Sometimes, the days for New York Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay can be long, particularly when he is calling Yankees games and hosting The Michael Kay Show on 98.7 ESPN Radio in New York with Don La Greca and Peter Rosenberg.
This week, Kay was a guest on the New York, New York with John Jastremski podcast and he talked about how much work that he puts into the other sports after he gets home from broadcasting a Yankees game.
“It is overwhelming at times. I DVR a lot of games and I don’t watch the whole thing, I’m going to be honest. I read stuff when I get home and if it turned in the 4th quarter, I’ll fast forward to that. I feel like I should not go in not knowing it. The only thing that I hand off is hockey. Don is a genius at hockey and I just don’t know it. The other stuff, I want to stay on top of everything.
“As I get older, to be honest, I don’t know if I could keep up the pace. Most days, I get to the stadium at 1:15 and I get out at like 11:15, pull into the house at 12:15 AM. I have a six-year-old and an eight-year-old and it wears you out a little bit.”
That response led Jastremski to ask the question as to which of the two jobs Kay could see himself doing longer between being the voice of the Yankees and hosting afternoon drive in New York.
“I’ve thought about this a lot,” Kay said. “I think the shelf life for a radio host, there should be a limit to it because I think the key audience you want to get is 25-54 and I am already past that key audience and I hope that I don’t look like the old guy on the lawn.
“That’s partially why we have Peter [Rosenbrerg] there because he’s not the old guy in the lawn. I don’t ever want to get bored with it and not have the energy that I have. When I see that happening, that’s when I’ll say that’s probably it.”
Before Carton and Roberts began on WFAN, the ratings battle for afternoons in New York would be between Kay and Mike Francesa. Kay loved competing with Francesa because he was the underdog trying to take down a sports radio icon.
Now, there is an expectation level that The Michael Kay Show has built and for Kay, there is pressure to try to stay number one.
“I don’t want to lose to Craig. He’s a guy who came back and I had the lead and Mike was retired and you figure you would have a couple of years where you could relax a little. With Craig, you aren’t going to be able to relax. He’s really good at this. I think there’s more pressure now because I was the one that was in first. I feel more pressure now than I did trying to chase Mike.”
While Kay still feels the pressure of trying to be the top show in New York, the show still has a good mix of getting the perspective of the older fan while not excluding him from the target audience and that is important as well.
