Mike Francesa on Mike and Mad Dog’s surprising early success
WFAN’s Mike Francesa talked about how the station put him and Christopher Russo together for “Mike and the Mad Dog” in the late 1980s.
“We both had some success,” Francesa said. “They put us together against our will. We both wanted afternoon drive. [Don] Imus favored Dog more than me. I knew the only way to [get there was to join Russo].”
Francesa said it started out rocky: “All of the New York critics were against it. They wrote it was a terrible idea. …. The first couple of weeks were awful. Then we started a promotion called Dog Day Afternoon. … We petitioned people for dates. It softened the show.”
But then things took off quickly. “Within six months,” Francesa said, “it went from it will never work, we hate each other. To we were the toast of town.