Mike Francesa remains on the cutting edge.
The WFAN legend kicked off this football Friday with a big announcement: There will now be a video component to his BetRivers podcast.
“I promised you this football season we’d have a couple of surprises for you,” Francesa said, moments before poking fun at himself with an on-camera sip of Diet Coke.
“And we have a pretty big one coming your way very soon. And we mean very, very soon.”
A message from @MikeFrancesa
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— BetRivers Sportsbook (@BetRivers) September 22, 2023
The monumental reveal has been received as you would expect.
“He’s announcing it as if he’s going into space with Elon Musk, like he’s got some huge announcement,” WFAN morning show voice Gregg Giannotti said. “Like he has the alien corpses or something.”
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The addition of video is a big deal for the great Funhouse, who now has moving pictures to accompany whatever audio he snips from Francesa’s podcast. But that’s about it. The only truly game-changing move Francesa and BetRivers can make is to start taking calls on the podcast. When we last checked in a while ago, that was not on the table. But could plans change as WFAN offers bad content and ESPN Radio New York plans to dump its FM signal?
Francesa is still the biggest voice in the region in many ways. You might as well lean into that. No one expects him to do 3-5 hours five days a week. But the technology exists to get callers on the podcast. And Francesa is at his best when he plays off callers. The listener emails have been an adequate-enough alternative, but they will never match the real thing. Back after this.
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James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jameskratch.
