OT: Sports Pope returning to WFAN

[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.

 

[Dove]

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.

Didn't they tell him to hit the bricks? Probably for dissing the Yanks.

 

[zyron]

Didn't they tell him to hit the bricks? Probably for dissing the Yanks.

I am pretty sure it was having ARod on when he was fighting that year suspension. Yanks were not happy about that.

 

[tentoes4rings]

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?

But he’ll be on air for 4 hours and at least 2 owiz with his droiva.

 

[whaler11]

if you have horses.

That’s a random great point here.

Almost everyone has pointed towards the emotional rather than the financial and nothing is a bigger hole that horse racing.

 

[MattMang23]

That’s a random great point here.

Almost everyone has pointed towards the emotional rather than the financial and nothing is a bigger hole that horse racing.

Except septic systems.

 

[whaler11]

Except septic systems.

As bad as septic systems are (so bad I have an above ground pool), random horse ownership is worse and race horse ownership comes with a pre packaged bankruptcy.

 

[amory]

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.

This was surprising to hear, tbh

It doesn't seem like he does much of anything other than work. He may be a pompous ass but that's like the only thing about him that's close to interesting

 

[Exit 4]

This was surprising to hear, tbh

It doesn't seem like he does much of anything other than work. He may be a pompous ass but that's like the only thing about him that's close to interesting

But wait- he owns a sno-bloah and does the driveway himself!

 

[boog204]

This was surprising to hear, tbh

It doesn't seem like he does much of anything other than work. He may be a pompous ass but that's like the only thing about him that's close to interesting

He definitely owns horses and has a mansion, but assuming that he's blown all his $$ is in very poor form. Perhaps he retired, realized he missed it, and chose to go back into a place he's certain will pay out financially and will enable him to probably rise back to #1 again? He's got a huge ego but he's not stupid.

 

[Exit 4]

I think he just missed it and CBS radio realized they missed him too from a financial perspective. Mike on reduced hours is probably better than zero mike and five hour mike. His new 3-7 slot will often end early for Yankees/Nets/hockey.

I wish he would be a better person to callers and in his workplace.

 

[amory]

He definitely owns horses and has a mansion, but assuming that he's blown all his $$ is in very poor form. Perhaps he retired, realized he missed it, and chose to go back into a place he's certain will pay out financially and will enable him to probably rise back to #1 again? He's got a huge ego but he's not stupid.

Oh I don't think he's come close to blowing all his money. Probably far, far from it.

I think it was probably a combination of missing his throne and having people kiss his ass 5 days a week, along with doing the full time dad thing for 4 months and tapping out.

 

[Dogdeacon]

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.

I don't think you can judge Francesa's skills or appeal based on a documentary about talk radio, it is by definition not interesting. A doc not about sports but about guys talking about sports on the radio = not compelling TV. And it wasn't well done - the doc was too much about THAT they changed sports radio and not enough about the quality of their show and discussions.

Also dating back to 80's or early 90's Mike has proven via CBS that he's not good on TV.

Regardless he's way too old and regional to go national on radio or a podcast with anything more than a cult following (Imus again) so I don't know why I'm clarifying this point. If he truly was retiring he should have done something like what Letterman did/is doing or Bob Ryan (still writes occasional column, was a regular on other podasts/radio spots, now has his own podcast). Less money in that is likely the issue as other's have pointed out illustrated by Manhasset lifestyle.

Speaking of Manhasset has anyone read "The Tender Bar"? Phenomenal book, they've threatened a movie but nothing ever materializes.

 

[whaler11]

I don't think you can judge Francesa's skills or appeal based on a documentary about talk radio, it is by definition not interesting. A doc not about sports but about guys talking about sports on the radio = not compelling TV. And it wasn't well done - the doc was too much about THAT they changed sports radio and not enough about the quality of their show and discussions.

Also dating back to 80's or early 90's Mike has proven via CBS that he's not good on TV.

Regardless he's way too old and regional to go national on radio or a podcast with anything more than a cult following (Imus again) so I don't know why I'm clarifying this point. If he truly was retiring he should have done something like what Letterman did/is doing or Bob Ryan (still writes occasional column, was a regular on other podasts/radio spots, now has his own podcast). Less money in that is likely the issue as other's have pointed out illustrated by Manhasset lifestyle.

Speaking of Manhasset has anyone read "The Tender Bar"? Phenomenal book, they've threatened a movie but nothing ever materializes.

I think it’s one more datapoint that shows his appeal outside of NYC is limited.

The much greater datapoint is people all over the country constantly saying they don’t care.

 

[Exit 4]

I think it’s one more datapoint that shows his appeal outside of NYC is limited.

The much greater datapoint is people all over the country constantly saying they don’t care.

How could that be anything but not totally not surprising? Mike matters to the NYC MSA and to the radio industry.

 

[whaler11]

How could that be anything but not totally not surprising? Mike matters to the NYC MSA and to the radio industry.

I don’t think it is to us - Mike and his agents may have mistakenly thought differently. That might be part of the reason he’d ended up back at FAN.

 

[gampelcrazies]

I think it’s one more datapoint that shows his appeal outside of NYC is limited.

The much greater datapoint is people all over the country constantly saying they don’t care.

You do know he had had a national NFL show every Sunday right

 

[Exit 4]

I don’t think it is to us - Mike and his agents may have mistakenly thought differently. That might be part of the reason he’d ended up back at FAN.

Yeah - I suppose so. But I think he also just pushed for the most he could get - like anyone would. Should he have tried to make his show more national to have more assured success with tv simultcast? Maybe, I dont know the numbers. Maybe the tv money was always minuscule and had no real upside other than pride and a small extra check.

 

[whaler11]

You do know he had had a national NFL show every Sunday right

Quite aware and that might come back but that’s 2 hours of syndicated NFL talk a week - not carrying a national show year round.

 

[The Funster]

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

Bitter??? Haha. Not at all. I just thought that Mike was a professional. To do what he did to CMB was pretty classless and to make up a story to justify is even worse. Mike was probably rooting against CMB the whole time. His ego couldn't handle anyone being successful in his spot.

 

[KemBaller]

He was on FS1 and 2. And failed.

Compared to the ratings juggernaut that FS1 is typically known as?