Popular sports talk radio personality Mike Francesa is set to depart New York’s WFAN at the end of next year.
“I’m not saying I’m leaving the business. I’m leaving Monday to Friday, five and a half hours, F-A-N,” Francesa told Katie Nolan on “Garbage Time.” “I am not saying I’m not going to work again. I’m not saying I’m not going to do anything ever again. What I’m saying is, that part of my life, at the end of ’17, that is ending.”
His departure will mark the end of a 30-year run with WFAN, which he joined in 1987, the station’s inaugural year of operations.
Francesa admitted that he had discussions about leaving earlier, but WFAN wouldn’t let him out of his contract, which was renewed in 2013. Prior to negotiations, Francesa told FishbowlNY of the prospects of renewal, “Right now, I’d say it’s ’50-50,’ it could go either way.”
In September, the relationship Francesa had with Fox Sports 1 to simulcast his radio show ended after barely a year, during which the host later said, “I take all the blame, it’s my fault, I made the mistake and it was my error in judgement, no one else’s.” Francesa was referring to his decision to move the show from YES Network to Fox Sports 1, which he described as “trying to put a square peg in a round hole.”
Francesa’s relationship with the brass at CBS Radio, owner of WFAN, has been similarly embattled, saying in April that his relationship with the network has “never been worse.” He told Nolan that the fraying tensions led to a discussion about a pre-emptive exit from his contract that never materialized.
“They never offered me a reasonable way out,” the ex-“Mike and the Mad Dog” co-host said.
Watch the video above.