ESPN New York's Don La Greca, Michael Kay to reunite on radio for two-hour 'The Michael Kay Show'
Michael Kay, left, and Don La Greca on the set of ESPN Radio in Bryant Park during Super Bowl week on Jan. 28, 2014. Credit: ESPN Images/Joe Faraoni
Reunited . . . but still 3,000 miles apart.
That will be the situation on Thursday when Michael Kay and Don La Greca come together from separate locales to host a special edition of “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN New York Radio 880 from 1-3 p.m. to celebrate the station’s 25th anniversary.
Kay, the YES Network play-by-play man, will be in San Diego on an off day for the Yankees. La Greca, Kay’s former co-host for more than two decades, will be in the station’s Soho studios.
That seems fitting.
“It's so funny because we spent 22 years together,” La Greca told Newsday in a telephone interview, “and I would probably say 20 of those 22 years were probably spent in separate rooms between when we had COVID for a year and a half and then even before that Michael would be at Yankee Stadium or Michael would be wherever. So it's kind of funny that this show is going to be separated because that's how it was most of the time.”
Don La Greca, left, and Michael Kay during a studio photo shoot for "The Michael Kay Show" on 1050 AM ESPN Radio New York. Credit: ESPN Images/Scott Clarke
Kay, La Greca (and for the final nine years) Peter Rosenberg ended their run together in December 2024 when Kay moved to a solo gig and Alan Hahn joined the other two for the rebranded “Don, Hahn and Rosenberg” afternoon show.
Kay and La Greca have been on the air together briefly a few times since then, “but this will be the first time we're actually together doing an actual show for the full two hours,” La Greca said.
It’s well-known that Suzyn Waldman was the first voice heard when WFAN debuted on July 1, 1987, at 1050 on the AM dial.
La Greca was the first voice heard on ESPN New York when it debuted — also at 1050 since WFAN had moved to 660 in 1988 — at midnight on Sept. 3, 2001. That happened to be Labor Day.
La Greca opened with a sports update that led with Mike Mussina of the Yankees coming within one out of a perfect game on Sunday Night Baseball at Fenway Park.
“They had to purge the listeners on [the previous station] WEVD,” La Greca said. “Leading up to midnight was just constant promotion that the station was coming to get rid of the listeners on WEVD and try to get people interested in listening to that first update. It wasn't like I got to have this big moment, ‘Hey, welcome.’ It was an update. But I was the first local voice, and it's just kind of surreal that it's 25 years later.”
La Greca said he looked at the full-time ESPN New York job as a great opportunity, especially since he was working as an “independent contractor” at WFAN at the time. And even though no one was sure if New York needed another all-sports station, and ESPN had a national bent in those days, “I didn't look at it as a startup because it was ESPN,” La Greca said.
The rest is history. La Greca is the play-by-play man for the Devils on MSG Network in addition to being a longtime, recognizable (and YouTube-able when he goes on a classic rant) voice on ESPN New York.
Two hours isn’t a lot of time to relive 25 years of station history. But La Greca and Kay will try.
“It's just going to be telling stories and having a few guests on that we're putting into those stories,” La Greca said. “We went through a lot together, Michael and I, a lot of ups and downs, from being Number One (in the ratings), which was like the height, to a lot of times just not knowing what lies ahead. It's going to be so much fun to just rehash of those stories.”
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
