Hour 2: Mike Greenberg joins the show

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
This is The Michael Kay Show podcast.

**Michael Kay** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:35)
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**Michael Kay** (0:42)
Well, we do want to say we're one hour in. And then following this show, continuing on with the celebration, and they have a great guest list as well, is Don, it's Alan Hawn and Peter Rosenberg. So they'll take over at 3 o'clock, and they've got people that were important throughout the history of the station. So the celebration will continue after you and I leave the air at 3 o'clock, Don.

**Don LaGreca** (1:08)
Yes, and I will not be on because this is still like the tail end of my vacation that I came in for because of the importance of the 25th anniversary.
So when they offered me a chance to go home at 3, I took it. That made me a bad guy.

**Michael Kay** (1:21)
I think it makes you smart and you love your family more than you love Alan and you love Peter. I mean, that's what it comes down to.

**Don LaGreca** (1:27)
But I will be back tomorrow on Don, Hon, and Rosberg. Don't worry about it.

**Michael Kay** (1:33)
When we started out, to say that we were, you know, spitting into the wind, I think is putting it mildly.
WFAN was a beast. I mean, you know it, Don. They were Sports Talk Radio in New York. And, you know, we were, the odds were certainly against us. And one of the things we had for us is that in the morning we had a great, great morning show. And that was called Mike and Mike. It was Mike Greenberg and Mike Dolick. And they were a duo that was together forever as well. And Mike Greenberg is nice enough to join us right now over the phone. Mike, can you believe that this station today is 25 years old?

**Mike Greenberg** (2:15)
I really can't. Happy anniversary, guys. I've had too many of these of late. They make you feel...
Just things that happen in your life that you say to yourself, I can't believe how much time has gone by. You know, Don, I remember vividly when we first launched, or when we first came on in New York and the station launched, that we would tape these segments. Remember, you would come on with Mike and me in the morning and we would tape segments that would run locally only. And just all these different ways that it doesn't feel like 25 years ago. I heard what you were saying about the challenges. You know, people have asked me a lot about the radio show over the years. Being a nationalist, when we first started that show, the two things, because Don Imus had been on in the morning and was still the majority of the time that we were together on WFAN, the general theories were sports talk doesn't work in the morning and you can't do it nationally, it can only work locally.
So we launched a nationally syndicated sports talk show in the morning, which should have been an absolute impossibility. So we tried everything that we could, including that, Don, and I remember those worked, and we did as always the best we could. For me, it was the source of enormous pride. New York is my home, it always will be. I grew up on Bleaker Street in LaGuardia Place, and the New York teams are my teams, and the New York fans are my fans. So, I always felt like this was a priority, and I'm very proud of everything that we've done over 25 years, and I hope that it will continue for 25 more.

**Don LaGreca** (3:48)
Yeah, it was called Localization, and we would tape it before the show started. So, we're talking about getting quarter to six in the morning, and the reason it worked, Greeny, and I've always said this, you and Linda Cohn were the two that really were invested in the station's success.
And because you had a show every day, it was even more on your shoulders, as a New Yorker, wanting this to work. And to the point that when you moved back to New York, you were filling in for Michael Kay, we had done shows together, you'd always come on whenever a big jet game, or there was a big Nick moment or something. I think that really helped, because there was always a little New York flavor in Mike and Mike because of you, and your love for the teams in the New York area. But I could always tell that you really wanted this to work, and I thought that was so helpful.