WFAN's Chris McMonigle living the dream with Yankees playoff remotes and podcasts
WFAN afternoon drive co-host Chris McMonigle grew up in Franklin Square. Credit: Corey Sipkin
In his first year as co-host of WFAN’s afternoon drive time show, Long Islander Chris McMonigle has gotten to live out a lot of dreams.
Getting the job to pair with Chris Carton on “The Carton Show.” Talking about the Knicks’ incredible run to the NBA championship.
And now? Doing the show and a postgame podcast live from Yankee Stadium as the Yankees demolished the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series.
McMonigle, who grew up in Franklin Square, used to produce these remote shows with Mike Francesa back when “remote” meant something other than working from home in your sweatpants. In those days, a radio remote meant you took the show on the road and did it live from the site of the big event.
So that’s why McMonigle arrived at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday before noon and didn’t leave until nearly 1 a.m.
“C-Mac” is perhaps the biggest Yankees fan at WFAN. To be part of what Yankees fans hope will end up being a Knicks-like run is akin to a trip to nirvana for McMonigle.
“The Knicks championship was special,” McMonigle told Newsday in a telephone interview. “The excitement around the fan base and the team. It's been a long time since we were able to just focus on .. . like, the Knicks were everything. I have been at the station since 2007 and the Knicks never gained that traction, ever, where it was anything else the Yankees or anybody else would do, nothing was going to cut through the Knick excitement. So to experience that as my first run in afternoon drive and to feel the passion immediately from the Knick fan and feel like that had become something reawakened inside the city was incredible. We were doing postgame stuff on the YouTube channel with me and Craig. I was doing live hits from bars in Manhattan. It was just so much fun and so much excitement and to feel like I'm on the most important show during that run felt incredible.”
A Yankees title run would be personal for McMonigle, who says being a Yankees fan “is kind of what I’m known for” at WFAN.
The station actually has three Yankees postgames beginning with the usual one hosted by another Long Islander, Emmanuel Berbari, immediately after the game. That has been followed by a special “Yankees Pinstripe Plus“ show hosted by Keith McPherson on 660.
McMonigle’s “Go Get Em” postgame podcast is streamed live on WFAN’s YouTube channel. When you throw in the YES Network postgame, there was no shortage of places to get your late-night fix after the Yankees swept the Red Sox by outscoring them 18-2 to earn a spot in the ALDS against Tampa Bay.
McMonigle said on the air between Games 1 and 2 that he left his house at the exact same time before the second game because the first one went so well for the Yankees. It’s that kind of passion that fans of any team should be able to relate to. For McMonigle, it goes way back to his radio roots.
“I can't tell you how many shows I produced and was part of with Mike,” McMonigle said. “Now going to these games and being involved in these big games, to be afternoon drive hosts live from Yankee Stadium prior to Yankees-Red Sox, and then doing live postgame podcasts on the YouTube channel from Yankee Stadium, it's been living the dream.
“It was so much fun and it’s been so incredible and now I’ve got a couple more hopefully of live [shows] from Yankee Stadium. I remember as a kid, Mike and Chris [Russo] live from Madison Square Garden before big Knick games and live from Yankee Stadium before Yankees-Red Sox games. That’s why I got into this.”
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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