Michael Kay, switching lanes, says goodbye to afternoon drive time show
Michael Kay during a live broadcast of "The Michael Kay Show" on ESPN New York Radio on Feb. 23, 2022.
Credit: ESPN Images/Gabby Ricciardi
Michael Kay bid farewell to afternoon drive time radio on Friday with a holiday-themed goodbye show alongside longtime partners Don La Greca and Peter Rosenberg.
It marked the end of a remarkable run for the ESPN New York host, who worked with La Greca for 22 ½ years overall and nearly 20 in drive time, the last nine of those with Rosenberg.
The partnership’s longevity exceeded that of the show’s longtime rival from WFAN, “Mike and the Mad Dog,” whose 19-year run went from 1989 to 2008.
It was an emotional finale, held before a live audience at Tommy’s Tavern + Tap in Clifton, New Jersey.
While the threesome no longer will work together, they will continue to work at the station, currently heard at 880-AM as well as streaming online.
Starting on Jan. 6, Kay, 63, will host a solo show from 1 to 3 p.m. The move was his choice, as it will afford him more time with his children, now ages 11 and 10, as he juggles his duties as the Yankees’ play-by-play voice for the YES Network.
“It’s nothing to be sad about,” Kay said during Friday’s show. “At my age, I needed to streamline things a little bit. I probably would not be able to keep up this pace much longer . . . It wasn’t about anything other than that.”
La Greca and Rosenberg will remain in drive time with a new partner, longtime ESPN New York radio host and MSG Networks Knicks analyst Alan Hahn.
The show, which will be called “Don, Hahn and Rosenberg,” will run from 3 to 7 p.m. After a soft launch next week, the program officially will debut on Jan. 6.
Kay and La Greca first were paired on July 15, 2002, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and moved to drive time early in 2005.
Among the guests who paid tribute to the show either in person or on the phone were Billy Crystal, Jesse Ventura, Bob Wischusen and Scott Van Pelt, as well as numerous past and present producers and other off-air figures from the show.
Alex Rodriguez posted on “X,” “Congratulations on an amazing 22-year run . . . Your show was a must-listen for true New York sports fans. You three never disappointed!”
Hahn, a former Newsday sportswriter, joined the panel to preview the new show. He said of succeeding Kay, “It does mean a lot to me that I’m the one who gets to step into those shoes.”
Rosenberg got emotional reading an essay he wrote recounting his somewhat rocky early days on the show and thanking Kay and La Greca for welcoming him.
“Something clicked,” Rosenberg said. “Sometimes 1+1 equals 3. Sometimes the sum is greater than the parts . . . I can count the actual anger between the three of us on one hand.”
Tim McCarthy, the former ESPN executive who paired Kay and La Greca and later added Rosenberg, said, “No shows last 22 years, folks. They don’t. They just don’t.”
Moving Kay to drive time was a key moment in show history. “ 'Mike and the Mad Dog’ were killing it on the FAN,” McCarthy said. “We needed our best people in the best spot.”
The Kay show faced a long, uphill ratings battle against Mike Francesa and Chris Russo but closed the gap over time and finally surpassed Francesa’s solo show in the autumn quarterly ratings in 2019 — Francesa’s final full ratings book.
In the early years, La Greca said, “We were a fly on the [expletive] of WFAN. And eventually we crawled right up there and lived there for a good few years.”
It is not yet clear whether the new afternoon drive time show will continue to be simulcast by the YES Network.
In closing on Friday, Kay thanked listeners and viewers and said, “This has been the honor of my life for you to let us into your car, let us into your home on TV.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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