John A. Minko (born January 31, 1953) is an American
sports radio
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on ...
and television personality. He was a "20/20 sports anchor" on radio station
WFAN
WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area while ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and had worked there from its inception in 1987 until 2020. Nicknamed "Coach" by his coworkers, Minko provides listeners with up-to-the-minute sports news, Sundays through Thursdays between the hours of 10am and 5pm (Monday-Thursday) and 6am and 12pm (Sunday). He has also, at times, been called the "Dean of Updates", a moniker in recognition of his seniority. On April 2nd, 2020, Minko had said that April 3rd was his last day on WFAN.
Minko has been a resident of
New Milford, New Jersey
New Milford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 16,341,Mike's On: Francesa on the Fan crew, preceded by Mike and the Mad Dog on'' the
YES Network
The Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network (YES) is an American pay television regional sports network owned by Yankee Global Enterprises (the largest shareholder with 26%), Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (which owns 20%), ...
. which ran from 1989 thru 2014. Minko is often the butt of jokes made by host
Mike Francesa
Michael Patrick Francesa (born March 20, 1954) is an American sports-radio talk-show host. Together with Chris Russo, he launched ''Mike and the Mad Dog'' in 1989 on WFAN in New York City, which ran until 2008 and is one of the most successful s ...
, including false accusations of making critical remarks regarding other members of the radio station or claims that he has boasted about a personal achievement.. He is also teased about his button-down personality and inability to ad-lib during his updates.
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 retireme ...
credits Minko for teaching him to read at a third-grade level.
From 2000 to 2009, Minko was the play-by-play voice of
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armÄre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
football on WABC 770 and WEPN. In 2010, he served as co-host of Army football's pre-game show. He also served as the update person for Francesa's nationally syndicated ''NFL Now'' show. More recently, Minko has served as the fill-in radio voice of the New Jersey Nets. Minko also hosted a short-lived 1988 WFAN show, ''Minko Morning Zoo''. His trademark calls are "Bingo!" and "He rings the bell." Minko is a graduate of
Butler University
Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communic ...
.
John has been the radio play by play announcer for St. John's Red Storm college basketball since November 11, 2008.
Minko also co-hosts a weekly video blog called the ''Minko Minute'' with Evan Roberts. They usually talk about whatever Mink wants at first then Evan asks Minko a love question. These so far have only come from a male viewer. The usual response from Minko is to get the woman in question flowers and chocolate. More recently his advice has been to take the woman in question to a nice Broadway show. There have been a few guest appearances including the most recent appearance by
Ian Eagle
Ian Eagle ( ; born February 9, 1969) is an American sports announcer. He calls NBA, NFL, and college basketball games on CBS, TNT, and TBS, as well as Brooklyn Nets games on the YES Network and French Open tennis for Tennis Channel. Other ...