Goodnight, Mike and the Mad Dog

Well, since this blog started with the lamentation of one New York radio institution’s demise, I should acknolwedge the end of the Mike & The Mad Dog Radio Program on WFAN in New York.  Last night, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo announced that he’ll be leaving (rumors have him going to the new Sirius XM Radio) while Mike Francessa will remain the drive-time DJ (what he calls “the best piece of real estate in NYC”) at WFAN.

Sure, the two are notorious assholes – there’s repeated instances of the two nearly coming to blows, not speaking off-air for months at a time, picking fights with various New York sports figures – and they were never shy with their opinions (especially when they were wrong), but it essentially created the sports talk radio genre and always made for compelling listening.  Matthew Cerrone at MetsBlog summed it up best when he called it “a show I loved to hate, or hated to love – I’m not actually sure which.”  Yes, they neglected my beloved Mets (they are Yankee and SF Giants fans), but I couldn’t pull myself away from listening in the car.  Before I was into music, I was huge into sports, and I spent countless hours growing up with WFAN in the background – I remember many a car ride with my dad as we cringed at some of their absurd comments, yet we always listened.  Even now, when I usually plug my iPod in, I sometimes switch over to see what the topics of the day were.

So good luck to both of them, because it will never be the same.

Two quick M&MD links to leave you with:

1. WFAN archived the beginning of today’s show, including Francessa’s explanation of Russo’s departure, and Russo’s call in to the show afterwards.
2. Bill Simmons’ excellent running diary of an episode of Mike and the Mad Dog, a fine mix of comedic jabs and begrudging respect.