ESPN New York’s Michael Kay all but said “see ya!” to a radio producer he threatened to get fired on the air. (Watch the video below.)
Kay was hosting his ESPN Radio show Friday afternoon when he heard Ray Santiago, a producer of ESPN New York’s “DiPietro & Rothenberg,” snipe that Kay’s show was on the downswing.
“I got to throw this out there. Is it the fear that this show is now on the rise, and that show’s kinda going in the other direction lately?” Santiago said in the clip.
Kay ― a prominent voice in New York sports known for his “see ya!” home run call in broadcasting Yankees games for the YES Network ― appeared to demolish the ESPN programs’ often playful rivalry with a venomous rant.
“Ray Santiago made a comment about ratings? Do you realize, Ray, that all I’d have to do is make one phone call, and you would be on the unemployment line,” Kay snapped. “You have the nerve to say something like that about this show? One phone call, which I’m considering making, and you will be fired!”
Kay told “management” he would never cross-promote Santiago’s show again, then continued his menacing.
“Remember, Ray, I am really, really sitting on the fence right now about getting you canned, opening your mouth when you shouldn’t have.”
The New York Post reported that Kay’s show has been losing in the ratings to rival station WFAN in the same time slot.
An ESPN spokesperson said the sports network and Kay “aren’t going to provide a comment here at this time.”
Sports talk shows have been home to volatility of late. The relationship of Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe appears strained after the “Undisputed” hosts quarreled again ― this time over an insensitive tweet sent by Bayless after Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest.