He has no radio talent, yet he was given an afternoon show and became a guy who people loved to hate, which gave him good ratings.
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Is Mike Francesa the luckiest radio host ever?
- Thread starter TTalkradio1
- Start date
Radio talent is the ability to connect with people in some way and get good ratings. If you can't get good ratings, talent doesn't matter.
On the other hand, I guess you don't like him. I don't like green beans. As a result, I don't eat green beans.
He has no radio talent. He's just a guy who people love to hate.
If that is his talent, then he's the luckiest host ever.
He was a whole lot better when he started at 'FAN and was teamed with Chris Russo. Those two had chemistry even if they got on each other's nerves, and Mike was the sharper half of the pair. He was the one who was staying up late and watching the games so he could offer intelligent observations -- the same games of which Mad Dog often said, when questioned by a caller on them, "Aaaahhhh, I didn't watch it. I was at a movie, but here's what I think." Now Francesa is the one who isn't doing his homework and comes off as a "get off my lawn" type.
At least Francesa knew what he was talking about at one point in his career. He still knows pro football, which was his gig on TV at CBS before going to The Fan. To me, Russo is the luckiest host ever. He got Sirius XM and the MLB Network both to write him nice checks -- make that HUGE checks from Sirius, which apparently feels that what America really wants to hear is New York City radio -- to host shows that most likely don't attract as many ears combined over 50 states as Mike & The Mad Dog did in the NYC market alone. Nobody is watching MLB Network at 1 on a weekday afternoon, and Sirius XM has more than a dozen other sports talk shows people could be listening to at 3 p.m., when Russo's daily Sirius XM show starts. More money to reach fewer ears, nice little thing he's got going.
At least Francesa knew what he was talking about at one point in his career. He still knows pro football, which was his gig on TV at CBS before going to The Fan. To me, Russo is the luckiest host ever. He got Sirius XM and the MLB Network both to write him nice checks -- make that HUGE checks from Sirius, which apparently feels that what America really wants to hear is New York City radio -- to host shows that most likely don't attract as many ears combined over 50 states as Mike & The Mad Dog did in the NYC market alone. Nobody is watching MLB Network at 1 on a weekday afternoon, and Sirius XM has more than a dozen other sports talk shows people could be listening to at 3 p.m., when Russo's daily Sirius XM show starts. More money to reach fewer ears, nice little thing he's got going.
In my view, anybody who gets paid to spout their opinion for 4 hours a day is the luckiest person ever. There are far worse jobs one can have.
As we've discussed on the sports format board, the fact that Sirius is considering creating a YES channel is also amazing to me. I wonder which channel they'll drop when they add YES.
As we've discussed on the sports format board, the fact that Sirius is considering creating a YES channel is also amazing to me. I wonder which channel they'll drop when they add YES.
The bandwidth could come from Entertainment Weekly Radio, which was recently discontinued with no formal announcement, but with the former Time-Life properties being sold off yet again, it's logical to conclude that the new bosses (an investment hedge fund, I believe) see no value in paying SXM for a channel anymore. Also, another paid-for channel, Kidz Bop (today's hits sung by children) is off the air right now in favor of the limited-run Pavarotti Radio (pimped-out channel dedicated to the great tenor, whose label apparently has some big posthumous product to push), so perhaps that contract has run out as well. Pre-empting a channel that it's getting paid to run is something SXM has never done previously; only the in-house music channels have been used for the pop-up channels previously.
The YES Radio idea doesn't surprise me, given the Big Apple focus of management. With ESPN Radio and every other general sports radio network ignoring baseball to focus on the NBA and NFL (demographics, don'tcha know?), there are certainly enough Yankee fans in the NYC metro alone who want to talk baseball to give it and its advertisers an audience to be sold stuff to. While SXM has several choices for listeners who want basketball and football talk, only MLB Network Radio talks about MLB to any great extent.
There's been speculation elsewhere that YES Radio could mean the end of free OTA play-by-play for the Yankees. I just can't see that happening, especially since the fan base for all baseball teams is aging and going the pay-per-hear route would bring the games to fewer and fewer ears with each passing year. Streaming services replacing AM ro FM radio, I can somewhat see, if their adoption continues to surge AND if the telecomms ever find solutions to streaming's bandwidth and coverage issues.
I agree. Even with all the TV options (MLB, YES, and Amazon) there are still a number of games on WPIX. The money they get from OTA radio is guaranteed, and its hard to walk away from that kind of money.
SiriusXM tends to make deals with outside entities to fund branded channels. They're probably getting paid or some kind of consideration to create a YES channel.
I understand that, but it's one thing to get paid channels by musicians whose music is national, it's another thing to create basically a local sports channel. Money is money and they seem to be running out of things to put on their channels.
The Yankees are a national team like the Cowboys are. You would be surprised to see how many people would want a channel like that.
Maybe...I see lots of complaints about too many Yankee games on ESPN and MLB. And I think the days of the Cowboys being "America's Team" are over. They've become the team people love to hate.
I have always hated the Cowboys being called "Americas team" but they do bring in ratings and have a huge fan base. The Braves lost that monicker long ago. The Yankees have the history and are in the biggest market so by default they have a big fan base. But like the Red Sox a lot of snow birds moved away form the northeast and still follow the team. Baseball unlike the other sports is regional. Everyone follows every team in football. The Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs all have fans across the country. This is why they can have successful RSN's
The ability to speak fairly coherently on a topic for hours at a time and attract and hold an audience’s attention is “radio talent” It doesn’t necessarily indicate intellect or other abilities, but, it is a specific type of talent, in my view. As another example, Sean Hannity strikes me as not being an intellectual giant, nor even particularly smart, but, he has the talent to assimilate a lot of information and to recall that information very adroitly.
Except those Yankees games -- especially Yankees-Red Sox -- draw eyeballs, and not just from the teams' home markets. Put Twins-Astros on in prime time and only the home-market fans and MLB's outliers, fans who enjoy watching two good teams play, no matter whether they root for either or not, watch. The NFL and NBA have done a much better job of promoting their stars and selling the soap opera aspects of their sports than baseball has, so a prime time Sixers-Rockets matchup on ESPN does much better than a similar MLB game. Both the NBA and, especially, the NFL have the added benefit of gamblers watching, as both leagues are popular vehicles for betting, while MLB betting is a small niche. Gamblers will watch Grizzlies-Timberwolves or Bengals-Lions when they have money on the outcome, and plenty do bet on games like that.
Hannity talks like a radio host. Francesa has no radio talent. Getting rid of callers quickly and talking slowly isn't talent.
That's not the Sirius business model. They already have a lot of Yankee fans with Chris Russo. The only real upside is its a sponsored channel.
So listen to Hannity. If you want sports and don't like Mike, listen to WEPN. You have lots of choices. Mike's not going away because of you.
Russo talks national sports on his radio show and all of MLB on his TV show. He has no baseball rooting interest in New York City. He is a longtime, devoted San Francisco Giants fan, as just about anyone who has ever listened to him during baseball season for any length of time can tell you. Do you even listen to/watch these shows or do you just make assumptions based on who knows what?
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