Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo appears on WFAN's 'Evan and Tiki' show
Chris Russo speaks on stage live from Fanatics Fest at Javits Center on July 17, 2026. Credit: Getty Images for SiriusXM
Chris (Mad Dog) Russo returned to WFAN on Tuesday morning as a guest on the “Evan & Tiki” show on the first day of Audacy stations being carried on SiriusXM.
“Today is also a very exciting day,” co-host Evan Roberts said. “It’s a day I never thought would happen, Tiki Barber, because many years ago you worked at Sirius, many years ago I worked at Sirius, and now WFAN is on Sirius.
“And in my opinion, forget [Howard] Stern, the face of SiriusXM is the man who worked here for many years, the legendary Christopher ‘Mad Dog’ Russo.”
Said Russo: “That’s a little strong. But always a pleasure to hear from you.”
Russo has been back on WFAN a few times since he left the iconic “Mike and the Mad Dog” show in 2008. Russo is the lead host of Mad Dog Sports Radio on SiriusXM. Now, WFAN is on SiriusXM at channel 94 (not channel, 92, as Russo erroneously stated on the air until the gaffe was later corrected).
“You get the best of both worlds,” Russo said, “because you can hear you guys — Gregg [Giannotti] and Boomer [Esiason] in the morning, everything you do at night, the local flavor. It’s other Audacy stations as well in local markets, so you get a little bit of both.”
Barber was a guest earlier on SiriusXM’s “Schein on Sports” with host Adam Schein, a former WFAN talker, as part of multiple crossovers across the SiriusXM and Audacy shows on Day One of the partnership.
WFAN and 22 other Audacy sports talks stations went live on SiriusXM on Tuesday morning. Listeners can access the stations via the subscription-based satellite giant. They are also still available on the free Audacy app. And on the radio, which is also free.
It was terrestrial radio where Russo made his biggest splash in partnership with Mike Francesa in what some consider the best sports talk show ever. But Russo has built an empire at SiriusXM with a channel that includes Schein, Stephen A. Smith, Katie Nolan and Russo’s afternoon show, “Mad Dog Unleashed” (which he is not on this week after recent shoulder surgery).
Asked if he thought he’d ever be back on WFAN after he left, Russo said: “No, I did not think [that]. It was a relatively bitter departure from a standpoint of the way I left. Good job by Mike getting me on the air that last Friday there before I left in September in 2008. So it was a little bit of a bitter departure. Now, everybody’s Kumbaya.
“Tiki, you and I have always had our little issues, but down deep, you know how good a football player I knew you were, how great you were, and of course Evan was on the FAN when I was still there. Evan, in a lot of ways, Evan and [Craig] Carton, who was there, too, Boomer. But you’re one of the last links, Evan, to the history of the station. Howie Rose to a degree, too. You’re one of the last links. So there you go.”
The rest of the 25-minute interview dealt with Russo’s thoughts on New York sports (he was thrilled to have been at the OG Anunoby game in the NBA Finals and never thought of leaving early; the Yankees should make the World Series; Steve Cohen is to blame for the Mets not re-signing Pete Alonso; the Giants and Jets should be better; Evan’s beloved Nets stink).
The discussion must have been gratifying for Russo, who admitted he can feel disconnected from New York sports now that he’s doing a national sports talk show.
“You miss the home team,” Russo said. “You don’t really have a home team per se . . . You miss the day-to-day. You also miss at times not having a partner where me and Mike could bounce back and forth ideas — even though at times we didn’t love each other — or we could bounce back ideas of the teams, and we had the common denominator of a New York team. You definitely miss it.”
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
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