Mike Francesa is going to take a call again
Mike Francesa is giving new meaning to first time, long time.
The big guy is going to take calls again. Well, at least one of them. Francesa is running a contest for subscribers to the newsletter tied to his eponymous BetRivers podcast in March — the winner will be able to call in and talk with the WFAN legend; the conversation will then be included in a future newsletter.
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Francesa has not taken calls, by our count, since he ended his short-lived Audacy digital show (remember that?) in 2020. His only on-air interaction with listeners since launching his podcast in 2022 has come via emailed questions. Francesa did claim calls were in the plans in 2024, but that never came to pass.
“We’re working on that technology right now,” Francesa said that summer in video archived by the great Funhouse. “We’re going to institute that into the program.”
I guess it was between pursuing nuclear fusion and hooking up Zoom down at the BetRivers lab that day.
Everyone wishes Francesa would take calls again. But I can understand why he does not. It was a complete shitshow when he took them on his Mike’s On subscription app back in the day. It would be an even bigger one now. At least half the calls would be prank ones. Francesa does not deserve that. Nor does longtime producer Brian Monzo. So we take what we can get. Which means whoever wins the contest is in a big spot. Back after this.
James Kratch is a veteran sports reporter and editor. He currently reports on the youth sports industry for Buying Sandlot and was previously ESNY's managing editor. Before that he spent a decade at NJ Advance Media (The Star-Ledger and NJ.com), where he covered high school sports, the Giants and Rutgers.
