The local radio ratings for the July ratings period – which actually began in the middle of June and ran through the middle of July, the slowest period of the year for sports talk radio – are out and there are a few takeaways based on the all-important men 25-54 demo… even though I can’t give you the actual ratings because Nielsen frowns upon that sort of thing:

  1. WIP got its ass handed to it
  2. Preston and Steve completely own the market and it’s not even close
  3. WIP didn’t record a single streaming rating for any time slot

Overall, full week, and weekdays, 97.5 beat WIP by slim to healthy margins when you combine over-the-air and streaming ratings. As for the individual shows, things aren’t looking great for WIP, though it’s worth noting that some of these numbers are impacted by vacations.

In the mornings, Angelo Cataldi and Co. edged Anthony Gargano and friends, but by only 0.1 ratings points OTA– the closest 97.5 has ever gotten to WIP in the morning. Neither show had a measured streaming rating. Meanwhile, Preston and Steve almost quadrupled the WIP and 97.5 morning shows.

97.5 again beat WIP mid-days, with Mike and Ike losing to Harry and Rob by a fairly significant margin– almost two full ratings points when you include the stream. In fact, Mike and Ike, as well as Josh Innes (more on him in a second), probably represent the most alarming declines for WIP. Mike and Ike’s OTA number was less than half of what it was this month last year. While ratings across the board were down from last year due to the slow sports month (I can confirm this one our end, too), WIP’s mid-day show has completely cratered unlike any show in the market… with the exception of:

Josh Innes. He was against crushed by Mike Missanelli, by almost three full ratings points when you include the stream. Both hosts had vacation time during the month, though, with Missanelli missing almost half of the measured days. But more damning for Innes is the fact that his decline was almost as great as Mike and Ike’s compared to this month last year, when he actually beat Missanelli. Innes lost more than half of his OTA audience from the same period last year.


In the evenings, Joe “The Hammer” DeCamara again beat Brian Haddad from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m., but WIP did beat 97.5 at night, largely because of the Phillies.

Some takeaways: Again, ratings were down overall from last year due to a slow sports month. But while other decreases were fairly modest (though 97.5’s mid-day show actually grew), WIP’s Mid-day and Afternoon shows got completely pulverized. Not only did their OTA audiences get cut in half, but they’ve been unable to use their stream (during peak streaming hours) – at all – to gain any incremental audience. A source believes that some changes will occur later in the year when the contracts of Michael Barkann and Josh Innes are believed to be up. MUSIC: