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Sports radio

Radio format

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History

The Liberty Broadcasting System was the first radio network in the United States to focus on sports. Its cornerstone programming was play-by-play of Major League Baseball broadcasts, some reconstructed from wire reports. Launched in 1948, the network collapsed in 1952 after MLB substantially raised its rights fee and imposed untenable restrictions on the network's operations.

In 1955, WHN New York launched the first regular sports talk program featuring a broadcaster/journalist roundtable that aired before and after Brooklyn Dodgers games. By the early 1960s, sports talk content, ranging from individual commentary to roundtable discussions, began appearing in major US markets, initially tied to play-by-play broadcasts but gradually developing unique styles and characters. Art Rust Jr. launched New York's first interactive call-in show (WMCA) in 1960 to limited initial success. Nonetheless, the interactive format spread in the 1960s with Bill Mazer, launching the first successful show in March 1964 at WNBC (AM) in New York. Soon after WNBC launched its program, in 1965 Seton Hall University's radio station, WSOU, started Hall Line, a call-in sports radio talk show focusing on the team's basketball program. Having celebrated its 50th anniversary on air during the 2015–2016 season, Hall Line, which broadcasts to central and northern New Jersey as well as all five boroughs of New York, is the oldest and longest running sports talk call-in show in the NY-NJ Metropolitan area, and is believed to be the oldest in the nation.

Enterprise Radio Network became the first national all-sports network, operating out of Avon, Connecticut, from New Year's Day 1981 through late September of that year before going out of business. ER had two channels, one for talk and a second for updates and play-by-play. It was founded by ESPN's estranged founder Bill Rasmussen. ER's talk lineup included current New York Yankees voice John Sterling, New York Mets radio host Ed Coleman and former big-league pitcher Bill Denehy.

Emmis Broadcasting's WFAN in New York in 1987 is considered to be the first all-sports radio station, with Philadelphia's WIP a close second. However, that designation is imprecise according to research by Rowan University media scholar Emil Steiner since both stations relied on non-sports content during their initial years in order to survive: It wasn't until WFAN hired Don Imus—a shock jock "who by all accounts despised sports," that the station became financially viable. The prevailing narrative across news coverage was that sports talk radio works when it focuses on entertainment first and information second. This was the model espoused by WIP's manager of programming Tom Bigby: "'If you do sports talk, it won't survive,' Bigby says. 'If you do sports entertainment, the possibilities are endless.'" Following the success of the WIP and WFAN in the early 1990s, with hit programs such as Mike and the Mad Dog, drove other stations in United States to try the all-sports talk format. By 1991 there were around 20 stations broadcasting across the country and by 2000 there were over 600. While only one other radio show besides Mike and the Mad Dog attended the 1990 Super Bowl, about 100 attended the 2004 Super Bowl's radio row.

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