[10] On May 19 a second New York City broadcasting station, also on 360 meters, was licensed to the Western Electric Company, an AT&T subsidiary located at 463 West Street, with the call letters WDAM.

[28] A more ambitious three-month link began operation on July 1, 1923, when Colonel Edward H. R. Green arranged for AT&T to provide WEAF's programming for rebroadcast by his station, WMAF in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

[28] Reacting to AT&T's innovations, RCA began efforts to establish its own network, originating from its New York City station, WJZ (now WABC), but was badly handicapped in competing effectively.

During BCA's short existence, the standard WEAF chain configuration consisted of 17 stations, concentrated in the northeastern United States, but also extending westward to WDAF (now KCSP) in Kansas City, Missouri.

The format would feature such artists as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Nat "King" Cole, The Everly Brothers, Tom Jones, The 5th Dimension, Peggy Lee, and Dionne Warwick.

Imus stayed with the station for most of the next two decades, except for a couple of years in the late 1970s when there was a general purge of the air staff and a short-term format flip to a music-intensive top 40 approach.

By 1973, WNBC was a mainstream top 40-leaning adult contemporary music radio station featuring The Carpenters, Paul Simon, Carole King, The Stylistics, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, and other artists of that era.

His first decision was to lay-off all of the station's personalities, some of which were veterans (including Don Imus, Cousin Brucie, Norm N. Nite and Joe McCoy), replacing them with younger-sounding disc jockeys from Boston and medium markets.

As a result of this tweaking, the station was now playing artists such as Andy Gibb, KC and the Sunshine Band, Boston, Peter Frampton, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Billy Joel and the Bee Gees, among others.

However, listenership actually went down, and while some of the new air personalities would find success (Johnny Dark, Frank Reed, and Allen Beebe would be heard on the station well into the 1980s), others would not (Ellie Dylan, who replaced Imus in morning drive, would be gone within months).

By 1979, Pittman would leave WNBC (he would soon become the founder of MTV), John Lund was hired back as program director (from KHOW in Denver), and Imus returned to the morning show.

Under program director John Lund, WNBC's playlist was tweaked back to an adult top 40 format, and ratings increased by 50% to surpass WABC by the summer of 1980.

When Lund returned as program director in late 1979, WNBC general manager Robert Sherman set the goal: "Beat WABC", which had been New York's #1 station for decades.

As part of that campaign, TV commercials and subway boards softened the image of the cantankerous Don Imus by including two cute twin blonde little girls saying "We're #2" and blanketing the New York City metro area.

In reality, WABC's ratings had begun to nosedive in 1978–79, and by the time WNBC beat them in 1980, it was only good enough for sixth place in the market (behind WBLS, WKTU, WOR, WCBS-FM and WRFM).

This show was now marketed as The Time Machine, playing oldies from 1955 to 1974 (emphasizing 1964–1969), complete with old jingles and an echo effect, resulting in a sound similar to WABC's during its Top 40 heyday.

Then, on April 6, 1987, a couple weeks after Soupy Sales left, his former sidekick Ray D'Ariano moved back into the 10 am to 2 pm weekday time slot, but was now playing 1955–73 oldies while focusing on 1964–69.

The Time Machine remained on overnights, but was now expanded to full-time on weekends with hosts Dan Taylor (laid off from WHN when they became WFAN), "Big" Jay Sorensen, "The Real" Bob James, Jim Collins, Lee Chambers, Dale Parsons, Carol Mason and others.

Other hosts besides Lampley during WFAN's fifteen months at 1050 kHz included Bill Mazer, Pete Franklin, Greg Gumbel, Art Shamsky, and Ed Coleman.

At the time of the switch, sports talk radio was still an untested format with questionable prospects, and the idea was that bringing on board a host who appealed to a broader audience would get more people to give the station a try.

Imus's wife Deirdre joined his longtime co-host, comedy writer, and news reader, Charles McCord, to anchor the final segment of the radiothon on April 13.

On September 4, 2007, Esiason took over as the permanent host of the WFAN morning show, with veteran radio personality Craig Carton (previously of WKXW-FM in Trenton, New Jersey) serving as co-host, and Chris Carlin remaining to do sports updates.

[63] Francesa and Russo then continued their normal summer routine of alternating vacation weeks, and on August 5, 2008, they would do their final show together at the New York Giants' training facility at the University of Albany.

[78] In 2012, WFAN drew controversy for a New York City Subway ad that discouraged fans from offering their seats for pregnant women wearing Boston Red Sox gear.

Carton was arrested on September 6, 2017, along with Michael Wright, and charged with four counts of fraud in what authorities say was a Ponzi scheme that duped investors of millions of dollars by promising them a share of the profits from the sale of concert tickets.

In years prior to 2019 WFAN used corporate sisters WCBS (AM), WCBS-FM, WNEW-FM and WNYL, and non-sister stations including WNYM, WBBR and WLIB, as outlets for overflow broadcasts when teams are scheduled opposite each other.

In previous years, Yankees managers (more recently, Aaron Boone) and a member of the Giants (such as, in the past, former quarterback Eli Manning) have made exclusive appearances on WFAN during their respective baseball and football seasons.

With the migration of music stations to FM and other carriers all but complete, sports talk radio are considered to have been critical in saving the AM band as a viable broadcast medium.

Such was her status as a beloved member of the WFAN talk community that, when she died at 58 of complications from lung and breast cancer, it was host Joe Benigno who broke the news to his late-night audience at 1 am, Doris' usual call–in time.

[citation needed] In addition to having its broadcast heard on 660 AM in New York City, WFAN's programming is also transmitted via a secured internet feed to Audacy owned and operated stations.