WFAN is not just talk; it's a way of life for sports fans

http://www.mcall.com/sports/mc-wfan-main-0818-20120818,0,4544673.story FROM THE MORNING CALL It's sunny and the temperature is soaring above 90 degrees — a typical sizzler for the summer of 2012 — and the sports topics in New York City are as hot as the pavement. On this July day, the talk is about the NBA's New York Knicks letting Jeremy Lin leave for the Houston Rockets, the aftershock of the Freeh Report on the Penn State football program and what the Yankees and Mets might do at the impending trade deadline. Mike Francesa, the biggest name in New York sports-talk radio, strides into the WFAN studio on the 10th floor of a corporate building on Hudson Street in the Tribeca section of lower Manhattan. Newspapers are strewn on a counter in the neatly organized newsroom that serves as the centerpiece of the WFAN operation. Francesa, looking tanned and surprisingly stylish in a golf shirt and shorts, doesn't have the time or the need to look at the sports sections. He's got a five-hour, 30-minute show to do, a show that can be heard on both the radio and seen on the YES television network, and he's ready for the topics of the day as well as the guests he'll interview and the calls he'll take from sports fans. Francesa is a New York institution. So is WFAN. This summer marks the 25th anniversary of the CBS-owned WFAN becoming the country's first 24-hour all-sports station. The official beginning came at 3 p.m. July 1, 1987 when current Yankees radio analyst Suzyn Waldman told listeners "You're sharing a part of radio history with us today."