Mike Francesa’s rant on WFAN: ‘The Mike’s On app is going nowhere’

Mike Francesa insists his app will not go anywhere, blasts NJ Advance Media story during rant on WFAN.

Mike Francesa took a break from ripping Odell Beckham to rip me.

The WFAN host blasted a story by this reporter during his show Monday that reported on comments he made about his “Mike’s On” app earlier in the program that were interpreted as a suggestion the app could be discontinued.

You can read that story here. But here are Francesa’s full comments about the story and his app, as transcribed after utilizing the playback function on the app in question because this reporter is a paid subscriber to said app:

“Earlier today I talked about some of the things that were going on, including this whole MSG thing with ‘FAN, and in there I talked about some of the things that have gone on since I came back.

“Now, I mentioned in there that I have not agreed to a deal because there has been some contractual issues between Entercom, myself and CAA, pertaining to our relationship with ‘FAN and the app. [NJ.com], my guys here tell me, wrote a headline that said [Could Mike Francesa’s WFAN app be on the chopping block?]

“OK, here we go. So this is a guy who doesn’t get it from the beginning. His name is James Kratch, that’s his name, [NJ.com], I’ll give him a little publicity. He’s so dense he doesn’t have an idea what he’s talking about. 

“OK, what I said was, that it could be that I came back to build the app, which is my project, and have it work in concert with WFAN, and maybe I was wrong. Maybe they can’t work, maybe there is a conflict, that’s why we haven’t been able to make a deal. So his headline is, “Could Mike Francesa’s WFAN app be on the chopping block?”

“First of all, there is not a WFAN app. It’s Mike Francesa’s app. It’s “Mike’s On.” WFAN has nothing to do with it. Zero. Nothing to do with it. It doesn’t have anything to do with WFAN. Zero. Entercom has been negotiating for a piece of the app. They don’t own it yet because we’re still in negotiations. They want to purchase a piece. They do not own any of it right now. It is owned by CAA and myself.

“It is not a WFAN app. It has nothing to do with WFAN. It’s mikeson.com, it is owned by Mike’s On LLC. It does not have anything to do with WFAN. So James is completely lost from that standpoint. 

“Now let me tell you, OK, my thing was about James Dolan going nuclear on the station even after Entercom chose to make the show host who attacked him apologize, which she did. And they ratcheted up through their PR people and went after ‘FAN, which I thought was a bad decision on Jim’s part and MSG’s part. 

“During that point, I made some comments about my coming back to the ‘FAN. The app, James Kratch, is going nowhere. And anyone else out there, the app is going nowhere. You guys have been wrong about the app from the beginning. You don’t understand the concept. You’re too clueless to find out about it. The app will be here for a long time. The “Mike’s On” app is going nowhere. It is doing very well. It is going zero, nowhere. It’s growing, and we are completely committed to it. 

“And if anything leaves, it will not be the “Mike’s On” app. So got it? Underline it, put a punctuation mark and own it. The “Mike’s On” app is going nowhere. Nowhere, and ‘FAN has nothing to do with it. And that, in essence, may be the conflict. Because to utilize this show to promote the app may be something that doesn’t work as well as I had hoped it did. That’s all. But the app is going nowhere. Because you guys have been wrong about the app from the beginning.

“You don’t understand it, which, I understand. You guys, it’s hard for you guys to understand something that’s new. You don’t understand the mechanism of it, you don’t understand how it works, and you don’t understand anything that is not handed to you in black and white. How it works or where it gets its income from or anything else, because you don’t understand what’s going on, except by just turning on the radio and listening.

“Well, there’s a whole world out there. And it’s changing dramatically. And there are relationships that are changing dramatically. And the app is doing extremely well. It is highly profitable in its first year. That I will tell you. And you can check that with CAA if you want. Go ahead. Just call them up and ask them. They’ll tell you the same thing. It’s something they’re very proud of, and they should be, because they’ve done superb work.

“I will be with CAA as long as I’m working professionally. You can take that to the bank. They are great people, love working with them. They’ve put some wonderful people on the app who have done great work. Their technical people have done great work, everyone has been committed to it in front of my guys, who have done a great job with it. The guys I handpicked to put on it and work on it have done a great job. Everybody’s put in a lot of time and effort, and it’s done incredibly well. CAA is thrilled with it, we’re thrilled with it, it’s going nowhere. 

“The other part? We’ll see what happens. Now, see if you can figure it now. Now that I’ve took you there, I’ve left the crumbs for you, let’s see if you can put the pieces together without screwing it up.”

**

So … he might leave WFAN again? 

James Kratch may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.