her and tell her to call him out for being ludicrous when necessary.
That should have been part of the negotiation.

Maggie is miserable, could careless about her opinion or thoughts. Carlin is shot as well. The only person of the three is even somewhat interesting and entertaining is Bart and that is only because he has played in the NFL and he tends to give you some behind the scene stories about what happens in the NFL and with professional athletes.

 

[amory]

this is such a weird turn of events. like, it almost feels like he was bluffing with the retirement announcement the whole time, hoping for more money or some other demand that the station wouldn't give him

apparently he went back hat in hand and took about half the money he was making to come back. like george costanza when he goes to try to sell the pilot back to NBC after he turned down the original offer

I knew he wasn't ready to "retire" but I figured he at least had some ideas of what he might like to do instead of afternoon drive time radio. apparently he just left without any plan at all lol

 

[The Funster]

They’re going to get someone who knows sports and has a personality. Michael Kay’s show is worse than Carlin’s which is terrible so even though I dislike the Pope, if the topic is right I can listen for a bit. He lapped up a lot of testimonials that last year but he;s about to get more sugar from his sycophants.

See, here's the thing: this is the group that FAN set up and they took a while doing it. You would think they would give them time to work it out. The first sign of issues was when they started giving away money but still, after 3 months I thought they were starting to get better. Instead, after Mike and Dog take potshots at them the wheels start turning. I mean seriously, who the hell is Dog? High Heat? Who watches that dreck? This is playing out like pro wrestling story arc. Aging wrestler walks away from the ring and then returns when his replacement "stumbles".

I was a staunch Francesa supporter. I haven't missed him a bit. So two radio stations aren't interested (including ESPN who Fat Mike supposedly hates) so he manufactures some BS get back on the air and WFAN laps it up. Incredible. Mike Francesa is a fraud and WFAN comes out of this looking really bad, IMO.

 

[jibsey]

He probably has a 1 year deal. Once he's first again in the ratings what happens to his contract next year? He'll get the money back. His wife probably told him he has to get out of the house a few hours so he's talking sports 3 and 1/2 hours a day, he's not digging ditches. And he takes a ton of time off, goes to Saratoga for a long vacation in August. Would any of us rather do that than our current jobs?

 

[NC_Uconn_Fan]

I'm happy about it.

 

[Dogdeacon]

See, here's the thing: this is the group that FAN set up and they took a while doing it. You would think they would give them time to work it out. The first sign of issues was when they started giving away money but still, after 3 months I thought they were starting to get better. Instead, after Mike and Dog take potshots at them the wheels start turning. I mean seriously, who the hell is Dog? High Heat? Who watches that dreck? This is playing out like pro wrestling story arc. Aging wrestler walks away from the ring and then returns when his replacement "stumbles".

I was a staunch Francesa supporter. I haven't missed him a bit. So two radio stations aren't interested (including ESPN who Fat Mike supposedly hates) so he manufactures some BS get back on the air and WFAN laps it up. Incredible. Mike Francesa is a fraud and WFAN comes out of this looking really bad, IMO.

Wow, you sound bitter! Is even the possibility that he whole retirement thing was staged ala Pro Wrestling or at least never sincere enough to keep you away forever?
Really seems like WFAN kind of played it well from a business perspective:
1. Milk the retirement for all the ratings its worth
2. Try some cheap new guys if they are good lucky, and move to plan B
3. Hire Francesa back at discount, hype the he's back storyline to resume ratings juggernaut
4. Go back to advertisers get old Francesa monies
5. reap profits, repeat as necessary (maybe a suspension next time

 

[whaler11]

Wow, you sound bitter! Is even the possibility that he whole retirement thing was staged ala Pro Wrestling or at least never sincere enough to keep you away forever?
Really seems like WFAN kind of played it well from a business perspective:
1. Milk the retirement for all the ratings its worth
2. Try some cheap new guys if they are good lucky, and move to plan B
3. Hire Francesa back at discount, hype the he's back storyline to resume ratings juggernaut
4. Go back to advertisers get old Francesa monies
5. reap profits, repeat as necessary (maybe a suspension next time

WFAN lucked into the outcome.

Mike’s misjudgement is that he plays outside of NYC. The ratings for the Mike and Dog 30/30 are a screaming reminder that the whole country is not obsessed with NYC. Me and a dozen friends were fired up for that 30/30 and I think it might have been the lowest rated debut.

Dog proved to potential suiters the audience doesn’t follow nationally and Mike doesn’t want to do a national show anyway. People outside of NYC actively dislike him.

If you didn’t listen to him and Dog during their glory days he’s just a pompous jerk who talks about teams you hate.

 

[ivrytontusker]

WFAN lucked into the outcome.

Mike’s misjudgement is that he plays outside of NYC. The ratings for the Mike and Dog 30/30 are a screaming reminder that the whole country is not obsessed with NYC. Me and a dozen friends were fired up for that 30/30 and I think it might have been the lowest rated debut.

Dog proved to potential suiters the audience doesn’t follow nationally and Mike doesn’t want to do a national show anyway. People outside of NYC actively dislike him.

If you didn’t listen to him and Dog during their glory days he’s just a pompous jerk who talks about teams you hate.

Mike has never said he plays outside NYC. He's had plenty of chances to take his show national and didn't, probably because he knows that it won't work. It's a New York show.

 

[MattMang23]

Mike has never said he plays outside NYC. He's had plenty of chances to take his show national and didn't, probably because he knows that it won't work. It's a New York show.

He was on FS1 and 2. And failed.

 

[whaler11]

Mike has never said he plays outside NYC. He's had plenty of chances to take his show national and didn't, probably because he knows that it won't work. It's a New York show.

Let’s assume that’s true. What in the world was his strategy the last 18 months then? Is he stupid enough to believe another NY outlet was going to outbid the FAN?

I guess that is plausible... doesn’t speak well of him or his reps though.

 

[ivrytontusker]

I like Mike, but what is WFAN going to do during Francesa retirement 2.0? He was never going to be easy to replace. (Although when I tuned into CMB and Gray was talking about why the World Series shouldn't be called the World Series, because it doesn't involve the entire world, I'd had enough.)

At least when the (actual) Pope retired he stayed retired. It's a bad look for Francesa and for the station.

 

[ivrytontusker]

Let’s assume that’s true. What in the world was his strategy the last 18 months then? Is he stupid enough to believe another NY outlet was going to outbid the FAN?

I guess that is plausible... doesn’t speak well of him or his reps though.

I thought he was sort of done with daily radio. He talked about how it was too much to do a 5.5 hour show by himself every day, etc., etc. I thought it was going to become a weekly thing. Apparently Russo offered him a spot on his Sirius channel, but I doubt Francesa wanted to effectively work for Russo.

 

[amory]

He probably has a 1 year deal. Once he's first again in the ratings what happens to his contract next year? He'll get the money back. His wife probably told him he has to get out of the house a few hours so he's talking sports 3 and 1/2 hours a day, he's not digging ditches. And he takes a ton of time off, goes to Saratoga for a long vacation in August. Would any of us rather do that than our current jobs?

Think I read he signed a 5 year deal

 

[Dove]

He was on FS1 and 2. And failed.

He was on YES and failed.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Maggie is miserable, could careless about her opinion or thoughts. Carlin is shot as well. The only person of the three is even somewhat interesting and entertaining is Bart and that is only because he has played in the NFL and he tends to give you some behind the scene stories about what happens in the NFL and with professional athletes.

His big problem is he's completely clueless about baseball. In NYC, you can't make it as a sports radio host who's clueless about baseball.

 

[StoweD210]

I like Mike, but what is WFAN going to do during Francesa retirement 2.0? He was never going to be easy to replace. (Although when I tuned into CMB and Gray was talking about why the World Series shouldn't be called the World Series, because it doesn't involve the entire world, I'd had enough.)

At least when the (actual) Pope retired he stayed retired. It's a bad look for Francesa and for the station.

Wow, that's ovaltine/roundtine level bad.



You mentioned Francesa's next retirement, whenever that is. There's no way they can do another almost year long build-up. Maybe he'll announce on a Monday that Friday will be his last day or go on a vacation and never return?

 

[whaler11]

He was on YES and failed.

This isn’t the case.

 

[zyron]

He was on FS1 and 2. And failed.

He was hardly ever on, FS2 wasn't available on some cable services at the time and they never told you what channel he was on. I believe they mutually ended the contract.

 

[MattMang23]

He was on YES and failed.

That's only a regional channel. I was quoting a post that said he never went national. He was on YES for like 7 or 8 years though.

 

[MattMang23]

He was hardly ever on, FS2 wasn't available on some cable services at the time and they never told you what channel he was on. I believe they mutually ended the contract.

Is it that he was hardly ever on because his ratings sucked?... Or is it that he sucked on Fox because he was hardly ever on?

 

[Ewekon]

Mike really packed it in the last few years and showed up daily ill prepared. Towards the end, it was embarassing. For a man with such a huge ego, this must be quite humbling to have to crawl back to WFAN. I really hope he gets all the pushback he deserves.

He, by all accounts, lives a huge lifestyle. You can be eaten alive by $3 large a year in NYC (Manhasset) if you have horses and a McMansion and an ego larger than his belly. His one shot at a national cable audience bombed. I would not at all be surprised if he actually has to work because he spent with the hubris he exhibits.

 

[zyron]

Is it that he was hardly ever on because his ratings sucked?... Or is it that he sucked on Fox because he was hardly ever on?

From the beginning he was on once or twice a week and they switched what channel he was on everytime. Hard to build ratings that way, especially on a channel a lot don't even get.