ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an
American sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
radio network and extension of the
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The network is based at the ESPN campus in
Bristol, Connecticut, with multiple studio facilities nationwide, along with
home studios. The network airs a regular schedule of daily and weekly programming as well as live radio play-by-play of sporting events.
ESPN Radio is broadcast to hundreds of affiliate stations, along with national and Canadian carriage on
Sirius XM. The network's content is also available online through its affiliates via
Audacy,
iHeartRadio and
TuneIn, and the network also makes its programming available via
podcast
A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...
feeds and providers, with some additional content audio and video available through an
ESPN+
ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
subscription. Several of its programs are also featured as fully live or "best-of" video
simulcasts on the ESPN family of television networks.
History

ESPN Radio Network was formed in September 1991 by
ESPN Inc. and
Capital Cities/ABC, Inc.'s
ABC Radio Networks. Twenty-five stations had already signed on as affiliates at its September 5, 1991 announcement, with an expected total of 200 at the January launch.
Shelby Whitfield, executive producer of ABC Radio Sports, and John A. Walsh, executive editor of ESPN, were placed in charge of the venture.
The network launched as Sports Radio ESPN on January 1, 1992. At first, ESPN Radio broadcast only on weekends.
The network debuted with 16 hours running on 147 affiliates in 43 states. Its initial programming consisted of news shows, update segments, and occasional features.
By 1996, ESPN Radio had expanded to weekdays
with a show hosted by
The Fabulous Sports Babe (Nancy Donnellan). One hour of that show was simulcast on
ESPN2 (1-2 p.m.
Eastern time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
* Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...
). Two years later,
Tony Bruno and
Mike Golic were brought together for a new morning show, the ''Bruno & Golic Morning Show'' which aired until Bruno left the network in 2000.
Mike Greenberg was named as Bruno's replacement, and the morning show became ''Mike & Mike'', which aired until 2017 (and was also simulcast on ESPN2). In January 2010, ''Mike & Mike'' celebrated their 10-year anniversary on ESPN Radio.
Dan Patrick was a mainstay in the afternoons until his departure from ESPN in 2007.
Gradually, ESPN added more
dayparts and became a 24-hour service. In 1995, ESPN Radio gained national radio rights to the NBA. In 1997, it gained the national radio rights to MLB. Disney purchased
WEVD from the Forward Association in September 2002 to become
WEPN, ESPN Radio's flagship station. On June 12, 2007, Disney spun off and merged its
ABC Radio Networks with
Citadel Broadcasting into Citadel Communications while retaining its ESPN Radio and
Radio Disney networks and stations.
ESPN Radio is streamed over 215 stations and is ranked first nationally as a sports broadcasting program. The parent company ESPN focused on radio . With more resources and money spent on it, ESPN radio expanded rapidly.
On July 28, 2023, amid layoffs occurring across ESPN,
Good Karma Brands—an operator of ESPN Radio affiliates in multiple markets that had also acquired the network's New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago flagships in 2021—assumed the day-to-day operations and advertising sales for the ESPN Radio network.
Programming
Broadcast rights
*''
NBA on ESPN Radio'' (since 1996)
*''
College Football
College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
on ESPN Radio'', including the
Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a college football post-season selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of America ...
, then the
College Football Playoff (since 2000)
*''
Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio,'' Including the
MLB All Star Game,
MLB Postseason games, and
World Series games (since 1998)
*''NFL
Football Sunday on ESPN Radio (since 2013)
*''
Caribbean Series'' (since 2015)
*''
ESPN FC Presents:
EFL Championship on ESPN Radio'' (since 2016)
*''
ESPN FC Presents:
La Liga, on ESPN Radio'' (since 2016)
Past rights
*''
ESPN FC Presents:
UEFA Euro on ESPN Radio'' (
2012,
2016,
2020, along with
Champions League,
Europa League and
Super Cup)
*''
FIFA World Cup on ESPN Radio'' (2010, 2014)
*''
FIFA Women's World Cup on ESPN Radio'' (2011)
*''
MLS Soccer Sunday on ESPN Radio'' (2015–2022)
*''
MLS Cup on ESPN Radio'' (2007-2014)
*''
NIT on ESPN Radio'' (2002–2011)
*''
The Open Championship on ESPN Radio'' (2010–2015)
*''
U.S. Open on ESPN Radio'' (2010–2014)
*''Live @
Wimbledon on ESPN Radio'' (2012–2013)
*''
World Baseball Classic'' (2013, 2017)
Daily segments
*''
ESPN Radio SportsCenter''
*''
SportsBeat''
*''Extra Point''
ESPN Radio stations
Prior to 2022, ESPN Radio had four company-owned and/or operated stations in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, and
Dallas
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
, as well as in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
prior to 2010, with the Chicago station managed by
Good Karma Brands, which owns and operates a number of other ESPN Radio stations in Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. The Dallas station was operated by
Cumulus Media until October 2020, when ESPN took back operational control. Before the conversion of the sites to general blog presences requiring an
ESPN+
ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
subscription to access, each station was partnered with an ESPN local website named for the city and featuring a completely separate staff of sportswriters and reporters for each market who gave their local viewpoints of local sports (for example, espnnewyork.com for New York); some stations remain hosted on
ESPN.com, including audio and FCC disclosures. Most other markets have ESPN Radio affiliates, whether they be part-time or have their entire format dedicated to ESPN Radio.
WEPN converted back to ESPN Radio after the demise of
ESPN Deportes Radio in 2019. All the other owned or operated stations were sold; WEPN, KSPN, WMVP, and WEPN-FM's local marketing agreements were sold to
Good Karma Brands, while KESN was being sold to the religious
VCY America network. The sales to Good Karma Brands and VCY America closed in 2022, with all of the Good Karma stations remaining a part of ESPN Radio. On June 12, 2023, Disney sold KRDC, its last broadcast radio asset, to
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, for $5 million, the station had carried a simulcast of KSPN along with selected overflow programming during the sale process after the wind-down of the
Radio Disney network in 2021. The sale closed on September 8 of that year, with KRDC changing its callsign to KWVE and subsequently simulcasting the existing
KWVE-FM.
Satellite radio
ESPN Xtra is a satellite radio station that carries sports talk programming produced by
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
. The channel was originally on
XM 141,
but is now broadcast on
Sirius XM Radio channel 81.
XM announced the addition of this channel on January 28, 2008.
Sirius Satellite Radio announced changes to its audio simulcast of ESPNEWS, now called ''ESPN All Access'', on December 12, 2007, but would not be adding any content announced for XM, as it will be exclusive to XM.
Affiliates
See also
*
Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio is an Radio in the United States, American Sports radio, sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports ...
*
Infinity Sports Network
*
NBC Sports Radio
*
Sports Byline USA
*
TSN Radio
*
SportsMap
References
External links
ESPN RadioSiriusXM , ESPN Radio
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{{ESPN
{{ESPN Radio stations
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Radio
Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...
Sports radio networks in the United States
Radio stations established in 1992
American radio networks
ABC Radio Networks
Franchised radio formats
College football on the radio
Sirius XM Radio channels