Michael Kay Threatens ESPN Producer's Job Over Radio Beef

Radio host and New York Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay was not happy about a producer for another show taking a shot at his ratings.

The Michael Kay Show and DiPietro & Rothenberg — comprised of former New York Islanders netminder Rick DiPietro and radio vet Dave Rothenberg — are both broadcast on the same station, ESPN New York.

However, don't think for a second that the two shows are on each other's Christmas card lists.

Kay broadcasts in the afternoon while DiPietro & Rothenberg airs in the mornings. Recently, one of the morning show's producers, Ray Santiago, floated a hypothesis for why Kay kept bringing them up on air in the afternoons.

“Is it the fear that this show is now on the rise, and that show’s kind of gone in the other direction lately?” Santiago posited.

Radio wars don't happen as much as they used to, but Kay saw Santiago's comments as fightin' words.

Kay Had Some Harsh Words For The Morning Show Producer

Kay played the clip from the morning show and then laid into Santiago, even threatening to have the morning show producer canned.

“Ray Santiago made a comment about ratings?” Kay asked. “Do you realize, Ray, that all I’d have to do is make one phone call and you’d be on the unemployment line? 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. Do you realize that?”

Kay said that he would no longer mention the morning show during his program.

"Remember Ray; I am really, really sitting on the fence right now about getting you canned. Opening your mouth when you shouldn't have," Kay reiterated.

According to The New York Post, ESPN is in a ratings battle with WFAN. The last ratings book of 2022 saw WFAN beat ESPN in the afternoons with its program Carton & Roberts.

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