New York, explained – July 1, 2026

Today in New York history

July 1, 1987

WFAN Signs On as the First All-Sports Station

At 3 p.m. on a July afternoon, a country music frequency on the dial went dark and came back as something nobody in radio had ever tried: sports, all day, every day.

WFAN launched on July 1, 1987, broadcasting on 1050 AM, the frequency long occupied by country station WHN. Owned by Emmis Communications, it billed itself as the world's first 24-hour sports talk station, a format nobody had proven could hold an audience around the clock. Suzyn Waldman delivered the first sports update on air, and the debut show was hosted by Jim Lampley. The station also inherited WHN's broadcast rights to the Mets, giving it an instant claim on New York's biggest sports conversation. WFAN would move to the stronger 660 AM signal a year later, but the bet placed that July afternoon, that New Yorkers would actually talk sports on the radio all day long, is the one that stuck.

Launch dateJuly 1, 1987, at 3:00 p.m.
Original frequency1050 AM
Owner at launchEmmis Communications
Format claimThe world's first 24-hour-per-day sports talk station

“the world's first 24-hour-per-day sports talk station”
Wikipedia, describing WFAN's format at its 1987 launch

WFAN proved sports talk radio could run all day and made New York the template every other city's sports station copied afterward.

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