I was a constant listener (in my car) during the early days, even to Pete Franklin and Steve Sommers. One of the things I liked was the snippets of famous play by play calls they used as segues. My favorite (as a 49er fan) was Jack Buck's call of the John Taylor game winning Super Bowl catch. He ended it with "...touchdown! touchDOWN!!". I have looked for it for years and can't find it.

They also used Harry Kalas' call of Schmidt's 500th.

When Suzyn Waldman officially put WFAN (660 AM) on the air, July 1, 1987....

Actually, it was 1050 AM back then, representing a format and call-letter change from country music station WHN. WHN had been the radio home of the Mets; I remember thinking it funny at the time that the Mets radio network and television network (WOR - Channel 9 in New York) both had a change of call letters the year after the Mets won the World Series.

I was a constant listener back then, being as I was: A) a Mets fan; and; B) the owner of a car without an FM radio.

Man, I can still remember those early days like it was yesterday. Pete Franklin's debut being delayed because he had a heart attack. Jim Lampley hosting his show from LA; that is, on those days when Lampley felt like waking up early. Mike Francesa joking, the day before Chris Russo was to join him as a co-host, that if Russo didn't behave himself that the union would be so brief that it would be "A Dog Day Afternoon". Jody Mac (McDonald) reading baseball boxscores over the air during the overnight hours ("Terry Jones, oh-for-three; Barry Larkin, one-for-four; Eric Davis, oh-for-three....). Steve Sommers describing on air how he had been mugged approximately twenty hours earlier.

But the thing I remember most was that the claim (I believe made by Jeff Smulyan) that you would know all-sports talk radio was a success "when every major market in America has one, and New York City has two."

Congrats, WFAN.

DB

Benji--
Don't say I never did nothing for you.

I suppose Benji wouldn't want to sound ungrateful, but that's the Dwight Clark catch for the NFC title. He's going more for one a few years later.

DA: That was Tracy Jones who went 0-3. (-:

But thanks anyway, it's always nice to see Clark, Owens and Vernon The Beast make "the catch" after "the catch" after "the catch". And see it happen to the team I hated the most at the time.

I was a constant listener back then, being as I was: A) a Mets fan; and; B) the owner of a car without an FM radio.

What kind of car did you own in '87? Back then my dad was still driving a banged-up and unreliable 1968 Jeep Cherokee with an intimidating three-speed manual transmission tucked behind the steering column. Needless to say, the few dates I went on that year involved a long ride on the subway.

#8 - Back then, I was driving a 1969 Buick Skylark, which would eventually be replaced by a 1976 Buick Riviera. At least, that's how I remember it.

DB

I was bamboozled by the identical "...touchdown! touchDOWN!!" part. You may resume saying I never did nothing for you.

I still appreciated the effort and the introduction to Dwight Clark's page. So I owe ya one.

One of the cool things about the "The Catch I" game was the TV play by play was done by Vin Scully.