When it comes to radio, you will never hear Mike Francesa call anyone other than Chris Russo his partner. He is confident that Russo would say the reverse is true.
The Sports Pope was a guest Monday on Barstool Radio and was asked about the influence of Mike & The Mad Dog across the sports talk genre. Francesa has always been adamant that Tony Kornheiser has told him the legendary WFAN afternoon show was the inspiration for Pardon the Interruption, but the influence goes beyond that. Francesa says the show changed the what people thought was possible for sports on the radio.
“We changed radio completely because radio before us, sports radio was a guy, basically at night, not during the day. There was no programing of sports all day,” Francesa said. “After 6:00 there was a guy doing sports talk in every town. He’d have a bell or he’d, you know, he had a couple of gimmicks.”
Mike & the Mad Dog was the beginning of two-man sports radio. The show was built on debate and conversation as opposed to trivia and other gimmicks.
“Now, the ironic thing is, the two guys who created the two-man show as being the format that became everywhere, we never work with anybody else,” he added. “We’ve only worked solo since we split up.”
Francesa says he thinks both he and Russo are aware that if either of them were to take on a new co-host, that person would forever be unfairly compared to their old show.
“Neither of us can take a partner. It was uncomfortable for either of us to take a partner because we were always synonymous with one partner.”
