This post is three weeks late because I was on vacation when the Q1 2024 radio ratings came out. My bad. Then people started blowing up the inbox.

Barrett Sports Media, however, did not forget, and posted a story on April 26th with the WIP and Fanatic numbers, so we’ll just give them credit and links and work off their story.

Reminder that we use the demographic of men in the 25 to 54 age range because it’s the key sports demo and determines how advertising rates are set –

Mornings

  • 94 WIP: 16.7
  • 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.5

WIP was down from the 19.4 number they posted at the height of the Eagles season, which is natural. Fanatic had a negligible increase from 3.3 to 3.5. WIP finished second behind Preston and Steve while the Fanatic was 7th.

Dip aside, 16.7 is still a monster number for the WIP morning show. They really did not slow down at all following Angelo Cataldi’s departure. They picked up right where they left off and kept humming.


Midday

  • 94 WIP: 10.2
  • 97.5 the Fanatic: 2.6

WIP finished 3rd and Fanatic was outside of the top 10 in middays, a 0.4 increase for Joe Giglio and Hugh Douglas and a 0.2 dip for WPEN. Note that this shift was in limbo in the post Anthony-Gargano era, so Andrew Salciunas did the bulk of the hosting before Bob Cooney moved from mornings to 10 a.m.

Barrett on that:

“Salciunas hosted most of the programs within the daypart and was also on the air for part of the fall book, which resulted in a 2.8 share finish that positioned the station in a tie for 12th place. Year-over-year, the daypart is down 1.3 shares, along with one ratings position.”

For some full-year context, Anthony Gargano’s winter book in 2023 did a 3.8, which at the time was the highest among the Fanatic day parts. They’re down more than a full share point year-over-year.

Afternoons

  • 94 WIP: 11.0
  • 97.5 the Fanatic: 4.0

This was probably the most intriguing time slot, considering the departure of Jon Marks at the end of the year. In the first Jack Fritz+Ike Reese book, the show was down from 12.8 to 11.0. How much of that dip is due in part to Marks leaving is really impossible to tell. Consider that the morning show took a slight dip coming out of the Eagles season as well, and it’s totally plausible that we’re just looking at the cyclical nature of the football calendar.

Another thing worth pointing out is that while the Birds went to Super Bowl the year prior, they burned out this past season and interest was down.

Q2 will be good to look at as well, considering it will be the first full book that includes Spike Eskin in the host chair.

As for the The Best Show Ever?, nothing changed. Tyrone Johnson, Ricky Bo, and Jen Scordo did a 4.0 to match the same number they did in the fall. Despite having a better number than the midday and morning shows, Scordo was laid off as part of the company-wide Beasley cuts that took place in early May.

Evenings

  • 94 WIP: 7.9
  • 97.5 the Fanatic: 2.9

Both stations down. WIP was third and Fanatic was 15th in the market.

Prime

Across all time slots, WIP finished #2 with a 12.6, slightly down from the 14.2 number that beat WMMR in the Fall. The Fanatic was 8th with a 3.4 number, a 0.1 increase from the Fall.

Takeaways?

I think people wanted to know how much Jon’s departure affected the afternoon show, and it’s going to be a wait and see type of approach with that. Once we reach a full year, we’ll go through the entire Eagles interest cycle and be able to compare fall-to-fall and winter-to-winter. That’s a more accurate way of doing it.

In the mornings, Preston and Steve reclaimed the M25-54 demo, which WIP impressively won in the Fall. It’s correct to say that WMMR is king, however, since they own the adult and women demographics in addition to the male demo.

RE: the Fanatic, there’s really not a ton to say. TBSE held the same number while the other two shows had inconsequential movement. Q2 will be the first full book in which we can evaluate the new lineup, with the caveat of Bob Cooney using a rotating cast of co-hosts for his show. We’re still keeping an eye on a possible Mike Missanelli return, but there’s been radio silence on that front for a few weeks now.

PLAY THE SONG! (a different one this time since this story is three weeks late)