Chris Russo doesn’t envision a return to the local terrestrial radio scene.
The Post’s Andrew Marchand first reported that Michael Kay is considering retiring from his ESPN Latest York show in afternoon drive when his contract expires later this yr — he would remain the voice of the Yankees — and cited Russo as a possible long-shot to step into the role.
Russo explained to Neil Better of Newsday he won’t leave SiriusXM by alternative.
“I’m not going to depart Sirius, let’s put it that way,” Russo said. “I like Sirius a lot. They’ve been good to me. “I’m not ruling out the concept any person takes an hour of Sirius and puts it on terrestrial radio. That will be different . . . But Sirius within the afternoon, I’m going to do this so long as they’ll have me, to make an extended story short.”
On SiriusXM, Russo hosts a national show and has the creative freedom to speak about whatever he wants, whether that’s his rantings and ravings on sports topics or hour-long conversations with an writer of a Donald Trump book. Even when he were wooed by ESPN Latest York, the switch from satellite radio (a business that could be a mixture of subscription and ad revenue) to terrestrial radio (all ad revenue) would inherently make him lose a few of that latitude.
“I might never sit there and say, ‘ what, I’ve had enough Sirius, I’ll return to terrestrial,’ ” Russo said. “I might not try this.”
Russo’s contract doesn’t expire until next yr.
Russo previously worked in afternoon drive at WFAN with Mike Francesa on the fabled “Mike and the Mad Dog” program from 1989 through 2007. The pair is reuniting on ESPN’s “First Take,” where Russo is a weekly contributor, on Wednesday, Feb. 1.
