I won't miss Mike Francesa when he's gone, and not just because this never-ending farewell tour has made his show unlistenable for the past few months. Honestly, it is amazing that anyone can get through five and a half hours that has resembled this:

CALLER: Hi Mike. First time, long time. I just wanted to begin by saying how grateful I am to have had you in my life these past 30 years --

MIKE: Thank you.

CALLER: -- as a constant companion. In fact, I would rank you only second to my father when it comes to people who have impacted my development as a man, and even then --

MIKE: Uh-huh.

CALLER: -- I feel as though your role in shaping who I am today was much deeper, and to be honest, I'll probably just drive around aimlessly with the static playing in the car when you're gone because I don't know how I'll --

MIKE: (Deep, guttural exhaling sound)

It's been an excruciating, over-the-top love fest that ignores the fact that Francesa has treated his callers with a combination of contempt and disdain for much of his professional life. And that constant belittling of the people dialing into the show is the reason I won't miss Francesa when he signs off for good on Friday at 6:20 pm.

Oh, there will be moments when something will happen and I'll wish I could hear his reaction. He has saved some of his best 15-minute rants for this fall, especially after the Giants lost to winless San Francisco and the clumsy benching of quarterback Eli Manning. I still laugh thinking about him calling Penn State coach James Franklin "a horse's ass" for using a timeout up 56-0 as Georgia State tried a field goal, then punctuated it with this wonderful transition:

"I hope he was proud of himself for getting that 56-0. Lot of class, coach! Lot of class! So go get yourself a Honda at Bay Ridge Honda ..."

But the reality is, I've caught the vast majority of those rants on Twitter soon after he's done yelling. To actually listen to the show live, especially on those days when he hasn't bothered to line up any guests, was to subject yourself to hour upon hour of Francesa interrupting, demeaning and bullying the people who for whatever reason decided to spend their afternoon waiting on hold for that privilege.

Maybe that's your thing. But I've usually found myself jamming the radio's preset for another station -- any other station -- soon after landing on his show, and that's been the case since the well-publicized divorce with longtime partner Chris "Mad Dog" Russo in 2008.

Francesa was tolerable with his more affable co-host. Together, they are largely responsible for creating sports talk radio as we know it today, but without someone to offset the humorless host in the years since their breakup, Francesa wasn't the only one who dozed off during the broadcast.

WFAN is clearly trying to recreate part of what it lost when Russo left, hiring three people with big personalities to replace Francesa. It's possible that Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott won't find the chemistry needed to be a success in that time slot -- three-host shows are tricky -- but at least there will be a conversation, and presumably, an attempt to entertain listeners.

The man they are replacing was entertaining at times, but those hilarious 15-minute rants couldn't offset the tedious lectures and condescending attitude that made up the majority of his hours on the air. With Francesa signing off for good, I'll be far more likely to listen.

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.