Saying his WFAN-AM simulcast on FS1 will end Friday, Mike Francesa "took the blame for its failure," according to Bob Raissman of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. Francesa yesterday on the air said, "Fox had good intentions. It just wasn’t a good fit. The blame is mine. I tried to do something different. I tried to put a square peg in a round hole." Francesa admitted that he had "'trepidation' going into the deal and that money influenced him to sign on" with Fox. Francesa: "Now we have reached an agreement to go our separate ways." The radio host "believes he still has a simulcast future," but he stressed that a new simulcast deal "won’t happen overnight." Raissman writes one of the "likely suspects to simulcast" his WFAN show is MSG Network (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/10). In N.Y., Justin Terranova writes Francesa’s move from YES Network to FS1 last year "had been a disaster since the outset with middling ratings" and the broadcaster "bickering with management and his colleagues." Francesa was "incensed his show was consistently preempted for soccer and other live programming, either demoted to FS2 or not shown on television at all" (N.Y. POST, 9/10). NEWSDAY's Neil Best notes Fox on Tuesday "began to simulcast newly hired Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports 1, pushing Francesa primarily to Fox Sports 2 -- when he was to be simulcast at all" (NEWSDAY, 9/10).
