The End of the FAN as We Know it

This year was the 25th anniversary of WFAN.  Think what you will about Mike and The Mad Dog, IMUS, and Steve Sommers, but 25 years of success in radio is rather amazing.  Now comes word that the station will begin simulcasting on FM 101.9 in New York, and at some point thereafter, WFAN will no longer broadcast at 660 AM as the 50,000 Watt clear channel voice of the Mets, et al.

CBS bought WRXP (101.9 FM) from Merlin Media, for $75 million.  This must have been a great deal for CBS, as the old owners of that station surely decimated its value by switching formats 3 times in the past 2 years.

Think about it this way: $75 Million is just $5Million more than what Jeff Smulyan sold WFAN to Mel Karmazin’s Infinity Broadcasting way back in 1992.

Photo credit: watchdog

Meanwhile, I don’t understand the point of this move.  I know FM radio sounds better than AM, but not sure why this matters for talk radio.  WFAN loses a lot of geographical coverage at the FM band.  Travel around the country, in every market there is a different station broadcasting at 101.9FM.  There is only one 660 AM in the country, and as a clear channel (not ClearChannel) station, you can hear WFAN all the way to Florida on a clear night.  Or, at least you used to be able to… I swear radio reception is not what it used to be.  I am in central Jersey and get all kinds of interference on WFAN now.Anyhow, I’d like to know what the Mets feel about this move.  If they are paying any attention they should be against it.  My cousin grew up in Western PA, and grew up a Mets fan because he could get the games on the radio.  If the Mets are stuck on FM, their geographical coverage is limited too.  Why concede the fandom of kids in Western Pennsylvania to the Pirates or Indians just so we can listen to Mike Francesa snore in stereo?

At the New York Times, Richard Sandomir quoted talk radio commentator Michael Harrison as saying “I don’t think they need to reach 25 states, because WFAN already has a tremendous following on the Internet. So the idea of a radio station that is heard in 25 states is kind of a quaint concept.”  This may or may not be true, but Mets games don’t get carried on the internet feed of WFAN.  To get that online, you have to be a subscriber of GameDay Audio for $19.99 a year.  Gameday Audio is great for out of market baseball fans, as it covers every single game, with home and away broadcasts, with no blackouts.

ESPN 1050 moved their broadcast to the FM dial a few months ago, and Dan Mason, President of CBS told the NY times that he “wasn’t happy that they beat us by a few months”  but But Don Bouloukos, senior vice president  for CBS Radio told the Daily News that the WFAN simulcast “had nothing to do with ESPN moving to FM here.”  Neither one of these guys will admit their plans for what to do at 660AM once they “migrate” current listeners to the new frequency.  It makes no sense to have a permanent simulcast, obviously.  Which of course leads one to wonder if that’s what they’ll do.  Nah, they will probably do something that makes even less sense.

8 Replies to “The End of the FAN as We Know it”

  1. Great points and a great read! Anytime we’re returning from a roadtrip, the first thing we do is try to get WFAN tuned in to know we’re close. And up the mountains or at the beach, our trusted AM station comes in. This FM move is a FUMBLE!

  2. “…but Mets games don’t get carried on the internet feed of WFAN. To get that online, you have to be a subscriber of GameDay Audio for $19.99 a year.”

    I think you just answered your own question as to what the Mets think about it.

  3. You can get WFAN all the way to Canada in the north and at least Virginia, if not Florida, in the south. To go to FM because of ESPN is wrong, and the listeners of the displaced stations must be considered. We are people too and we shouldn’t be messed around with just because of corporate greed in the game of corporate gotcha! Both ESPN and WFAN are different. WFAN can be heard anywhere while it was a struggle to listen to 1050-AM just outside of NYC. This is wrong and must be stopped. if WFAN displaces WRXP, I urge people to boycott WFAN!

  4. With the exception of Met games, you can listen to WFAN via the internet. As for the Met games, with more and more people listening via the MLB app, they can still reach a wide audience. I do dislike this move as I don’t subscribe to the MLB app and will hate that I can’t listen to games on summer road trips, but there are other ways of listening to the games on the internets, you just need to know where to look.

Comments are closed.