Watchdog

More random, pre-hiatus stuff:

Mike Francesa has agreed to terms with WNBC-TV to continue his Sunday night TV show for at least another couple of years, a New York TV industry source said.

Ken Rosenthal will join MLB Network's roster of insiders effective Tuesday in addition to his Fox duties, joining Tom Verducci and Jon Heyman of SI in the precarious position of both covering and working for MLB.

YES should follow SNY's lead and offer post-game shows even for games on ESPN, Fox or Ch. 9.

I believe I have done enough now to torture readers who don't care about Mike Francesa or New York radio wars.

So this will be my last post on my chat with Francesa Thursday.

Click below as I empty my Francesa quote bag on topics from why he does not consider Russo's Sirius XM show to be his competition, to facing up to the challenge of ESPN to how he has had to tweak his persona as a solo act to his respect for the audience to why Bob Heussler has not become a regular on his show to the future of terrestrial radio to predicting a raise or bonus for me.

Wait, what? "You have by your own blatant self-promotion created a successful Web site and you are a fanatic about it,'' he said. "It will turn out to be very good for you financially, I’m sure, in the next couple of years."

I explained to Mike that these days in the newspaper business, merely keeping your job is reward enough.

Photo: Getty

Continue reading "Mike Francesa: 'I will never be warm and cuddly'" »

My newspaper article on Mike Francesa includes his thoughts on the pressure he felt in the post-Dog era that began in September.

But click below for a more expanded version of that discussion, as well as Francesa's take on why his ratings were not as good in the fall as they have been more recently, and his thoughts on the differences between a one-man and two-man show.

One more thing: Upon hiring Russo in August, Sirius XM boss Mel Karmazin said this: "If I was one of [Francesa's] competitors, I would be very happy today."

Francesa's response Thursday: "It shows Mel is in a big slump lately in a lot of ways, because Mel’s prediction there wasn’t too accurate, either."

Continue reading "Mike Francesa: 'Mel [Karmazin] is in a big slump lately'" »

There wasn't space to get into it deeply in my newspaper article on Mike Francesa, but yes, I did ask for a status report on his sidekick search - which so far has been as productive as O.J.'s search for the real killer.

Click below for a bunch of quotes on that topic.

But first, what about Sid Rosenberg?

"I considered Sid as a personality/contributor to the program," Francesa said.

Why was he not hired? "A lot of reasons."

Does it appear now that it simply is not going to happen for him with the FAN? "I would say unlikely, yes."

Rosenberg does not have a logical landing spot in New York for now. It appears more likely he will resurface on the air in south Florida.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa's search for a sidekick goes on, and on" »

ESPN/ABC's Jeff Van Gundy appeared on Chris Russo's Sirius XM show before Thursday's draft and reiterated that he plans to return to coaching, but only in the NBA.

Why not college? "You know what, Chris? That’s a cesspool," he said. "The agents have overtaken major college basketball. At least in the NBA we all pay our players and it’s above board. I have no interest in coaching college.”

Speaking of Russo, click below for Mike Francesa's take on his relationship with Russo in the post-breakup area, one of many subjects we discussed in an interview Thursday in a radio booth at Citi Field.

Sample quote: "Did things happen that I'm sure neither of us was pleased about? Yes. Was that logically going to happen? Yes. Does that mean we won't have a relationship some day? I can't answer that."

Photo: AP

Continue reading "Mike Francesa on Mad Dog: 'I think of Chris as a friend'" »

On my way to interviewing Mike Francesa for my newspaper column before Thursday's Mets game, I rode the elevator with his WFAN colleague, Craig Carton.

Not everyone is a fan of the Ca-Boom show, evidently, but the ratings have been good.

"You have a very, very, morning-to-night, soup-to-nuts, solid FAN," Francesa said. "I think you’ll see that in this ratings period. I think the morning guys are doing great. I think the mid-day guys are doing great. And thankfully I’m doing what I’m supposed to."

But does Mike like the morning show personally? Click below for his answer.

I will sprinkle more stuff from my Francesa sitdown throughout the day. But shouldn't I be doing these things as podcasts rather than spending hours transcribing stuff all the time?

Continue reading "Mike Francesa on Boomer, Carton: 'New York likes it'" »

Sorry for lack of blogging this Thursday. I was at Citi Field talking to WFAN's Mike Francesa as he looked back at his first year post-Dog.

More on that Friday, but here is a sneak preview, in which Mike discusses how he felt in the weeks after the breakup with Chris Russo last summer:

"Did I feel pressure? Yes. Did I feel like I had the station on my shoulders? Yes, I did, because I’d been there the longest and I was the foundation player who was moving to the new FAN, so to speak. So I knew I had a leadership role there, so yes, I felt the pressure. I knew that if I didn’t succeed I’d get really ripped apart."

Enjoy the NBA draft. Newsday.com will be all over it, of course, with real-time updates.

Meanwhile, Allan Houston will be Twittering from the Knicks' draft room all night, and appearing on MSG's draft special at midnight.

Don't be too quick, though, Allan. Sports Business Journal reported that the NBA has warned teams not to Twitter their picks before the commish announces them, as some NFL teams did in April.

RIP, Farah Fawcett. Sigh.

Here.

About two minutes in, I began to fear Mike's neck might come apart at the seams. There was some shouting involved.

Len Berman's departure might not be the end of the changes in the Channel 4 sports landscape.

A TV industry source familiar with the station said Mike Francesa is considering giving up his Sunday night "Mike'd Up" show effective this summer.

The problem is not ratings or money but rather - at least in part - the day-long grind of football Sundays for Francesa, who has a syndicated Sunday morning radio show during the season. He has been doing double duty since the TV show debuted in 2003.

What are the odds of the Sunday night program surviving into the 2009 NFL season? Perhaps 50-50.

Here is an item I wrote for my Friday newspaper column that I am posting now because . . . well, I just can't resist:

When I heard Mike Francesa accept the invitation of Mets executive VP Dave Howard Wednesday to visit the dunk tank at Citi Field, I assumed one of two things:

That Francesa was kidding, or perhaps that he thought the invite was to be the dunker, not the dunkee.

I asked him about it Thursday. Turns out he was not kidding and that he is up for getting wet in public – for a cause.

“As long as it’s a nice, warm day and it would be for charity, I’ll gladly go in the tank,’’ he said.

Um, really? “I’m sure I will draw quite a crowd of Mets fans looking to dunk me. I’m looking forward to it.’’

What would he charge? “We’ll try to make it very steep for the media.’’

WFAN's Mike Francesa is out sick today after leaving his show early Tuesday, with Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts to fill in.

Let's hope it's nothing serious, but this sort of thing illustrates the biggest reason Francesa still eventually would like to identify a sidekick and/or an official, regular fill-in in the post-Russo era.

Francesa's ratings have held up just fine without Russo, and the urgency to name a new cast has waned significantly since the breakup of "Mike and the Mad Dog."

The real issue is having a suitable replacement for when Francesa is on vacation or unwell. How the station handles the many summer weeks without Francesa in the house will be telling.

Just when it seemed as if the world had become a dark, bitter, unfriendly place, a ray of sunshine appeared late Sunday night.

Mike Francesa announced on his Ch. 4 TV show that he and the Mets' David Wright had spoken for 45 minutes Friday after Francesa's radio show from Port St. Lucie and cleared the air regarding their recent feud.

Francesa said Wright agreed to come on his show again after declining to do so last week. I predicted when this all first blew up that Wright would be back on by mid-April, banking on Mike's detentes with others in the past, from Jim Calhoun to Tiki Barber.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Media figures and athletes getting along is bad for page views, but makes the world a kinder, gentler place.

Had flashbacks to my Giants beat days today as Mike Francesa discussed the Mets' David Wright and Ryan Church boycotting his show (and declining even to meet with him off the air) because of assorted comments about them last season.

At various points Francesa (and former partner Chris Russo) alienated Michael Strahan, Jeremy Shockey and Tiki Barber, then the team's most prominent players.

There have been many others over the years, including UConn coach Jim Calhoun, who now is friendly with Francesa and appeared on the show shortly after Mike made his comments about Church and Wright.

Francesa on Church: "I don’t really care if Church comes on the show now or forever. Church is going to be out of New York long before I’m going to worry about whether he comes on my show or not. He’s not a big deal in any way."

Francesa on Wright: "I think he’s being very immature because he’s had a straight ascendancy and he doesn’t want any criticism . . . He needs to grow up."

Speaking of Giants beat flashbacks, when I read this USA Today piece about the latest strange adventures of Dhani Jones, I was reminded of how painful it often was to solicit coherent comments at his locker.

Sigh.

Photo: Getty

My Sunday best-of blog roundup includes a truncated version of my post from the other day about the ratings for Mike Francesa's YES simulcast, relative both to the Chris Russo era and to SNY's afternoon shows.

Upon re-reading it, a thought occurred to me: Perhaps as a service to my English-language readers I should translate some of this stuff from ratings-speak into something intelligible.

Click below for that . . . if you dare.

Photo: AP

Continue reading "Warning: WatchDog goes deep inside ratings numbers!" »

In addition to my story about Marv Albert (see post below), my Friday newspaper column includes items on Nets Dancer Taylor Walker's appearance in SI's Swimsuit Issue (she's Wesley's daughter, lives in Dix Hills and attends Hofstra), a weird new sports-related comedy on HBO and what might become of Chris Russo given the tenuous financial state of Sirius XM Satellite Radio.

Wow, Marv and Taylor, two people who regularly work at Nets games, leading the Friday page!? I'm keeping tabs on the franchise in hopes it someday decides to return to its true home and join the Isles in a glorious new version of the Nassau Coliseum.

Either that or this is just an excuse to post Ms. Walker's picture and link to SI's tribute to her again.

Photo: John Tenden/SI

Chris Russo is scheduled to be on David Letterman's show Thursday night, which has great potential to ruin another one of my evenings.

Anyway, for now I swear this is the only post I'm going to do about this today, but I figured I'd wait for the first caller to ask Russo about Wednesday's back-and-forth with Mike Francesa and share it with you.

The caller asked about Francesa's decision to move his Super Bowl show away from Radio Row the last week of January.

Said Russo: "Again, the bottom line is I don't care who you put on nine blocks away. You cannot put on me, you can't put Obama nine blocks away from Radio Row. You're not going to get guests. It's not Mike, per se, it's anybody, for goodness' sake. You can't do it. It's not going to work. Case closed."

Readers are demanding my take on Wednesday's Sirius-WFAN crossfire, highlighted by Mike Francesa's ratings trash talk aimed at 1050 ESPN.

Well, at least one commenter demanded it. So . . .

The only problem I had with Francesa's rant is that most of his anger and annoyance was directed at things Howard Stern said Wednesday, not the stuff he goaded Chris Russo into saying.

Stern was being intentionally provocative, and not entirely serious.

On the other hand, someone at Sirius obviously prepped Stern on recent developments in the Francesa/Russo saga, setting the stage for the day's drama.

I doubt Howard knew or cared about the pressing issue of whether Francesa should have done his Super Bowl shows from Radio Row or the Hyatt, or who did or did not interview Bill Parcells.

It was Russo, though, who threw out the notion that 1050 is doing serious damage to WFAN in New Jersey, which set off Francesa on a spirited defense of his ratings in the post-Russo era.

(If Russo's contract becomes a casualty of Sirius XM's possible bankruptcy, he surely could get a job elsewhere, but in the current environment it would be for a fraction of what he now makes.)

I do not intend to serve as the unofficial referee in all this. I'm just the guy who sits around all day typing it up and exploiting it for cheap page views.

I'm going to write my Friday column now. If Russo, Francesa and/or Kay decide to further this stuff this afternoon . . . transcribe it yourself.

Mike Francesa responded in the final minutes of his WFAN show Wednesday to Chris Russo's guest appearance on Howard Stern's Sirius XM Satellite Radio Show earlier in the day (see post below).

This led to much excitement, as he dropped the bombshell that he and old friend Bill Parcells currently are on the outs, then offered some Grade A trash talk aimed at his competitors up the dial at 1050 ESPN, turning to talk directly to the YES camera to add to the drama:

"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.

"Maybe someday after I’m gone, but not while I’m sitting here. You can take that to the bank, you can quote it, you can hang it up in their offices and in the Sirius offices. Because as Yogi once said, you could look it up."

"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."

Click for much more below.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa-Bill Parcells relationship on the rocks" »

My favorite line from Chris Russo's appearance with Howard Stern on Sirius this morning came as Russo tried to illustrate the fact Sirius' financial situation is not as dire as reported, based on the fact his budget has not been cut:

"I’m going to spring training for two separate trips in spring training. In my contract I’ve got that they have to fly me first class, which is fair, and they’ve got to send me to nice hotels. No Motel 6. I don’t get the impression we’re about to fall apart."

Click below for much more, if you're nuts. (Still awaiting Mike Francesa's on-air response to all this.)

Continue reading "Chris Russo flies first class for Sirius, 'which is fair'" »

Speaking of Mike Francesa, he had a good line Tuesday when he suggested an alternative naming rights arrangement for the Mets if the deal with Citi falls through.

There aren't many business entities raking in big bucks these days, of course, but he came up with one that is:

"It might be 'Yankee Years' Park," he said.

Usually, I stay out of it when the national blogs dissect Bill Simmons' periodic digs at his employer.

But when Bill drags Chris Russo, Mike Francesa and Michael Kay into it . . . yo, that's my wheelhouse! The Big Lead, take it away . . .

Original source material here.

(UPDATE: Here is Simmons on the Super Bowl. Exhausting, but fun.)

Chris Russo and Mike Francesa both will be in Tampa next week before The Big Game.

Will they be situated near one another on Radio Row, after sitting at the same table there last January?

Read my Friday column to find out.

For the final post of the Bush Administration, let's go to the well once more for a topic that has been very, very good to New York sports media columnists since Bush's father's term:

Yup, "Mike and the Mad Dog." What else?

Many fans of the old show reacted emotionally Monday to the start of the first Super Bowl trivia contest since the duo split in August.

I think more than anything else that has happened over the past five months, having Chris (Marquis) Russo doing his thing on Sirius XM while Mike Francesa was doing his with O.J. Anderson on WFAN drove home the point once and for all:

It's over.

Wow. Saw this on Hot Clicks, which saw it on MikeFrancesa.com.

It's even better than this:

Or this:

Got tired of listening to WFAN, 1050 ESPN and WIP so checking in on Chris Russo on Sirius XM right now.

For the past few minutes he has been going down the list of movies now out and announcing which he is interested in and which he is not.

"The Nazi thing," presumably "Valkyrie," is on the no-go list.

Now he has veered into non-current flicks, ripping "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "No Country for Old Men."

Now he is praising Woody Allen's "Match Point," featuring Scarlett Johansson.

Now he is saying he did not like "Dark Knight."

Now he is saying how much he likes Ms. Johansson and recalling her work as a teenager in "The Horse Whisperer" in 1998.

Now he is so disgusted with his youthful associates and their lack of knowledge about movie history that he is threatening retirement.

Classic Mad Dog. It's important to check in with him at times to balance out the other stations and maintain the kind of psychic equilibrium Chris and Mike Francesa used to provide as a tandem.

Now a caller is saying "Dark Knight" bored him and actress Maggie Gyllenhaal is ugly.

Chris agreed, saying, "Not that pretty, 100 percent right."

Now Chris is talking to a teenaged caller from Mill Valley, Calif.

OK. Back to Mike and Michael.

There is no avoiding stories about ratings when you cover TV and radio; ignoring them would be like covering the Giants and ignoring scores and statistics. Sort of.

So I did lead my Tuesday newspaper column with a look at Mike Francesa's ratings in his first post-Russo autumn, figuring this is a newsworthy matter.

The problem with ratings stories is if you overdo the numbers, they cause readers' eyes to glaze over. If you under-do them you miss the nuances the people involved focus on in their never-ending quest to spin the data in their favor.

Also, this stuff is so complicated and arcane, it's easy to get things just plain wrong.

Gluttons for punishment can click below for more on the topic of WFAN's and 1050 ESPN's ratings in the autumn of 2008.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa's numbers holding up, post-Russo" »

Of course, Joe Benigno is far from the only sports yakker to benefit from fans curious about his take in the wake of a local-team meltdown.

Take his WFAN colleague Mike Francesa, for example.

Sunday night's "Mike'd Up" on Ch. 4 averaged 5.0 percent of area households, benefiting partly from the strong Giants-game lead-in, but also from an event that happened earlier in the evening in Seattle.

Let's put it this way: The rating was the best for the show since Sept. 30, 2007, the night the baseball team that used to share a stadium with the Jets blew a playoff berth on the final day of the regular season.

(Big WatchDog kudos to the first person to identify the former Jet in the picture.)

There are some classic Chris Russo-isms in this snapshot of his life inside and outside his home in New Canaan, Conn. (With pictures!)

One of the revelations is that Chris' "favorite recent gift" is a "framed, signed Jimmy Stewart memorabilia piece with photos from scenes in two movies." The giver? Mike Francesa, last Christmas.

Hmm. What did you guys give each other this year?

My personal favorite was one of the items that appeared in print in the New York Times Magazine but not in the on-line version above:

"Treasured possession: A letter from President George W. Bush. When I wrote my second book, 'Mad Dog Hall of Fame,' the president sent me a letter telling me how much he enjoyed it."

So, even if you don't count politics - which we don't, as an apolitical blog - President Bush and I don't always see things quite the same way.

Click below for my June 16, 2006, review of the book.

Continue reading "Chris Russo's best Christmas gift is from Mike Francesa" »

It's only Tuesday and already I'm tired of Plaxico Burress talk on New York radio.

So for a change of pace I checked in on Chris Russo on Sirius XM. I even thought about listening to all five hours and live blogging it. Then I came to my senses.

If the boss wants to pay me double-time-and-a-half, I'll go back to it.

Right now Chris is ripping Cornell, Antonio Pierce ("an idiot"), the NYPD, the Latin Quarter Club, the NFL and, oh, heck, I lost track.

Now he is on a classic Mad Dog rant about John Mara and his "hundreds" of nieces and nephews "running around Westchester County" and how if Mara had heard one of them was in a bar in the city with a guy with a loaded gun he would have "gotten out of bed in his pajamas, hopped in his SUV with his coffee" and . . . I just couldn't keep up. I'm sorry. I should have taped this.

Later he came back to Mara, saying, he "would not allow any of his nieces, nephews, boys, girls - he's got plenty of kids . . . John Mara would have taken the metro train down . . . or driven and said, 'Come with me.' I guarantee it."

Somewhere in there he mentioned Kate Mara as well as John's poodles. Maybe Russo was mixed up. I'm the one with poodles. I hope John has a more manly breed than that. Gee whiz, the guy is an NFL owner and the son of Wellington.

I can't guarantee the quotes above are 100 percent accurate. I was typing as fast as I can, and I know from Patty Parker, who does the closed caption typing for YES, that Russo is extremely difficult to keep pace with, even for a pro with a steno machine.

I'll live blog Chris' show one day just for fun after this Plaxico thing blows over. Oy.

(Russo's first caller now is accusing him of hating every New York team and attempting to tear down the Giants organization because he is worried they will repeat as Super Bowl champs. "Take your little pompoms out of it and evaluate it properly, like an adult!" Chris yelled. Help! I'm having "Mike and the Mad Dog" flashbacks.)

WFAN plans to leave its tattered basement digs in Astoria for a shiny new studio in lower Manhattan sometime in 2009.

In the meantime, there isn't much decorating going on, which is obvious from a visit to Mike Francesa's office, which was occupied by Don Imus until Francesa and Russo moved in a few months after Imus was fired in the spring of 2007.

The wooden shelves have huge gouges taken out of them, the carpet is worn away in spots and the Southwestern-themed furniture is tattered.

Click below for Francesa's thoughts on taking over Imus' old office and his recollection of daily chats with the deposed morning host.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa, Don Imus used to chat daily at WFAN" »

Late in my conversation with Mike Francesa in his WFAN office last week, operations manager Mark Chernoff joined us and added his insights into some of what we had been discussing, and added an anecdote about the worst Francesa vs. Russo war he ever witnessed, back in 2000.

Chernoff thought the show was finished then, which is why he thought if it survived that, it would survive anything.

Click below for a transcript of a back-and-forth between Francesa and Chernoff.

Continue reading "Mark Chernoff never thought WFAN team would split" »

It is a challenge for many middle-aged people in sports media - myself included - to sustain the same level of enthusiasm and interest in day-to-day debates and developments as they did earlier in life.

Mike Francesa and Chris Russo have been accused of falling into that trap by some critics, but Francesa insisted his level of passion for games people play has not waned.

Click below for his take on that, including an anecdote about his wife, Roe, marveling (to put it kindly) over his interest in last week's Monday nighter between Buffalo and Cleveland.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa says he still has passion for the job" »

Mike Francesa is under contract with WFAN through 2013, which also is when the simulcast renewal with YES expires.

Will Francesa continue after that, or hang 'em up?

Click below for his thoughts on that, as well as his admission that he and Russo did a poor job of keeping up with new media technology, and why he wants to add a younger sensibility to the show moving forward.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa, Chris Russo late to new media game" »

Mike Francesa and Chris Russo consistently have taken the high road in public comments about one another since their breakup in August.

Both also seem happier and more relaxed on the air since the split, and Francesa in particular seems to be acting (gasp!) nicer to callers.

Click below for the big guy's thoughts on these matters.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa says he 'can be a pain in the neck'" »

Click below for another installment of my conversation with Mike Francesa last week, in which he discusses his involvement (or lack thereof) in the breakup with Chris Russo, their fight last winter over the trade of Shaq from Miami to Phoenix and other matters.

Continue reading "Shaq trade led to two-month Francesa-Russo fight" »

Among the many theories posed in the spring and summer about the tension between Mike Francesa and Chris Russo was that Francesa was mad at Russo for not coming to his defense during Russo's visits to David Letterman's late-night TV show.

Francesa flatly denied that in my Sunday newspaper column, and at greater length below, saying he "never took any umbrage" about the Letterman shtick.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa didn't hold Letterman against Russo" »

One of the biggest sources of tension between Mike Francesa and Chris Russo was "remote" broadcasts, with Russo favoring them much more often than Francesa.

Francesa admitted in my Sunday newspaper column that he often was in the wrong in turning down Russo's attempts to take the show on the road . . . including to Devils games.

Click below for an expanded version of Francesa's take, and why he often resisted out-of-town remotes.

Continue reading "Chris Russo liked Devils games more than Francesa" »

One ill-fated crack by Don Imus in April of 2007 about "nappy-headed hos" brought down WFAN's long-time morning show.

Did it also contribute to the breakup of WFAN long-time afternoon show?

Mike Francesa said in my Sunday newspaper column that it might have, because his former partner Chris Russo had an interest in switching to mornings and Francesa did not.

Click below for much more on that topic, including Francesa's reasons for being reluctant to move to mornings.

Francesa on several occasions admitted not being sure what Russo was thinking and suggested asking him to clarify. Alas, Russo declined to speak to me through a Sirius XM spokesman.

Continue reading "Did Don Imus' bad joke shake up two WFAN shows?" »

In my Sunday newspaper column, Mike Francesa references the pleasant time he had hanging out with Chris Russo at a fundraising dinner Nov. 7.

Click below for much, much more on that topic from my conversation with Francesa last week.

It includes his take on why he has no qualms about referencing Russo on the air and why he gave props to his former partner for being right about AL MVP Dustin ("Dog Got Me on That One") Pedroia.

Continue reading "Chris Russo had Mike Francesa at 'Pedroia'" »

In a blog promo that accompanied my Sunday newspaper column, I promised to post 7,500-plus words from my interview with Mike Francesa last week.

Well, I've decided to (partially) renege, in the interests of clarity and sanity. But I'll still share most of it over the next day or two.

Let's start with this: I asked Francesa how he reacts to the harsh public criticism he often takes, from newspapers (including in my column) to blogs to message boards and beyond, including unkind remarks about his weight.

Click below to read what he said.

Continue reading "Mike Francesa says weight is 'fair game, absolutely'" »

My Sunday column and sidebar offer highlights of a 90-minute interview with Mike Francesa in which the big guy recalled the events leading to the breakup of "Mike and Mad Dog," his current relationship with former partner Chris Russo and the future of the afternoon drive slot in the post-Russo era.

Even 1,000 words only skimmed the surface of our conversation, so check the blog Monday for much more, including how Francesa feels about people who make fun of his weight, his admission he and Russo were behind the curve on new media technology and his thoughts on taking over the office once occupied by Don Imus.

I would have liked to include Russo's side of the story, especially about Francesa's revelation that the Imus succession saga might have played a role in the breakup.

Alas, Russo declined to comment through a spokesman.

My impression was he didn't want to revisit the past (fair enough) and even if he had the laryngitis that knocked him off the air on Thursday and Friday would have made it impossible for him to do so (fair enough).

Friday, he spoke to the Daily News anyway.

On Chris Russo's first day on the job at Sirius XM Satellite Radio, he expressed concern about how his voice would hold up given the rigors of working solo and on an outlet with less commercial time than WFAN.

Whether all those hours caught up to him or it just was one of those things, he was sidelined Thursday and Friday by laryngitis. Scott Wetzel and Bill Lekas sat in for him Thursday and Andy Gresh (right) Friday.

Russo, who had at least one serious bout with laryngitis during his WFAN days, is expected back in the saddle Monday.

His show, "Mad Dog Unleashed," launched in September, but he has not yet filled in the other 19 hours of sports talk on his Mad Dog Channel.

Sirius XM's goal for doing so was sometime this autumn. When might it happen? "Soon," a spokesman said.

After taking a week off, I suppose I ought to update you on the situation regarding Mike Francesa's search for a regular sidekick.

Umm . . . there isn't one, as far as I have been able to ascertain. Stay tuned, as they say in the journalism cliche department.

I often am asked how Francesa is doing in the ratings in the post-Russo, pre-new-sidekick era. Comparing numbers to last year at this time is difficult because of the conversion from the old diary system to the new people meters.

But Francesa's numbers are holding up well, especially given that people meters generally are perceived to hurt talk stations.

For the first month of autumn, WFAN averaged 5.3 percent of the audience among men ages 25-54 from 3 to 7 p.m., second in the market behind Q104.3-FM.

1050 ESPN ranked 16th in the demographic with an average rating of 2.4.

I should write my Tuesday newspaper column now. Enjoy WEC WrekCage on Versus at 6 p.m. I have no idea what that is.