Russo's new four-year contract with Sirius will take him to 15 years overall with the providerGETTY IMAGES
SiruisXM Radio's Chris Russo believes that his latest contract extension with the provider "might finally stop speculation" about him rejoining former co-host Mike Francesa at WFAN, according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. Russo last month "signed a new four-year contract" with Sirius, which will "take him to 15 years overall" with the station. Russo said, "I was always going to stay. They made it easy. They wanted me, I wanted them. I've said a thousand times it's a great place to work ... To me it was a no-brainer." Russo said of Francesa, "For a while there with that '30-for-30,' I thought there was a chance of some sort of reconciliation. But I kind of felt that Mike wanted to stay at FAN, finish his career there, and once he decided to do that it became obvious that it was a situation where if Sirius still wanted me I would re-sign" (NEWSDAY, 5/15).
MIKE'S ON HIS GAME: NEWSDAY's Best noted Francesa "finished first overall in the radio ratings in April" in N.Y. among men ages 25-54. Francesa averaged 7.5% of the listening audience in that demographic from 3:00-6:30pm ET. ESPN Radio 98.7 N.Y.'s Michael Kay "ranked second overall" with an average of 6.1% of the audience (NEWSDAY, 5/14). In Newark, James Kratch noted Francesa is now "one-third of the way to undisputed victory in the current ratings period" over Kay, and Francesa "may be about to catch a second wind" (NJ.com, 5/13).
