Chris Carlin remembers Mike Francesa and Chris Russo’s 2000 spat quite well.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Awful Announcing podcast, Carlin, who currently owns a piece of the 12-3 p.m. primetime slot on ESPN Radio, recalled his vantage point when the Mike and the Mad Dog show came to blows.
Carlin, a former producer on the Mike and the Mad Dog show, has revealed some invaluable broadcasting lessons learned from Francesa and Russo. But he also revealed to host Brandon Contes some of the inside baseball regarding the infamous feud 24 years ago, which transpired during the 2000 NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
“Mike was frustrated; he didn’t love traveling to begin with,” recalled Carlin. “And our flight to Indianapolis in the morning — we were gonna do the show from Market Square — and the flight got canceled. So, then they re-routed us, and we’re going to go on a plane and connect to DC, and Mike’s just like, ‘No, I’m not doing that. It’s not first-class. I’m not going.’ Turned around and went back to the radio station. Which at LaGuardia, it’s 15 minutes away.
“Chris was livid about it. He really wanted to go, and it didn’t really escalate until the next day when Chris was really on Jeff Van Gundy for some of the decisions he made in the game that night, and Mike was a big Van Gundy fan. And that’s where that kind of devolved into a nasty fight to the point I absolutely thought the show was over that summer. There was no question that I thought the show was over that summer. And I was praying to God that wasn’t going to happen.”
According to Carlin, their argument primarily took place on the air. The disagreement wasn’t about the flight itself, but the incident ignited Russo’s frustration. A few days later, they were yelling at each other on the show. Despite this tension, they had to continue working together for a few more weeks until the spring ratings period concluded, as they neither dared to take days off during the fall or spring.
“So, they were doing shows where they were just looking at the microphone, talking into the microphone, not looking at each other, not talking at all during the break. Screaming match in (former WFAN exec.) Mark Chernoff’s office.” Carlin said. “…Mike, ‘I’m never working with Chris again.’ Chris, ‘Mike, I just signed a contract. I’m not going anywhere. Good luck.’ And there was talk. Not involving me, mind you, but there was certainly talk. I would later hear about it. ‘Well, maybe we can split them up and put them in different day parts. And how are we doing to do that?’
“Like, there was realistic talk that was going to happen.
“I remember going out to Mike’s house that summer because he had gotten me some tickets for (Bruce) Springsteen, and he was still as hot as could be about it; he really had just grown tired of it. The story goes — and this is 100 percent true – Mike’s wife-to-be (Mike was getting married that summer) invited Chris without telling Mike. And so, Chris came to the wedding later that summer out on Long Island, and they had a talk. And it wasn’t anything deep at the wedding; it was just sort of a superficial chat for a few minutes, but it was really what mended the fences.
“There’s no question that Mike’s wife, Roe, saved the show at that time; absolutely true. No doubt.”
But before the show could be saved, Carlin was forced to produce a radio show where the hosts refused to talk to one another. Contes inquired about that dynamic, particularly when looking in from the outside.
“You just sat on the edge of your seat. Is this going to explode at any second? Every morning, even when things were great, I would talk to them individually…and many times they wouldn’t agree on things,” Carlin explained. “So, when they weren’t agreeing on what to do on the show when they weren’t talking, it was really bad.
“And there were a couple of times I tried to force-feed a couple of things just to get through some segments…it was all still entertaining radio. I don’t think you could really tell on the air that much at the time how bad it was. You could tell there was tension, for sure. But you just tried to navigate through it. And when we got to late June, they would split up their vacations…they would go summers without working together; that was not new at all. The timing of it could not be more important because they needed the time apart from one another.”
But Francesa’s wife, without any hesitation, ensured that both relationships were prioritized on their fateful wedding day.
“She understood what they had, how special it was, and why it was not worth blowing up over what had happened,” Carlin said. “She took matters unto her own hands. Roe was just fantastic; just great.”
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