Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but 94 WIP smoked 97.5 the Fanatic in the latest Nielsen ratings period, which ran from September 12th to December 4th. It’s the all-important Fall book, which carries through most of the Eagles season and the MLB playoffs.

All three of WIP’s main dayparts saw increases from the Summer, while the Fanatic dipped across the board.

As a reminder, when we do these posts, we focus on Nielsen meters plus streaming, using the men 25-54 demographic. WIP has a total number separated into streaming and over the air, while 97.5 has both of those wrapped into a singular number, known as “total line reporting.”

Mornings

  • 94 WIP: 15.6 (4.8 stream, 10.8 over the air)
  • 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.8

This was a nice jump for the WIP morning show, which posted an 11.5 in the Summer. They finished #2 in the market, behind Preston and Steve, who dropped a 21.2 megaton bomb on our heads. WMMR continues to broadcast a monstrosity in the morning.

For the Fanatic, 3.8 was good enough for a fifth-place finish.


Midday

  • 94 WIP: 15.6 (3.2 stream, 12.4 over the air)
  • 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.8

This was the key time slot of the Fall book, with all eyes on Mike Missanelli’s return. In his first full book from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Mikey Miss and Bill Colarulo finished #8 overall. Joe Giglio and Hugh Douglas were #1 with a 15.6, which represents the highest number they have ever done.

What’s most interesting is that WIP middays never used to come close to pulling numbers similar to the morning show or afternoon show. That goes back several years now, through the Angelo Cataldi and Jon Marks eras. But over the summer, Joe and Hugh posted a 14.0, which represented an increase of six full ratings points in five books. If you add in this number, they’re now up 6.6 ratings points over the past 18 months. It’s a meteoric rise in this daypart.

Afternoons

  • 94 WIP: 15.5 (2.7 stream, 12.8over the air)
  • 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.4

The trio of Spike Eskin, Ike Reese, and Jack Fritz had another strong showing, finishing #1 in this time slot.

In Bala, The Best Show Ever? finished 10th, dropping below 4.0 for the first time in a minute. For more than a year now, Tyrone Johnson and Ricky Bo have outperformed the other day parts at 97.5, but this time they finished slightly behind Mikey Miss and the John Kincade/Andrew Salciunas duo.

Evenings

  • 94 WIP: 12.3 (1.8 stream, 10.5 over the air)
  • 97.5 the Fanatic: 2.4

No surprises here, as the Phillies helped WIP to an easy #1 finish. Fanatic was 13th.

Prime

  • 94 WIP: 15.3 (3.6 stream, 11.7 over the air)
  • 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.6

Across all time slots, WIP finished first in the market. WPEN was 8th.

Takeaways?

That is obviously a disappointing number for Mikey Miss in his first full book since returning in the Summer. Fanatic middays pulled a 4.4 in the prior ratings period, which included one month of Bill and Mike and two months of Bob Cooney and a rotating crop of hosts.

Still, 3.8 tied Kincade and Salciunas, and did slightly better than The Best Show Ever?, so take that for what it’s worth. This time last year, Fanatic mornings and middays were in the 2.8 to 3.3 range, so depending on how Fanatic management looks it, they could frame this as year-over-year improvement despite the needle not moving very much.

This is a ratings period typically dominated by 94 WIP to begin with, because they’re the Eagles and Phillies rights holder and benefit from both the NFL regular season and MLB playoffs. The Phils disappointed everyone this year, so they didn’t provide the same bump we saw in 2023 and 2022, but WIP hums along anyway, like a well-oiled machine. WIP has a Ted Nugent stranglehold on this men 25 to 54 demographic.

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