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According to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News, long-time Yankees radio broadcasters John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman have both agreed to contracts with WFAN that will keep them in the radio booth for the next two seasons. With the agreements in place, 2016 will be the 12th season that Sterling and Waldman have shared radio broadcasting duties for the Yankees. As one particular broadcaster might say: "How do ya like that?"
Interestingly, Raissman reported that the negotiations between Sterling and WFAN were described as "somewhat acrimonious." While the Yankees wanted both broadcasters to return, the team has no official say of who the station puts in the booth.
The 77-year-old Sterling has long been the subject of criticism from fans and some in the media for his errant home run calls ("IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS.....caught at the wall") and other mistakes, yet he will begin his 27th season as the team's radio voice. Amazingly, since taking over as the play-by-play voice of the Yankees on the radio in 1989, Sterling has never missed a single game.
Waldman, 69, joined Sterling on the radio as the color analyst in 2005 after Charlie Steiner left to become one of the radio voices of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Waldman has covered the Yankees since the late 1980s when WFAN first came on the air. She has also served as the play-by-play announcer in the days before the YES Network when games were broadcast on WPIX and the MSG Network.
In terms of length of tenure as radio broadcasters of the Yankees, both Sterling and Waldman are high up on the list. Sterling is the second-longest serving radio broadcaster for the Yankees, trailing Phil Rizzuto by just three seasons (30 to 27; Rizzuto spent 40 years broadcasting but stopped doing radio after 1986). Meanwhile, Waldman's two-year contract will take her into a tie with Red Barber for the seventh-longest tenure (both at 13 years when Waldman's contract is up). Other broadcasters with long tenures in the radio booth for the Yankees include Mel Allen (22 years), Frank Messer (18 years), and Bill White (18 years).