YES Network executives weren't laughing at the rehearsed bit Michael Kay used to open his radio TV simulcast career, but Kay is patting himself on the back for dumping a Diet Coke can into the garbage. Kay tells the Post's Justin Terranova, "It was totally my idea. I just thought it was funny and kind of a changing of the guard and it meant absolutely no disrespect meant at all. I am actually totally amused some took it as if I desecrated a religious artifact … A lot of people have asked, would I do it again? I’d absolutely do it a hundred times again. I thought it was hilarious and anybody took it seriously that’s their issue, not mine."
He thought it was hilarious. Oy.
He also thinks the TV broadcast will somehow help his ratings, "We’ve been making strides. In the last ratings book, we finished seventh out of 88 radio stations. Obviously, Mike Francesa is the guy we are chasing, but you do the best that you can. I think it can only help the ratings, so we’ll see how it goes."
Michael Kay doesn't have AM to blame given WEPN's ESPN 98.7 FM signal anymore.
And as to Francesa's calling him a classless loser?
His comment (to Newsday) was that it was a classless stunt. I really laughed at that because ever since I started this radio show I have done nothing but been respectful. ... I’ve called him the gold standard of what we do. But, of late, all he does is make comments about ratings, comments like a pea shooter, and to me that’s insulting and to me that’s a lack of grace and class. And what I did is something funny and it wasn’t as if I took a shot at a guy that hasn’t taken a hundred shots at us for every one that we’ve taken at him.
That's only because Mike has 100x the listeners and, thus, 100x the callers. Kay has typically taken to Twitter for his stupid stunts. Now his hilarious bits are in HD to boot.
But hey -- 'even folks at WFAN' have told him his show is better than Francesa's so...there's that.
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