Radio WEPN-AM (1050 espn)

WEPN (1050 AM, "1050 ESPN New York") is a 24-hour sports talk formatted radio station in New York City featuring national and local sports talk programs and live broadcasts of sports matches. It is the New York affiliate for ESPN Radio. Its transmitter site is located in North Bergen, New Jersey.



WEVDThe FCC approved the trade of WUKQ for WEVD on February 1, 1989. Under the deal, the Spanish AC format on 620 would move to 97.9-FM, and the station would become FM-98 WSKQ-FM. Meanwhile, WEVD's call letters and programming moved to the 1050 facility. Dating back to October 20, 1927, WEVD had been the radio station owned by the Workman's Circle (Arbeter Ring) in New York City. Its call letters were a tribute to legendary Socialist Party leader Eugene Victor Debs, who died one year earlier.

This was WEVD's second existence on the AM dial, as it was originally a time-share at 1330-AM with WPOW, an arrangement that lasted until 1984. WEVD soon added an FM counterpart at 107.5-FM in 1950, which then moved to 97.9-FM in 1952. Both stations maintained the same programming through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The AM station was sold on March 2, 1981 for $1.1 million to Salem Communications, and changed the call letters to WNYM (today WWRV) while WEVD continued on the FM dial.

By 1988 the station was mostly an outlet for leased access foreign language programming. WEVD had a brokered format with Jewish programming (in Yiddish and English), ethnic programs, talk shows, and a big band show with Danny Stiles. The station generated cash flow by selling blocks of airtime, which allowed it to be profitable despite minimal ratings.

By the mid 1990s, WEVD had a talk format with a liberal emphasis on weekdays, with ethnic programming at night and on weekends. Talk hosts included New York sports legend Bill Mazer, former New York mayor Ed Koch, Jay Diamond, Sam Greenfield, and Alan Colmes.

During most of 1050's existence as WEVD, the station broadcast Mets, Jets, Knicks and Rangers games produced by WFAN, when WFAN was already broadcasting another game. WFAN game overruns are now broadcast on WBBR.

In 2001 WEVD entered into a local marketing agreement with ABC/Disney and added ESPN Radio's The Dan Patrick Show to the talk lineup. Despite a public campaign to save the old format, on September 2, 2001, WEVD began running ESPN Radio fulltime, albeit having simulcast WABC's coverage of the September 11 attacks nine days later.

The first local voice on 1050 ESPN Radio was Don La Greca.



Programs on WEPNWhile WEPN does broadcast ESPN Radio's programming, many preemptions are made.

The daily schedule starts at 5 a.m. with The Leadoff Spot, featuring Ryan Ruocco and Robin Lundberg. Mike & Mike in the Morning, ESPN Radio's morning program, follows from 6-10 am. Ruocco and Lundberg return with 2nd Verse, which airs for one hour, followed by the last two hours of The Herd with Colin Cowherd. McDonald & Tierney, the station's own midday program hosted by Jody McDonald and Brandon Tierney, airs from 1 PM to 3 PM and pre-empts the first two hours of The Scott Van Pelt Show. The Michael Kay Show, WEPN's long-running flagship talk show, airs from 3 PM until 7 PM and preempts the third hour of The Scott Van Pelt Show and the entire Doug Gottlieb Show. WEPN does not air any of ESPN Radio's regularly scheduled weeknight programming either, choosing instead to feature games from the New York Rangers and New York Knicks during their respective seasons and local programming on other nights where ESPN Radio is not broadcasting a national sporting event. WEPN's first local program, The Stephen A. Smith Show, airs from 7 PM until 9 PM and ESPN New York Tonight with Bill Daughtry follows until midnight when the station returns to the national ESPN radio feed.

WEPN's weekend lineup largely consists of ESPN Radio's national programming.

During baseball season beginning in 2008, the 6 p.m. hour of The Michael Kay Show is devoted to baseball and is known as New York Baseball Tonight, where Kay co-host Don LaGreca presides with Buster Olney over an hour of strictly baseball talk. For the 2010 football season, New York Football Live followed Kay's program. WEPN contributor Bonnie Bernstein and former New York Jet linebacker and WEPN studio host Greg Buttle discussed football for two hours five nights a week.

WEPN alumni include Max Kellerman, who hosted The Max Kellerman Show on both WEPN and XM Radio's ESPN Xtra; Stephen A. Smith, whose Stephen A. Smith Show originated at WEPN before becoming a national broadcast over ESPN Radio; Brian Kenny, who co-hosted Kellerman's show for several months in 2008 (coincidentally, Kenny returned to radio in 2009 to host The Brian Kenny Show on ESPN Radio, which WEPN preempts); and others. For several years WEPN was the New York affiliate for the syndicated Jim Rome Show, where it aired on a ten-hour tape delay. The station stopped airing the show in early 2009.