The December into the first weekend of the New Year radio ratings are not among the most important, but did show a couple of interesting trends. Atlanta's WZGC 92.9 The Game continues its impressive rise, having added more than 40% to its overall ratings since June.
We also saw the expected impact in some NFL markets, especially Minneapolis/St. Paul. Vikings flagship KFXN finished #1 in the market, which made it the only all sports radio station in the country to achieve that distinction. The Ravens' great regular season finish spurred Baltimore's WJZ-FM to rise by more than one-half of a ratings point for the month. Philadelphia's WIP-FM also increased overall for a top three market position.
CHICAGO: It's now officially less than one month before Marquee, the new Chicago Cubs TV Network, makes its scheduled debut on Feb. 22nd. The Network has added some nationally known analysts as contributors as well, including Rick Sutcliffe, Doug Glanville, Dan Plesac, Ryan Dempter, Mark DeRosa, and Carlos Pena (all former Cubs players). In addition, Lou Pinella will appear occasionally as an analyst.
However, as of press time, the AT&T family of providers and several smaller cable providers such as RCN are the only ones to sign up to carry the Network. With Comcast Xfinity not signed up, this means that roughly 40% of the Chicago market would be able to get Marquee. The significant difference from the Los Angeles Dodgers TV situation is that fans are able to subscribe to an AT&T outlet from the majority of locations. Comcast could very well be waiting to gauge the number of subscribers it loses to AT&T before making a decision, but continues to own a large part of NBC Sports Chicago, which shows all White Sox games available to it.
Faced with no over-the-air pro sports for the first time in more than 70 years, WGN-TV is taking an interesting approach toward serving the baseball fans without cable or satellite, along with its local audience. Starting on Monday (1/28), WGN-TV will present a live half hour sports recap Monday through Friday nights at 10:30 PM, following its local news. Many stations in Chicago and around the country do this on Sunday nights to feature NFL highlights. It will be interesting to see how the ratings go for this weeknight attempt.
Shea Peppler is out after almost two years as sports reporter and weekend anchor at WFLD-TV, along with contributions on WMVP ESPN 1000. Peppler is moving east to join her husband, who is ESPN anchor Jordan Cornette.
PHILADELPHIA: In addition to wonderful ratings just released, a nice honor for WIP-FM's long time morning man Angelo Cataldi. He celebrated his 30th Anniversary with the station by earning the Bill Campbell Broadcast Award for excellence in broadcasting.
CLEVELAND: Congrats to Matt Fishman on being named Director of Content at WKNR ESPN. Fishman has served as Sports Director at WSCR The Score in Chicago and Program Director at KCSP Kansas City.
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