The Sports Fan Radio Network was a national sports talk radio network that existed from 1993 through 2001, when it abruptly folded.

History

Launch

SportsFan Radio Network officially debuted in 1993 with 80 hours of programming per month. Based in Las Vegas, the network broadcast its flagship show ''SportsFan Tonight'' from the Sports Theatre in the Las Vegas Hilton. Original hosts of the show were Geoff Nathanson and long time NFL scribe Howard Balzer.

1994-2000

By 1994, SportsFan expanded to a 24/7 format, seven days a week. The signature show, ''SportsFan Tonight'' moved its broadcast location from the

MGM Grand Las Vegas The MGM Grand Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International. The resort was developed by Kirk Kerkorian through his company, MGM Grand ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

. Later it moved to the sportsbook at the Mandalay Bay. The daily line up included baseball's all-time hit leader

Pete Rose Peter Edward Rose Sr. (April 14, 1941 – September 30, 2024), nicknamed "Charlie Hustle", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a member of ...

, as well as a stable of young talent. Others hosting shows over the years included former NFL QB

Sean Salisbury Richard Sean Salisbury (born March 9, 1963) is an American football analyst and former player who is the host of '' The Sean Salisbury Show'' on KBME, Sportstalk 790, an iHeartRadio station in Houston, Texas. He played professionally as a quar ...

, former NFL All-Pro Tim Ryan, Fox and CBS host

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

, longtime broadcaster Pat O'Brien, former NBA coach Matt Goukas, NHL great

Phil Esposito Philip Anthony Esposito ( , ; born February 20, 1942) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, coach and executive, and current broadcaster for the Tampa Bay Lightning. A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, he played 18 seasons in ...

, former NFL All-Pro Bob Golic and former NCAA basketball coaches

Bill Frieder William Samuel Frieder (born March 3, 1942) is a former basketball coach at Michigan Wolverines men's basketball, Michigan (1981–1989) and Arizona State Sun Devils men's basketball, Arizona State (1989–1997). Frieder's 1985–86 Michigan Wo ...

and

Fran Fraschilla Francis John Fraschilla (born August 30, 1958) is an American basketball commentator and former college basketball coach. Career Fraschilla was an assistant coach at University of Rhode Island for Jack Kraft, Ohio University for Danny Nee an ...

. Other hosts included Bruce Schein, Chris Russo (now Russell), J. T. the Brick, Steve Cofield, Rob Tepper, Chuck Powell, Ryan Williams,Marty Tirrell, Ken Miller, Soren Petro, Rob Fischer, Mike "The Sports Pig" Responts, John Phillips, John Rabe, Brandon Tierney, Jim Brinson, Chad Andrus. Scott Ferrall, Dave Cokin, Eric Pollero, Tim Neverett and others. By the late '90s, SportsFan partnered with

CBS Sportsline CBSSports.com (formerly CBS SportsLine.com and SportsLine USA) is an American sports news website operated by Paramount Streaming, a division of Paramount Global. It is the website for CBS' CBS Sports, Sports division featuring news, highlight ...

to broadcast two shows daily. One program was hosted by Craig Carton, the other "The Drive" with Scott Kaplan and Sid Rosenberg. Later they landed a handful of other significant names, including Nanci Donellan (a.k.a. "

The Fabulous Sports Babe ''The Fabulous Sports Babe'' was a semi-fictional character who hosted various American sports radio broadcasts. The program, hosted by Tampa Bay area resident Nanci Donnellan, was syndicated across the United States on both ESPN Radio and ESPN2, ...

") from

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

Keith Olbermann Keith Theodore Olbermann (born January 27, 1959) is an American sports and political commentator and writer. Olbermann spent the first 20 years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and ra ...

also hosted a few shows.

Closure

In 2001, however, the network began facing intense pressure from upstart network

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 ...

, which had the major backing of industry giant

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

. Additionally, SFRN's parent company, Winstar Communications, a NASDAQ-traded telecommunications firm, began experiencing severe financial trouble (which eventually ended in bankruptcy). Determining that the network could not compete with

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 ...

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

, and

One on One Sports SportsMap was a sports radio network that was distributed by Gow Media. The SportsMap Radio Network supplied its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its history, thro ...

, Sports Fan Radio Network began dismantling. Eventually, Donnellan was fired one week before the Super Bowl, leaving J. T. the Brick and Scott Ferrall as some of the remaining hosts, hosting two live shifts plus replays throughout the day. The network folded in May 2001, ceding most of its affiliates to Fox.

Former hosts

After being released by Sports Fan,

took an approximately 6-year break from radio broadcasting, during which she underwent treatment for cancer. She returned in sporadic guest hosting gigs in 2007, and in April 2008, returned full-time as the co-host of "Brantley and the Babe" on

WHBO WHBO (1040 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pinellas Park, Florida, and serving the Tampa Bay area. The station is currently owned by Genesis Communications and it airs a conservative talk radio format, branded as "News Talk 1040" ...

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater i ...

. After various stops on Tampa Bay area radio stations, she left radio again in 2014. Chuck Powel
hosted news talk and FM morning radio
in Phoenix from 2003 to 2009. He's now wit

fro
10a-Noon
After the folding of Sports Fan, Frank Andrews, whose real name is Angelo Fracassi, changed his stage name to "Zig" and went to work in his native Western New York, for the now

defunct Defunct may refer to: * Defunct (video game), ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also

* * :Former entities * End-of-life product * Obsolescence {{Disambiguation ...

radio station WNSA. After that station was sold off, Zig landed a job at

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) service that operated in the United States and Canada. Sirius launched in 2002, and primarily competed with XM Satellite Radio, until the two services merged in 2008 to form Sirius XM. Li ...

, where he hosted ''

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

Live'' (until that show moved to XM) and is currently a weekend anchor for Sirius NFL Radio and

Mad Dog Radio The following is a list of channels on Sirius XM and Sirius XM Canada. There are over 150 full-time channels on Sirius XM, over 140 of which are on Sirius XM Canada. Not included are channels that are specifically used for live sports programmin ...

. Soren Petro now host
"The Program" in Kansas City
on 810 WHB, one of the largest sports talk stations in the country (covering six states). After the dissolution of SFRN, J. T. the Brick was almost immediately hired by Fox Sports Radio, where he is today.

Scott Ferrall Scott Ferrall (born July 29, 1965) is an American sports talk radio personality who hosts two shows on the SportsGrid video streaming service, Scott Ferrall: Coast to Coast and In-Game Live. Scott's father Thomas C. Ferrall was a former radio ...

currently works for

CBS Sports Radio Infinity Sports Network is an American sports radio network. It debuted as CBS Sports Radio with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. Infinity Sports Network is programmed by Audacy, Inc ...

; he spent several years at

Sirius XM Radio Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merger ...

Howard 101 Howard 100 and Howard 101 are two uncensored channels on SiriusXM, a satellite radio service that broadcasts programming affiliated with Howard Stern and ''The Howard Stern Show''. Though the channels were first broadcast on September 29, 2005 ...

prior to joining CBS. Bill Lekas went to

Sporting News Radio SportsMap was a sports radio network that was distributed by Gow Media. The SportsMap Radio Network supplied its network affiliates with a 24-hour schedule of sports programming, including call-in shows and sports updates. Over its history, thro ...

and later moved to Sirius XM Radio. Dave Cokin and Steve Cofield stayed in Las Vegas, hosting on ESPN920 and FoxSportsRadio1460. They teamed up for DC and the Sunshine Man on ESPN1100 from 2007 to 2011. They currently do shows on ESPN1100/100.9 FM, Cokin from 2–3 and Cofield 3–6. "The Sports Pig" hosted in Boise, and then back in Las Vegas on FoxSportsRadio1460. He was joined by Cofield for "Steve and the Sports Pig" from 2004 to 2007. H
died in 2012
at age 52. Scott Kaplan and

Sid Rosenberg Sidney Ferris Rosenberg (born April19, 1967) is an American radio personality. He is currently the host of ''Sid and Friends in the Morning'' and "Sid Sports Sunday" plus sports reporter on 77 WABC in New York City. Career Rosenberg is known fo ...

would go on to be the original co-hosts of ''The Sports Guys'' on

WNEW-FM WNEW-FM (102.7 FM broadcasting, FM, ''NEW 102.7'') is a hot adult contemporary-Radio format, formatted radio station, City of license, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy faci ...

. Kaplan now works at

XEPRS-AM XEPRS (1090 Hertz, kHz) is an Amplitude modulation, AM commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Playas de Rosarito, a suburb of Tijuana in Baja California, Mexico. It broadcasts an Spanish Language, Spanish Christ ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. Rosenberg went on to greater fame as a co-host at

WFAN WFAN may refer to: * WFAN (AM) WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, with a sports radio format, branded "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New Y ...

, working alongside the likes of

Joe Benigno Joseph S. Benigno (born September 26, 1953) is an American sports radio personality. He was a co-host of the '' Joe & Evan'' show with Evan Roberts weekdays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET on the New York radio stations WFAN-AM and WFAN-FM. His retir ...

and

Don Imus John Donald Imus Jr. ( ; July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show '' Imus in the Morning'' was aired on various stations and di ...

, eventually inheriting Imus's time slot after his retirement and death. Jorge Sedano now host
The Sedano Show
nationally on ESPN Radio. Ryan Williams, hired from WFAN when SFRN launched 24/7, hosted weekends and moved to mornings teaming up with fellow host Steve Cofield, with major affiliates in Tampa, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Las Vegas. Williams moved to the program director position and was also responsible for discovering Chris Russo (Russell), Bill Lekas and Brandon Tierney, providing them with their first national presence in the industry.

Craig Carton Craig Harris Carton (born January 31, 1969) is an American radio and television personality. He was the co-host of the ''Carton and Roberts'' sports radio program on WFAN in New York City, and is seen nationally on Fox Sports 1 as host of '' Br ...

was a co-host '' Boomer and Carton in the Morning'' on WFAN, but was convicted on federal fraud charges and reported to prison in June 2019. John Phillips was with CBS Radio Pittsburgh 93.7 The Fan working as a sports anchor/reporter and talk-show host. Tim Ryan is now with the ''

NFL on Fox The ''NFL on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox NFL'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports and televised on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox broadcast network. ...

'' and Sirius NFL Radio. Bruce Schein currently produces (and appears on-air) on Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo's television program
High Heat
' on the MLB Network. There was also a weekend host by the name of Chris Russo (not the same

Chris Russo Christopher Michael Russo (born October 18, 1959), also known as "Mad Dog", is an American sports radio personality best known as the former co-host of the '' Mike and the Mad Dog'' sports radio program with Mike Francesa, which was broadcast ...

of ''

Mike and the Mad Dog ''Mike and the Mad Dog'' was an American sports radio show hosted by Mike Francesa and Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo that aired in afternoons on WFAN in New York City from September 1989 to August 2008. From 2002 the show was simulcast on telev ...

'' fame); he hosted the Redskins pre-and post game shows on the Washington Redskins radio network. He's no
a host and the Redskins Insider for ESPN980
in 2005. Rocco Pendola hosted a show on the network. He is no longer in radio and works as a freelance writer
recently appearing as a regular
on

thestreet.com ''TheStreet'' is a financial news and financial literacy website. It is a subsidiary of The Arena Group. The company provides both free content and subscription services such as Action Alerts Plus, a stock recommendation portfolio co-managed by ...

. Eric Pollero, who hosted and produced the show "SportsFan Conversations", went on to work at CBS SportsLine in Florida. Eric is currently an account executive with WSJS/Curtis Media Group in North Carolina. Geoff Nathanson went on to work in television and radio as a play-by-play announcer and host at LA powerhouse radio station KNX 1070. He also developed into the go-to guy fo
TV sportscaster parts and commercials
working in a famous

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. ( ; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and ...

Powerade spot, a Lance Armstrong Nike commercial, a Gordie Howe IBM spot and a David Eckstein Del Taco commercial. He has appeared as a recurring character in the ABC Family Channel series, "Make it or Break it" as well as on "Providence", King of Queens" and hosted the World Championship of Fantasy Football on Versus.

Former station

At least one affiliate, KSFN in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

(the flagship station of Frank Andrews's and Papa Joe's program), took its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

from the network. It later became

KXST KXST (1140 AM) was a commercial radio station licensed to North Las Vegas, Nevada, and broadcasting to the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The station was owned by Audacy, Inc. It aired a sports radio and sports betting format, primarily from ...

, a

station.

References

External links

Official Web site
{{American broadcast radio Defunct radio networks in the United States Sports radio networks in the United States Radio stations established in 1996 Radio stations disestablished in 2001