A friendly rivalry between ESPN New York’s morning and afternoon shows morphed into a vicious tirade and now a potential radio war with WFAN.
Last week, Michael Kay went on-air and threatened to have Ray Santiago fired over a ratings quip. Santiago, who produces the station’s morning show hosted by Rick DiPietro and Dave Rothenberg, made a joke about The Michael Kay Show’s recent ratings slide.
After Kay’s vengeful and spiteful rant gained traction this week, he claimed the tirade was all for show and lauded his ability as a performer. Kay was supported by his ESPN Radio co-hosts Don La Greca and Peter Rosenberg who claimed they knew the threatening rant was just a performance.
WFAN’s Gregg Giannotti, however, doesn’t buy it. During his Thursday morning show with co-host Boomer Esiason on WFAN, Giannotti slammed Kay for threatening the job of a producer and he obliterated the ESPN Radio host for attempting to play it off as a performance.
Radio War? Or is Gio just being performative? pic.twitter.com/uk7QGM086L
— Brandon Contes (@BrandonContes) January 12, 2023
“Gimme a break,” Giannotti ranted of The Michael Kay Show trio Thursday morning. “You don’t have to sit there and bootlick him any longer. He’s gonna retire. It doesn’t matter if you kiss his ass or not, it’s not gonna be the difference in you getting that job when he leaves. Just stop it. Just stop kissing his ass. He was wrong! Call him out for it! He was absolutely wrong. It’s not performance art. You were pissed off!”
While lauding his ability as a performer, Kay admitted he was upset with Santiago’s ratings joke. And while it’s likely that Kay never considered making a phone call to get the 15-year ESPN Radio producer fired, there was legitimate anger behind his his petty tirade. Kay, a self-admitted thinned-skinned and vengeful person, was not just performing, he was sensitive about a joke and sought to remind Santiago of his power.
“Instead, I gotta believe it’s performance art? Are you freaking kidding me?!” Giannotti added. “If it is performance art, why are you pulling back the curtain?! Does the magician show you where he keeps the rabbit before he pulls it out of the hat? If you’re such a great performer, then continue your bit! But then you pulled back the curtain to tell everybody about it cause you weren’t man enough to step up and say you were wrong!
“And for someone to be in the business as long as he has,” Giannotti continued. “To pull that kind of lie and bullcrap was embarrassing. Absolutely embarrassing. I sit here and I bust everybody’s balls, I’ll point out mistakes, but if I ever — EVER — go and say on the air…‘This guy needs to be fired,’ you have permission to punch me right in the face. Because that is a ridiculous, RIDICULOUS abuse of power.”
Giannotti seemed pretty bothered by Kay’s actions, although maybe he was just being performative.
[WFAN, via CBS Sports Network]
