CP the Fanchise (Casey Powell, from Long Island and creator...

CP the Fanchise (Casey Powell, from Long Island and creator of KnicksFanTV) poses with WFAN host Evan Roberts at the WFAN studios. Credit: Casey Powell

Casey Powell calls himself “a WFAN baby.” Like most Long Island sports fans of his generation, he grew up with the station.

But on Friday, he did something only an infinitesimal percentage of FAN fans can claim on their resumes: co-host an afternoon drive program on WFAN.

Powell, 38, also known as “CP The Fanchise,” is to fill in for vacationing Craig Carton alongside Evan Roberts, a turn of events his 8-year-old self no doubt would have found difficult to fathom.

Cool, right?

“That’s an understatement,” Powell said. “I’d wake up with FAN and go to sleep with it on and when I was in high school working menial jobs as a delivery guy, it was the FAN.

“It’s the connection between the host and the fans and that intimacy, I think, that always kind of stuck out to me. It helped my days go by real fast.”

But Powell is not just a random listener being given a microphone.

Since 2017, he has parlayed his intense interest in the Knicks and his Rockville Centre-bred gift of gab into a burgeoning side gig.

His day job is in cybersecurity risk management, at least for now. His hobby-turned-media venture is “KnicksFanTV,” a popular YouTube channel focused on the team.

Between that and his Twitter and Instagram accounts, he has about 100,000 subscribers.

It began in 2017, when Powell thought Knicks fans were being underserved by mainstream media outlets.

So he took a camera to the NBA Draft in Manhattan and started interviewing fans, which provided plenty of material when the team took Frank Ntilikina in the first round.

He later added more sports talk elements such as postgame discussions and interviews with past and present Knicks and entertainment figures. The famed rapper Chuck D has become a prominent supporter of the channel.

“The ultimate goal was to replicate that sports talk radio platform, replicate what ‘Mike and the Mad Dog’ did, because that was such a big influence on me,” he said.

“People saw an authentic person. They saw themselves, but also someone that can break down the game. Be partial, yes. Be biased, in some regards. But also be unbiased and just give them a fair take on the state of the team.”

Casey Powell

Casey Powell Credit: Casey Powell

Powell has gone on to regular appearances on SNY, SiriusXM, ESPN Radio and even visits with Roberts, a noted Nets fan, on WFAN.

WFAN gave him his own two-hour show one Saturday night last season.

“I was in the Mike Francesa Studio hosting this show that was centered around the Knicks,” he said. “It was an amazing experience sitting in that chair, just being able to connect with the people in the tri-state area.”

Powell is a Giants and Yankees fan in addition to the Knicks. He had no trouble venturing beyond hoops talk into football and baseball as he sat in with Roberts while wearing a “KFTV” hat and “KFTV” jacket.

It all began at a formative age during which he would listen to “Mike and the Mad Dog” in his father’s car — “Their banter going back and forth almost sounded like a married couple fighting, so it was intriguing,” he said — while the Knicks were battling Michael Jordan’s Bulls and reaching the 1994 NBA Finals.

Those 1990s Knicks had a personal connection for Powell because his parents are of Jamaican descent, as was Knicks center Patrick Ewing.

“He was somebody that we always revered and were always rooting for,” Powell said. “It was the classic Knicks battles against the Bulls, the Pacers, NBA on NBC. You would go to church and then you’d come home and wait for the 1 o’clock game to start.”

Powell is a self-taught interviewer. He said he has studied the likes of Larry King and Charlie Rose for guidance. The rest is just him being himself.

“I think the popularity of the channel and popularity of my personal brand has just come from people seeing themselves in me as an authentic fan,” he said.

“No angles, no gimmicks. I’m not trying to be a rah-rah guy. I’m not looking for sound bites to make myself more popular. I’m going to give you my opinion. I want to hear your opinion. And we can debate respectfully.

“And if that works for you, then this is the platform for you. And if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t.”

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