WEPN
Encyclopedia
WEPN is a 24-hour sports talk formatted radio station
in New York City
featuring national and local sports talk programs and live broadcasts of sports matches. It is the New York affiliate for ESPN Radio
. Its transmitter site is located in East Rutherford, New Jersey
, and its studios are on the 17th floor at 2 Penn Plaza
in Midtown Manhattan
.
It is the radio home for the New York Knicks
of the National Basketball Association
, the New York Jets
of the National Football League
, the New York Rangers
of the National Hockey League
, and select nationally broadcast Major League Baseball
and NBA games. There are also partnerships with Syracuse University
and the United States Military Academy
to air college football games, but those usually air on former sister station WABC
or current sister station WQEW
due to scheduling conflicts. WEPN currently has overflow agreements with WNYM and WWRL
, the former airing Knicks or Rangers games that overlap with each other or with the Jets and the latter airing when there are two overlapping games.
The 1050 frequency had a long history prior to this format. Starting in the 1920s as WHN it played a diversified format, it was renamed WMGM in the late 1940s, the diversity continued until a switch to rock & roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As WHN again, it played adult standards in the 1960s and country music in the 1970s and 1980s (the format it was best known for). In the late 1980s as WFAN it was the original frequency for the very successful all-sports station. Then began a truly convoluted set of ownership, call letter, and format changes from the Spanish language WUKQ to WEVD, a low-rated brokered station in the 1990s, to today's incarnation as WEPN.
frequency 833. Original shows included children's programming. A court case in the 1920s against AT&T
established some of the early legal principles for American broadcasting.
The station played jazz
and contemporary dance music, including Sophie Tucker
, Fletcher Henderson
, and Duke Ellington
, as well as broadcasting Columbia University
football
games. In 1928 the station was bought by the Loew's Theatre Organization. During the 1920s the station's frequency changed to 830, 760, and then 1010. In the 1930s it broadcast the Major Bowes Amateur Hour
, which was picked up by the CBS Radio Network
.
WHN made its final frequency change to 1050 in 1941. During the 1940s the programs Radio Newsreel and Newsreel Theater were prototypes for what would later become the all-news radio format. The station broadcast Brooklyn Dodgers games with Red Barber
as well as the New York Giants
and New York Rangers
with Marty Glickman
.
. The station had a diversified format that included pop standard hits, drama, talk, and sports, and briefly featured New York talk legend Barry Gray
.
In the mid to late 1950s the station switched to playing Top 40 rock and roll
hits, which covered a broad spectrum of music. The '50s brand of Top 40 played by WMGM and its competitors included what might today be considered rhythm and blues
and country music
, in addition to popular instrumentals (Percy Faith
's 1960 "Theme from A Summer Place
" and Acker Bilk's 1962 "Stranger on the Shore
" hit the top of the charts during this era).
Nevertheless, WMGM was overall more up-tempo than the competition, featuring artists like Elvis Presley
, Fats Domino
, Carl Perkins
, Jerry Lee Lewis
, Frankie Lymon
, the Crystals
, the Tokens
, Ray Charles
, Dinah Washington
, Brook Benton
, Ricky Nelson
, and Bill Haley
. Playlists were narrower and more predictable than mainstream MOR stations'. WMGM's deejay
lineup included morning man Ted Brown
and the Redhead (Ted's then-wife), Jerry Marshall, Peter Tripp
, Norm Stevens, Dick Shepherd, Bob Lewis, Ed Stokes and Bob Callen. Among its newsreaders were Bill Edmunds, Dick DeFrietas and Aime Govin.
WMGM had a theme song incorporating the names of many of its DJs in the 1960s. The words were:
He was a US Marshal and Jerry was his name.
So they called him Jerry Marshall and widespread was his fame.
He went to catch the outlaws, Bob Callen and Ted Brown
Who were roping old Dick Shephard's sheep and herding them to town.
Sing a song about Western hero men will never ride the range again.
They're on 1050 WMGM.
During its Top 40 incarnation, WMGM was for a time home to New York Yankees
baseball with Mel Allen
, Red Barber
and Phil Rizzuto
. Ex-athletes Marty Glickman
and Gussie Moran
worked Yankees pre- and post-game shows from the studio.
By 1962, with 1010 WINS
, 770 WABC
, and 570 WMCA
also playing predominantly rock and roll music, WMGM-1050 was sold by Loew's to Storer Broadcasting
, which owned mostly TV stations, but also owned WIBG
, a rock and roll radio station less than 100 miles away in Philadelphia.
, the province of much of FM radio at the time. The station was renamed WHN again on February 28, 1962 with special permission of the FCC. (Three-letter call sign
sets are a rarity and have not been issued to broadcast stations since the early 1930s, let alone on the AM band; WHN, WGH in Newport News, Virginia
and KHJ
in Los Angeles
are the only known AM stations that have been able to revert back to their original three-letter calls.)
Through the 1960s, WHN became New York City's Mutual Radio Network affiliate. On-air hosts included Jim Ameche
(brother of actor Don Ameche
), Jack Sterling, and, early on, the comedy team of Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding
(Bob and Ray
). (Morning host Ted Brown
remained with WHN for only a short time of transition, heading eventually to MOR WNEW-AM.)
Longtime WABC fixture Herb Oscar Anderson
moved in to the morning slot by the late 60s. The station played vocalists such as Nat King Cole
, Perry Como
, Frank Sinatra
, Bing Crosby
, Peggy Lee
, Patti Page
, and Johnny Mathis
, plus a heavy dose of instrumentalist groups, notably Percy Faith
, Al Hirt
, Ray Conniff
, Henry Mancini
, and others. The station was about 75% vocal and 25% instrumental. Ratings were decent, but the demographic was older by a generation or two.
WHN eventually picked up New York Mets
baseball (with hosts Lindsey Nelson
, Bob Murphy
, and Ralph Kiner
), after the team's original NYC flagship, WABC
770, dropped the rights. The station became a launching pad for the radio sports broadcasting career of Marv Albert
, who hosted the "Interwoven Scoreboard" after Mets games and later on reintroduced New York fans to the Knicks and Rangers on radio.
Initially, Rangers games were broadcast in small doses: the last two minutes of the first and second periods, then the entire third period. The entire metropolitan area enjoyed Red Holzman
's miracle 1969–70 Knicks championship run, much of which was blacked out on TV.
Overall, though, WHN's ratings were still low. By 1971, WHN began mixing in softer songs by artists like Elvis Presley
, Everly Brothers, The Beatles
, The Association
, and others with their easy listening format. Still, the ratings were below average.
After a lot of research, on February 26, 1973, WHN became a country music
station. The New York Metropolitan Area had never been a country music hot spot, and prior to WHN, the area had only had two country music stations: WJRZ in Hackensack
, New Jersey
(which changed to a Top 40 format with the call letters of WWDJ in 1971, and to a religious format in 1974), and WTHE
in Mineola
, New York, which also later changed to a religious format.
In the early years of WHN's country format, it featured on-air personalities such as Lee Arnold, Del Demontreux, Larry Kenney
, "Big" Wilson, Ray Otis and Jack Spector. Some of these were holdovers from the previous middle of the road format.
As a country music station, they played artists like Johnny Cash
, Willie Nelson
, Waylon Jennings
, Tanya Tucker
, Lynn Anderson
, Kenny Rogers
, Mel Tillis
, Charley Pride
, Mickey Gilley
, Ronnie Milsap
, and many more. Also, they mixed in non-country artists that had country-friendly songs such as The Eagles, Elvis Presley
, Anne Murray
, Olivia Newton-John
, Linda Ronstadt
, and others.
Over the years, as WHN evolved as a country station, on-air personalities such as Mike Fitzgerald
, Dan Taylor
, Sheila York, Dana Lauren, Bob "Wizard" Wayne, Dan Daniel, Jessie
, Sheila York, Alan Colmes
, Robbie Roman, Brian Kelly
, Stan Martin, Ed Baer, Robbie Roman, Jerry Carroll and others moved in. During this era, WHN was programmed by Ed Salamon
, who was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2006. WHN is considered the most listened to Country radio station in history.
In the late 1970s, Mutual Radio
bought WHN from Storer. In 1980, WHN got some competition when WRVR was sold to Viacom
and dropped jazz for country and became WKHK (also known as "Kick 106 FM"). As a result, ratings went down for WHN. They added New York Mets
baseball to their lineup in 1983. WHN had previously carried the Mets from 1972 until 1974.
In 1984, WKHK became Lite FM WLTW
, playing a soft adult-contemporary format. Without direct competition, WHN remained country, with decent ratings. In 1985 Doubleday Broadcasting bought WHN. In 1986 Emmis Communications
bought WHN. Emmis added sports talk in the evenings, but kept the country format the rest of the day until 1987.
In late April 1987, Emmis announced that WHN would drop country on July 1 for an all-sports
format, the first of its kind on radio. They would drop the WHN calls and become WFAN (The Fan). In May, NBC
announced that Adult Contemporary WYNY
97.1 (today's WQHT) would go country on July 1, the same day as WHN ended the format. Dan Taylor signed off at 3 p.m. with "For The Good Times" by Ray Price
on July 1, 1987.
with a sports update at 3:00 pm, followed by the first show, which was hosted by Jim Lampley
. Waldman would report for the station, covering the Yankees and Knicks, for 14 years. Other personalities that hosted shows besides Lampley in the 1050 kHz years included Bill Mazer
, Pete Franklin
, Greg Gumbel
and Ed Coleman. WFAN also inherited broadcast rights to the defending World Series champion New York Mets
from WHN, who had held the rights for several years. Ratings were low initially but gradually improved.
In early 1988 General Electric
, which now owned NBC
through its purchase of RCA
two years earlier, announced that it would sell off the NBC Radio division. In February of that year GE made a multi-station deal with Emmis and, in New York, the WNBC and WYNY licenses were included in the sale. This ended up giving Emmis control of four frequencies: 97.1-FM, 103.5-FM, 660-AM and 1050-AM, whereas duopolies
were not permitted yet by the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC).
Emmis ended up moving their Dance/R&B "Hot" format and call letters WQHT over to the 97.1 frequency (while selling the 103.5 facility and WYNY's intellectual property over to Westwood One
), and then moved WFAN's format and call letters from 1050 to 660 on October 7, 1988 at 5:30 pm, replacing "66 WNBC"
which signed off forever.
bought it, intending to swap it with cash to the Jewish Daily Forward for their FM station, WEVD 97.9. However, Spanish Broadcasting already owned WSKQ, AM 620 in Newark, New Jersey
. The deal for WEVD could not be consummated at the same time as Emmis' purchase of 660, which left Spanish Broadcasting owning two AM stations in the New York market, which (as was the case with Emmis earlier) not permitted under FCC rules at that time.
The FCC granted them a temporary waiver to run 1050 on a noncommercial basis until it could be transferred. Therefore, following WFAN's move to 660, 620 WSKQ flipped from Spanish Adult Contemporary to Spanish Oldies while the 1050 facility became "KQ 1050" WUKQ, playing Spanish Adult Contemporary music (commercial-free, to satisfy the FCC requirement).
For the first few hours after the switch of WFAN to the 660 facility, WUKQ broadcast a recorded message which was continuously looped stating:
. Meanwhile, WEVD's call letters and programming moved to the 1050 facility. Dating back to October 20, 1927, WEVD had been the radio station owned by the Workman's Circle (Arbeter Ring) in New York City. Its call letters were a tribute to legendary Socialist Party
leader Eugene Victor Debs, who died one year earlier.
This was WEVD's second existence on the AM dial, as it was originally a time-share at 1330-AM with WPOW, an arrangement that lasted until 1984. WEVD soon added an FM counterpart at 107.5-FM in 1950, which then moved to 97.9-FM in 1952. Both stations maintained the same programming through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The AM station was sold on March 2, 1981 for $1.1 million to Salem Communications
, and changed the call letters to WNYM (today WWRV
) while WEVD continued on the FM dial.
By 1988 the station was mostly an outlet for leased access foreign language programming. WEVD had a brokered format with Jewish programming (in Yiddish and English), ethnic programs, talk shows, and a big band
show with Danny Stiles
. The station generated cash flow by selling blocks of airtime, which allowed it to be profitable despite minimal ratings.
By the mid 1990s, WEVD had a talk format with a liberal emphasis on weekdays, with ethnic programming at night and on weekends. Talk hosts included New York sports legend Bill Mazer
, former New York mayor Ed Koch
, Jay Diamond
, Sam Greenfield, and Alan Colmes
.
During most of 1050's existence as WEVD, the station broadcast Mets, Jets, Knicks and Rangers games produced by WFAN
, when WFAN was already broadcasting another game. WFAN game overruns are now broadcast on WBBR
.
In 2001 WEVD entered into a local marketing agreement
with ABC
/Disney
and added ESPN Radio
's The Dan Patrick Show
to the talk lineup. Despite a public campaign to save the old format, on September 2, 2001, WEVD began running ESPN Radio fulltime, albeit having simulcast WABC
's coverage of the September 11 attacks nine days later.
The first local voice on 1050 ESPN Radio was Don La Greca.
, was primarily a politically-based talk show. However, this is now a misnomer, since Imus has been replaced by a sports-themed show, Boomer and Carton in the Morning
.
Despite the fact that it is a 50,000 watt station, it cannot be heard clearly in many parts of the New York metropolitan area
, especially west of New York City and in Suffolk County
on Long Island
. WEPN has a highly directional signal, due primarily to the fact that there is another 50,000 watt station on the 1050 channel, CHUM
a few hundred miles to the northwest in Toronto, and yet another 50,000 watt station, KYW
, in Philadelphia next door on the dial at 1060 AM. WEPN must also suppress its signal to the southwest to avoid interfering with a high-powered Mexican clear channel station in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.
According to Arbitron
data of as early 2006, WFAN's daytime ratings are about 3 points higher on average than WEPN's, though WFAN's most-known and now-defunct Mike and the Mad Dog
show had been airing since 1989, or well over a decade longer than WEPN has existed. Because of WEPN's limited signal, all Jets games once were simulcast on WABC, which reaches more of the suburbs. The station has also worked with MSG Network
to find affiliates for Knicks and Rangers games outside WEPN's coverage area. Early in 2008, to strengthen the reach of WEPN, ESPN reached Local marketing agreement
s to simulcast WEPN on WLIR in Hampton Bays
, extending WEPN's reach to eastern Long Island
, and on WNJE
in Flemington
(for New Jersey's ESPN), extending WEPN's reach into the Skylands Region
and the Trenton
market. WNJE broadcasts the WEPN signal full time. WLIR broke off the simulcast in the summer of 2011 when the station was sold to a religious broadcaster.
The daily schedule starts at 5 a.m. with Maxed Out in the Morning, hosted by Jared Max. Mike & Mike in the Morning, ESPN Radio's morning program, follows from 6-10 am. The first two hours of The Herd with Colin Cowherd
follow. The remainder of The Herd as well as one-third of The Scott Van Pelt Show is preempted by WEPN's midday show, now hosted by Ryan Ruocco and Robin Lundberg, which airs until 2 PM. Mike Lupica
then follows with an hour-long program to lead into The Michael Kay Show
, WEPN's long-running flagship talk show. Kay's program airs from 3 PM until 7 PM, preempting the remainder of Van Pelt's show as well as The Doug Gottlieb Show.
WEPN does not air any of ESPN Radio's regularly scheduled weeknight programming either, choosing instead to feature games from the New York Rangers
and New York Knicks
during their respective seasons, local programming hosted by Stephen A. Smith
and Bill Daughtry, and various other games that ESPN Radio might not necessarily carry including coverage of college basketball games provided by ISP Sports
and Westwood One
and college football games provided by Compass Media Networks
. Since 2006 WEPN has been the New York home of Westwood One's NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship coverage; although the station still shares coverage of some games with Westwood One's flagship WFAN, WEPN is home to most of the tournament's action including the Final Four and the National Championship.
WEPN's weekend lineup largely consists of ESPN Radio's national programming.
During baseball season beginning in 2008, the 6 p.m. hour of The Michael Kay Show is devoted to baseball and is known as New York Baseball Tonight
, where Kay co-host Don LaGreca presides with Buster Olney
over an hour of strictly baseball talk. For the 2010 football season, New York Football Live followed Kay's program. WEPN contributor Bonnie Bernstein and former New York Jet linebacker and WEPN studio host Greg Buttle
discussed football for two hours five nights a week.
WEPN alumni include Max Kellerman
, who hosted The Max Kellerman Show on both WEPN and XM Radio's ESPN Xtra
; Stephen A. Smith
, whose Stephen A. Smith Show
originated at WEPN before becoming a national broadcast over ESPN Radio; Brian Kenny
, who co-hosted Kellerman's show for several months in 2008 (coincidentally, Kenny returned to radio in 2009 to host The Brian Kenny Show on ESPN Radio, which WEPN preempts); and others. For several years WEPN was the New York affiliate for the syndicated Jim Rome Show
, where it aired on a ten-hour tape delay. The station stopped airing the show in early 2009.
In preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene in the Tri-State area, WEPN suspended regular programming on August 27, 2011; and simulcast live Eyewitness News
coverage from sister station WABC-TV
.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
featuring national and local sports talk programs and live broadcasts of sports matches. It is the New York affiliate for ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
. Its transmitter site is located in East Rutherford, New Jersey
East Rutherford, New Jersey
East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,913. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan....
, and its studios are on the 17th floor at 2 Penn Plaza
Pennsylvania Plaza
Pennsylvania Plaza is the office, entertainment and hotel complex occupying and near the site of Pennsylvania Station, between 31st and 34th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues in New York....
in Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
.
It is the radio home for the New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
of the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
, the New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, the New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
of the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
, and select nationally broadcast Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
and NBA games. There are also partnerships with Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
and the United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
to air college football games, but those usually air on former sister station WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
or current sister station WQEW
WQEW
WQEW is a Radio Disney affiliate licensed to New York City. Its transmitter is located in Maspeth, Queens. WQEW has a transmitter power of 50,000 watts and is listed as a Clear-channel station...
due to scheduling conflicts. WEPN currently has overflow agreements with WNYM and WWRL
WWRL
WWRL is a radio station in New York City, broadcasting at 1600 kHz AM owned by Access.1 Communications. Since September 1, 2006, its format has been progressive talk radio...
, the former airing Knicks or Rangers games that overlap with each other or with the Jets and the latter airing when there are two overlapping games.
The 1050 frequency had a long history prior to this format. Starting in the 1920s as WHN it played a diversified format, it was renamed WMGM in the late 1940s, the diversity continued until a switch to rock & roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As WHN again, it played adult standards in the 1960s and country music in the 1970s and 1980s (the format it was best known for). In the late 1980s as WFAN it was the original frequency for the very successful all-sports station. Then began a truly convoluted set of ownership, call letter, and format changes from the Spanish language WUKQ to WEVD, a low-rated brokered station in the 1990s, to today's incarnation as WEPN.
WHN
Originally owned by the Ridgewood Times newspaper, WHN was one of the first radio stations in New York City, going on the air on March 18, 1922 at AMAM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
frequency 833. Original shows included children's programming. A court case in the 1920s against AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
established some of the early legal principles for American broadcasting.
The station played jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and contemporary dance music, including Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker was a Russian/Ukrainian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century...
, Fletcher Henderson
Fletcher Henderson
James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...
, and Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, as well as broadcasting Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
games. In 1928 the station was bought by the Loew's Theatre Organization. During the 1920s the station's frequency changed to 830, 760, and then 1010. In the 1930s it broadcast the Major Bowes Amateur Hour
Major Bowes Amateur Hour
Major Bowes Amateur Hour, American radio's best-known talent show, was one of the most popular programs broadcast in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s...
, which was picked up by the CBS Radio Network
CBS Radio Network
The CBS Radio Network provides news, sports and other programming to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by CBS Corporation, and operated by CBS Radio ....
.
WHN made its final frequency change to 1050 in 1941. During the 1940s the programs Radio Newsreel and Newsreel Theater were prototypes for what would later become the all-news radio format. The station broadcast Brooklyn Dodgers games with Red Barber
Red Barber
Walter Lanier "Red" Barber was an American sportscaster.Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds , Brooklyn Dodgers , and New York Yankees...
as well as the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
with Marty Glickman
Marty Glickman
Martin "Marty" Glickman was a Jewish American track and field athlete and sports announcer, born in The Bronx, New York. His parents, Harry and Molly Glickmann, immigrated to the United States from Jassy, Romania....
.
WMGM
On September 15, 1948, the station changed its call letters to WMGM, reflecting Loew's then-ownership of movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. The station had a diversified format that included pop standard hits, drama, talk, and sports, and briefly featured New York talk legend Barry Gray
Barry Gray (radio)
Barry Gray was an influential American radio personality, often labeled as "The father of Talk Radio"....
.
In the mid to late 1950s the station switched to playing Top 40 rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
hits, which covered a broad spectrum of music. The '50s brand of Top 40 played by WMGM and its competitors included what might today be considered rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, in addition to popular instrumentals (Percy Faith
Percy Faith
Percy Faith was a Canadian-born American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and...
's 1960 "Theme from A Summer Place
Theme from A Summer Place
The "Theme from A Summer Place" is a song with lyrics by Mack Discant and music by Max Steiner, written for the 1959 film, A Summer Place, which starred Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. It was recorded for the film by Hugo Winterhalter...
" and Acker Bilk's 1962 "Stranger on the Shore
Stranger on the Shore
"Stranger on the Shore" is a piece for clarinet written by Acker Bilk for his young daughter and originally named Jenny after her. It was subsequently used as the theme tune of a BBC TV drama serial for young people that was also called Stranger on the Shore.The track, performed by Bilk "Stranger...
" hit the top of the charts during this era).
Nevertheless, WMGM was overall more up-tempo than the competition, featuring artists like Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
, Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...
, Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
, Frankie Lymon
Frankie Lymon
Franklin Joseph "Frankie" Lymon was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of a New York City-based early rock and roll group, The Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid teens...
, the Crystals
The Crystals
The Crystals are an American vocal group based in New York, considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era of the first half of the 1960s. Their 1961–1964 chart hits, including "Uptown", "He's a Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron " and "Then He Kissed Me", featured three successive female lead...
, the Tokens
The Tokens
The Tokens are an American male doo-wop-style vocal group from Brooklyn, New York. They are known best for their chart-scoring 1961 single, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" .-Career:...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
, Brook Benton
Brook Benton
Brook Benton was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.He made a comeback in 1970...
, Ricky Nelson
Ricky Nelson
Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...
, and Bill Haley
Bill Haley
Bill Haley was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".-Early life and career:...
. Playlists were narrower and more predictable than mainstream MOR stations'. WMGM's deejay
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
lineup included morning man Ted Brown
Ted Brown (radio)
Ted Brown , was a charismatic radio personality who worked at several stations in New York City including WMGM, WNEW and WNBC during the 1950s and 1960s, the golden age of AM radio.-Biography:...
and the Redhead (Ted's then-wife), Jerry Marshall, Peter Tripp
Peter Tripp
Peter Tripp was a Top-40 countdown radio personality from the mid-1950s, whose career peaked with his 1959 record breaking 201 hour wakeathon . For much of the stunt, he sat in a glass booth in Times Square...
, Norm Stevens, Dick Shepherd, Bob Lewis, Ed Stokes and Bob Callen. Among its newsreaders were Bill Edmunds, Dick DeFrietas and Aime Govin.
WMGM had a theme song incorporating the names of many of its DJs in the 1960s. The words were:
He was a US Marshal and Jerry was his name.
So they called him Jerry Marshall and widespread was his fame.
He went to catch the outlaws, Bob Callen and Ted Brown
Who were roping old Dick Shephard's sheep and herding them to town.
Sing a song about Western hero men will never ride the range again.
They're on 1050 WMGM.
During its Top 40 incarnation, WMGM was for a time home to New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
baseball with Mel Allen
Mel Allen
Mel Allen was an American sportscaster, best known for his long tenure as the primary play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees. During the peak of his career in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Allen was arguably the most prominent member of his profession, his voice familiar to millions...
, Red Barber
Red Barber
Walter Lanier "Red" Barber was an American sportscaster.Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds , Brooklyn Dodgers , and New York Yankees...
and Phil Rizzuto
Phil Rizzuto
Philip Francis Rizzuto , nicknamed "The Scooter", was an American Major League Baseball shortstop. He spent his entire 13-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
. Ex-athletes Marty Glickman
Marty Glickman
Martin "Marty" Glickman was a Jewish American track and field athlete and sports announcer, born in The Bronx, New York. His parents, Harry and Molly Glickmann, immigrated to the United States from Jassy, Romania....
and Gussie Moran
Gussie Moran
Gertrude "Gussie" Agusta Moran is a retired American female tennis player who was active in the 1950s...
worked Yankees pre- and post-game shows from the studio.
By 1962, with 1010 WINS
WINS (AM)
WINS , known on-air as "Ten-Ten Wins", is a radio station in New York City, owned by CBS Radio. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.WINS is one of the nation's oldest...
, 770 WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
, and 570 WMCA
WMCA
WMCA, 570 AM, is a radio station in New York City, most known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 era in the 1960s. It is currently owned by Salem Communications and plays a Christian radio format...
also playing predominantly rock and roll music, WMGM-1050 was sold by Loew's to Storer Broadcasting
Storer Broadcasting
Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the northeast United States. It was incorporated in Ohio in 1927, and sold its broadcasting properties in 1983.-1920s—1940s:...
, which owned mostly TV stations, but also owned WIBG
WNTP
WNTP 990 is a politically conservative talk radio station which serves the Philadelphia area. It is owned by Salem Communications, along with a number of similar channels in various markets. Some of those whose programs are run by WNTP include Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, Dennis Miller, Michael...
, a rock and roll radio station less than 100 miles away in Philadelphia.
WHN again
Storer immediately dropped Top 40 for slow-paced standards and beautiful musicBeautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
, the province of much of FM radio at the time. The station was renamed WHN again on February 28, 1962 with special permission of the FCC. (Three-letter call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
sets are a rarity and have not been issued to broadcast stations since the early 1930s, let alone on the AM band; WHN, WGH in Newport News, Virginia
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
and KHJ
KHJ (AM)
KHJ Radio in Los Angeles, California broadcasts Spanish-language entertainment programming as La Ranchera. It was also one of America's most formidable Top 40 radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s as 93 KHJ before changing its format in 1980....
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
are the only known AM stations that have been able to revert back to their original three-letter calls.)
Through the 1960s, WHN became New York City's Mutual Radio Network affiliate. On-air hosts included Jim Ameche
Jim Ameche
James Ameche was a familiar voice on radio, including his role as radio's original Jack Armstrong on Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy....
(brother of actor Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
), Jack Sterling, and, early on, the comedy team of Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding
Ray Goulding
Raymond Walter Goulding was an American comedian, who, together with Bob Elliott formed the comedy duo of Bob and Ray....
(Bob and Ray
Bob and Ray
Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were an American comedy team whose career spanned five decades. Their format was typically to satirize the medium in which they were performing, such as conducting radio or television interviews, with off-the-wall dialogue presented in a generally deadpan style as...
). (Morning host Ted Brown
Ted Brown
Ted Brown is an American and former collegiate and professional football player. He attended High Point high school, before attending North Carolina State University.-Football career:...
remained with WHN for only a short time of transition, heading eventually to MOR WNEW-AM.)
Longtime WABC fixture Herb Oscar Anderson
Herb Oscar Anderson
Herb Oscar Anderson was the morning drive-time personality on WABC Radio in New York City December 1960 to September 1968.He is the father of actor John James.-Timeline:1950s—WDGY, Minneapolis1958–WMCA, New York1959—WMGM, New York...
moved in to the morning slot by the late 60s. The station played vocalists such as Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, Perry Como
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
, Patti Page
Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...
, and Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
, plus a heavy dose of instrumentalist groups, notably Percy Faith
Percy Faith
Percy Faith was a Canadian-born American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and...
, Al Hirt
Al Hirt
Al Hirt was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million selling recordings of "Java", and the accompanying album, Honey in the Horn . His nicknames included 'Jumbo' and 'The Round Mound of Sound'...
, Ray Conniff
Ray Conniff
Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.-Biography:...
, Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
, and others. The station was about 75% vocal and 25% instrumental. Ratings were decent, but the demographic was older by a generation or two.
WHN eventually picked up New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
baseball (with hosts Lindsey Nelson
Lindsey Nelson
Lindsey Nelson was an American sportscaster best known for his broadcasts of college football and New York Mets baseball.-Early life and career:...
, Bob Murphy
Bob Murphy (announcer)
Robert Allan Murphy was an American sportscaster who spent 50 years doing play-by-play of Major League Baseball games on television and radio. The Oklahoman was best known for announcing the New York Mets, from their inception in 1962 until his retirement in 2003...
, and Ralph Kiner
Ralph Kiner
Ralph McPherran Kiner is an American former Major League Baseball player and has been an announcer for the New York Mets since the team's inception. Though injuries forced his retirement from active play after 10 seasons, Kiner's tremendous slugging outpaced nearly all of his National League...
), after the team's original NYC flagship, WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
770, dropped the rights. The station became a launching pad for the radio sports broadcasting career of Marv Albert
Marv Albert
Marv Albert is an American television and radio sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he is commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball." From 1967–2004, he was also known as "the voice of the New York Knicks."Including Super Bowl XLII, Marv has called...
, who hosted the "Interwoven Scoreboard" after Mets games and later on reintroduced New York fans to the Knicks and Rangers on radio.
Initially, Rangers games were broadcast in small doses: the last two minutes of the first and second periods, then the entire third period. The entire metropolitan area enjoyed Red Holzman
Red Holzman
William "Red" Holzman was an NBA basketball player and coach probably best known as the head coach of the New York Knicks from 1967 to 1982. Holzman helped lead the Knicks to two NBA Championships in 1970 and 1973, and was elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985...
's miracle 1969–70 Knicks championship run, much of which was blacked out on TV.
Overall, though, WHN's ratings were still low. By 1971, WHN began mixing in softer songs by artists like Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Everly Brothers, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, The Association
The Association
The Association is a pop music band from California in the folk rock or soft rock genre. During the 1960s, they had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival...
, and others with their easy listening format. Still, the ratings were below average.
After a lot of research, on February 26, 1973, WHN became a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
station. The New York Metropolitan Area had never been a country music hot spot, and prior to WHN, the area had only had two country music stations: WJRZ in Hackensack
Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
(which changed to a Top 40 format with the call letters of WWDJ in 1971, and to a religious format in 1974), and WTHE
WTHE
WTHE is an American radio station broadcasting a Gospel music format, licensed to the New York City suburb of Mineola, New York. As of 2011, the station is owned by Universal Broadcasting of New York....
in Mineola
Mineola, New York
Mineola is a village in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 18,799 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from a Native American word meaning a "pleasant place"....
, New York, which also later changed to a religious format.
In the early years of WHN's country format, it featured on-air personalities such as Lee Arnold, Del Demontreux, Larry Kenney
Larry Kenney
Larry Kenney is an American radio personality and voice actor.In 1963, Kenney began his radio career at the age of 15 as a disc jockey at WIRL in Peoria. After WIRL, he worked at WOWO, Ft...
, "Big" Wilson, Ray Otis and Jack Spector. Some of these were holdovers from the previous middle of the road format.
As a country music station, they played artists like Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
, Tanya Tucker
Tanya Tucker
Tanya Denise Tucker is a female American country music artist who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13...
, Lynn Anderson
Lynn Anderson
Lynn Rene Anderson is an American country music singer and equestrian known for a string of hits throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, most notably her Grammy Award-winning, worldwide mega-hit, " Rose Garden." Helped by her regular exposure on national television, Anderson was one of the most...
, Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
, Mel Tillis
Mel Tillis
Lonnie Melvin Tillis , known professionally as Mel Tillis, is an American country music singer. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s, with a long list of Top 10 hits....
, Charley Pride
Charley Pride
Charley Frank Pride is an American country music singer. His smooth baritone voice was featured on thirty-nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. His greatest success came in the early- to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis...
, Mickey Gilley
Mickey Gilley
Mickey Leroy Gilley is an American country music singer and musician. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as...
, Ronnie Milsap
Ronnie Milsap
Ronnie Lee Milsap is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country’s most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s...
, and many more. Also, they mixed in non-country artists that had country-friendly songs such as The Eagles, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
, Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
, and others.
Over the years, as WHN evolved as a country station, on-air personalities such as Mike Fitzgerald
Mike Fitzgerald
Michael Roy Fitzgerald , is a former professional baseball player. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball from to for the New York Mets, the Montreal Expos and the California Angels....
, Dan Taylor
Dan Taylor
Daniel Taylor is an American shot putter. He is currently sponsored by Nike. He is currently competing around the world in track and field.-High school:...
, Sheila York, Dana Lauren, Bob "Wizard" Wayne, Dan Daniel, Jessie
Jessie
Jessie may refer to:*"Dear Jessie", a song by Madonna*"Jessie's Girl", a 1981 single written and performed by Rick Springfield*"Jessie" , a song written and performed by Joshua Kadison*"Kim & Jessie", a song by M83...
, Sheila York, Alan Colmes
Alan Colmes
Alan Samuel Colmes is an American radio/television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk...
, Robbie Roman, Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly may refer to:*Brian Kelly , television actor best known for his role in the US TV series Flipper*Brian Kelly , Australian rules footballer and coach...
, Stan Martin, Ed Baer, Robbie Roman, Jerry Carroll and others moved in. During this era, WHN was programmed by Ed Salamon
Ed Salamon
Edward R. Salmon is an entertainment industry executive and radio broadcaster from the United States, known as "Country radio's most influential programmer".-Accomplishments:Ed Salamon was inducted into The Country Radio Hall of Fame in February 2006...
, who was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2006. WHN is considered the most listened to Country radio station in history.
In the late 1970s, Mutual Radio
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
bought WHN from Storer. In 1980, WHN got some competition when WRVR was sold to Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
and dropped jazz for country and became WKHK (also known as "Kick 106 FM"). As a result, ratings went down for WHN. They added New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
baseball to their lineup in 1983. WHN had previously carried the Mets from 1972 until 1974.
In 1984, WKHK became Lite FM WLTW
WLTW
WLTW is a radio station with an Adult Contemporary format in New York City.The station is often number one or close to it in Arbitron ratings for New York City. From 2002 to 2004, the station generated more revenue than any other radio station in the New York market...
, playing a soft adult-contemporary format. Without direct competition, WHN remained country, with decent ratings. In 1985 Doubleday Broadcasting bought WHN. In 1986 Emmis Communications
Emmis Communications
Emmis Communications is a media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The company owns radio stations and magazines in the United States, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria.-History:...
bought WHN. Emmis added sports talk in the evenings, but kept the country format the rest of the day until 1987.
In late April 1987, Emmis announced that WHN would drop country on July 1 for an all-sports
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
format, the first of its kind on radio. They would drop the WHN calls and become WFAN (The Fan). In May, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
announced that Adult Contemporary WYNY
WYNY (New York)
WYNY was the call letters of radio stations on three different FM frequencies in or around New York City. The stations on the first two frequencies, 97.1 and 103.5, were closely related while the last one, 107.1 on an FM Quadcast, was not....
97.1 (today's WQHT) would go country on July 1, the same day as WHN ended the format. Dan Taylor signed off at 3 p.m. with "For The Good Times" by Ray Price
Ray Price (musician)
Ray Price is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone has often been praised as among the best male voices of country music...
on July 1, 1987.
WFAN
The first voice heard on WFAN was that of Suzyn WaldmanSuzyn Waldman
Suzyn Waldman is a sportscaster and former Broadway actress. Starting with the 2005 season, she has been the color commentator for New York Yankees baseball, working with John Sterling on radio broadcasts for WCBS-AM in New York City...
with a sports update at 3:00 pm, followed by the first show, which was hosted by Jim Lampley
Jim Lampley
James "Jim" Lampley is an American sportscaster, news anchor, movie producer, and restaurant owner. Lampley has anchored a record 14 Olympic Games U.S. television broadcasts, most recently the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China....
. Waldman would report for the station, covering the Yankees and Knicks, for 14 years. Other personalities that hosted shows besides Lampley in the 1050 kHz years included Bill Mazer
Bill Mazer
Bill Mazer is an Jewish American television and radio personality.Winning numerous awards and citations, including three Sportscaster of the Year awards for New York from 1964–66....
, Pete Franklin
Pete Franklin
Pete Franklin , nicknamed "The King" and "Pigskin Pete", was an American sports talk radio host who worked in Cleveland, New York and San Francisco...
, Greg Gumbel
Greg Gumbel
Greg Gumbel is an American television sportscaster. He is best known for his various assignments on the CBS network...
and Ed Coleman. WFAN also inherited broadcast rights to the defending World Series champion New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
from WHN, who had held the rights for several years. Ratings were low initially but gradually improved.
In early 1988 General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, which now owned NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
through its purchase of RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
two years earlier, announced that it would sell off the NBC Radio division. In February of that year GE made a multi-station deal with Emmis and, in New York, the WNBC and WYNY licenses were included in the sale. This ended up giving Emmis control of four frequencies: 97.1-FM, 103.5-FM, 660-AM and 1050-AM, whereas duopolies
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....
were not permitted yet by the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC).
Emmis ended up moving their Dance/R&B "Hot" format and call letters WQHT over to the 97.1 frequency (while selling the 103.5 facility and WYNY's intellectual property over to Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
), and then moved WFAN's format and call letters from 1050 to 660 on October 7, 1988 at 5:30 pm, replacing "66 WNBC"
WNBC (AM)
WNBC was a radio station that operated in New York City from 1922 to 1988. For most of its history, it was the flagship station of the NBC Radio Network...
which signed off forever.
WUKQ
As for the 1050 license, the Spanish Broadcasting SystemSpanish Broadcasting System
Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States. SBS is also invested in television and internet properties, deriving the majority of its income from advertising through its media products.SBS owns the internet portal LaMusica.com...
bought it, intending to swap it with cash to the Jewish Daily Forward for their FM station, WEVD 97.9. However, Spanish Broadcasting already owned WSKQ, AM 620 in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. The deal for WEVD could not be consummated at the same time as Emmis' purchase of 660, which left Spanish Broadcasting owning two AM stations in the New York market, which (as was the case with Emmis earlier) not permitted under FCC rules at that time.
The FCC granted them a temporary waiver to run 1050 on a noncommercial basis until it could be transferred. Therefore, following WFAN's move to 660, 620 WSKQ flipped from Spanish Adult Contemporary to Spanish Oldies while the 1050 facility became "KQ 1050" WUKQ, playing Spanish Adult Contemporary music (commercial-free, to satisfy the FCC requirement).
For the first few hours after the switch of WFAN to the 660 facility, WUKQ broadcast a recorded message which was continuously looped stating:
"This is WUKQ-AM New York, operating at 1050 Kilohertz. If you are looking for SportsRadio 1050, we've moved... down the dial to 660-AM. Join us now for the new SportsRadio 66 WFAN."
WEVD
The FCC approved the trade of WUKQ for WEVD on February 1, 1989. Under the deal, the Spanish AC format on 620 would move to 97.9-FM, and the station would become FM-98 WSKQ-FMWSKQ-FM
WSKQ-FM, known on-air as Mega 97.9, is a radio station in New York City owned by Spanish Broadcasting System . Currently located at 97.9 FM, the station has a tropical format, which consists of such musical styles as Bachata, salsa, merengue, and Reggaeton.-History:The 97.9 FM facility's heritage...
. Meanwhile, WEVD's call letters and programming moved to the 1050 facility. Dating back to October 20, 1927, WEVD had been the radio station owned by the Workman's Circle (Arbeter Ring) in New York City. Its call letters were a tribute to legendary Socialist Party
Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA is a multi-tendency democratic-socialist party in the United States. The party states that it is the rightful continuation and successor to the tradition of the Socialist Party of America, which had lasted from 1901 to 1972.The party is officially committed to left-wing...
leader Eugene Victor Debs, who died one year earlier.
This was WEVD's second existence on the AM dial, as it was originally a time-share at 1330-AM with WPOW, an arrangement that lasted until 1984. WEVD soon added an FM counterpart at 107.5-FM in 1950, which then moved to 97.9-FM in 1952. Both stations maintained the same programming through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The AM station was sold on March 2, 1981 for $1.1 million to Salem Communications
Salem Communications
Salem Communications is a U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher specializing in evangelical Christian and conservative political talk radio. It owns 99 commercial radio stations, 65 of which are in the top 25 markets. Salem is the fifth largest U.S....
, and changed the call letters to WNYM (today WWRV
WWRV
WWRV 1330 is a Spanish Christian music and teaching station and serves the New York area. It is owned by Radio Vision Cristiana Management.For years 1330 was WEVD, named after Eugene V. Debs, which ran mostly Jewish programming and owned by The Forward. By the '60s they also had 97.9 WEVD-FM...
) while WEVD continued on the FM dial.
By 1988 the station was mostly an outlet for leased access foreign language programming. WEVD had a brokered format with Jewish programming (in Yiddish and English), ethnic programs, talk shows, and a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
show with Danny Stiles
Danny Stiles
Danny Stiles was a radio personality at WNYC, WNSW, WJDM and WPAT in the New York City market. He worked on the radio for 63 years in the New York City area, up to the time of his death.-Early life:...
. The station generated cash flow by selling blocks of airtime, which allowed it to be profitable despite minimal ratings.
By the mid 1990s, WEVD had a talk format with a liberal emphasis on weekdays, with ethnic programming at night and on weekends. Talk hosts included New York sports legend Bill Mazer
Bill Mazer
Bill Mazer is an Jewish American television and radio personality.Winning numerous awards and citations, including three Sportscaster of the Year awards for New York from 1964–66....
, former New York mayor Ed Koch
Ed Koch
Edward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...
, Jay Diamond
Jay Diamond
Jay Diamond is an American talk radio host from the Manhattan Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn who began his move to the mic by being a frequent caller to other radio programs, especially New York City's popular Bob Grant show...
, Sam Greenfield, and Alan Colmes
Alan Colmes
Alan Samuel Colmes is an American radio/television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk...
.
During most of 1050's existence as WEVD, the station broadcast Mets, Jets, Knicks and Rangers games produced by WFAN
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
, when WFAN was already broadcasting another game. WFAN game overruns are now broadcast on WBBR
WBBR
WBBR is a radio station broadcasting at 1130 AM in New York City. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P. WBBR's format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives,...
.
In 2001 WEVD entered into a local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
/Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
and added ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
's The Dan Patrick Show
The Dan Patrick Show
The Dan Patrick Show is a syndicated sports talk show hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by DirecTV Sports Group and is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. The three-hour program broadcasts live every day beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern/6 a.m. Pacific time on Fox...
to the talk lineup. Despite a public campaign to save the old format, on September 2, 2001, WEVD began running ESPN Radio fulltime, albeit having simulcast WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
's coverage of the September 11 attacks nine days later.
The first local voice on 1050 ESPN Radio was Don La Greca.
WEPN
The station was renamed WEPN on April 28, 2003 after being sold to ABC/Disney outright, which continues to run the station as 1050 ESPN Radio. For years, WEPN billed itself as New York City's only all-sports station, since competitor WFAN's former morning show, Imus in the MorningImus in the Morning
Imus in the Morning is an American radio show hosted by Don Imus on Cumulus Media Networks , and simulcast for television on Fox Business Network....
, was primarily a politically-based talk show. However, this is now a misnomer, since Imus has been replaced by a sports-themed show, Boomer and Carton in the Morning
Boomer and Carton in the Morning
Boomer and Carton in the Morning is a morning drive sports radio program on WFAN in New York City. The hosts of the radio program are former NFL quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals, Boomer Esiason and former Jersey Guy Craig Carton.The show debuted on...
.
Despite the fact that it is a 50,000 watt station, it cannot be heard clearly in many parts of the New York metropolitan area
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
, especially west of New York City and in Suffolk County
Suffolk County, New York
Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...
on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. WEPN has a highly directional signal, due primarily to the fact that there is another 50,000 watt station on the 1050 channel, CHUM
CHUM (AM)
CHUM, branded as TSN Radio 1050, broadcasting at 1050 kHz in the AM band, is a Canadian radio station licensed to Toronto, Ontario. The station is owned and operated by Bell Media....
a few hundred miles to the northwest in Toronto, and yet another 50,000 watt station, KYW
KYW (AM)
KYW is a class A AM radio station on 1060 kHz licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW is owned by the CBS Radio unit of CBS Corporation, and has broadcasted an all-news format since 1965. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia, and it transmitters...
, in Philadelphia next door on the dial at 1060 AM. WEPN must also suppress its signal to the southwest to avoid interfering with a high-powered Mexican clear channel station in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.
According to Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
data of as early 2006, WFAN's daytime ratings are about 3 points higher on average than WEPN's, though WFAN's most-known and now-defunct Mike and the Mad Dog
Mike and the Mad Dog
Mike and the Mad Dog was an afternoon drive sports radio program based out of WFAN in New York City that featured Mike Francesa and Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo talking sports and taking phone calls from listeners. From 2002 onwards the show was simulcasted on the YES Network...
show had been airing since 1989, or well over a decade longer than WEPN has existed. Because of WEPN's limited signal, all Jets games once were simulcast on WABC, which reaches more of the suburbs. The station has also worked with MSG Network
MSG Network
The MSG Network, now shortened to simply MSG, is a regional cable television and radio network serving the Mid-Atlantic United States. It is focused on New York City sports teams...
to find affiliates for Knicks and Rangers games outside WEPN's coverage area. Early in 2008, to strengthen the reach of WEPN, ESPN reached Local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
s to simulcast WEPN on WLIR in Hampton Bays
Hampton Bays, New York
Hampton Bays is a hamlet in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 12,236 at the 2000 census.Hampton Bays is in the Town of Southampton.-Geography:...
, extending WEPN's reach to eastern Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, and on WNJE
WNJE
WNJE is a sports radio station in Flemington, New Jersey serving Trenton, New Jersey which is owned and operated by Nassau Broadcasting Partners.WNJE is an ESPN Radio affiliate simulcasting New York City radio station WEPN ....
in Flemington
Flemington, New Jersey
Flemington is a borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the borough population was 4,581. It is the county seat of Hunterdon County....
(for New Jersey's ESPN), extending WEPN's reach into the Skylands Region
Skylands Region
The Skylands Region is a marketing area of the State of New Jersey located in the Northern and Central part of the state. It is one of six tourism regions established by the New Jersey State Department of Tourism, the others being the Gateway Region, Greater Atlantic City Region, the Southern...
and the Trenton
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
market. WNJE broadcasts the WEPN signal full time. WLIR broke off the simulcast in the summer of 2011 when the station was sold to a religious broadcaster.
Programs on WEPN
While WEPN does broadcast ESPN Radio's programming, many preemptions are made.The daily schedule starts at 5 a.m. with Maxed Out in the Morning, hosted by Jared Max. Mike & Mike in the Morning, ESPN Radio's morning program, follows from 6-10 am. The first two hours of The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a sports talk radio show hosted by Colin Cowherd and broadcast on ESPN Radio from Bristol, Connecticut. The show is heard Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. ET until 1 p.m. ET on most ESPN Radio stations and is simulcasted on ESPNews...
follow. The remainder of The Herd as well as one-third of The Scott Van Pelt Show is preempted by WEPN's midday show, now hosted by Ryan Ruocco and Robin Lundberg, which airs until 2 PM. Mike Lupica
Mike Lupica
Michael Lupica is an American newspaper columnist, best known for his provocative commentary on sports in the New York Daily News and his appearances on ESPN.-Biography:...
then follows with an hour-long program to lead into The Michael Kay Show
The Michael Kay Show
New York Yankees television play-by-play broadcaster Michael Kay currently hosts a drive-time talk show on 1050 ESPN Radio.*Terrestrial radio: 1050 ESPN Radio, New York City broadcasting area, 50,000 watts...
, WEPN's long-running flagship talk show. Kay's program airs from 3 PM until 7 PM, preempting the remainder of Van Pelt's show as well as The Doug Gottlieb Show.
WEPN does not air any of ESPN Radio's regularly scheduled weeknight programming either, choosing instead to feature games from the New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
and New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
during their respective seasons, local programming hosted by Stephen A. Smith
Stephen A. Smith
-Early years:Smith was raised in the Hollis neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. He lived with his parents and four older sisters.He attended Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...
and Bill Daughtry, and various other games that ESPN Radio might not necessarily carry including coverage of college basketball games provided by ISP Sports
ISP Sports
IMG College, is a sports marketing company formed from the acquisition of Host Communications in 2007 and ISP Sports in 2010.ISP Sports was founded in 1992 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina providing sports marketing and broadcast services for collegiate athletics across the United States. In...
and Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
and college football games provided by Compass Media Networks
Compass Media Networks
Compass Media Networks is an American radio network.The company launched in January 2009. It is owned by former Westwood One CEO and former COO of Connoisseur Media, Peter Kosann...
. Since 2006 WEPN has been the New York home of Westwood One's NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship coverage; although the station still shares coverage of some games with Westwood One's flagship WFAN, WEPN is home to most of the tournament's action including the Final Four and the National Championship.
WEPN's weekend lineup largely consists of ESPN Radio's national programming.
During baseball season beginning in 2008, the 6 p.m. hour of The Michael Kay Show is devoted to baseball and is known as New York Baseball Tonight
Baseball Tonight
Baseball Tonight is a program that airs on ESPN. The show, which recapitulates the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since 1990.-Air times:...
, where Kay co-host Don LaGreca presides with Buster Olney
Buster Olney
Robert Stanbury "Buster" Olney III is a columnist for ESPN: The Magazine, ESPN.com, and covered the New York Giants and New York Yankees for The New York Times. He is also a regular analyst for the ESPN's Baseball Tonight...
over an hour of strictly baseball talk. For the 2010 football season, New York Football Live followed Kay's program. WEPN contributor Bonnie Bernstein and former New York Jet linebacker and WEPN studio host Greg Buttle
Greg Buttle
Gregory Ellis Buttle is a retired American football linebacker for the New York Jets. He played college football at Penn State University. He was named a Consensus All-American in 1975. In 2005, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame.-High school:Buttle grew up in Linwood, New...
discussed football for two hours five nights a week.
WEPN alumni include Max Kellerman
Max Kellerman
Max Kellerman is an American boxing commentator and sports talk radio host based in Los Angeles. He currently appears as a color commentator on HBO World Championship Boxing and HBO Boxing After Dark and as of January 3, 2011, is hosting a midday talk show on 710 ESPN radio in Los Angeles.Prior...
, who hosted The Max Kellerman Show on both WEPN and XM Radio's ESPN Xtra
ESPN Xtra
ESPN Xtra is a satellite radio station that combines the existing audio simulcast of ESPNEWS programs with sports talk programming produced by ESPN, most notably three local programs produced by ESPN Radio owned-and-operated stations...
; Stephen A. Smith
Stephen A. Smith
-Early years:Smith was raised in the Hollis neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. He lived with his parents and four older sisters.He attended Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...
, whose Stephen A. Smith Show
The Stephen A. Smith Show
The Stephen A. Smith Show was a syndicated sports talk radio show hosted by Philadelphia Inquirer writer Stephen A. Smith. Smith had various co-hosts along the way, including Brandon Tierney, Gordon Damer, and Mike Missanelli....
originated at WEPN before becoming a national broadcast over ESPN Radio; Brian Kenny
Brian Kenny
Brian Kenny may refer to:*Brian Kenny , MLB Network personality and journalist*Brian Kenny , Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick*Brian Kenny , British Army General...
, who co-hosted Kellerman's show for several months in 2008 (coincidentally, Kenny returned to radio in 2009 to host The Brian Kenny Show on ESPN Radio, which WEPN preempts); and others. For several years WEPN was the New York affiliate for the syndicated Jim Rome Show
The Jim Rome Show
The Jim Rome Show is a sports radio talk show hosted by Jim Rome. It airs live for three hours each weekday from 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. The show is produced in Los Angeles, California, syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, and can be heard on more than 200 affiliate radio stations in the U.S...
, where it aired on a ten-hour tape delay. The station stopped airing the show in early 2009.
In preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene in the Tri-State area, WEPN suspended regular programming on August 27, 2011; and simulcast live Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
coverage from sister station WABC-TV
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
.
External links
- Official website
- AIRWAVES RADIO Journal V9 #89 - "Re: 1050 NYC (was: Relate These Phrases For Me)" explains the complex callsign changes related to WHN.
- New York Radio Guide station history
- NYC AM Radio History station history