Month: August 2008

Posted on

Re: Mike And The Mad Dog

I still can’t believe their show is over… anyways, this is a great piece that describe the sentiments of probably a majority of their listeners right now.

Sadly on Thursday August 14th, 2008 my childhood came to an end. A part of me has died. My life will never, ever be the same.

Mike and the Mad Dog, the long time afternoon drive show on WFAN in New York came to an end as Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo decided to leave the station for good.

Ever since 1989 my life has been based around that show. I didn’t exaggerate that statement. My schedule on a day to day basis was based on the fact that I had to be near a radio at 1pm in order to hear the “Aaaaaaaaaannnnndddd good afternoon everybody how are you today”. They were it for me, what they said was absolute gospel. When I say my life has been based around the show, I mean my life has been based around the show:

– I had / have friendships that are purely based on the mutual affection of Mike and the Mad Dog.
– My sister can recite the entire open to their show and she couldn’t even name five players in the NFL
– I have Tivo’d there show on YES every single day since 2002..-I bought my house based on the idea that I could get Direct TV so I can watch Mike and the Mad Dog on YES every single day

– I could tell you each of their kid’s name and I know that Dog’s dog is named Jordan

– I have read both of Mad Dog’s books and have had people mail me video tapes of “Mike’D Up”, Francessa’s Sunday night TV show on NBC in NY.
– I have been imitating them for the majority of my life both on air and off air…”Say something funny”… “I knew you would say something funny, Bill told me.”
– I have a picture in my room in NY of Dog and I from his old SportsChannel TV show when I was 8 years old.
– I force the Mike and the Mad Dog language “Oh is that all?” upon almost everyone at the station.
– I am so obsessed with them that my mom said to me tonight that its like my version of the Beatles breaking up.

They just did it better than everyone else. They would say things that others wouldn’t.

– Asking former Islanders GM Mike Milbury “How do you have a job”
– Telling Roger Gooddell to “show some guts” and “kick him out of the league” referring to Pac Man Jones
– Screaming and yelling at Joe Torre for taking too many Yankees to the All-Star Game a few years back
– Dog willing to give up kids to get a SF Giants post season series win.

They were absolutely fearless. There is nothing they wouldn’t ask a guest. They have been instrumental in major moves in NY Sports.
?
– Got Jeff Torborg fired from the Mets
– Got Mike Piazza traded to the Mets

Most kids grow up with athletes as their sports idols. My dad grew up as a Yankee fan loving Mickey Mantle and he like most kids in NY had their favorite players, I had Mike and the Mad Dog. There was no player on any team that even held a candle to those two. If there was a such thing as a Mike and the Mad Dog jersey I would have been wearing it, I would have been trading their “baseball cards” if they existed.

In conclusion, I do what I do because of them. They were the pioneers of sports talk radio and I only wish that one day I can affect someone the way they have affected me. I will miss them more than anyone could possibly imagine. They are everything to me, they are my vice. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I use them and listening to them as my fallback to everything in life. There has been truly no moment over their almost 19 years on the air that listening to them has not made me happier than I was prior to tuning in. I am going to miss them and I thank them for being there for me for almost 19 years and giving me a direction in my professional life. Thank you both for everything.

[Source: ESPN 760 – Have You Seen My Childhood?]

Posted on

Pervez Musharraf Resigns As Pakistan’s President

President Pervez Musharraf began his address to the nation at 13.13 PST at the President’s House in Islamabad, saying “Today is a day of an important decision for me.” Proceedings began with recitation from the Holy Quran at 13.10 pm. President Pervez Musharraf said the nation is aware of the crisis it is going through. He said ‘when I assumed charge nine years ago the country was about to be branded a failed state and a terrorist state. He asid assumed charge with the aim of rescuing the country. In the last nine years I have tried my best to serve the country to the best of my ability… during confrontation with India, 9/11 and its aftermath and the devastating earthquake.’

‘In all these crises we stood up thanks to the Grace of Almighty Allah and saved Pakistan from the crises. In handling the problems the sole aim was the well-being of the people and the safety and security of Pakistan. I have taken part in two wars which Pakistan fought… [The coalition government] They deceived the people. Never did they realize that they may win against me but how adversely the contry was affected did not concern them. Economic decline and energy crisis we’re experiencing is being attributed to my policies. I would like to put some facts before the nation, especially the economy. The economy was doing well, in fact very well before Deb 2007. he GDP growth was 7 percent. Revenue collection had reached $1 trillion. The KSE index was around 15,000 points. All these indicators are of reight months ago. Pakistans economy was poised to take off. How did the economic probkem start all of a sudden? Why has the stock exchange lost 5,000 points. Why has the rupee lost almost 30 percent of its value?

Surely, the present economic crisis is owing to rising oil prices and similar other developments on a global basis. But it is wholly incorrect to put blame on these global factors alone. It is our own failures during the last 8 months. Power Sector: We were producing 14,000 MW in June 2007 but are now producing just about 10,000 MW. Why? In a nutshell, the people are being fooled. Let us now look forward to find solutions to take the country out of the woods. During the past nine years, we addressed all sectors and accelerated development in the country. In these 9 years , we constructed several roads and bypasses and worked on several other developmental projects. You can see for yourself how much we have done including all the dams that have been constructed (such as the Mirani Dam). Several canals are also being constructed. These developments will help irrigate 3 million acre fields in the country.

There was massive industrialisation during the last nine years. There was a lot done for higher education. Nice universities from different foreign countries had agreed to set up campuses in the country. In the health sector primary and secondary healthcare was given priority. Safe drinking water was a sector that was addressed on priority and 6000 water purification plants were set up. Women were given political empowerment and now you see a lot more women in eh assemblies. Honour killing was discouraged and Hudood Ordinance laws were revamped. The minorities were given opportunities and culture and heritage was given due importance.

Continue reading “Pervez Musharraf Resigns As Pakistan’s President”

Posted on

The End Of An Era

Well yesterday turned out to be the last show where both Mike (Francesa) and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo were on together, albeit it for 5 minutes, on the Mike and the Mad Dog radio program. For those not too familiar with the show they were the first sports radio talk where not many gave them hopes to last very long… This was all the way back in 1989. Now 19 years later, they are finally going their separate ways with Mad Dog probably accepting a multi-million dollar satellite radio offer pretty soon. Mike has just signed 5 year extension to stay on with WFAN 660 and will change the show name to “Francesa On The Fan”. It is quite impressive how they did a show from 1 PM to 6:30 PM every day for 19 years… that’s a lot to handle.

They literally set the stage for sports radio all across America when they first started and they have been a part of my daily routine for nearly 8 years now. I eventually became interested in doing sports radio and then broadcasting. I had always been interested in sports but never thought doing a show until I started listening to theirs and really enjoyed it.

I started doing my first radio show my freshman year on college where I co-hosted “Double Play” with my good friend Justin Eusebio and eventually Matt Fitzsimmons. We hosted it for two seasons where we discussed professional sports, collegiate athletics, sports picks and debated any other sports topic that came to mind.

Eventually college schedules began to take a toll ok everyone and the show folded but then I started working for the Stevens Athletics Department in doing Public Announcing for games and eventually Broadcasting games online with Matt. The games varied from basketball, soccer, lacrosse and volleyball for both men and women teams as well as doing field hockey games.

I plan on continuing broadcasting for as long as I’m in college and who knows what happens after that. However it’s safe to say that I would have zero interest in doing either the sports radio show nor broadcasting if it wasn’t for both Mike and the Mad Dog.

I don’t know too many people outside of my own personal and extended family who listened to the show regularly but it was truly stuff of legends the way those two worked with each other. There was doubt they would last 19 days, never mind 19 remarkable years of being atop of the ratings garnering national attention of those who wanted to make a name for themselves in tri-state area had to go through these two first.

Hopefully these two continue to have successes in their respective program but everyone can clearly admit, things will no longer be the same for the powerhouse of sports radio.

Posted on

Let’s Say Hello To Martial Law In America

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Martial Law in the United States.

A crime-ridden town in Arkansas has expanded a 24-hour curfew and ordered armed officers to continue patrolling the neighborhoods while extending their authority to stop and question any who pass by. Yesterday, the City Council for the town of Helena-West Helena voted unanimously 9-0 to allow police to expand that program into any area of the city, despite a warning from a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas that the police stops were unconstitutional.

When asked about the warning from ACLU, the Mayor James Valley said “Now if somebody wants to sue us, they have an option to sue, but I’m fairly certain that a judge will see it the way the way the citizens see it here… The citizens deserve peace, that some infringement on constitutional rights is OK and we have not violated anything as far as the Constitution.” The Police Chief said that they had yet to arrest anyone for not abiding by the curfew and were only questioning people about why they were outside. “Those without good answers or acting nervously get additional attention”… yea, armed guards arresting people and patrolling your town would certainly cause you to remain calm when being questioned with the fear that if you don’t provide a “good answer”, you’ll be thrown behind bars.

So to recap what he just said up there: It is okay to infringe upon constitutional rights but stopping people randomly without cause does not violate anything?

You know this is going to set a bad precedent with other towns following suit if anytime something gets out of hand and instead of following things judicially, everyone will start taking the law in their own hands and let the courts decide later on.

[Source: AP – Crime-ridden Arkansas town expands 24-hour curfew]