Radio host teases odd next step
Mike Francesa waited for a reunion with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo to drop a hint the sports radio world has been waiting for — but his revelation raised more questions than answers.
The iconic talk-show host sat down on radio row in Houston on Thursday afternoon with his former co-host, and Russo wasted no time in peppering Francesa with questions about his future. Francesa plans to step down from his post at WFAN on Dec. 15, 30 years after he launched one of the most successful careers in sports radio.
Francesa confirmed he’s walking out the door in 10 months and moving immediately into the next chapter of his life, telling Russo he will be working somewhere by Jan. 3, 2018.
“I’m not retiring,” Francesa told Russo on a simulcast at the Super Bowl LI set of SiriusXM, where his old partner has worked since he left WFAN in 2008. “I have other ideas. I have talked to some other people. I am talking about other things. I have some plans. Well, I always have plans, but my FAN career is ending on December 15. I totally promise.”
When Russo pressed him for more information, Francesa offered an intriguing refrain: He will be heard, but his new role may stray from the “conventional.”
“You will hear my voice. How’s that?” he said. “I’m not promising it’ll be conventional. It might be a little something new.”
Francesa said he has been talking to “about six or eight” different people about postWFAN opportunities and that, come January, people can expect to hear his voice, somewhere.
“I’ll be on in January,” he confirmed. “No, it will not be FAN. It might not be conventional radio.”