Michael Kay on The Michael Kay Show Photo credit: The Michael Kay Show

Two months into his new timeslot on ESPN Radio in New York, Michael Kay doesn’t sound like he regrets leaving afternoon drive.

After 22 years as Don La Greca’s co-host and over two decades in afternoon drive on New York’s ESPN Radio, Kay began hosting a solo show in a different timeslot this January. Alan Hahn now joins La Greca and Peter Rosenberg from 3-7 p.m., while Kay is the lead-in from 1-3 p.m. ET. And while Kay might miss his co-hosts, he doesn’t miss the heavy workload.

On the latest episode of The Show: A NY Post baseball podcast with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman, Kay described the new radio timeslot as having a positive effect on his life.

And much to Sherman’s delight, we’re happy to aggregate Kay’s comments.


“It was starting to get to me physically,” Kay said of hosting the afternoon show for so long. “I knew I had to stop and I also have young kids that I want to be part of their life. Moving my show, doing it alone from 1 –3, has been an unbelievable game changer for me. I do the show from home four days out of five, and my kids get home on the bus at 3:30, and I’m with them now rather than sitting downstairs in the basement doing a radio show.”

Kay expects that his quality of life will also improve during baseball season when he’ll now get a few hours to decompress between hosting his radio show and calling a Yankees game on YES Network.

“When the show was until 6:30, we did the show at Yankee Stadium in the loading dock in a shipping container,” Kay said. “I would literally run from the loading dock, which is located in centerfield, all the way to the press box, do an open, get my stuff together, and then chow down three chicken fingers for dinner. That’s not a long-term solution for a long life.”

Kay is a radio host and TV play-by-play voice of the New York Yankees. Everyone understands there are plenty of occupations that are more stressful and taxing than being a sportscaster; many of them are probably even filled by some of Kay’s listeners. But being on-air for eight-10 hours daily is still mentally and physically exhausting.

At age 64, Kay probably won’t improve his chicken fingers-filled diet, but he is improving his work-life balance.

About Brandon Contes

Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com