Forget Mike and the Mad Dog. Imagine what afternoon drives would have been like with Mike and Client 9.
Following longtime partner Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s departure from WFAN in 2008, Mike Francesa says he was approached by former New York governor Eliot Spitzer in the hopes of becoming his new co-host.
“I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ ” Francesa tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Unfortunately for Spitzer — who was engulfed in a prostitute sex scandal — Francesa decided to remain solo. He’s been a one-man show ever since, excluding last month’s sold-out Radio City reunion show with Russo, which raised $1.1 million for charity.
Francesa has announced he will leave WFAN when his contract expires at the end of 2017, leading to the kind of what-if speculation that would fit in nicely during one of his own call-in segments. The 62-year-old said he doesn’t want his next venture to be in traditional radio, claiming he has received overtures from one of the following to develop a new line of content: Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon.
“Soon you won’t be able to tell the different between where a station starts and a podcast ends,” he said.
(He also says his next play won’t be motivated by money, boasting to THR: “I’m a big stocks player. I have a huge portfolio and I know about every stock. I’m a big trader.”)
Don Imus, the radio mentor who referred to Francesa as “Fatso” when he used to guest on his show, thinks he’ll stay at WFAN. Sports impresario Bill Simmons, a longtime devotee, envisions a big-bucks reunion with Russo: “They are destined to grow old together like an old married couple,” Simmons tells the magazine. “That’s what America wants.”
Francesa, not for the first or last time, tried to douse that dream.
“I don’t see that as being feasible,” Francesa said. “The kind of money it would take to put us on the same show on a full-time basis? That would be an incredibly expensive show.”