Gold from the SI Vault
I’ve been spending some time in the Sports Illustrated Vault, the new everything-they’ve-ever-written online archive. I particularly enjoyed the first story SI ever wrote about WFAN, back on July 27, 1987 (italics used to denote my favorite section):
Sports around the clock: WFAN is the first station to give sports junkies a 24-hour fix
Lift your heads and rejoice, all ye sportaholics, for whom ESPN, WTBS, WWOR and CBS Sports Sunday just aren’t enough….There’s something new in New York, and it’s just for you. They call it all-sports radio.If you are between Maine and southern New Jersey, you no longer need a TV set to satisfy your sports lust. Just turn the AM dial to 1050 WFAN—all sports all the time—and you’ll immediately be plugged into the latest locker room developments. Are you a Knicks fan? WFAN had live coverage of the press conference that introduced new coach Rick Pitino. Do you go bonkers over Bo? The station had a reporter at Jackson’s press conference in Auburn, Ala., at which he declared his intention to become a two-sport pro. WFAN has it all in the world of sports.
The problem is, during the greater part of most days, the world of sports isn’t all that newsworthy, which explains why the lion’s share of the station’s airtime is devoted to listeners’ calls. The hot topic in New York is the mercurial behavior of the Mets’ Darryl Strawberry. Typical callers range from Jeff of Manhattan, whose voice took on a tone of malicious glee as he discussed possible trades for Strawberry, to Dan of Enfield, Conn., who got all choked up recounting how Strawberry’s rookie season inspired him to accomplish what Richard Simmons, Dr. Stillman and Weight Watchers couldn’t, that is, lose 50 pounds.
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The power behind the all-sports experiment is Emmis Broadcasting, the nation’s largest privately owned broadcasting group. Eleven months after purchasing WHN, a New York City country music station, Emmis plunged into the uncharted waters of all-sports. If the experiment works, clones should soon appear, and you, too, will be able to hear endless over-the-air second-guessing by your fellow fanatics. If it fails, Emmis execs will be doing some second-guessing of their own.
For more from the Vault, read these posts from mental_floss:
