Rare Monday Tripleheader Highlights The Week

Quite the day on Monday (10/1) for ESPN, with three major live telecasts. ESPN had the unprecedented two tiebreaker National League games all afternoon, leading into its already scheduled K.C. vs. Denver Monday Night Football telecast.

ESPN was coming off a successful Saturday, with their telecast of the Ohio State vs. Penn State thriller becoming the highest college football overnight rating thus far in the season.

The MLB post-season lines up on multiple networks this week, with Fox once again burying their post-season telecasts on Fox Sports 1. They probably still will find other reasons to justify lower ratings instead of the realization that many casual baseball fans don't know FS1 and can't find the games.

On TBS, Don Orsillo will have an extended role for the post-season, replacing Ernie Johnson. Johnson, who expects to be ready for his studio duties on NBA telecasts starting later this month, is unable to do play-by-play for MLB due to a medical diagnosis which results in his being advised by doctors not to fly.


The September radio ratings are out already for the top markets (as of press time).  The big surprise is New York's WFAN-FM dropping by .8 of a ratings point overall. Although still a respectable #9 in the market, the Yankees going to the post-season combined with shaky starts for both the Giants and Jets usually makes for a ton of interesting discussion. WEPN-FM ESPN did not benefit from WFAN's loss, holding steady with a 1.4 Nielsen rating for the third consecutive month.

In Chicago, WSCR The Score 670 did the opposite of WFAN-FM, rising by .8 to #6 overall in the market. The station was obviously helped by the Cubs (flagship station) heading toward the post-season (during the ratings period) and the impressive start by the Bears. WMVP ESPN gained .2 but finished #25 overall in the market.

Even with the Dodgers in the division race and the majority of the market unable to watch their local telecasts, KLAC 570 again failed to make the market's top 25, holding steady from the month before. Houston's KBME-AM rose by .4 to the strongest overall audience showing by a Houston sports station in years, yet still did not finish in the top 20 for the market.

Philadelphia's WIP-FM held steady and finished #6 in that market's ratings, while San Francisco's KNBR 680 felt the impact of the disappointing seasons from both the Giants and 49ers. KNBR dropped .8 overall, while failing to make the top 10 in the market. The always strong and competitive Boston ratings were not yet available at press time.


The NHL season starts on Wednesday (10/3) and NBCSN is ready with a doubleheader to kick it off. The Bruins vs. the Capitals is the opener followed by Anaheim vs. San Jose.


PHILADELPHIA: WPEN-FM 97.5 The Fanatic (which now has roughly one-third of the total audience of WIP-FM) has announced its new morning and midday lineup, with Anthony Gargano moving out of morning and into the midday show.

The "Farzetta and Tra Show" comes to mornings, with Marc Farzetta and (former Eagle) William 'Tra' Thomas. Gargano moves to the 10 AM to 2 PM spot, where he is now paired with Jason Myrtetus, who remains in place.


CHICAGO: As the NBA begins its pre-season, Bulls TV voice Neil Funk decided to reduce his travel schedule starting this season, which will be his 47th year as a broadcaster. Funk will call all home games and roughly half of the road telecasts, reducing his schedule by 20 games for the coming season. He has been calling Bulls games since the 1991-92 season including radio and TV. Word is that the Bulls will not name a replacement for all 20 telecasts for this season.

It was quite the Saturday (9/29) for WGN Radio, faced with conflicts for its local play-by-play. The three local teams it is flagship station for were all playing within the same time period, while the station does not have a sister station on either AM or FM.

WGN 720 aired the Northwestern vs. Michigan football game at 4 PM local time, joining its White Sox vs. Minnesota broadcast following the football post-game show. The White Sox broadcast (6:10 PM game start) was farmed out to WYLL 1160 AM in its entirety, including pre and post-game programming.

Later, the Blackhawks pre-season game, which started at 7:00 PM, was farmed out to WLS 890 for the entire broadcast. The station did air the Northwestern and Blackhawks games via its web site, with MLB restrictions preventing them from also streaming the White Sox broadcast.

NBC Sports Chicago lost a legend with the retirement of Director Jim Angio after 40 years of directing White Sox and Bulls telecasts. The network also canceled its studio highlights shows, again, after two years since their not well received format changes.

Siera Santos, who had been with NBC Sports Chicago as a reporter for the past three years, has joined WFLD-TV as a sports anchor and reporter.


NEW YORK: As if this wasn't a tough enough season for the Mets, the TV ratings statistics for the market (for SNY) show that the loss of the Mets audience for the just concluded season was roughly twice the amount of viewers that the Yankees gained for their telecasts of their 100 win season on YES Network.