NOW HEAR THIS! : After Success of ESPN, All-Sports Radio Was Not That Far Behind

On July 1, 1987, WFAN in New York introduced a new concept: 24-hour sports radio.

The station has suffered poor ratings through its first seven months of operation, but its parent company, Emmis Broadcasting of Indianapolis, maintains that it is committed to the all-sports concept. Emmis also owns highly rated KPWR-FM in Los Angeles, a station using Emmis’ more conventional format of urban-dance music.

Emmis Broadcasting’s principal owner is Jeff Smulyan, 38, a graduate of USC and the USC Law School. Smulyan says he is encouraged by WFAN’s early experiment in all-sports radio, and that he likes the sound of it.

But Emmis recently bought two other stations in New York as part of a 5-station, $121.5-million package, WNBC and WYNY-FM. Since the Federal Communications Commission permits any owner control over just one AM and one FM frequency in any one market, some observers doubt the future of all-sports radio.

But according to Steve Crane, Smulyan’s boyhood friend and partner in Emmis, there is “better than a 50-50 chance” that instead of dropping the all-sports format, Emmis will simply move WFAN’s concept to WNBC and sell WFAN.

Crane also said that the all-sports radio concept will take time to catch on, “Just like ESPN and USA Today did.” He added that Emmis is prepared to wait for its experiment to catch up to the vast New York audience.

WFAN has the broadcast rights to the New York Mets, and WNBC has the rights to the Knicks and Rangers. The combination of those three would greatly enhance the all-sports package in the extremely competitive New York sports market. WFAN’s programming, up to now, has leaned heavily on phone-in sports-talk shows.

Among the WFAN show hosts is Steve Somers, a former KMPC announcer who still combines shtick with substance on the midnight to 6 a.m. weekday shift.

Channel 2 Sports Director Jim Lampley was an original WFAN host, starting in New York and remaining on via satellite after moving to LA in September. His show, however, was discontinued Feb. 29 because Met pregame shows figured to preempt it too much during March, and because satellite costs and Lampley’s increasingly busy schedule both with CBS and with HBO were interfering with the program’s chances of ever being profitable.

Another WFAN host is Pete Franklin, whose style is abrasive in dealings with fans who call his afternoon program. He is reminiscent of L.A.’s old “SuperFan.” WFAN is paying Franklin $300,000 a year to do the same act he did at WWWE in Cleveland for many years.

Much of the problem with WFAN’s financial instability can be traced to Emmis’ initial overspending on its on-air talent and failing to investigate the feasibility of its “narrowcasting” format. Because of its sports-talk programming, WFAN loses a lot of female listeners, a potentially huge market in New York.

Another shortcoming has been a lack of investigative stories, despite time to do them and an investigative reporter, Suzyn Waldman.

Still, the all-sports format has potential. Somers had quarterback Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins on the phone the night of the Super Bowl, Williams’ biggest game. And one of Lampley’s highlights was moderating ongoing coverage of the dissolving National Football League strike by reporters around the USA. The night of his last program, Lampley said that one day had “Showed the potential of the all-sports format.”

But as ESPN showed with its NFL package, an all-sports station must have a strong foundation in live events to grab listeners away from the other options at their fingertips.

By combining the Mets, Knicks, and Rangers and moving that whole package to WNBC, which has a stronger signal and, at 66 on the dial, is easier to find, and by de-emphasizing sports-talk, all-sports radio may take off. With 24 hours a day to do it, the station has the opportunity to cover sports better than anybody else. Perhaps within a few years, all-sports radio stations will be as common across the country as all-news stations are today.