On December 15, 2017, one of America’s most listened to, most beloved and most maligned radio shows will come to an end. On that day, Mike Francesa will do his last show for WFAN, then hit free agency after 30 years at the station.

On Thursday, a caller asked Francesa about his future, in the context of Mike’s former partner, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, agreeing to an extension with SiriusXM satellite radio.

Here’s what the king of New York sports radio had to say, via esteemed Francesa-chronicler @RNs_Funhouse:

Francesa said he wouldn’t discuss his departure until it got closer, which is fair given that it’s still 14 months away, but then dropped some hints about what the future will or won’t hold.

Though Mike was vague about his post-WFAN options (he’s been, “approached by other broadcast entities”), he was pretty clear about his feelings toward satellite radio.

“I will not be going to satellite. It’s not something I want to do. It has nothing to do with Dog being there, it has nothing to do with the product, it’s just not something I’m interested in. I have a couple of things that do interest me, that’s just not one of them.”

“I don’t have anything concrete. I have some ideas that interest me. I have some people I’ve promised I will talk to in the next year. And I’m just taking my time. So that’s basically it.”

Francesa made clear that his resistance to satellite has nothing to do with Russo having been there first. And since he says his anti-satellite stance isn’t related to the SiriusXM product, it seems fair to speculate that the holdup is the reach (or lack thereof) of satellite audience. Francesa is a man of the people, and if he jumped to satellite he’d be hiding his insights behind a SiriusXM subscription fee.

That’s too bad, because a Mike & the Mad Dog reunion would have been fun. For now we’ll just have to listen over and over to this mash-up of them talking about Harambe.

Oh, but Francesa was very clear about one other thing:

“I’m not retiring, though. I can tell you that.”

That’s excellent news. After all, if Francesa hung up the microphone, who would we have left to write about?

[New York Post]

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.

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