WIP has a problem.

Since April, Nielsen has allowed radio stations to combine their over-the-air rating with their stream rating, marking a shift from the previous era of being stuck in a time gone-by in the name of self-preservation. As we’ve detailed numerous times, WIP, thanks to its older audience demo, lackluster and confusing streaming options, and perhaps the content itself, struggles mightily to register anything more than a blip on the streaming radar. That trend continued last month.

In the latest ratings release for the May ratings period running from April 21 to May 18, WIP and 97.5 were relatively evenly matched over-the-air (except for the bloodbath Josh Innes suffered at the guilt-stained hands of Mike Missanelli), but 97.5’s stream, in virtually every time slot, put it out ahead, again, thus making it impossible for WIP to claim it is the Nielsen ratings leader.

Overall, 97.5 beat WIP in every full week measurement when you combine over-the-air and streaming ratings. Full stop. WIP only beat 97.5 over-the-air from Monday-Sunday, thanks in large part to its Phillies broadcasts.

For individual shows, it was more of the same from last month.

Mornings

Angelo Cataldi and the morning team again beat Anthony Gargano and friends, though the latter gained ground after getting brutalized last month and moved up to third overall in the market, one spot behind WIP’s morning show and two spots behind the market leader, Preston and Steve, who just trounce everyone always.

Mid-days

This is now the fourth month in a row Harry and Rob, on 97.5, beat Mike and Ike, on WIP. The latter had a slight over-the-air lead, but produced a negligible streaming number and finished seventh in the market. Harry and Rob, with an excellent streaming number, finished fourth. Mike and Ike’s rating has been nearly cut in half in just over a year.

Afternoons

Mike Missanelli disemboweled Josh Innes. There’s really no other way to put it. He more than doubled him. What’s more, Innes produced literally no streaming number. None. It’s 0. Innes’ tactic of 40 minutes commercial free every hour – an attempt to sweep multiple quarter hours – hasn’t worked. Missanelli does something similar and goes 50 minutes commercial free starting at 4:50 p.m. It’s a little trick stations use to keep listeners tuned in for the next quarter hour, the units of measurement by which ratings are, um, measured. The problem is that, commercials or not, people won’t stick around if they don’t like what they hear. This is apparently the case with Innes. Not even 40-straight minutes of content can hold listeners. Even worse is that he benefited from three day Phillies games, which often more than double his audience. He finished sixth in the market, and likely would’ve been even lower if not for the Phillies. WIP has built their lineup around Innes, and it’s proving to be a big fat mistake.

Evenings

Joe “The Hammer” DeCamara beat Sludge again.

What we’re seeing, particularly in the Afternoons, is both stations using radio science to score the highest rating possible by keeping listeners tuned in for at least five minutes per quarter hour over multiple quarter hours. I’ll continue to argue that this sort of ratings gaming serves the stations more than listeners, but it does lead to 30+ minutes of commercial free radio, which is nice… unless you’re one of the few tuned in to Josh Innes, in which case it doesn’t matter. THE MUSICS: