Over the last few days, Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Radio has been in flux since Chris Russo’s declaration that his staff was weak, didn’t know sports history, that he was going to get rid of his staff, fired his program director on the air, said that he made a mistake with the lineup that he personally hired and was going to search for new hosts.
I have sent several e-mails to Andy Gresh who has yet to get back to me. Another insider referred me to Sirius XM public relations, however, I do have other contacts at the satellite radio channel and piecing together what happened, this is what I’ve been able to come up with.
- The staff was very puzzled that Russo went on the air to blast them on Thursday.
- However, many are not worried and feel their jobs are safe for now.
- The staff will work hard, but apparently Russo has lost them.
- The staff was taken aback and they don’t know what exactly is going on.
Last night, Sirius XM re-aired Gresh standing up to Russo on Friday telling him that if Mad Dog wanted to get rid of Greshie, fire him on their. It didn’t happen. But good on Gresh to stand his ground and telling Russo that he’s the next generation of sports talk. It made for good radio. Russo came off sounding very old, out of touch and paranoid.
Apparently, Gresh is still employed at Sirius XM seeing that he wrote on his Facebook page that he will be on the air at 6 a.m. Monday to fill in for Greg Williams.
This has given Mad Dog Radio and Sirius XM plenty of buzz at a time when sports is slow. It also gives Mad Dog Radio their first big buzz since the channel first premiered back in September.
My big fear is that this is all schtick and everyone except for program director Steve Torre will be back, but we’ll see. But if this is real and the staff is truly in trouble, then the next few weeks should be stellar radio.
We’ll continue to follow.
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