When you work with some for 20 years, you build up a good bit of repoire with your partner. But when you have a breakup worthy of a Hollywood Romance drawn out in the tabloids, getting back together for nine minutes just seems a bit odd. Yesterday, Chris Russo brought on Mike Francessa to talk Baseball. Here's the clip if you want to take a listen....

Ahhh just like old times only a bit awkward. And all it took was for the Yankees not to choke, and make it to the ALCS. Maybe they can go 20 minutes if they get to the World Series!

(Thanks to The Mike Francesa for the audio)

Having run this site for awhile now, I've learned quite a few things about implementing video into posts. Or at least I thought I knew a lot. Yesterday, Mike Francesa tried to explain how the Erin Andrews video made it to the Internet and here is the awesome result. Pay attention, because I think you'll learn something....

Ear marking....of course!!! How could I have been so foolish?!?! Everything will run much smoother now.

(Thanks to The Mike Francesa for the clip)

On Friday, Chris Russo spent the better part of his show throwing people under the bus, and calling out just about everyone he worked with. Not only that, but he took multiple calls about how he was terrible, and that he couldn't run a national radio show. After the dust settled, Russo seemed to backtrack a bit, but it appears the damage has been done. Here's some of the audio from Fang's Bites via The Chris Russo....

This obviously brings up a few questions, but the main one being....Is Chris Russo the problem or is it the staff, as he says. It also brings up the fact that national sports shows rarely work, and ones on satellite radio, especially so. Both Russo and Francesa have struggled since they broke up, and it might be time to call this "national" experiment a wash.

I never thought I'd see the day that Howard Stern and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo would be in the same studio, but I guess when you work for the same company it's bound to happen. Russo went on Stern yesterday, and after a lengthy conversation about all things Sports radio, and his strained relationship with former co-host Mike Francesa, everyone in New York City decided to start trash talking everyone. The three main opponents were Russo, Francesa and Neil Best at Newsday decided to transcribe some of the action, and here's what a day in New York Sports Radio looks like....

Russo's quotes on Stern: "It depends who you ask. Their ratings, from an FAN perspective, seem to be the same. I have spoken to some other people at 1050 ESPN that said they’ve gotten murdered in certain parts of the tri-state area, Jersey for instance. And if you noticed, ESPN, they moved their show."

"I hear the quality of the show, he misses the energy, he does this, he does that, and I miss Mike, too. It goes both ways. So I’ve heard that. But as far as, Chris, did you see or look at this, that this rating was 10 percent less than when you were there? No."

Finally, Russo conceded ratings were down, just to shut up Stern. "There’s been a little bit of a decrease, if it makes you happy. I’ve got pride, of course."

Francesa: "As sure as I’m sitting here, they’re never catching me, and you can underline that, OK? So the idea that they’re chasing me down in Jersey or they’re chasing me down somewhere, well, you know what, bring friends and ban everybody you can ban and bring a whole lot more ammunition than you have so far, because you have never gotten close, and you never will, as long as I’m sitting here.

"If you’re going to come after us, then you better bring more than pea shooters. Because you know what? The FAN has been No. 1 here for 20 years and it’s going to be No. 1 long after I’m gone. But while I’m sitting here, you can be damn sure it’s going to be No. 1."

Michael Kay: "I'll take the high road. I'm very happy with my life and my standing and find no need to lash out at others. I leave that to those that are seemingly less content with what they've been blessed with."

Well then. It's nice to see that everyone has been getting along since the breakup. I'm not going to pretend to know what radio ratings are like in New York City, but as long as these three keep going at it, they will probably continue to be strong. Good job by Kay not to get into the mess between two former colleagues, but sooner or later he's going to be sucked in. Good times!

I'd love to get video up, but unfortunately Comcast blows, and they won't update On Demand for weeks at a time.

Chris Russo flies first class for Sirius, 'which is fair' (Watchdog)
Mike Francesa-Bill Parcells relationship on the rocks (Watchdog)
You heard from Russo and Francesa; now it's Kay's turn (Watchdog)

Good work by the Dan Patrick Show in getting much-maligned FOX sideline reporter, Danyelle Sargent, on the horn today to explain the whole Singletary interview gaff from Sunday. Sargent explains that she actually meant to refer to the call that the 9ers Coach made to Walsh when he decided to get into coaching. In a nine minute interview, she also talks about Francesa's decision to air the clip, her f-bomb at ESPN, and how the video actually got out.

Here's the audio if you want to take a listen....

You just have to believe that the whole thing was just one giant mistake, and I feel for her the day after. Also, even though Francesa says he didn't know it was a taped piece, you have to think someone at WNBC knew that they weren't using a live clip, and I still think that's a dirty move.

Hopefully Sargent can get an apology from WNBC and move on from this whole mess.

Sargent explains Singletary mishap (Dan Patrick)

Okay, now this makes soooo much more sense. The Danyelle Sargent interview, in which she asked Mike Singletary about a phone call to his deceased mentor Bill Walsh, was never supposed to see the light of day. It was actually a taped piece (which explains her pause after the mistake), and was taken from something called an "open feed" that is used by various news organizations. Via the SJ Mercury News....

Fox producers were understandably mortified and didn't air that portion of the interview. (Interestingly, the "pregame" interview aired after the opening kickoff Sunday, and although it was taped, it could have left viewers with the impression that Singletary was talking to a reporter instead of coaching.)

But the clip was part of the "open feed" that live telecasts use and that news organizations can access for clips and highlights. Mike Francesa, host of New York station WNBC's "Mike'd Up," showed the gaffe late Sunday night.

Dan Bell, Fox's vice president of communications, apologized for the error but said it should have been left on the cutting-room floor.

So here's what happened. Francesa actually used an unauthorized clip from a taped segment and completely made it look like something that went down live. I still think someone working in Football should know if Bill Walsh is alive, but if it was a fixable mistake (which it obviously was), Sargent shouldn't have been embarassed on National Television like that. Bell also issued the following statement that I think sums everything up perfectly....

"We've filed a complaint with the league of them using this. It's unauthorized footage. It's footage that was recorded but that never made our air. If we saw that on a CBS game, we're not going to take that and have one of our stations run with it."

That's a pretty slimeball move by Francesa and WNBC now that the truth is out there, and as I should have mentioned yesterday, there's no one with more dumbass comments and mistakes than Francesa himself.

My apologies to Ms. Sargent for raking her over the coals yesterday, and thanks to JS for sending along the whole story.

Update: Mike Francesa was finally reached for comments and he replied that he was, "unaware it had not been broadcast by Fox. Obviously a mistake was made. If we'd known that, we wouldn't have used it"

Fox reporter's Bill Walsh gaffe wasn't supposed to make the air (SJ Mercury News)
Wait, So It's Wrong To Ask A Guy About A Phone Call He Had With His Dead Mentor? (Awful Announcing)

Normally when you bring up "radio wars", they are between competing stations and/or shows. Well not at WFAN. Following Chris "Mad Dog" Russo's move to Sirius, they've been going through a bit of issues within their own ranks. Everyone knows that Dog's former partner Mike Francesa has carried on without him, and while he's still upset at the whole breakup situation, he's now aimed his aggression at the WFAN Morning Show, Boomer & Carton.

B&C were joking about who they were going to bring in to be Russo's replacement and Francesa naturally took that as dig at him. Francesa then shot back yesterday at the Morning Show. Via Watchdog....

After saying he would not be dragged into a verbal war, Mike said "there is a meanness" to Carton. He also said, "If I want to take care of him I could do it in five minutes. It wouldn’t even take me five minutes. He can’t kiss up enough when he’s around here. If he wants a war, bring it on, it won’t be a long one."

After saying he would not be dragged into a verbal war, Mike said "there is a meanness" to Carton. He also said, "If I want to take care of him I could do it in five minutes. It wouldn’t even take me five minutes. He can’t kiss up enough when he’s around here. If he wants a war, bring it on, it won’t be a long one."

Oh but it doesn't stop there. Of course this got back to Carton and here was his response this morning....

"We'd like to be able to poke fun at Mike, and we'd like it if Mike pokes fun at us. We have thick skin and can go back and forth. But yesterday's attack was an uncalled-for, vicious, personal attack, which we're not going to tolerate. And I hope that Mike has come to his senses somewhat. If he wants a war, he's got it, 100 percent. We will indulge him in that starting today. I assume he doesn't want it. We're not looking forward to it, but we'll engage him in it if he wants it. And hopefully from this point on we can all just get along and do our own thing."

Good grief. You rarely see a fights between shows breakout on the same network, but I guess the stresses of the past few months have taken their toll. I really want to see WFAN get back to the way it was before Dog left, but I don't see this ending very well. I enjoy both shows in their own way, but hey.....if you're going to go down you mind as well go down in flames. Let's hope things get personal!

Craig Carton calls Francesa rant 'vicious,' 'uncalled-for' (Watchdog)

I'm was getting about as sick of this feud as you all were, but yesterday it took an awesome turn. Mike Francesa decided to go on a twenty plus minute rant about his former partner and goings on in the media and somehow Neil Best of Newsday transcribed the whole ordeal. Here is a small piece of the explosion....

"Frankly, I have taken a beating here for a month. And I said I never was going to say a word, not one, until the whole cycle was complete, and now the cycle is complete, because the promotional tour is over and Dog has begun his show, and the best to him. No ill feeling. I hope he does well. But as I said, not one time did anybody ask me my opinion of the breakup, just his. My opinion of the show or what happened or anything else, and frankly, I took the worst of it, which is fine. But really the worst of it.

"When the thing started in the summertime it was depicted that I was leaving and that I was the guy who was an ingrate and the guy who was bailing out on FAN after all these years when things weren’t going well and going to do TV and then that didn’t turn out to be the case. No one even asked me if I was leaving. Then it didn’t turn out to be the case. And then the story was that I ran him out. So it went from me being a guy who was an ingrate because I was leaving to me being the bad guy because I ran him out, neither of which was the truth.

"I wasn’t leaving, and I didn’t run him out. Never did. Dog chose to leave, which was fine. He wanted to leave, and again, he has every right to do that. The way it was depicted was ridiculous. I sat here and watched the interviews that went on and commentary and things I read. I read that I was jealous about how much money Dog made, which was never the truth. It mentioned what my salary was and what Dog’s new salary was and how irate I was when no one knew what Dog’s salary was or had any idea.

"You learn a lesson, folks. I hope you don’t get your information from the newspapers, because the stuff that has been written during this time about me has been so wrong. It has never been even remotely accurate, I mean not even in the ballpark accurate.

And that's really just the tip of the iceberg. Francesa goes on to call out just about every media member in New York City and even said that Bob Raissman of the NY Daily News has an agenda. Now I could really care less how this whole thing ends, but if you are the one getting "hammered" in the press, and then you go and complain about it on-air, you're not ever going to get people to come over to your side.

For Francesa's sake I hope he just drops the whole thing because the more he comments on it, the more people are going to think he's just whining about Russo becoming more famous.

Mike Francesa gets quite a few things off his chest (Newsday)

NB of Newsday has been smack in the middle of this mess the whole Summer and now he's moved on to finding out who Mike Francesa's new partner will be. Apparently the network also has to find an update person, which is the topic of his most recent post, but he throws out some very interesting partner possibilities as well.....

The search for an update person seems to be further along than that for a new No. 2 man (or woman).

From what I have been able to piece together, the update list includes Bob Heussler, Jerry Recco, Sal Licata and Jonas Schwartz. Heussler, known as "Mr. Met" on the show, long has shown a willingness to stand up to Francesa and Chris Russo as well as a dry sense of humor.

As for the bigger job . . . all sorts of interesting names have been seriously discussed, from what I hear, including Sid Rosenberg, Chris Carlin, Ian Eagle and even ESPN.com's Bill Simmons.

Hahaha....and I want Chuck Klosterman as a weekend editor!* They have to be delusional if they think that Simmons would ever accept that job, but I guess you don't know the answer until you ask. The leading candidate from what I've heard is Sid Rosenberg, and while he's had his "issues" over the years, it wouldn't really be that bad of a pick. He's seemingly settled down a bit in his old age and has experience working in New York. Albeit with Imus, but experience none-the-less.

I'm also surprised with Ian (EYE-IN) Eagle's name being among those mentioned. I'm a fan, and I think he's a pretty good announcer, but the guy comes off as being just boring as hell. Well unless he feels like he's at a Bar Mitzvah....


Mike Francesa, WFAN looking into new cast members (Newsday)

*- I wouldn't really subject you all to him every weekend. It was just an example.

It was a foregone conclusion that Chris "Mad Dog" Russo was heading to Sirius Satellite Radio, but it it will be made official today at 10:30am at Sirius HQ on Sixth Avenue in NYC....

It appears Siriux/XM radio is ready put an end to the speculation and officially announce Chris “Mad Dog” Russo as their newest sports host.

The satellite radio provider has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow morning to announce the addition of a “major sports media personality.” A representative would not confirm that the press conference was called to announce Russo, but the inference is fairly obvious.

It was reported that Howard Stern spoke on his Sirius/XM morning that Russo could be brought on imminently. It is not yet clear if Russo will get his own channel, like Stern, or just host a sports show.

As it said in the section above, the form of the radio show is not yet known, but the deal is projected to be large and certainly long-term. It's a great hire for Sirius because Russo is cut of the Stern mold, and is yet another bombastic personality the radio network can add to its stable. For WFAN though, it's seemingly a sign of the difficult road ahead. Francesa isn't strong enough to carry the show on his own, and if you add to that the fact that the Mets and Esiason deals are up soon, you're looking at some tough choices for the AM station.

Sirius XM Likely To Add Mad Dog Tomorrow (NY Post)

(Photo via TSH)