A Full Holiday Weekend of Viewing

So much for the years when there would be no games on Christmas Eve and maybe a couple of games to watch on Christmas Day. The NFL is taking over this year with games on both nights after a full slate of Saturday afternoon games. Although this is due to the holiday falling on a Sunday this year, it lessens the impact of the ABC/ESPN slate of five consecutive live NBA games which usually are dominant on Christmas day and night.

The latest Nielsen radio ratings have come out, these for the period from early November (after the World Series ended) into the first week of December. As is often the case, this ratings period proved terrible for the majority of sports radio stations.

In Boston, the two sports stations both finished in the top seven overall, which is still a strong showing. However, WBZ-FM Sports Hub dropped .7 of a ratings point from the month before but came in #4 overall. WEEI-FM dipped .9 during the same time, dropping to the #7 spot overall.

Minneapolis listeners continued to grow KFXN-FM The Fan, although this ratings book is a "good news - bad news" result. The good is that the station remains #1 in the market on weekends (surrounding the Vikings broadcasts), but it fell from 4th place to 8th place for weeknights in just one month. The Fan dropped by more than one full ratings point from the previous month, yet came in #2 overall, down from #1 the previous month. With the Vikings in contention all month, it will be interesting to see what the next ratings bring.

Chicago listeners clearly came down from the high of the Cubs championship in November, as flagship station WSCR The Score 670 lost more than half of its overall audience in just one month, dipping from an all-time high of 6.2 to a more typical 2.6. The Score went from #2 in the market to #13, while WMVP ESPN 1000 came in at 2.0 (having dropped .9 as well from the MLB post-season month.

Strong sports stations in San Francisco and Detroit also saw dips during November. KNBR 680 (San Fran.) dropped from #3 overall to #7, losing 1.5 rating points. Yet, KGMZ-FM The Game actually gained .2 during the same time, although still well under half of KNBR's total audience. Both of Philadelphia's sports stations dropped, with WIP-FM losing .6 and WPEN-FM losing .2.

While the Cowboys ride to the post-season, even the three Dallas sports stations all failed to gain any (overall) audience during November. KTCK-AM dropped .4 but leads the sports race at 3.2. KRLD-FM dropped .3 to a 2.9, while KESN-FM ESPN held steady but trails with a 1.5. In Houston KILT-AM dropped .4 from the previous month, while both KFNC-FM and KMBE-AM held steady with their ratings of less than 1.

In Los Angeles, KSPN 710 gained slightly while KLAC-AM 570 dropped .8 with no more Dodgers broadcasts to carry it, dropping it back behind KSPN for the sports radio "lead".

Meanwhile, the media era of not having editors double check the facts hit still another low point for a group of newspapers in Michigan owned by Advance Publications on Monday. The Grand Rapids Press, Muskegon Chronicle, Kalamazoo Gazette, and other smaller papers in the same group were among those newspapers with a wrong front page headline published.

They each had "Lions Roped By Cowboys" as a headline. However, the Lions lost that game to the N.Y. Giants in real life. This was the front page of the entire newspaper - not just the sports section.

That falls under News Editor in addition to Sports Editor. Now we know that no one checks a headline for facts on the front page. While the executives wonder why the circulation drops. Yikes.


CBS will get away with a sneak attack this Saturday (12/24) to run up against Fox which actually has the NFL doubleheader telecast. While Fox gives more of the country the Tampa Bay vs. New Orleans game (called by Kenny Albert, since Joe Buck and Troy Aikman get the Green Bay vs. Minnesota early telecast) among its late games, CBS has a regional late telecast of its own.

The Indianapolis at Oakland late game regional telecast will air (against a Fox game) in markets including Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, and Denver, among others. To that point, CBS has assigned its top team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms to the game. They figure that more fans might want to check out the Raiders than the Tampa game in those markets, and they may have a point. It could be like CBS having an "extra" double header telecast. But that's a great move for them under the current TV rules.


MINNEAPOLIS: KFAN 100.3 has announced a three year extension of its contract as flagship station for the Wild, which goes through the 2019-20 season. The station is now in its sixth season as the team's flagship.

Have a great holiday weekend!!