Christopher Michael Russo (born October 18, 1959), also known as "Mad Dog", is an American sports radio personality best known as the former co-host of the Mike and the Mad Dog sports radio program with Mike Francesa,[1] which was broadcast on WFAN in New York City and simulcasted on the YES Network.

[4] He also spent one spring at the Cranleigh School south of London, England (Russo's mother is English) and one semester at the University of Sydney in Australia studying Australian history and literature.

During his career at WKIS, when it became clear that the people of Central Florida were having difficulty understanding his accent, the station sent him to speech therapy twice a week.

George Vecsey of The New York Times described his voice as "a bizarre mixture of Jerry Lewis, Archie Bunker and Daffy Duck.

The show was dubbed Mike and the Mad Dog and officially launched on September 5, 1989,[11] at 3 PM Eastern Time.

[15][16] On October 16, 2009, Russo joined Francesa for a one-hour reunion show at Yankee Stadium,[17] where both were scheduled to broadcast in adjacent booths.

On March 30, 2016, Russo joined Francesa for a Mike and the Mad Dog reunion at Radio City Music Hall.

[19] Russo hosts the channel's anchor program, Mad Dog Unleashed, live from Sirius's New York studios every weekday afternoon.

Russo brought aboard long-time WINS anchor Steve Torre as the new program director of "Mad Dog Radio" and hired Bill Zimmerman (known on the air as "Billy Z") as the executive producer of his show.

Russo said there was nothing WFAN could have done to keep him,[21] after Sirius XM provided him his own channel, hosting American sports talk personalities.

[30] On February 15, 2021, Russo announced that the show's producer Bruce Schein, who appeared daily on-air, had been let go by MLB Network.