A native of Buffalo, New York, Egan replaced Ted Husing as the announcer for Harvard football games after Husing was banned for referring to Harvard quarterback Barry Wood as putrid. From 1946 to 1973, Egan worked for WBZ and WHDH radio, where he called Boston Red Sox, Boston Braves, and Boston Bruins games. Egan was the first baseball announcer to call a game live from an opposing team's ballpark; calling a Red Sox game from Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1948. At WHDH, he spent years covering the morning drive-time news shift and playing the straight man to Jess Cain. On November 22, 1963 Egan broke into air time to announce that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. In 1970, Egan briefly returned to the Red Sox booth when regular announcers Ken Coleman, Ned Martin, and Johnny Pesky refused to cross the picket line of WHDH-TV's electrical workers.