Michael Kay didn’t aspire to be a full-time radio host.
Again when he known as Yankees video games on WABC, Kay would sometimes host three-hour speak reveals for the station through the MLB offseason.
It was an gratifying gig for Kay, however Tim McCarthy, the longtime common supervisor of WABC, envisioned him doing extra.
So when McCarthy helped launch the ESPN New York radio station in September of 2001, he urged Kay to host a present.
Kay, as he recalled in a current interview, was intrigued, however he questioned whether or not he would have the ability to steadiness his Yankees play-by-play work with a weekday radio program.
Dec. 13 marked the ultimate episode of that iteration of the present. Kay is ready to start a solo model of “The Michael Kay Show” within the 1-3 p.m. time slot on Jan. 6, whereas Alan Hahn is becoming a member of La Greca and Rosenberg within the 3-7 p.m. window for a brand new program known as “Don, Hahn & Rosenberg.”
The transfer permits Kay, who turns 64 in February, to spend extra time along with his school-aged youngsters, and catapults La Greca and Rosenberg additional into the highlight.
It’s a bittersweet change for the hosts, who’re every excited for his or her new applications however acknowledge their time-tested chemistry allowed the “Kay Show” to prevail.
“I really thought we thought outside the box to allow our personalities to be as much a part of the show as the sports.”
“The Michael Kay Show” debuted on July 15, 2002, with Kay and La Greca as co-hosts.
When their present shifted to the coveted afternoon drive slot in March of 2005, La Greca puzzled if the transfer would have an effect on the present’s endurance, contemplating the brand new hours would battle extra with Kay’s play-by-play duties for the YES Community.
“We’re talking about a guy that’s going to be extending his day, going from transitioning from one to the other, constantly being away,” La Greca, 56, mentioned.
“We wouldn’t be connected together, so you wondered how long is he going to want to do that? How long are we going to be able to make it work, where I’m going to be doing the show because the Yankees are playing a day game or Michael’s got to travel from one place to another? And he made it work, and we made it work.”
And the present labored, too.
In 2011, Kay requested Eli Manning if he thought of himself an elite quarterback. Manning replied within the affirmative, sparking nationwide dialog about whether or not the then-Giants star’s notion was correct. Six months later, Manning would lead the Giants to their second Tremendous Bowl victory in 4 years.
La Greca commonly went viral for his epic rants. He melted down as he contended Ed Kranepool was the Mets’ lone “forever player” and flipped out when Evan Neal dismissed booing Giants followers as “hamburger flippers.”
In 2014, the YES Community started simulcasting the “Kay Show.” It changed a simulcast of Francesa’s present.
The next yr, the “Kay Show” added Rosenberg, who, regardless of not having skilled sports-talk expertise, was a identified commodity out there as a bunch on the hip-hop-focused Sizzling 97 present “Ebro in the Morning.”
Kay and La Greca had been admittedly skeptical of Rosenberg’s addition, however he shortly introduced a brand new dynamic along with his youthful sensibilities, pop-culture prowess and witty one-liners.
“Not only did that make an impact in that moment, where clearly people came along with me who had been listening to me for 10 years at Hot, but I would argue now … our diversity, it’s got to be up tenfold from when I got here.”
The “Kay Show” continued to achieve momentum with Rosenberg within the combine.
In 2019, the “Kay Show” achieved what as soon as appeared unthinkable. It beat Francesa within the scores.
“We came very close for about two years before we finally won, and there was debate about whether you should count streaming and stuff like that,” Kay mentioned. “So when, finally, there were no excuses whatsoever [in the fall of 2019], that was a real joyous occasion, because Mike had really talked down upon us right from the very start. He said that these guys would never even come close to him.”
La Greca described Francesa as “a monolith” who confirmed no respect to ESPN New York when it arrived as a startup.
“I remember we had a meeting one time, and they put up his remarks … that we’re 0.0, we’re a peashooter,” La Greca mentioned.
“Every once in a while when you are able to do something that nobody thought you’d do, I’m not gonna lie to you, it was a really, really special moment.”
On the time, the “Kay Show” was New York’s top-rated afternoon present, together with programming outdoors of sports activities. An ESPN New York present had by no means achieved that feat.
The “Kay Show” proved equally impactful the next yr, when sports activities — and the world — shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People were locked in their houses, and for three-and-a-half hours, either listening on the radio or watching us on YES, they had an opportunity to just get away from this awful thing that was happening around the world and laugh a little bit,” Kay mentioned.
“We’ve heard so much of that over the years, and if that’s the one thing that came out of this, that we made a segment of people happy and able to take their minds off the awfulness of what was going on in the world, then all 22 years were worth it.”
Michael Kay, Don La Greca and Peter Rosenberg (left to proper) at Citi Area. Photograph courtesy of ESPN New York.
In August, ESPN New York moved to 880 AM, an iconic sign that added a spark to the station.
However August can also be when the grind of two full-time jobs usually takes its toll on Kay. This yr, Kay mentioned, hit him in a different way.
“I started to think about all the things that I’m missing,” Kay mentioned. “Not only was I physically and mentally drained all the time, I just felt, ‘What am I missing?’ My son’s sporting events and my daughter’s cheerleading events and things like that.
“If I either stepped away or if I ratcheted back a little bit, I’d be able to do more with them and still keep my hand in radio.”
That sentiment is what finally drove Kay’s choice to depart afternoon drive.
The uncertainty of what would come subsequent was regarding at occasions, mentioned La Greca. He remained underneath contract with ESPN New York, however Rosenberg and Hahn wanted new offers.
“It was scary because we’ve got different entities, right? You’ve got Good Karma, who owns the radio station, Bristol that runs the radio station, and we’re here in Manhattan,” La Greca mentioned.
Given these circumstances, Kay, La Greca and Rosenberg take into account the brand new ESPN New York schedule the best-case state of affairs.
Kay’s present, nonetheless known as “The Michael Kay Show,” matches his life higher. It’s but to be determined if YES will proceed to simulcast his present.
La Greca and Rosenberg get to proceed working collectively in the identical time slot whereas including Hahn, an ESPN New York veteran and a Knicks studio analyst for MSG Community.
“Don, Hahn & Rosenberg” had a gentle launch through the week of Dec. 16-20 and is ready to formally begin on Jan. 6.
“When you think about Don, Alan and myself, three real vets of this market at this point who have all had really good moments, where people are like, ‘This guy is awesome,’ but all of us have sort of not had the moment for us,” Rosenberg mentioned.
“I think it’s really a fun potential story to be told about us three guys getting the marquee and really doing a lot with it. I really hope to get to a point where people think of this as just its own, completely different thing.”
For Kay, it’s not goodbye. It’s see ya a little bit earlier.
