Sportsnet 590 The Fan in Toronto is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and the initial success of the station can be attributed to the runs made by the Blue Jays and the Maple Leafs in the fall of 1992.
Appearing as a guest on The Bob McCown Podcast, The Fan's first program director Allan Davis said the writing was on the wall in spring of '92 that the format change to all sports needed to happen in time to chronicle the Jays' journey to its first World Series title that October.
"We got to the point of going all sports largely because 1430 was struggling with everything but sports," Davis said of the station, which originally occupied 1430 on the AM dial. "It was really what are we going to do with the rest of our day. And we had tried different music formats, tried different talk formats, and nothing was really resonating and connecting other than play-by-play."
Davis noted that in early October when the 92-93 Maple Leafs season started, the team rattling off 10 straight wins also helped drive interest. But he said it really came down to spring training and understanding that the Blue Jays had a team completely capable of winning it all and all the conversations about the format shift hinged on that success.
"We've gotta have everything in place by September, and we got it there," he said. "It was crazy, it was not easy, but we got it there. And of course the Blue Jays delivered, and it was just unbelievable what they did."
Davis added that taking a different approach to the style in which the shows presented themselves to listeners was important. He didn't want a caller-driven station.
"I think that would've been a failure," he said. "I think that the audience would not have accepted that. What we were promoting, and what we were hopeful in demonstrating hour in and hour out, was we were going to take you to the story. We sold that. We promoted it heavily."
Still, those early days and the massive ratings that helped pave the way for The Fan are thanks to Joe Carter and company. He recalled getting a phone call from Billboard Magazine at the time, which named The Fan a station of the week, and being asked about how the station got off to such a hot start. Davis said the Jays made it easy.
"Well, the Blue Jays just won the first World Series in the history of the country," Davis recalled saying. "I think that had something to do it."
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