Chris “Mad Dog” Russo struggles to pronounce last name of new hire, Damon Amendolara

As one can probably tell just by seeing it, radio host Damon Amendolara’s last name is a bit of tongue-twister. But if there’s anyone who might be able to say it without much difficulty, it would be a person who’s known Amendolara for 25 years.

Ordinarily, that would be the case. But when the person in question is Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, it’s a different story.

Amendolara recently wrapped up an 11-year run at CBS Sports Radio. On Friday, Russo announced that he had hired Amendolara to his Sirius XM Station, Mad Dog Sports Radio. Russo gave Amendolara an excited introduction.

“Mad Dog Radio on Sirius XM is happy to announce Damon Amendolara, he, of course, is our new morning man with Mike Babchik, D.A. with Babs, which will begin on Monday. D.A., of course, a long time talk show host. He was my intern at WFAN back 25 years ago. He’s been on CBS Radio there for a long time doing shows in the morning and now he’s gonna join us. We’re looking forward to having him so we say ‘hello’ to Damon.”

“I’m feeling great. Dog, this is a dream come true to work along side of you, to work at your network and I saw you back on Wednesday, you gave me a bro-hug, I didn’t even know you could give a good bro-hug at your age. So I’m fired up and ready to go. This is good…”

After buttering up Mad Dog, Amendolara said “And you nearly nailed my last name, which is a big upset. Vegas had it a +700. So you nearly got it.”

Russo then asked the important question, “How do I pronounce it, Dame?” The two then discussed the proper pronunciation.

Certainly, there’s some logic to the idea that this was Russo’s hire on Russo’s network. If there was ever a time to be sure he got the name right, it would be during the introduction.

On the other hand, if Russo came out and nailed the pronunciation on a name like Amendolara, it wouldn’t really be a true Mad Dog experience.

[Funhouse on Twitter, Photo Credit: Damon Amendolara on Twitter]