Mike Francesa is hanging up his mic. Peter Ackerman-Imagn Content Services, LLC

Radio legend Mike Francesa retires from WFAN again

By Zac Wassink | Last updated Jul 23, 2020 7:06 PM ET

Mike Francesa is retiring from New York's WFAN again. This time, though, there will be no "back afta this."

As Andrew Marchand of the New York Post noted, Francesa announced on the air on Thursday that Friday's one-hour WFAN program will be his last scheduled appearance for a New York radio station. The 66-year-old icon of the industry explained he's leaving to spend more time with family and attend to other personal matters.

Francesa and Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo blazed a trail for sports talk radio with their "Mike and the Mad Dog" program that aired on WFAN from September 1989 through August 2008, when Russo departed WFAN for satellite radio.

Francesa hosted a solo show through December 2017 when he retired for roughly four months before he returned to the station and launched a shortly lived "Mike's On" mobile application. Last December, Francesa transitioned to a program that lasted 30 minutes or an hour, depending on the day.

Beginning last March, Francesa temporarily filled in for WFAN daytime slots amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Zac Wassink

Zac Wassink is a longtime sports news writer and PFWA member who began his career in 2006 and has had his work featured on Yardbarker, MSN, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. He is also a football and futbol aficionado who is probably yelling about Tottenham Hotspur at the moment and who chanted for Matt Harvey to start the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2015 World Series at Citi Field. You can find him on X at @ZacWassink

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