WFAN ("the FAN", the NYMets radio station)

[Alice Faber]

George Thompson said:
>My previous adventure into Mets Land was in early July, when I
>caught the broadcasters passing the time during a rain delay.  It
>was about the time of the 25th (?) anniversary of the conversion of
>an earlier station with different call letters and a different
>format to WFAN, a 24 hour sports talk station.  One of the
>broadcasters had in fact been with the earlier station, recalling
>having participated in the mournful get-together of the broadcasters
>laid off from the old station, then walking down the hall to join
>the celebration of the broadcasters hired by "the FAN".
>
>His recollections of the earliest months of the FAN was that it
>achieved direction and acceptance among NYC listeners when it made
>it a policy that all its on-air moderators should be from NYC.
>(Presumably this involved firing some of the celebrants of a few
>months before.)  The new policy was based on the thought that when
>NYC sports fans heard NYC accents they would accept that this
>moderator understood their fanaticism for their local teams.
>
>Those of you who come unglued when you hear an interesting regional
>accent ought to check it out.  I suppose that the broadcasts, except
>for the game broadcasts, are to be heard through the web.

Last I checked, FAN wasn't on the web. But I've pretty much stopped
listening to them, for a variety of reasons, mainly that their
competition is better. But the best regional accents were always from
the callers, not the hosts, and I'd imagine that's true for any local
call-in station. And it helps that callers typically identify
themselves as, e.g., "Joe from Floral Park" or whatever.

Alice
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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963