Mike Francesa’s paid app has been in existence for about a year, but now it’s going to be a very different proposition.
Launched initially as a way for Francesa to essentially quit his radio show and ride that sweet wave of theoretical subscription cash, Mike’sOn never really seemed to catch on, probably in part thanks to the $8.99 per month price tag.
Now it’s been bought out by Entercom’s Radio.com, which has been expanding into more original, in-house sports programming in recent months.
https://t.co/DPC5pzxj9G has purchased the Mike’sOn app (MikesOn LLC). Mike’sOn and all content will become part of https://t.co/DPC5pzxj9G on 10/1/2019. For Sept., the app is FREE to everyone. I thank all our subscribers for their tremendous support.
— Mike Francesa (@MikeFrancesa) September 3, 2019
Justin Tasch has a good summary of the situation in the New York Post:
About a year after the longtime WFAN host launched his “Mike’s On” subscription app, it will shut down on Oct. 1 as it has been purchased by Radio.com, the company and Francesa announced. All of the content from the app will be hosted on Radio.com, which is making it all free.
Francesa said his app will be free throughout September before it closes up shop. He was charging $8.99 for monthly subscriptions and $98.99 for a one-year subscription. The hefty price of the app was widely mocked when it was announced.
As to how the move will affect Francesa’s current radio situation on WFAN, we’re apparently still waiting on that:
There’s also no indication of how the transaction may affect his status with WFAN, which had to cut the Carlin, Maggie and Bart program to two hours to accommodate Francesa’s return. Francesa has been working without an official contract from WFAN parent company Entercom.
“Mike Francesa is a legend, and we are beyond thrilled to bring more Mike to Radio.com,” said J.D. Crowley, the chief digital officer of parent company Entercom. “Mike has some of the most loyal, engaged fans in all of sports, thanks to his unique ability to build a broad audience with must-listen, highly compelling audio content, always calling it like it is.”
Enjoy the extra $8.99 per month, loyal Francesa listeners. That’s most of the way to a Disney+ bundle.
