30th Anniversary of WFAN (and the birth of Sports Radio)

[Ct Yankee]

Today (July 1) is the 30th anniversary of WFAN and the birth of a brand new radio format - sports radio. Ironically (due to the male domination of sports callers, professional players, and media), the very first voice heard on WFAN was a woman sports update  anchor (which I heard live) - Suzyn Waldman.  Waldman is a musical actress turned sportscaster.  She is now the NY Yankee radio color analyst and eyeballs for partner Jon Sterling (listen to a game sometime, he broadcasts and she corrects).  They have been playing the clip of her first words throughout the day.

WFAN began on 1050 am, the former country music station known as WHN - a 50,000 watt station with limited coverage area, now an ESPN Spanish language affiliate.  On October 7, 1988, during the Mets playoff run, WFAN switched frequencies live (once again, I listened) to the former WNBC on 660 am with a much larger propagation region.

[ThaDood]

Well, I for one didn't like the WFAN change from 66 WNBC. I still miss that. I do have to give WFAN credit, where credit is due. They have lasted the test of time. Albeit, I certainly didn't see this as a bright moment in radio history at that time.

[BoomboxDX]

Hooray for Sports Radio -- keeping the AM band viable commercially (along with brokered religion and ethnic minority formats). There's not much else that can make a lot of money on the AM band anymore. And as FM is full in most major metros, it will probably stay this way for a while.

I sometimes listen to sports radio when I get bored with political talk, hearing the same tracks repeated on the local and regional South Asian stations, and get weary of the same stuff on FM I heard last week a gazillion times.

[Pigmeat]

I suspect it was done in part in response to watching Conn. based ESPN's huge success starting as no-name regional cable network in late '79 to sports dominance carrying NFL and MLB games nationally by '87. The late 80's were lean times for AM. Running sports 24/7 was becoming a viable money making route, as were the syndicated right-wing ranters that started popping up in '89/'90.

[Ct Yankee]

Pigmeat you got it right.  However, WFAN was on life support until one significant addition - "Imus in the Morning" was added to their line up when they switched to 660am, the frequency he was already occupying weekday mornings.  That generated the necessary cash flow to keep them afloat until other revenue streams were secured.

While I preferred the old WNBC format to WFAN (though I'm a frequent listener), they started programming which only helped keep radio alive.