I heard part of Chris Russo’s debut on Sirius Satellite Radio today. Basically, it’s the same old Mad Dog if you’ve heard him on WFAN. But he tried to steer any conversation away from New York sports and tried to show that he can carry a national platform. Every now and then, Mad Dog Channel PD and “SportsBite” anchor Steve Torre would chime in giving Russo someone to bounce off of.
During the 45 minutes of the show that I was able to hear, Chris got calls from mostly fans from the New York area and a surprise call from Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre (I don’t believe any relation to Steve). For ten years when he was Yankees manager, Torre did a weekly guest spot on WFAN with Russo and Mike Francesa so the chemistry between the host and guest today was still there. And Russo showed that baseball is one of his strong points by talking with Torre about the NL West.
When one caller talked about the Mets bullpen, Chris immediately gave out WFAN’s phone number and told him to talk to Francesa.
Overall, I thought the segment I listened to was quite strong. The one thing Sirius can do for its listeners is to provide the Mad Dog Channel on the internet. Right now, the only sports channel that Sirius provides to internet listeners is NFL Radio.
It was good to hear Russo again and I think he’ll do well on the national format.
