Radio_wars_rate

There’s a lot of bluster that comes from virtually every local radio host with regard to their ratings. And typically, an absence of such braggadocio comes with a corresponding lack of listeners.

A CB source has provided us with a look into the Nielsen ratings by which program directors, producers, hosts, station managers and Lego Head live and die.

We’ve obtained the numbers, broken down by demographic and day part, from August of 2014 through January of 2015 – in other words: football season (with some spillover) – from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. We don’t have evening ratings for that period, but I’ve been told by sources close to WIP and 97.5 that Josh Innes, on some occasions, lost to Sixers games on 97.5 this fall.

Sports talk radio people will tell you all that matters is the 25-54 male demo, because this is the main advertising demo to which they sell. That’s a fair argument, but it doesn’t measure the station’s true impact and reach on local sports fans, which, really, is what most of us care about. Radio people care about what makes money and pays their salaries, we care about how much influence they have (and a little bit about the money and salaries).

Nielsen is very protective of this proprietary data, so per their usage guidelines, we can publish station comparison standings by time slot and demo, but not the actual ratings or listener estimates. That said, I’ll do my best to put everything into appropriate context.

Morning Drive

When it comes to sports, this is all Angelo Cataldi and the morning team. While behemoth WMMR (Preston and Steve) led the market no matter how you slice it, it’s WIP that finished a close second among all men over 18, and their rating almost doubled 97.5’s (Mike and Mike) from 6-10. The latter finished tied for seventh overall in the market.

Things weren’t quite as good for WIP in the all-important, pay-me-my-money demo of men 25-54. They remained in second place, behind WMMR, but Preston and Steve’s lead increased rather substantially in this more targeted demo. 97.5, too, fared better, with Mike and Mike finishing in a virtual tie for third, much closer to WIP.

The takeaway? This will become a trend in this post— WIP reaches a substantial audience, but their lead lessens as the audience segmentation gets younger. Still, Angelo and the morning team kill it.

What would happen if Anthony Gargano were to host a morning show on 97.5? Maybe we’ll find out one day.

Winner: WIP

 

Middays

This is the toughest day part to parse because WIP does a weird 10-1 thing with Mike and Ike (I’m told they don’t do the more traditional 10-2 because Barkann needs to leave at 1 to prepare for Philly Sports Talk), which means you can’t really compare apples-to-apples. So, keep that in mind for this part, even though I’ll do my best to put everything into its proper context. We have the ratings that measure from 10-1, not 10-12 and 12-2.

Neither station – not WIP (Mike and Ike), nor 97.5 (Harry Mayes and the Brians, Westbrook or Baldinger, from 10-2, and Jon and Sean, picking up the 12-1 hour) – fared particularly well here. Both saw a decline from the morning, in their standing amongst local stations, among all men over 18. WIP dropped to fifth, while 97.5 dropped to ninth. The comparison was similar among men 25-54, with the rankings virtually unchanged with regard to the two stations. 97.5 did, however, cut into WIP’s lead here slightly among the younger demo.

Where does this leave Jon and Sean? It’s hard to say. The ratings available to us, for August-January, don’t include a specific 12-2 slot. But, we do have September ratings for the time slot and sources who indicate that there wasn’t much change to 97.5’s ratings between 10-12 (Mayes and Brians) and 12-2 (Jon and Sean). In September, however, Jon and Sean’s time slot did see a slight ratings increase over the 10-12 slot.

Winner: WIP, but they’re working with a huge lead-in from the Morning Show and actually losing steam during this time slot.

 

Afternoons

This is the battleground.

The ratings we have on-hand are from August-January, before Tony Bruno and Josh Innes were teamed up. So we’re comparing Mike Missanelli largely to Anthony Gargano and Rob Ellis, both of whom are no longer with WIP. Did they really fare that poorly against Mike? Well, it depends how you slice it.

Since the ratings provided to us contain a 1-6 time slot, which for 97.5 overlaps with Jon and Sean, we’re going to compare 97.5 and WIP on the more specific 4-6 drive time slot, the ratings for which were also made available to us.

Among all men over 18, WIP and 97.5 finished in a virtual tie. Depending on which metric you value most, one or the other had a statistically insignificant edge. They’re both tied for first in the market, overall, even ahead of WMMR, which is all over these ratings leaderboards.

Among men 25-54, the ultra important demographic, it was Missanelli who killed it. He led by a wide margin over WIP, which finished third from 4-6 (WMMR, of course, was second). This is why there has been so much upheaval during that time slot at WIP— no one has beat Mike.

Will Tony Bruno and Josh Innes do it?

The February month-long ratings aren’t out yet. However, multiple sources tell me that, based on weekly ratings reports, Missanelli held his lead during the first two weeks of Tony and Josh’s show, which is atypical since new shows often get a big boost from a curious audience. And indeed, I’m told Mike’s lead increased slightly in the second week.

Winner: 97.5, though we don’t have month-long ratings for Tony and Josh.

…

As you know, Josh Innes is a lightning rod. People love him or they hate him. The people who dislike him, which includes many of his coworkers not named Andy Bloom, are quite vocal about it. I’ve written previously that Innes is Bloom’s boy and that Bloom thinks Innes is the next Howard Stern. One reader, who early on sensed the same thing about Bloom’s perception of Innes, voiced his displeasure about Innes being an out-of-town shock jock in an email he sent to Bloom early last year, which we’ve obtained. Bloom, who told me on the air I was a fraud for daring to presume what he’s thinking, replied to the email by basically sending the guy his resume, including this line: “I was also told that I need local guys and had no idea how this market works when I was the program director of WYSP in 1986 and we debuted Howard Stern. That worked out pretty well. Apparently I know enough about how this market works to continue to program radio stations here a quarter of a century later.” Apparently. GET ME THAT MAESTRO:

https://vimeo.com/118706793

Ratings data based on Nielsen weekday ratings from August 2014-January 2015