{"id":265548,"date":"2026-06-13T14:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T14:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265548\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T14:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T14:47:08","slug":"new-york-knicks-bid-for-first-title-in-53-years-boosts-signal-of-talk-radio-mainstay-wfan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265548\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Knicks’ Bid For First Title In 53 Years Boosts Signal Of Talk Radio Mainstay WFAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor an NBA<\/a> team thriving on the new (new coach, new mix of players, new horizons), the New York Knicks<\/a> have been headlining a decidedly old medium: radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tWFAN<\/a>, which pioneered sports<\/a> talk when it launched in 1987, has been aflame with Knicks conversation since April as the team has pursued its first championship since 1973. (New York can win the title Saturday night with a win over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals<\/a>.) Nearly 1 million listeners are tuning in each week, parent company Audacy<\/a> says, with the 25-54-year-old demo rising almost 9% during the playoff run.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Fan,\u201d as the station is known, is looking beyond the terrestrial towers and car tuners, of course, expanding into podcasts and YouTube shows hosted by on-air talent. The strategy is being deployed across the country by Audacy, the privately held audio giant formerly known as Entercom, which acquired CBS Radio in 2017.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn every major market in the country, radio is every day,\u201d Audacy Chief Business Officer Chris Oliviero told Deadline in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s a habit, it\u2019s a routine. People get in the car, they turn it on. Sports is also every day. Each day is a new episode in that soap opera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAudio is the largest U.S. sports audio provider, operating more than 30 sports stations. Its roster in the top 10 markets includes a Los Angeles version of \u201cThe FAN,\u201d which launched last month at 97.1 FM. The company\u2019s roster of 600-plus sports-related podcasts includes a newsmaking one by Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green as well as one for morning WFAN duo Boomer & Gio.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith traditional radio buffeted by rapid technology shifts, Audacy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024, emerging a year later with reduced debt and a revitalized outlook. CEO Kelli Turner, a former Time Warner executive and CFO at Martha Stewart\u2019s company, took over after the bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRelieving that financial pressure has been liberating,\u201d Oliviero said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got everybody swimming in the same direction. Linear broadcast, streaming digital and on-demand podcasts \u2026 they don\u2019t compete with each other.\u201d Instead, he added, \u201cThey all sing together, like a maestro with a band.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter testing the concept with an NFL Draft watch party on YouTube featuring all of WFAN\u2019s main hosts, the station added halftime and postgame YouTube shows dedicated to the Knicks. The YouTube livestreams are one reason Audacy estimates that it gets about one-third of revenue from digital sources. It has also looked to hitch its programming to smart speakers from Amazon, Google, Apple and others as well as major audio platforms like Sonos. Social media, once seen as a threat, has been embraced, with Audacy stations racking up more than 1.5 billion social views.<\/p>\n

\n\tCraig Carton, who co-hosted WFAN\u2019s morning drive show with Boomer Esiason for 10 years before recently returning to the station as afternoon drive co-host, says the YouTube shows strengthen ties with listeners. \u201cThey want to discuss what they just saw and process the emotions, good and bad, of basketball,\u201d he told Deadline. \u201cIt\u2019s been a really cool, unique way to tap into that fandom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong with co-host Chris McMonigle, Carton reads comments from listeners as they also scroll by on the screen. On June 10, as the Knicks made history with a 29-point comeback win over the Spurs in Game 4, the YouTube show provided a memorable snapshot, swinging from resignation at halftime to jubilation after the win. Swilling beers from sponsor Corona, the hosts marveled at the turnaround, expressing the same astonishment that Larry David, Ben Stiller and other fans were showing on the ABC telecast. (Jerry Seinfeld has been known to call the station, especially when New York mainstay Steve Somers was overnight host, to discuss his beloved New York Mets.)<\/p>\n

\n\tOf all of the New York sports teams he follows, Carton says his passion for the Knicks is unequaled. If (or, he believes, when) the team recaptures the title, he adds, \u201cIt\u2019ll be the single most important and biggest championship in the history of New York\u00a0City.\u201d The victory parade will draw millions to Lower Manhattan\u2019s \u201ccanyon of heroes,\u201d he predicts. <\/p>\n

\n\tMore than two-thirds of New Yorkers \u201cwere not alive the last time\u00a0the New York Knicks won a championship, so it\u2019s everything to us,\u201d Carton said. After the record-setting comeback in Game 4, \u201cto be able to share that moment, just the passion and emotion of it, with fans immediately after the\u00a0game as opposed to having to wait till 2 o\u2019clock the next day, was\u00a0for me pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat immediacy has always been a draw for Carton, who hosted a daily talk show on Fox\u2019s FS1 cable TV network in between his stints at WFAN. The Knicks\u2019 run has been a \u201cmicrocosm\u201d of WFAN\u2019s role as the \u201cheartbeat\u201d of the city, he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf you\u2019re lying awake at 3 am, you can\u2019t sleep because you keep thinking about that missed free throw, we are live and local at 3 a.m.,\u201d Oliviero said. \u201cTV doesn\u2019t do that. TV will give you an hour postgame and that\u2019s it. They\u2019ll play highlights, they\u2019ll break down the game, but that\u2019s it. They don\u2019t interact with their audience, they don\u2019t engage the audience by letting them participate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For an NBA team thriving on the new (new coach, new mix of players, new horizons), the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[102863,21,37011,9,11,1104,10,7178,319,33281],"class_list":["post-265548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-audacy","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-radio","tag-sports","tag-wfan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}