#ESPN radio moving on from Mike Golic is end of an era

If “Mike & the Mad Dog” at their peak were a fine restaurant in Little Italy — one that served a 5¹/₂-hour meal with just the right combination of sauces and spices for a unique taste — ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike” were Applebee’s.

This is meant as a compliment to the duo, who once were spokesmen for the restaurant chain. They worked all around the country, the prototype show for its time with a polished broadcaster and an ex-player.

You didn’t need to hear what they said, but if you did it was comfortable and easy. For what ESPN wanted to be for so long, they were ideal for a 20-minute commute from suburbia.

“Mike & Mike” broke up three years ago and ESPN Radio lost its anchor. It tried to replace Greenberg with Trey Wingo and it didn’t work.

So now, it is a different time and ESPN has taken a sledgehammer to its schedule, bringing Greenberg back in a new time slot and leaving Golic without a chair.

In the mornings, it has thrown together a trio with Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams and Zubin Mehenti as its new show that begins in mid-August. It hopes it does better than “Golic & Wingo,” which will have its final program at the end of this month.

Wingo failed in supplying the same energy as Greenberg. In a world with so many choices, “Golic & Wingo” didn’t give you enough reason to pick it.

In New York, the program’s main competition trounced it. While “Golic & Wingo” had a 1.4 rating in the spring book released Tuesday (20th in the market). “Boomer & Gio” were fourth (5.5) with streaming and with no sports.

Golic and Wingo both have contracts that are up at the end of the year. Their futures are unclear.

Keyshawn, Jay and Zubin are far from a slam dunk. As ESPN has proven on “Monday Night Football,” it is hard to find chemistry when doing it in front of a national audience. The network will try it again as it introduces its new morning show.

Johnson and Williams are ex-players, asked to wake up early and be cheery in the mornings. It is a grind.

Golic made it sound easy for two decades, while Wingo soon wanted to hit snooze after landing the big job, quickly asking out.

Mehenti is not a well-known “SportsCenter” anchor, but his reputation in Bristol is as a very nice guy and a workaholic.

Radio is about personality and, while he will need to be the one to bring out the best in the two ex-athletes, he will have to connect with listeners. It is not “SportsCenter” — and doing talk radio well at its highest level is about being an entertainer.

No one really can say how Keyshawn, Jay & Zubin will sound, which is probably the program’s first issue, but maybe they will overcome it.

Meanwhile, ESPN executives took a cut out of the network’s midday show of “Dan Le Batard & Stugotz,” but didn’t rip off the Band-Aid entirely as was under discussion. Le Batard and his ensemble can be entertaining and they work in the subscription world, but you have to be in on the joke.

They are sort of the anti-Mike & Mike, a fine Miami stone crab spot, if I haven’t made you hungry enough, but it is not for everyone. Over the final two years of his contract, Le Batard’s dance with ESPN on his way to Spotify or some other podcast company will be an interesting waltz. The executives just gave him a poke.

With Le Batard minimized, it opened up spots for Greenberg from 12-2 p.m. and Max Kellerman from 2-4 p.m. Both have had success in radio and both will continue doing their morning TV shows.

Meanwhile, the program with maybe the most potential is Chiney Ogwumike and Mike Golic Jr. from 4-7 p.m. It could be a young, fresh listen. The two started off with a big advantage, having previously worked together and are friends.

Ogwumike and Golic Jr. are young, former athletes and figure to be hungry. It might work.

Even in a fast-changing media landscape, radio still has great value. It may not make as much money as TV or be the hot, new thing, like podcasts, but when you think about ESPN, radio is a touch point for so many. It also has a live component that is hard to match and it has closeness with its audiences that creates stars.

For two decades, the mornings meant “Mike & Mike.” They were the stalwarts.

Now, it is neither Mike nor Mike. It is true not everyone likes Applebee’s, but it is hard to work in so many markets. They did it. It is the end of an era.