new york sports radio station . for other uses see wfan disambiguation . wfan city new york new york branding sports radio 66 and 101.9 fm the fan slogan your flagship station for new york sports frequency 660 khz 101.9 fm wfan fm first air date march 2 1922 ; 94 years ago 1922 03 02 format sports language s english power 50 000 watts class a facility id 28617 transmitter coordinates 40 51 35 n 73 47 7 w 40.85972 n 73.78528 w 40.85972 ; 73.78528 main antenna 40 51 35 n 73 47 12 w 40.85972 n 73.78667 w 40.85972 ; 73.78667 auxiliary antenna callsign meaning the word fan or sports fanatic former callsigns weaf 1922 1946 wnbc 1946 1954 and 1960 1988 wrca 1954 1960 former frequencies 1050 khz 1987 1988 affiliations cbs sports radio westwood one national sports events only owner cbs radio cbs radio east inc. sister stations wbmp wcbs wcbs fm wcbs tv wfan fm wins wlny tv wnew fm webcast wfan webcast website wfan wfan 660 am also known as sports radio 66 and 101 9 fm or the fan is a radio station located in new york city . the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned and operated by cbs radio . 1 wfan s studios are located in the combined cbs radio facility in the west village section of manhattan ; its transmitter is located on high island in the bronx new york . wfan is also heard on wfan fm 101.9 fm ; cbs announced a purchase of that station from merlin media llc in october 2012 and began a simulcast of the fan on november 1 2012 . wfan was one of the earliest stations to adopt the sports radio format . 2 contents 1 early history 2 wfan history 2.1 the launch of sports radio 2.2 wfan moves to 660 2.3 after the switch 3 recent programming 3.1 team coverage 3.2 radiothon 3.3 midday show controversy 3.4 twentieth anniversary 3.5 twenty fifth anniversary 3.6 move to manhattan 3.7 wfan fm 3.8 new york yankees and new york city fc 4 broadcasters 5 transition 5.1 exit imus enter boomer and carton 5.2 the end of mike and the mad dog 6 influence of sports format 7 frequent callers 8 reception of wfan 9 the fan sports network 10 notable on air staff 10.1 current staff 10.2 former staff 11 references 12 external links early history edit main article wnbc am the 660 am frequency in new york city originated as weaf on march 2 1922 owned by at & t. in 1926 weaf became the flagship station of the nbc red network one of two radio chains operated by the national broadcasting company nbc . by 1928 weaf was purchased by nbc s parent company the radio corporation of america . as a result of the north american regional broadcasting agreement of 1941 weaf became a clear channel station and could be heard across most of the eastern half of north america at night . in 1943 the united states supreme court citing antitrust concerns ordered rca to sell off one of its radio networks . the company decided to keep the red network and it was rebranded as the nbc radio network after the blue network was divested to edward j. noble which was later renamed the american broadcasting company abc . weaf s call letters were changed to wnbc in 1946 then to wrca in 1954 and back to wnbc in 1960 . during the 1960s wnbc relied less on network programming and adopted a talk format followed by a switch to a middle of the road music sound . the station spent much of the 1970s and early 1980s flipping between the top 40 and adult contemporary formats with varying success . by the middle of the 1980s up until its closing wnbc played less music and relied more on personality driven talk programs with hosts such as howard stern don imus joey reynolds alan colmes and soupy sales . wfan history edit the launch of sports radio edit at 3 00 p.m. on july 1 1987 emmis communications owned wfan signed on at 1050 khz replacing country music station whn and billing itself as the world s first 24 hour per day sports talk station . the wfan call sign was suggested by the wife of the fan s first program director john chanin . 3 the first voice heard on wfan was that of suzyn waldman with a sports update 4 followed by the first show which was hosted by jim lampley . waldman reported for the station covering the new york yankees and new york knicks for 14 years . other hosts besides lampley during wfan s fifteen months at 1050 khz included bill mazer pete franklin greg gumbel art shamsky and ed coleman . ann liguori is also one of the original hosts and was the first woman to host a show on the station . hey liguori what s the story aired the first weekend the station was on the air in 1987 and continued until 2008 . wfan also inherited broadcast rights to the defending world series champion new york mets from whn who had held the rights for several years . wfan moves to 660 edit in early 1988 general electric which now owned nbc through its purchase of rca two years earlier announced that it would close the nbc radio division and sell its stations . in february of that year ge made a multi station deal with emmis and in new york city the wnbc license for 660 was included in the sale . on october 7 1988 at 5 30 p.m. wfan moved down the radio dial to replace wnbc at 660 khz . the last voice heard on wnbc was that of alan colmes who said these final words to close the station i m alan colmes . thank you god bless you and for the last time this is 66 wnbc new york city . let s do the countdown . he then counted down the seconds to wnbc s demise with the legendary nbc chimes the notes g e c playing in the background . after 66 years the long history of nbc radio in new york city had come to an end . 5 in the complicated switch that saw wfan move to the 660 frequency the 1050 frequency that was formerly the home of wfan became that of spanish language wukq owned by spanish broadcasting system . however sbs already owned an am station in the market newark based wskq at 620 khz and in those days federal communications commission fcc rules stipulated that companies could own only one am station per market . as a result sbs received a temporary waiver to run 1050 while exploring the sale of either am frequency . sbs chose to keep 620 it is now wsnr and 1050 was traded to forward communications which owned wevd then at 97.9 fm . after that deal was approved wevd s call letters and programming moved to 1050 am it is now wepn and ironically it is also a sports station and sbs took over 97.9 as wskq fm . the october nbc emmis switch also saw emmis s wqht then at 103.5 mhz . move to 97.1 mhz . which had been the home of nbc s wyny . emmis sold the 103.5 frequency to westwood one who also acquired the wyny call letters and its country music format . as it had before when it took over the frequency formerly belonging to whn wfan inherited broadcast rights from wnbc . the switch to 660 am added the new york knicks and new york rangers to their lineup along with the mets who moved down the dial with the station . after the switch edit as don imus had already been the morning show host at wnbc wfan left the show in place when they took over the frequency . wfan s original morning show on 1050 was hosted by greg gumbel . the show was a straightforward sports show not dis similar to mike and mike in the morning currently on espn radio but was not doing well in the ratings . at the time of the switch sports talk radio was still an untested format with questionable prospects and the idea of bringing on board a host that appealed to a broader audience would get more people to try the station out . wfan also benefitted from the inertia from imus s fans who were used to tuning into 660 khz on weekday mornings to listen . wfan instantly took advantage of its imus inheritance ; for example it featured a special live monologue by imus character billy sol hargus from shea stadium moments after taking over the 660 frequency . imus slightly altered his show for his new employer adding sports updates and replays of last night s big plays . discussions of sports stories that crossed over to general interest were also featured on the program although imus also kept many of his regular comedy bits that were not sports related . after the switch from wnbc to wfan imus morning show trailed the top rated howard stern show on 92.3 wxrk by a wide margin in new york city as it had before the switch . wfan began doing sports updates every 20 minutes . these updates called 20 20 sports flashes are now considered an industry standard . when wfan first started updates were done every 15 minutes . additionally in a nod to the former wnbc update anchors often end their top of the hour updates with the catchphrase and that s what s happening ... which is how wnbc on air news readers had ended their updates . other programming that wfan had at its launch included a mid morning show with ed coleman and mike francesa and an afternoon drive time show with pete franklin who in cleveland had become one of the first polarizing outrageous talk show hosts . during his stay in new york city franklin was probably best known for an incident where he used a four letter expletive on air in error when trying to say all you folks he was not disciplined for the incident . running a close second was a 30 second franklin diatribe on whether he had been offensive do i offend anyone i m not here to offend you dammit 6 that has been replayed ever since especially on the july 1 wfan anniversaries . in a further drive to boost ratings imus instigated a feud with franklin much as he had with howard stern at wnbc in the mid 1980s . both imus and franklin took shots at each other during their shows franklin calling imus minus and imus recording parodies of radio commercials where he bashed franklin as a dinosaur among other things . franklin left wfan in august 1989 . on september 5 1989 a jointly hosted afternoon drive show with francesa and christopher mad dog russo who had been a weekend fill in host to that time would premiere . the mike and the mad dog show became the defining show of wfan one of the most consistently popular radio shows in new york city and one of the most influential sports talk radio shows in the country . the combined success of mike and the mad dog and imus in the morning helped wfan become the number one billing station in america during the 1990s . citation needed it also proved that the all sports format worked as a radio format prompting the explosion of sports talk radio across the country . in 1992 emmis sold wfan to infinity broadcasting which would be purchased by westinghouse electric corporation cbs then parent company in 1997 . recent programming edit wfan s