An important and local sports "news" story is taking place, but the local sports radio station doesn't capture the audience you would expect. Granted, these are not based on scientific results, but I think it makes the point.
This past Thursday (4/12), the owners of the Sacramento Kings of the NBA were meeting with league officials regarding the status of the current ownership. Once again, rumors have heated up that the Kings might be relocating away from the Sacramento area. Such a relocation impacts local revenue, part-time jobs, and civic pride. Especially in this instance, considering the Kings are the only major professional team in town.
Coincidentally, the Sacramento Bee began a poll that day asking respondents "Which sports radio station do you listen to on the drive home?". The poll received a total of 780 responses. Again, not scientific, but compared to the number of diaries or PPM's used to determine the market's ratings, this is a reasonably representative sampling. Especially when you learn that only 13% of those responding said "none". That 87% of those responding actually do listen to a sports radio station during their afternoon commute adds significance.
During afternoon drive in Sacramento, only KHTK 1140 The Fan regularly airs a local sports show, hosted by Grant Napear. The Fan is also the flagship station of the Kings' broadcasts, as well as airing the Oakland Raiders games and some syndicated play-by-play such as Monday Night Football. ESPN 1320 airs ESPN programming during afternoon drive. The story about the meetings involving Kings ownership received comparably less national attention.
This is where the results of this informal poll hit hard. While ESPN 1320 and its national programming received only 16% of the vote, Napear and KHTK received 28% of the vote. Those desperate for a positive spin on this, of course, point out that the "local" show beat out the ESPN show by about 12%.
However, a sports station received 43% of the votes (including votes by those who do not listen to sports radio). KNBR 680 from nearby San Francisco was the "winner". As many of you know, KNBR has been showing excellent ratings in the Bay Area and its consistent 10 ten finishes make it one of the strongest sports radio stations in the country, especially on the west coast.
KNBR is in Warriors country, and right now, its focus is, understandably, on the Giants and their start to the 2012 baseball season. Their focus is and was not on the Sacramento Kings, especially when this is not an "on the court" matter in the news.
Although I have heard Napear several times and enjoy his work, I was not listening last week and was not aware of this Bee poll until after the fact. Granted, this poll is not at all a reflection of only April 12th listening. However, the story of the Kings possibly relocating has been ongoing for months. I can't say this is a reflection of his show, but it could be a reflection of the station.
MIAMI: One of the most significant weeks for Miami's sports radio stations in quite some time. A change in afternoon drive for WQAM results in Dan Sileo taking over as host of the 3 - 7 PM spot last week. This appointment comes just a few weeks after Sileo, who is a former University of Miami defensive lineman, was fired from his morning sports show in Tampa after referring to three black football players as "monkeys". Sileo replaces Sid Rosenberg, who was dismissed last week from the station. Not because of ratings, but because of his arrest for DUI while reportedly driving with a suspended license. Just a few weeks earlier, Rosenberg was reportedly under suspicion of having large gambling debts.
While this was going on, Jorge Sedano has left 790 The Ticket to move on to CBSSports.com. Sedano initially is hosting a fantasy sports show for the web site, although many insiders expect the show to soon begin airing on CBS Sports Network. But for reasons having nothing to do with ratings, area sports fans have lost out on two popular hosts.
SAN FRANCISCO: It's the radio version of "I Said - They Said" played out all over again. KNBR 680 fired Ralph Barbieri after 15 years as "the Razor" on the "Razor & Mr. T Show" and did not (as of press time) explain the move. Later, Barbieri issued a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, claiming he "had no idea" that day and was actually escorted out of the building after gathering his belongings and turning in the key, ending his 28 years at the station.
HOUSTON: Within a month after being let go by KILT, former NFL linemen N.D. Kalu and Greg Koch have been teamed up for the beginnings of a new show on KBME 790. As of this week (Monday 4/16), the pair host "In the Trenches with Koch & Kalu" from 10 to 11 AM. The pair had only done one shift together as co-hosts prior to this, while working on separate shows on KILT. The next few weeks figure to be on-the-air training for the pair. Look for KBME to expand their role by July and the start of Texans training camp and the coming NFL season.
CHICAGO: Let the jokes about sports events becoming "made for TV" continue on this one. The National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame will honor its 2012 "Sportsman of the Year" on Saturday (4/21), and it will be a television executive. Jim Corno, the President of Comcast SportsNet Chicago, will be honored for his years of service to Chicago based regional sports networks. Joey Votto of the Reds (who are in Chicago this weekend) will be honored as "Athlete of the Year", while former catcher Mike Piazza will be one of the emcees. Once the jokes are over, it is time to acknowledge the job that Corno has done over the years in keeping those regional networks successful.
BOSTON: While Patriots fans celebrate long time play-by-play voice Gil Santos' 72nd birthday on Monday (4/16), the possibility remains that Santos' health status could keep him from returning to the booth this summer. Santos is reportedly still at a rehabiliation center recovering from "a severe case" of pneumonia. 98.5 The Sports Hub is expected to give Santos plenty of time to recover before making determinations for the coming season's broadcasts. He has been teamed with Gino Cappelletti for the past 21 seasons, and here's hoping it's at least 22 before all is said and done.
LOS ANGELES: Score another peg on the maximum exposure meter for USC. The school has become only the second school (other than Notre Dame) to now have a national radio package, as the University of Southern California football games will air nationally on ESPN Radio starting with the upcoming season. It is a multi-year contract, which begins on Sept. 1st with a home game against Hawaii. Locally, 710 KSPN has been airing USC games since the 2006 season.
SOUTH BEND: WSBT, the flagship station for Notre Dame football and basketball is adding its FM signal and now offers a complete simulcast, including the play-by-play and the ESPN Radio programming it carries. In a wonderful coincidence, the signal from 960 AM now airs on (you guessed it) 96.1 FM. Sure makes it easier for the promotion staff!
And finally, being a "beat reporter" for a "major league" team is a big way to get noticed at the national level. NFL Media, which oversees NFL Network and NFL.com has added four new reporters to its staff. They are Kim Jones, who has worked on WFAN New York and on YES Network as a Yankees reporter; Aditi Kinkhabwala, who covered the N.Y. Giants for Wall Street Journal and will become the Steelers correspondent based out of Pittsburgh; Ian Rappaport, who covered the Patriots for the Boston Herald and will now be based out of Dallas; and Gregg Rosenthal, who comes over from NBCSports.com and Pro Football Talk to become a Senior Editor.
Showing posts with label wfan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wfan. Show all posts
Monday, April 16, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Sports League Networks Work Worthwhile
Sports fans continue to benefit by the various major sports having multiple networks showing their games, and even moreso based on recent announcements and events.
Even the NHL is catching up and not hiding their telecasts liked they used to, or so it seemed. For yars, every MLB and NFL playoff game has been televised on a national basis. Last season, NBA-TV filled in the occasional early round "gap" and made certain that every playoff game was seen nationally. We are also in the midst of our second year of every NCAA Basketball Tournament game being seen live on one of four channels.
NBC has come out with the announcement that starting in early April, every NHL playoff game will be shown live. NBC will continue to showcase weekend action, with NBC Sports Network providing doubelheader coverage when possible. In addition, CNBC will be utilized to show additional early round action, since the strength of CNBC programming comes during the business day and would not be impacted by NHL coverage at night. NHL Network will also carry local feeds of additional telecasts.
This is good to see, as networks normally competing for viewers continue to work together, including cross-promotion, for the benefit of fans of the sport or the league(s). After all, CBS would normally not promote programming appearing on TNT or TBS, and vice versa, but these networks have devoted air time toward cross promoting the NCAA telecasts.
Even on regular season NBA telecasts, ESPN/ABC and TNT regularly promote the "national TV schedule" within their game telecasts regardless of which games are on other networks.
On the heels of this comes the word that Fox Sports is partnering with MLB Network for its Saturday baseball pre-game show starting in just over 2 weeks. The pregame show for the Fox Game Of The Week will now originate from the MLB Network studios, and be hosted by Matt Vasgersian. Personnel from both MLB Network and Fox Sports will participate.
This all serves to show how far the various "league" networks have come, and the progress they continue to add. NBA-TV did a great job with its "Trade Deadline Special" last week (3/15), with a 2-hour live special centered upon the league trade deadline. The network also came back with a prime-time recap and a fresh look at the teams. Of course, the network had no way of knowing there would not be a major deal done, but having this show available and utilizing the available resources around the league was a great approach. For the NBA fan, it certainly beat hours of nothing but speculation on the various sports talk radio stations around the country. NBA-TV also didn't stop because these shows were on up against the NCAA opening round telecasts during the afternoon, instead doing their job to maintain interest in NBA activities on what could have been a significant day.
NFL Media, which includes NFL Network (along with NFL.com and NFL Films) has received 14 Sports Emmy Award nominations. This is an amazing and very positive reflection on NFL Media. Other award nominees come from the various networks and programmers who invest millions and millions of dollars and use prime time toward showcasing the games and leagues they telecast.
Included among the nominations are Mike Mayock, who acted as analyst for NFL Network's Thursday Night Football telecasts this past season. Mayock was established as analyst on NBC's Notre Dame football telecasts and did quite well in his first regular NFL assignment.
By the way, NBC has moved the Notre Dame vs. Miami college football telecast on October 6th, which will be played in Chicago at Soldier Field as an ND home game, to prime-time for an 8:30 PM ET telecast.
Meanwhile, this might seem like an issue only in Vermont, but it should not be treated as such. It seems that administrators at the University of Vermont went as far as to ask University President John Bramley to take terminate the school's contract for its sports broadcasts with WVMT-AM Radio. The reason? Because that station happens to carry Rush Limbaugh's show during the day. It seems that some faculty and school personnel remain upset over the remarks Limbaugh made last month and do not think the University should be associated with a radio station that carries that show as well.
UVM President John Bramley officially took the position of urging those upset about Limbaugh's comments to contact the station. WMVT General Manager Paul Goldman was quoted as saying that the station has no plans to drop Limbaugh's show, and that it wishes to keep the UVM sports contract, which as of now runs through the 2016 seasons.
Frankly, this attempt from the faculty members is more outrageous than anything Limbaugh said. Maybe the next group of students who disagree with a comment made by a professor should contact the school about ending the course. Those who work in the media should be totally offended by this crap.
NEW YORK: The latest radio ratings show that ESPN Radio is gaining on WFAN, especially in the afternoon, although Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton continue with solid morning numbers.
CHICAGO: WFLD-TV has added Dionne Miller as a sports anchor in early April. She will anchor the Friday and Saturday night sportscasts on the late news and participate in the Sunday half hour recap show, "The Final Word". Miller has worked for Big Ten Network, WBNS-TV Columbus, and also hosted studio shows before and after Cavaliers basketball telecasts.
97.5 ESPN Deportes will carry the Spanish broadcasts of White Sox games this season, as well as Chicago Fire MLS broadcasts for this season.
SAN DIEGO: XX Sports 1090 is adding Josh Rosenberg and Charod Williams to its lineup starting next week, with the pair coming over from XTRA Sports 1360. Rosenberg and Williams will take over the 10 AM to 2 PM spot, which also reduces Darren Smith's show to 2 to 5 PM. XX 1090 is the Padres' flagship station, and this means that John Kentera will air from 8 to 11 PM only on nights that the Padres are not playing at that time. What makes this move even more interesting is that it moves Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton into the 5 to 8 PM time slot after handling the midday spot. Most of the Padres road games will pre-empt some or all of Hamilton's show.
Hacksaw has always been very good at handling the "national" sports fans, as in the transplants and tourists in the San Diego area. Now, the evening time slot puts Hamilton up against the majority of games being televised and/or broadcast on other stations. Chances are, based on sports radio ratings vs. live sports telecasts around the country, this could cut into Hamilton's audience in the short term. Makes us wonder if there aren't any further changes in the hopper at 1090.
Even the NHL is catching up and not hiding their telecasts liked they used to, or so it seemed. For yars, every MLB and NFL playoff game has been televised on a national basis. Last season, NBA-TV filled in the occasional early round "gap" and made certain that every playoff game was seen nationally. We are also in the midst of our second year of every NCAA Basketball Tournament game being seen live on one of four channels.
NBC has come out with the announcement that starting in early April, every NHL playoff game will be shown live. NBC will continue to showcase weekend action, with NBC Sports Network providing doubelheader coverage when possible. In addition, CNBC will be utilized to show additional early round action, since the strength of CNBC programming comes during the business day and would not be impacted by NHL coverage at night. NHL Network will also carry local feeds of additional telecasts.
This is good to see, as networks normally competing for viewers continue to work together, including cross-promotion, for the benefit of fans of the sport or the league(s). After all, CBS would normally not promote programming appearing on TNT or TBS, and vice versa, but these networks have devoted air time toward cross promoting the NCAA telecasts.
Even on regular season NBA telecasts, ESPN/ABC and TNT regularly promote the "national TV schedule" within their game telecasts regardless of which games are on other networks.
On the heels of this comes the word that Fox Sports is partnering with MLB Network for its Saturday baseball pre-game show starting in just over 2 weeks. The pregame show for the Fox Game Of The Week will now originate from the MLB Network studios, and be hosted by Matt Vasgersian. Personnel from both MLB Network and Fox Sports will participate.
This all serves to show how far the various "league" networks have come, and the progress they continue to add. NBA-TV did a great job with its "Trade Deadline Special" last week (3/15), with a 2-hour live special centered upon the league trade deadline. The network also came back with a prime-time recap and a fresh look at the teams. Of course, the network had no way of knowing there would not be a major deal done, but having this show available and utilizing the available resources around the league was a great approach. For the NBA fan, it certainly beat hours of nothing but speculation on the various sports talk radio stations around the country. NBA-TV also didn't stop because these shows were on up against the NCAA opening round telecasts during the afternoon, instead doing their job to maintain interest in NBA activities on what could have been a significant day.
NFL Media, which includes NFL Network (along with NFL.com and NFL Films) has received 14 Sports Emmy Award nominations. This is an amazing and very positive reflection on NFL Media. Other award nominees come from the various networks and programmers who invest millions and millions of dollars and use prime time toward showcasing the games and leagues they telecast.
Included among the nominations are Mike Mayock, who acted as analyst for NFL Network's Thursday Night Football telecasts this past season. Mayock was established as analyst on NBC's Notre Dame football telecasts and did quite well in his first regular NFL assignment.
By the way, NBC has moved the Notre Dame vs. Miami college football telecast on October 6th, which will be played in Chicago at Soldier Field as an ND home game, to prime-time for an 8:30 PM ET telecast.
Meanwhile, this might seem like an issue only in Vermont, but it should not be treated as such. It seems that administrators at the University of Vermont went as far as to ask University President John Bramley to take terminate the school's contract for its sports broadcasts with WVMT-AM Radio. The reason? Because that station happens to carry Rush Limbaugh's show during the day. It seems that some faculty and school personnel remain upset over the remarks Limbaugh made last month and do not think the University should be associated with a radio station that carries that show as well.
UVM President John Bramley officially took the position of urging those upset about Limbaugh's comments to contact the station. WMVT General Manager Paul Goldman was quoted as saying that the station has no plans to drop Limbaugh's show, and that it wishes to keep the UVM sports contract, which as of now runs through the 2016 seasons.
Frankly, this attempt from the faculty members is more outrageous than anything Limbaugh said. Maybe the next group of students who disagree with a comment made by a professor should contact the school about ending the course. Those who work in the media should be totally offended by this crap.
NEW YORK: The latest radio ratings show that ESPN Radio is gaining on WFAN, especially in the afternoon, although Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton continue with solid morning numbers.
CHICAGO: WFLD-TV has added Dionne Miller as a sports anchor in early April. She will anchor the Friday and Saturday night sportscasts on the late news and participate in the Sunday half hour recap show, "The Final Word". Miller has worked for Big Ten Network, WBNS-TV Columbus, and also hosted studio shows before and after Cavaliers basketball telecasts.
97.5 ESPN Deportes will carry the Spanish broadcasts of White Sox games this season, as well as Chicago Fire MLS broadcasts for this season.
SAN DIEGO: XX Sports 1090 is adding Josh Rosenberg and Charod Williams to its lineup starting next week, with the pair coming over from XTRA Sports 1360. Rosenberg and Williams will take over the 10 AM to 2 PM spot, which also reduces Darren Smith's show to 2 to 5 PM. XX 1090 is the Padres' flagship station, and this means that John Kentera will air from 8 to 11 PM only on nights that the Padres are not playing at that time. What makes this move even more interesting is that it moves Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton into the 5 to 8 PM time slot after handling the midday spot. Most of the Padres road games will pre-empt some or all of Hamilton's show.
Hacksaw has always been very good at handling the "national" sports fans, as in the transplants and tourists in the San Diego area. Now, the evening time slot puts Hamilton up against the majority of games being televised and/or broadcast on other stations. Chances are, based on sports radio ratings vs. live sports telecasts around the country, this could cut into Hamilton's audience in the short term. Makes us wonder if there aren't any further changes in the hopper at 1090.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Sports Talk Stations On The Comeback Trail
Sports talk radio stations are finally on the rise in some of the larger markets based on the just released January ratings. Some of this, such as New York and Boston, were due to the Giants and Patriots reaching the Super Bowl during the ratings period.
Perhaps the biggest news is that Houston sports stations are trending up again, now registering more than the blip on the radar they have been for the past couple of years. Although KILT has only risen to #19 overall, KBME-AM and KFNC-FM also went up. This is significant for a number of reasons. The total sports audience rise means that one station's rise was not due to another station losing some of its audience, since they each gained.
In addition, this is not exactly a sports bonanza time for Houston's pro teams. The Texans' season ended in early in January even though it included a playoff appearance. The Rockets are not among the NBA's contenders this season, while the Astros' upcoming season does not look promising. This market bears watching over the next few months. Maybe I did write it off too soon.
San Francisco also showed growth, but it remains to be seen how much of that was due to the 49ers playoff run. KNBR went up to #7 overall, while The Game WGMZ-FM also went up, even if only to #26 overall in the market.
Chicago also saw its rival sports stations both on the rise for the January ratings period, with The Score WSCR finishing at #16 overall while WMVP ESPN showed an even larger audience increase despite finishing only 21st overall.
Dallas and Philadelphia, two of the traditionally strong sports radio markets over the years, each showed alarming decreases again, however. In Dallas, the 3 sports stations are now grouped together. KTCK-AM The Ticket is only #22 overall, with KRLD-FM now just .1 behind at #23. KESN-FM ESPN has now lost half of the overall audience it had as recently as the November ratings, and has sunk to #26 overall. Since I was unable to find out for sure prior to press time, I'll only speculate that it is the first time in many ratings periods that Dallas didn't have at least one of its sports stations in the Top 20.
In Philly, WPEN-FM held steady but came in at #18 overall, while the WIP 610 continues its downward spiral, now at a .7 for a #28 market rank. The FM partial simulcast has yet to make a dent either. The argument that the Phillies' broadcasts will be simulcast on WIP-FM may or may not make a difference. What happens in other cities does not always carry over, but Chicago's WBBM Newsradio had actually dropped a full ratings point since November, even with having added a full FM simulcast in the fall.
Los Angeles continues to be a sports talk disaster. KSPN 710 had dropped again and now ranks #28 overall in the market. KLAC has dipped to #34 overall. Combined, these stations don't make the top 20. We shall see whether or not baseball fans discover these stations over the next couple of ratings periods. The Dodgers enter the season with ownership uncertainty while fans have little to no idea about the station now airing their games (in English). The Angels begin their season with Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson being added, and with a lot of promise to contend.
Boston and New York will likely ride the Super Bowl train for at least another ratings book, as baseball season should keep their stations buzzing as well. For the January ratings, WFAN went up to #9 overall while WEPN (even at #23) also went up. In Boston, both The Sports Hub WBZ-FM and WEEI went through the roof, with both stations up and finishing in the top 8 overall.
Meanwhile, back to Houston and the likely disaster of a season ahead for the Astros. One reason to listen to the broadcasts will be because it will be the final season for Milo Hamilton to call the games on radio. That makes it worthwhile right there. Let's hope that Milo is also saluted as he makes his final trips to the road ballparks this season.
We won't know for sure whether or not ESPN removing Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football was really for the intent of getting him off those telecasts or if it is to reduce to a 2-man booth. My feeling is that it is a combination of both. On the surface, ESPN seems to really want Jaworski since they gave him a 5-year contract and will include him in much more of their NFL related programming.
While I grant you that not everyone likes Jon Gruden, I find it more significant that Monday Night Football will have 2 men in the booth for the first time ever. It's about time. ESPN has been making the gradual transition to turning MNF into a true football telecast instead of the booth circus that ABC used all those years. With NFL telecast ratings on the rise over the past couple of years, ESPN recognizes that fans are tuning in for the games and not to see what the announcers will do next. It is finally play-by-play and real analysis, compared with Frank Gifford's endless conversations about everything but for all those years on ABC, some of which lacked defined roles over who called the plays and who analyzed them. My hope is that this will become a trend.
For all sports, we are becoming saddled with so many analysts in the studio and at the game that there is not enough time for the "good" ones to expand on their thoughts. Getting back to the basics and focusing on the game itself is a great start.
Although it's not polite to highlight an embarassing story, the way the situation was handled by James Bates of CBS Sports Network deserves mention. Bates and Steve Wolf were on camera for the Network doing the opening of the Dayton at Xavier telecast on Saturday (2/18). During the opening, with both announcers seated on the court, the stool that Bates was sitting on broke and collapsed and Bates tumbled to the floor, all live on camera. Bates was shown getting up from the floor while Wolf stood up, but Bates kept talking, kept his cool, and began to joke about the fall. That was extremely professional and he made it seem like fun. If you haven't seen it yet, I'll bet you can still find the video of it.
Do NFL fans truly want to see prospects working out? The NFL Network thinks so. This week (Thursday through Saturday) the Network plans about 50 hours of coverage from the NFL Scouting Combine from Indianapolis. Complete with Rich Eisen anchoring the coverage and primary analysts including Mike Mayock, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, and Kurt Warner. This is not for any game action. This for guys working out and demonstrating skills individually for consideration among NFL teams. Unless I missed something, such as Vegas having a line on which guys will work out the best or some sort of rookie projection fantasy league, I'm not sure this "event' warrants such extensive coverage. Granted, there's not much else to talk about for NFL Network until much closer to draft time, and I'm all for live "original" programming, but this seems extreme.
The TV networks covering baseball are putting out their initial telecast schedules for the coming season. While we have already mentioned several of the early season ESPN telecasts, and MLB Network waits until other schedules are finalized before announcing which games they will carry, Fox and TBS have unveiled some or most of their planned telecasts.
Fox Sports is finally back to doing telecasts every Saturday (instead of waiting a couple of weeks into the season), and is expanding to eight Saturday night telecasts for this season. However, there will be a couple of Saturdays when Fox will move ahead of their "traditional" 4 PM ET spot and televise at 1 PM ET instead. This will be when Fox has a NASCAR telecast scheduled for prime time, and to make certain that their baseball telecasts are concluded. While that is admirable, this, combined with the added prime telecasts, means that more than 1/3 of their Saturday telecasts will not be airing at their "traditional" time.
Of course, Fox already has the Yankees and Red Sox scheduled for the maximum of 9 appearances, with the Mets, Braves, and Angels scheduled for 8 times. (The Mets???)
TBS has announced its Sunday afternoon telecast schedule for all of April and May. Guess what. Of their first 8 telecasts, 6 of those include either New York or Boston. However, TBS continues to have varied times for the start of its games, although no west coast or mountain time telecasts are scheduled yet. With varied starting times between 1 and 2 PM ET, at least fans know they can tune in at 2 PM ET and see a game start or in the early innings.
Here are those TV schedules:
FOX Saturday Baseball:
April 7 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Angels
April 14 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at New York Yankees, Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins
April 21 (3:30 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox at Seattle Mariners
April 28 (12:30 PM ET) Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
May 5 (3:30 PM ET) Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Mets Milwaukee Brewers at San Francisco Giants
May 12 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers Anaheim Angels at Texas Rangers New York Mets at Miami Marlins
May 19 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Baltimore Orioles at Washington Nationals Arizona Diamondbacks at Kansas City Royals
May 26 (7:00 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates Colorado Rockies at Cincinnati Reds Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
June 2 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers Chicago Cubs at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros
June 9 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at New York Yankees Cleveland Indians at St. Louis Cardinals Los Angeles Dodgers at Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Rays at Miami Marlins Kansas City Royals at Pittsburgh Pirates
June 16 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets Miami Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays Baltimore Orioles at Atlanta Braves Houston Astros at Texas Rangers
June 23 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at New York Mets Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles Los Angeles Dodgers at Anaheim Angels San Francisco Giants at Oakland Athletics Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago White Sox
June 30 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers Detroit Tigers at Tampa Bay Rays Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
July 7 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
July 14 (3:30 PM ET) New York Mets at Atlanta Braves Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies
July 21 (3:30 PM ET) San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals Texas Rangers at Anaheim Angels
July 28 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves
August 18 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres
August 25 (3:30 PM ET) St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds Atlanta Braves at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
September 1 (3:30 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
September 8 (3:30 PM ET) Atlanta Braves at New York Mets Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox
September 15 (3:30 PM ET) Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres
September 22 + Sept. 29 - To be determined
SUNDAY TBS SCHEDULE
April 8 1:30 p.m. New York Yankees at Tampa Bay
April 15 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
April 22 1 p.m. Texas Rangers at Detroit
April 29 1 p.m. Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees
May 6- 2 p.m. New York Yankees at Kansas City
May 13 2 p.m. Atlanta Braves at St. Louis
May 20 1:30 p.m. Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia
May 27 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
Perhaps the biggest news is that Houston sports stations are trending up again, now registering more than the blip on the radar they have been for the past couple of years. Although KILT has only risen to #19 overall, KBME-AM and KFNC-FM also went up. This is significant for a number of reasons. The total sports audience rise means that one station's rise was not due to another station losing some of its audience, since they each gained.
In addition, this is not exactly a sports bonanza time for Houston's pro teams. The Texans' season ended in early in January even though it included a playoff appearance. The Rockets are not among the NBA's contenders this season, while the Astros' upcoming season does not look promising. This market bears watching over the next few months. Maybe I did write it off too soon.
San Francisco also showed growth, but it remains to be seen how much of that was due to the 49ers playoff run. KNBR went up to #7 overall, while The Game WGMZ-FM also went up, even if only to #26 overall in the market.
Chicago also saw its rival sports stations both on the rise for the January ratings period, with The Score WSCR finishing at #16 overall while WMVP ESPN showed an even larger audience increase despite finishing only 21st overall.
Dallas and Philadelphia, two of the traditionally strong sports radio markets over the years, each showed alarming decreases again, however. In Dallas, the 3 sports stations are now grouped together. KTCK-AM The Ticket is only #22 overall, with KRLD-FM now just .1 behind at #23. KESN-FM ESPN has now lost half of the overall audience it had as recently as the November ratings, and has sunk to #26 overall. Since I was unable to find out for sure prior to press time, I'll only speculate that it is the first time in many ratings periods that Dallas didn't have at least one of its sports stations in the Top 20.
In Philly, WPEN-FM held steady but came in at #18 overall, while the WIP 610 continues its downward spiral, now at a .7 for a #28 market rank. The FM partial simulcast has yet to make a dent either. The argument that the Phillies' broadcasts will be simulcast on WIP-FM may or may not make a difference. What happens in other cities does not always carry over, but Chicago's WBBM Newsradio had actually dropped a full ratings point since November, even with having added a full FM simulcast in the fall.
Los Angeles continues to be a sports talk disaster. KSPN 710 had dropped again and now ranks #28 overall in the market. KLAC has dipped to #34 overall. Combined, these stations don't make the top 20. We shall see whether or not baseball fans discover these stations over the next couple of ratings periods. The Dodgers enter the season with ownership uncertainty while fans have little to no idea about the station now airing their games (in English). The Angels begin their season with Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson being added, and with a lot of promise to contend.
Boston and New York will likely ride the Super Bowl train for at least another ratings book, as baseball season should keep their stations buzzing as well. For the January ratings, WFAN went up to #9 overall while WEPN (even at #23) also went up. In Boston, both The Sports Hub WBZ-FM and WEEI went through the roof, with both stations up and finishing in the top 8 overall.
Meanwhile, back to Houston and the likely disaster of a season ahead for the Astros. One reason to listen to the broadcasts will be because it will be the final season for Milo Hamilton to call the games on radio. That makes it worthwhile right there. Let's hope that Milo is also saluted as he makes his final trips to the road ballparks this season.
We won't know for sure whether or not ESPN removing Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football was really for the intent of getting him off those telecasts or if it is to reduce to a 2-man booth. My feeling is that it is a combination of both. On the surface, ESPN seems to really want Jaworski since they gave him a 5-year contract and will include him in much more of their NFL related programming.
While I grant you that not everyone likes Jon Gruden, I find it more significant that Monday Night Football will have 2 men in the booth for the first time ever. It's about time. ESPN has been making the gradual transition to turning MNF into a true football telecast instead of the booth circus that ABC used all those years. With NFL telecast ratings on the rise over the past couple of years, ESPN recognizes that fans are tuning in for the games and not to see what the announcers will do next. It is finally play-by-play and real analysis, compared with Frank Gifford's endless conversations about everything but for all those years on ABC, some of which lacked defined roles over who called the plays and who analyzed them. My hope is that this will become a trend.
For all sports, we are becoming saddled with so many analysts in the studio and at the game that there is not enough time for the "good" ones to expand on their thoughts. Getting back to the basics and focusing on the game itself is a great start.
Although it's not polite to highlight an embarassing story, the way the situation was handled by James Bates of CBS Sports Network deserves mention. Bates and Steve Wolf were on camera for the Network doing the opening of the Dayton at Xavier telecast on Saturday (2/18). During the opening, with both announcers seated on the court, the stool that Bates was sitting on broke and collapsed and Bates tumbled to the floor, all live on camera. Bates was shown getting up from the floor while Wolf stood up, but Bates kept talking, kept his cool, and began to joke about the fall. That was extremely professional and he made it seem like fun. If you haven't seen it yet, I'll bet you can still find the video of it.
Do NFL fans truly want to see prospects working out? The NFL Network thinks so. This week (Thursday through Saturday) the Network plans about 50 hours of coverage from the NFL Scouting Combine from Indianapolis. Complete with Rich Eisen anchoring the coverage and primary analysts including Mike Mayock, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, and Kurt Warner. This is not for any game action. This for guys working out and demonstrating skills individually for consideration among NFL teams. Unless I missed something, such as Vegas having a line on which guys will work out the best or some sort of rookie projection fantasy league, I'm not sure this "event' warrants such extensive coverage. Granted, there's not much else to talk about for NFL Network until much closer to draft time, and I'm all for live "original" programming, but this seems extreme.
The TV networks covering baseball are putting out their initial telecast schedules for the coming season. While we have already mentioned several of the early season ESPN telecasts, and MLB Network waits until other schedules are finalized before announcing which games they will carry, Fox and TBS have unveiled some or most of their planned telecasts.
Fox Sports is finally back to doing telecasts every Saturday (instead of waiting a couple of weeks into the season), and is expanding to eight Saturday night telecasts for this season. However, there will be a couple of Saturdays when Fox will move ahead of their "traditional" 4 PM ET spot and televise at 1 PM ET instead. This will be when Fox has a NASCAR telecast scheduled for prime time, and to make certain that their baseball telecasts are concluded. While that is admirable, this, combined with the added prime telecasts, means that more than 1/3 of their Saturday telecasts will not be airing at their "traditional" time.
Of course, Fox already has the Yankees and Red Sox scheduled for the maximum of 9 appearances, with the Mets, Braves, and Angels scheduled for 8 times. (The Mets???)
TBS has announced its Sunday afternoon telecast schedule for all of April and May. Guess what. Of their first 8 telecasts, 6 of those include either New York or Boston. However, TBS continues to have varied times for the start of its games, although no west coast or mountain time telecasts are scheduled yet. With varied starting times between 1 and 2 PM ET, at least fans know they can tune in at 2 PM ET and see a game start or in the early innings.
Here are those TV schedules:
FOX Saturday Baseball:
April 7 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals at Anaheim Angels
April 14 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at New York Yankees, Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins
April 21 (3:30 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox at Seattle Mariners
April 28 (12:30 PM ET) Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels at Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
May 5 (3:30 PM ET) Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers Arizona Diamondbacks at New York Mets Milwaukee Brewers at San Francisco Giants
May 12 (12:30 PM ET) Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers Anaheim Angels at Texas Rangers New York Mets at Miami Marlins
May 19 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Baltimore Orioles at Washington Nationals Arizona Diamondbacks at Kansas City Royals
May 26 (7:00 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates Colorado Rockies at Cincinnati Reds Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
June 2 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers Chicago Cubs at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros
June 9 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at New York Yankees Cleveland Indians at St. Louis Cardinals Los Angeles Dodgers at Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Rays at Miami Marlins Kansas City Royals at Pittsburgh Pirates
June 16 (7:00 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets Miami Marlins at Tampa Bay Rays Baltimore Orioles at Atlanta Braves Houston Astros at Texas Rangers
June 23 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at New York Mets Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox Washington Nationals at Baltimore Orioles Los Angeles Dodgers at Anaheim Angels San Francisco Giants at Oakland Athletics Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago White Sox
June 30 (7:00 PM ET) New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers Detroit Tigers at Tampa Bay Rays Oakland Athletics at Texas Rangers San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins
July 7 (7:00 PM ET) New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
July 14 (3:30 PM ET) New York Mets at Atlanta Braves Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies
July 21 (3:30 PM ET) San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals Texas Rangers at Anaheim Angels
July 28 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves
August 18 (3:30 PM ET) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres
August 25 (3:30 PM ET) St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds Atlanta Braves at San Francisco Giants Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers
September 1 (3:30 PM ET) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs Anaheim Angels at Seattle Mariners
September 8 (3:30 PM ET) Atlanta Braves at New York Mets Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox
September 15 (3:30 PM ET) Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres
September 22 + Sept. 29 - To be determined
SUNDAY TBS SCHEDULE
April 8 1:30 p.m. New York Yankees at Tampa Bay
April 15 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
April 22 1 p.m. Texas Rangers at Detroit
April 29 1 p.m. Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees
May 6- 2 p.m. New York Yankees at Kansas City
May 13 2 p.m. Atlanta Braves at St. Louis
May 20 1:30 p.m. Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia
May 27 1:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston
Monday, August 8, 2011
August 8th Update.......
The July radio ratings are starting to come out, and based on the top 3 markets (released as of press time), it means that we'll see what impact the return of the NFL will have on the sports radio audience.
In New York, WFAN held steady while WEPN dropped .2 overall. The result is that The Fan now has literally 4 times the overall audience (all ages) that WEPN has. In Chicago, WSCR is only 19th overall, but did rise .2 compared with the June numbers. That's impressive given the lackluster season the White Sox are having, and WSCR is the team's flagship station. However, WMVP ESPN 1000 dropped .3 overall. The two stations had been close together in the ratings for the past couple of years but now WSCR has opened a gap.
In Los Angeles, where is no NFL team, it's tough to be polite in reporting. KSPN dropped again and has now lost half of its overall audience since the May numbers. And while KLAC held steady, neither station made the top 30 ranked stations in overall audience for the July ratings. Yikes!
While fans await the start of the NFL exhibition season within the week, the sports media around the country begins to benefit from the financial frenzy the NFL costs us all along getting their share of the audiences of football fans.
After all, the end of the lockout enables millions of people who are not even NFL fans to help subsidize the league and its thorough media coverage along with the millions who are fans. A big part of the reason that cable/satellite TV bills continue to rise across the country is due to ESPN/ABC being the most expensive programming package for most cable and satellite companies to carry. The cable and satellite companies "must" carry ESPN due to consumer demand. However, the high cost of this programming is, of course, passed along to customers, whether they are NFL fans or not.
Then, Comcast has filed a lawsuit against DirecTV regarding the market of its Sunday Ticket package, specifically regarding the methods that DirecTV uses to make the package an incentive for new subscribers. This is because Comcast also competes for sports fans to subscribe. No matter how this lawsuit turns out, it shows how much money is at stake just so that fans can watch the NFL games on TV. The number of TV viewers and subscribers is more important to NFL revenue than tickets sold, since millions of fans are paying more because of these telecasts.
Meanwhile, some of the sports radio stations are finding ways to provide information beneficial for NFL fans. ESPN Radio Chicago, WMVP 1000, is involved in a Fantasy Football Convention to be held in the Chicago area on August 27th. Two of the stations' hosts will lead the convention, which features a panel including Mike Ditka and others providing information and analysis for putting together an NFL fantasy team. As part of the day's convention, attendees will be able to break out into 10 team fantasy leagues and draft their players on location for a 13-week competition for prizes. Although this will be a paid ticket event, I like the idea of a radio station being involved with fantasy leagues to this extent, and providing football fans with information and presumably more reasons to listen to the station.
My point here is to bring across the idea of how many millions of dollars change hands because of fans' interesting in following NFL games, without factoring in ticket prices and betting, and why so much media competition for the audience exists. If only it wasn't so expensive whether consumers are interested or not.
Westwood One Radio has determined its announcing teams for the coming season, including Kevin Harlan calling its Monday Night Football broadcasts while Howard David will continue to call one of the network's Sunday afternoon games. Harlan will have either Boomer Esiason or Dan Fouts as analyst on Monday nights. Dave Sims and James Lofton will call the radio broadcasts of Sunday Night Football, while Kevin Kugler will call the Sunday afternoon game which Howard David does not. Westwood One will also air the Thursday Night Football games, assigning Ian Eagle and Trent Green to those.
On the baseball side, ESPN is taking an interest in Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals during August. The network has announced that the Cardinals will appear on 2 more Sunday Night Baseball telecasts, making it 3 times within 5 weeks. Just after Fox announced that it was dropping the Cardinals vs. Colorado game from its Saturday Aug. 13th regional game (in favor of picking up the Pirates game despite their recent losing streak) comes word that ESPN will show St. Louis vs. Colorado on Sunday night August 14. Then for Sunday August 21st, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball again shows the Cardinals hosting the Cubs, the same matchup it featured on July 31st (but from St. Louis this time).
NEW YORK: Now that the recent DWI incident has passed, the N.Y. Knicks went ahead with the hiring of former L.A. Lakers voice Spero Dedes as their radio play-by-play voice beginning with the coming season (whenever that may be). Dedes will handle selected Knicks TV games when Mike Breen has conflicts with his ESPN/ABC responsibilities.
CLEVELAND: WKNR 850 will have competition by the end of this month. CBS Radio will enter the sports radio scene in Cleveland by starting "The Fan" on 92.3, replacing modern rock WKRK. The new station has already teamed Chuck Booms and Kevin Kiley for "Kiley & Booms" for the 6 to 10 AM weekday spot starting August 29th.. The station will shoot The Bull in afternoon drive, as "Adam The Bull", formerly of WFAN in New York, will host the 3 to 7 PM slot. In addition, the station plans to go football heavy by carrying Big Ten football and Westwood One's NFL lineup on weekends.
The Cavaliers have not announced who their new radio play-by-play voice will be (after Joe Tait), although it is probably due to the NBA lockout. If and when the lockout ends, most observers expect that WTAM 1100 Sports Director Mike Snyder, who filled in for Tait most of last season, to be named to the position.
MINNEAPOLIS: ESPN 1500 is reportedly planning to go local with its late morning weekday slot as the station tries to make inroads against Paul Allen on rival KFAN. The station wants to increase its Vikings talk instead of continuing with Colin Cowherd, whose show has a considerable audience drop following Mike & Mike's morning show.
MILWAUKEE: While it's a problem the local sports fans enjoy having, WTMJ 620 appears to be flexible when it comes to scheduling for its play-by-play conflicts. The Brewers' success in leading the National League Central puts more importance into their games over the next few weeks, which includes games scheduled at the same time as the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers exhibition and regular season games. Usually, WTMJ gives priority to the Packers broadcasts, but the Brewers aren't usually in serious contention.
Word is that WTMJ will go with the "most important" game during conflicts, and will move the other broadcast over to WLWK 94.5 FM. It is likely that 94.5 will carry University of Wisconsin football broadcasts until the Brewers season is over when Saturday conflicts occur.
It's good to see that this will be a week-to-week decision, since WTMJ's signal covers a wider area and the station is the #1 rated station in the market.
CINCINNATI: The Bengals continue to expand their radio coverage, while WLW also increases its team related program on Sundays for the coming season. Alan Cuter, also the Sports Director of WLEX-TV Lexington KY, has been brought back to handle the "Countdown to Kickoff" show starting 90 minutes before kickoff, as well as halftime and the "Locker Room Report" for approximately 90 minutes after each game. Cutler was studio host for Bengals broadcasts until 2009. Ken Broo, who hosted the radio post-game for the past two seasons, will host "Sunday Sports Talk" on WLW starting at 9 AM and then return for "Bengals Feedback" following the post-game show and continue until 8 PM.
WLW will again broadcast those Bengals games which do not conflict with its Reds baseball broadcasts, while all Bengals games will air on WCKY 1510 and WEBN 102.7. The new radio broadcast team of Dan Hoard with Dave Lapham begins on Friday (8/14) with the exhibition opener vs. Detroit, while Brad Johansen and Anthony Munoz call the game on Channel 12.
INDIANAPOLIS: WNDE 1260 is changing its afternoon drive show in an effort to gain on WFNI 1070. Mark Patrick is out and former WXLW host Derek Schultz and IMS Radio Network's Jake Query will team up from 3 to 7 PM starting on August 15th.
OKLAHOMA CITY / TULSA: Cox Communications will be providing extensive high school football coverage this season, announcing a total of 17 telecasts on Friday nights, not to mention replays on Satudays, serving both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa regions. Steve Marshall will call the games shown in the OK City area, while Mike Wolfe will handle the games shown in Tulsa. Plans include one game from both region to be shown on Sept. 16 and 30th.
In New York, WFAN held steady while WEPN dropped .2 overall. The result is that The Fan now has literally 4 times the overall audience (all ages) that WEPN has. In Chicago, WSCR is only 19th overall, but did rise .2 compared with the June numbers. That's impressive given the lackluster season the White Sox are having, and WSCR is the team's flagship station. However, WMVP ESPN 1000 dropped .3 overall. The two stations had been close together in the ratings for the past couple of years but now WSCR has opened a gap.
In Los Angeles, where is no NFL team, it's tough to be polite in reporting. KSPN dropped again and has now lost half of its overall audience since the May numbers. And while KLAC held steady, neither station made the top 30 ranked stations in overall audience for the July ratings. Yikes!
While fans await the start of the NFL exhibition season within the week, the sports media around the country begins to benefit from the financial frenzy the NFL costs us all along getting their share of the audiences of football fans.
After all, the end of the lockout enables millions of people who are not even NFL fans to help subsidize the league and its thorough media coverage along with the millions who are fans. A big part of the reason that cable/satellite TV bills continue to rise across the country is due to ESPN/ABC being the most expensive programming package for most cable and satellite companies to carry. The cable and satellite companies "must" carry ESPN due to consumer demand. However, the high cost of this programming is, of course, passed along to customers, whether they are NFL fans or not.
Then, Comcast has filed a lawsuit against DirecTV regarding the market of its Sunday Ticket package, specifically regarding the methods that DirecTV uses to make the package an incentive for new subscribers. This is because Comcast also competes for sports fans to subscribe. No matter how this lawsuit turns out, it shows how much money is at stake just so that fans can watch the NFL games on TV. The number of TV viewers and subscribers is more important to NFL revenue than tickets sold, since millions of fans are paying more because of these telecasts.
Meanwhile, some of the sports radio stations are finding ways to provide information beneficial for NFL fans. ESPN Radio Chicago, WMVP 1000, is involved in a Fantasy Football Convention to be held in the Chicago area on August 27th. Two of the stations' hosts will lead the convention, which features a panel including Mike Ditka and others providing information and analysis for putting together an NFL fantasy team. As part of the day's convention, attendees will be able to break out into 10 team fantasy leagues and draft their players on location for a 13-week competition for prizes. Although this will be a paid ticket event, I like the idea of a radio station being involved with fantasy leagues to this extent, and providing football fans with information and presumably more reasons to listen to the station.
My point here is to bring across the idea of how many millions of dollars change hands because of fans' interesting in following NFL games, without factoring in ticket prices and betting, and why so much media competition for the audience exists. If only it wasn't so expensive whether consumers are interested or not.
Westwood One Radio has determined its announcing teams for the coming season, including Kevin Harlan calling its Monday Night Football broadcasts while Howard David will continue to call one of the network's Sunday afternoon games. Harlan will have either Boomer Esiason or Dan Fouts as analyst on Monday nights. Dave Sims and James Lofton will call the radio broadcasts of Sunday Night Football, while Kevin Kugler will call the Sunday afternoon game which Howard David does not. Westwood One will also air the Thursday Night Football games, assigning Ian Eagle and Trent Green to those.
On the baseball side, ESPN is taking an interest in Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals during August. The network has announced that the Cardinals will appear on 2 more Sunday Night Baseball telecasts, making it 3 times within 5 weeks. Just after Fox announced that it was dropping the Cardinals vs. Colorado game from its Saturday Aug. 13th regional game (in favor of picking up the Pirates game despite their recent losing streak) comes word that ESPN will show St. Louis vs. Colorado on Sunday night August 14. Then for Sunday August 21st, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball again shows the Cardinals hosting the Cubs, the same matchup it featured on July 31st (but from St. Louis this time).
NEW YORK: Now that the recent DWI incident has passed, the N.Y. Knicks went ahead with the hiring of former L.A. Lakers voice Spero Dedes as their radio play-by-play voice beginning with the coming season (whenever that may be). Dedes will handle selected Knicks TV games when Mike Breen has conflicts with his ESPN/ABC responsibilities.
CLEVELAND: WKNR 850 will have competition by the end of this month. CBS Radio will enter the sports radio scene in Cleveland by starting "The Fan" on 92.3, replacing modern rock WKRK. The new station has already teamed Chuck Booms and Kevin Kiley for "Kiley & Booms" for the 6 to 10 AM weekday spot starting August 29th.. The station will shoot The Bull in afternoon drive, as "Adam The Bull", formerly of WFAN in New York, will host the 3 to 7 PM slot. In addition, the station plans to go football heavy by carrying Big Ten football and Westwood One's NFL lineup on weekends.
The Cavaliers have not announced who their new radio play-by-play voice will be (after Joe Tait), although it is probably due to the NBA lockout. If and when the lockout ends, most observers expect that WTAM 1100 Sports Director Mike Snyder, who filled in for Tait most of last season, to be named to the position.
MINNEAPOLIS: ESPN 1500 is reportedly planning to go local with its late morning weekday slot as the station tries to make inroads against Paul Allen on rival KFAN. The station wants to increase its Vikings talk instead of continuing with Colin Cowherd, whose show has a considerable audience drop following Mike & Mike's morning show.
MILWAUKEE: While it's a problem the local sports fans enjoy having, WTMJ 620 appears to be flexible when it comes to scheduling for its play-by-play conflicts. The Brewers' success in leading the National League Central puts more importance into their games over the next few weeks, which includes games scheduled at the same time as the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers exhibition and regular season games. Usually, WTMJ gives priority to the Packers broadcasts, but the Brewers aren't usually in serious contention.
Word is that WTMJ will go with the "most important" game during conflicts, and will move the other broadcast over to WLWK 94.5 FM. It is likely that 94.5 will carry University of Wisconsin football broadcasts until the Brewers season is over when Saturday conflicts occur.
It's good to see that this will be a week-to-week decision, since WTMJ's signal covers a wider area and the station is the #1 rated station in the market.
CINCINNATI: The Bengals continue to expand their radio coverage, while WLW also increases its team related program on Sundays for the coming season. Alan Cuter, also the Sports Director of WLEX-TV Lexington KY, has been brought back to handle the "Countdown to Kickoff" show starting 90 minutes before kickoff, as well as halftime and the "Locker Room Report" for approximately 90 minutes after each game. Cutler was studio host for Bengals broadcasts until 2009. Ken Broo, who hosted the radio post-game for the past two seasons, will host "Sunday Sports Talk" on WLW starting at 9 AM and then return for "Bengals Feedback" following the post-game show and continue until 8 PM.
WLW will again broadcast those Bengals games which do not conflict with its Reds baseball broadcasts, while all Bengals games will air on WCKY 1510 and WEBN 102.7. The new radio broadcast team of Dan Hoard with Dave Lapham begins on Friday (8/14) with the exhibition opener vs. Detroit, while Brad Johansen and Anthony Munoz call the game on Channel 12.
INDIANAPOLIS: WNDE 1260 is changing its afternoon drive show in an effort to gain on WFNI 1070. Mark Patrick is out and former WXLW host Derek Schultz and IMS Radio Network's Jake Query will team up from 3 to 7 PM starting on August 15th.
OKLAHOMA CITY / TULSA: Cox Communications will be providing extensive high school football coverage this season, announcing a total of 17 telecasts on Friday nights, not to mention replays on Satudays, serving both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa regions. Steve Marshall will call the games shown in the OK City area, while Mike Wolfe will handle the games shown in Tulsa. Plans include one game from both region to be shown on Sept. 16 and 30th.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - May 5th Update
It is amazing that so many of the major sports media stories have little to do with what is happening on the fields and the courts at the moment. And it probably shouldn't be that way.
The college conference pot-o-gold continues this week as the Pac-12 has become the latest major conference to score a jackpot with a 12-year agreement involving ESPN and Fox Sports. Basically, everything from intra-mural tiddly winks on up will be shown somewhere every season, bringing millions and millions of dollars to the Conference and its member schools.
This contract kicks in for the 2012 football season, during which the Pac-12 Network will air 36 football games, while ABC/ESPN and Fox/FX will combine for 44 of the games. The Pac-12 Championship game will alternate (Fox or ESPN) and be a Friday prime time game. At least 68 baskeball games will be shown on ESPN or Fox.
Sorry, but as much as I like having even more live games televised, I'm still having a problem with these mega-packages the conferences are getting. While millions more dollars pour into these schools, our cable or satellite bills continue to increase because of these packages, and it's not as though tuitions are dropping each year during these 12 years of the contract.
Meanwhile, the ESPN/ABC crossover took on a few moments of added significance this past Sunday (5/1) night. As the Bin Laden story was breaking during ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, the announcing crew verified the story before mentioning it over the air. Thus, Dan Shulman became the voice who alerted thousands of people to this major news.
Obviously, it is very rare that a news story leaks into an unrelated sports telecast. Maybe this will be more common due to social media. Those who continued to watch the Phillies vs. Mets game later heard and saw the crowd at the game cheering for the U.S. and using their personal devices to learn more, even with a 1-0 late inning baseball game (at the time) going on in front of them. Upon reporting the news bulletin, Shulman told viewers to "switch to ABC News" for coverage of that story. Even with the impact of portable and social media, and the significance of this news story, it would have been interesting to see how ESPN might have handled this were it not for the crossover with ABC News.
The Sports Emmy Awards last Sunday (5/1) had a noticeable Cincinnati flavor. Al Michaels, who was the voice of the Reds on radio in the early 70's (prior to Marty Brennaman) was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award". Chris Collinsworth, Michaels' partner on Sunday Night Football, won his 12th Sports Emmy for "Outstanding Event Analyst". Collinsworth played on the NFL Cincinnati Bengals prior to starting his broadcast career in Cinci, including a hosting stint on WLW Radio. Other individual winners included Ernie Johnson of TNT and Bob Papa of HBO (and NFL Network), as well as Harold Reynolds of MLB Network.
Bob Papa, however, will have a reduced role on NFL Network next season. The Network has announced that Brad Nessler will take over the play-by-play for Thursday Night Football, which starts Nov. 10 (if there is a season and/or the regular schedule is in tact) with Oakland vs. San Diego. Mike Mayock will step in as analyst, an odd choice since he has been doing Notre Dame Football for NBC rather than much pro football commentary, replacing Joe Theismann in that role.
Compass Media, which plans to continue with NFL radio broadcasts, is adding Thursday Night Football to its inventory. Except in this case, it will be college football starting this fall. (At least we know there will be a season!)
Scheduled games include Sept. 15 LSU vs. Mississippi State and Oct. 27 Virginia vs. Miami. Compass will also air the Sept. 4th (Sunday night leading into Labor Day) SMU vs. Texas A&M game.
Racing fans across the country awaiting the Indy 500 are now able to enjoy Donald Davidson's nightly "Talk of Gasoline Alley" radio show via podcast. Indianapolis' 1070 The Fan is making its one hour nightly show (until the night before the big race) available via www.1070TheFan.com. The show airs from 8 to 9 PM ET, a later time than previous years. Davidson is now in his 41st year of doing this show, a fixture on Indianapolis radio every May, now heard on 1070 The Fan.
Jim Rome returned and spoke at his alma mater, University of California Santa Barbara, last weekend, and received the "2011 Distinguished Alumni Award". He began his career at school station KCSB and graduated in 1986.
New York's WFAN is scheduled (at press time) to have a guest co-host on Friday (5/6) morning who is not a sportscaster. None other than New Jersey Governor Christie will join Craig Carton from 6 to 10 AM, where he is expected to talk about his favorite team, the Mets, among other topics. It will be interesting to hear if or how many serious issues are discussed or whether it becomes a fun and laid back appearance. The last I heard is that the show will be streamed.
BOSTON: Here's hoping that Red Sox TV analyst Jerry Remy has a successful recovery from his reported bout with pneumonia. Remy has already missed a week's worth of games. Dennis Eckersley has filled in on NESN for most of the telecasts, with Peter Gammons handling the analysis once thus far.
PITTSBURGH: Root Sports has decided not to mess around with its relationship with the NHL Penguins, especially after another season with significant ratings, and has further extended its contract to televise the games. While they already have the contract for the next 3 seasons, the extension gives Root the TV rights through the 2028-29 season. Although Root also televises the Pirates games, I wouldn't expect a mad dash from them to extend that contract.
SAN FRANCISCO: While former A's flagship station KTRB remains in ownership limbo, that station's loss of Stanford University football and basketball is "The Ticket's" gain. KTCT 1050 takes over airing both sports for the coming seasons, along with airing the monthly "Inside Stanford Sports" coaches shows starting this August.
The announcing crew remains the same, with Dave Flemming and Todd Husak calling football and John Platz and Drew Shiller handling the hoops broadcasts.
TOLEDO: Sorry to learn that WMTR 96.1 will have a new voice for its high school football, basketball, and baseball broadcasts starting this summer. After 40 years of calling those sports, along with some volleyball, softball, and wrestling matches, Larry Christy is unable to continue after having been diagnosed with a severe kidney disorder. Christy had already given up his role of morning sports reporter on the station last fall.
The college conference pot-o-gold continues this week as the Pac-12 has become the latest major conference to score a jackpot with a 12-year agreement involving ESPN and Fox Sports. Basically, everything from intra-mural tiddly winks on up will be shown somewhere every season, bringing millions and millions of dollars to the Conference and its member schools.
This contract kicks in for the 2012 football season, during which the Pac-12 Network will air 36 football games, while ABC/ESPN and Fox/FX will combine for 44 of the games. The Pac-12 Championship game will alternate (Fox or ESPN) and be a Friday prime time game. At least 68 baskeball games will be shown on ESPN or Fox.
Sorry, but as much as I like having even more live games televised, I'm still having a problem with these mega-packages the conferences are getting. While millions more dollars pour into these schools, our cable or satellite bills continue to increase because of these packages, and it's not as though tuitions are dropping each year during these 12 years of the contract.
Meanwhile, the ESPN/ABC crossover took on a few moments of added significance this past Sunday (5/1) night. As the Bin Laden story was breaking during ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, the announcing crew verified the story before mentioning it over the air. Thus, Dan Shulman became the voice who alerted thousands of people to this major news.
Obviously, it is very rare that a news story leaks into an unrelated sports telecast. Maybe this will be more common due to social media. Those who continued to watch the Phillies vs. Mets game later heard and saw the crowd at the game cheering for the U.S. and using their personal devices to learn more, even with a 1-0 late inning baseball game (at the time) going on in front of them. Upon reporting the news bulletin, Shulman told viewers to "switch to ABC News" for coverage of that story. Even with the impact of portable and social media, and the significance of this news story, it would have been interesting to see how ESPN might have handled this were it not for the crossover with ABC News.
The Sports Emmy Awards last Sunday (5/1) had a noticeable Cincinnati flavor. Al Michaels, who was the voice of the Reds on radio in the early 70's (prior to Marty Brennaman) was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award". Chris Collinsworth, Michaels' partner on Sunday Night Football, won his 12th Sports Emmy for "Outstanding Event Analyst". Collinsworth played on the NFL Cincinnati Bengals prior to starting his broadcast career in Cinci, including a hosting stint on WLW Radio. Other individual winners included Ernie Johnson of TNT and Bob Papa of HBO (and NFL Network), as well as Harold Reynolds of MLB Network.
Bob Papa, however, will have a reduced role on NFL Network next season. The Network has announced that Brad Nessler will take over the play-by-play for Thursday Night Football, which starts Nov. 10 (if there is a season and/or the regular schedule is in tact) with Oakland vs. San Diego. Mike Mayock will step in as analyst, an odd choice since he has been doing Notre Dame Football for NBC rather than much pro football commentary, replacing Joe Theismann in that role.
Compass Media, which plans to continue with NFL radio broadcasts, is adding Thursday Night Football to its inventory. Except in this case, it will be college football starting this fall. (At least we know there will be a season!)
Scheduled games include Sept. 15 LSU vs. Mississippi State and Oct. 27 Virginia vs. Miami. Compass will also air the Sept. 4th (Sunday night leading into Labor Day) SMU vs. Texas A&M game.
Racing fans across the country awaiting the Indy 500 are now able to enjoy Donald Davidson's nightly "Talk of Gasoline Alley" radio show via podcast. Indianapolis' 1070 The Fan is making its one hour nightly show (until the night before the big race) available via www.1070TheFan.com. The show airs from 8 to 9 PM ET, a later time than previous years. Davidson is now in his 41st year of doing this show, a fixture on Indianapolis radio every May, now heard on 1070 The Fan.
Jim Rome returned and spoke at his alma mater, University of California Santa Barbara, last weekend, and received the "2011 Distinguished Alumni Award". He began his career at school station KCSB and graduated in 1986.
New York's WFAN is scheduled (at press time) to have a guest co-host on Friday (5/6) morning who is not a sportscaster. None other than New Jersey Governor Christie will join Craig Carton from 6 to 10 AM, where he is expected to talk about his favorite team, the Mets, among other topics. It will be interesting to hear if or how many serious issues are discussed or whether it becomes a fun and laid back appearance. The last I heard is that the show will be streamed.
BOSTON: Here's hoping that Red Sox TV analyst Jerry Remy has a successful recovery from his reported bout with pneumonia. Remy has already missed a week's worth of games. Dennis Eckersley has filled in on NESN for most of the telecasts, with Peter Gammons handling the analysis once thus far.
PITTSBURGH: Root Sports has decided not to mess around with its relationship with the NHL Penguins, especially after another season with significant ratings, and has further extended its contract to televise the games. While they already have the contract for the next 3 seasons, the extension gives Root the TV rights through the 2028-29 season. Although Root also televises the Pirates games, I wouldn't expect a mad dash from them to extend that contract.
SAN FRANCISCO: While former A's flagship station KTRB remains in ownership limbo, that station's loss of Stanford University football and basketball is "The Ticket's" gain. KTCT 1050 takes over airing both sports for the coming seasons, along with airing the monthly "Inside Stanford Sports" coaches shows starting this August.
The announcing crew remains the same, with Dave Flemming and Todd Husak calling football and John Platz and Drew Shiller handling the hoops broadcasts.
TOLEDO: Sorry to learn that WMTR 96.1 will have a new voice for its high school football, basketball, and baseball broadcasts starting this summer. After 40 years of calling those sports, along with some volleyball, softball, and wrestling matches, Larry Christy is unable to continue after having been diagnosed with a severe kidney disorder. Christy had already given up his role of morning sports reporter on the station last fall.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - April 19th Update.....
Is this the beginning of the end for all sports radio? The radio ratings for March are gradually being released this week, and the early returns are not good for sports stations around the country.
Granted, as of press time we do not have the latest for Detroit and Boston, two of the larger markets with high performing sports stations, but even that may not be enough to stop this trend.
This late February to late March ratings period is usually friendly to sports stations. NBA and NHL teams are into playoff runs. Most major markets have at least one NCAA team ready for the NCAA Tournament, along with regional conference tournaments leading in. Spring training is underway and baseball fans begin their optimism for the coming season. There is plenty to talk about. But it appears fewer people are around to talk about it.
As I have said earlier, I look at the overall audience ratings, since sports is not limited to 25 to 54 year old males.
In New York, WFAN dropped out of the top 10 in overall (6 AM to Midnight, 12+), now having lost half of a ratings point (3.0 to 2.5) since January. During the same period, WEPN 1050 has lost about 20% of its total audience. This while the Knicks and Rangers both headed toward playoff appearances (not common over the past few years) and the Yankees and Mets were in spring training.
San Francisco's KNBR, which carries the World Champion Giants games, shows as having lost more than 100,000 listeners since January.
In Chicago, WMVP 1000 gained .4 in the ratings and passed by rival WSCR The Score for the first time in several months in overall audience. Hard to say if that is due to WMVP airing the Bulls games as they were going toward finishing the regular season with the NBA's best record, or it is due to The Score giving such poor scoreboard and information updates (as discussed last week). However, neither station finished better than 25th place overall. During this time, Chicago had the Bulls charging to the top, the Blackhawks in a rush to the playoffs to defend their Stanley Cup championship, and the White Sox and Cubs in spring training. (Maybe this audience loss will convince WSCR to forget their "interactive" White Sox exhibition broadcasts where they stop the play-by-play only to take phone calls from fans to talk with the game broadcasters about the team.)
Sports radio remains dismal in Los Angeles, although this is not much of a change from the past year. Again, neither KSPN 710 or KLAC 570 did any better than a 1.0 overall. Even worse in Houston, where KILT has no change in their audience size since January. Neither KBME or KFNC had any increase since the (previous) February ratings, and none of these 3 competing stations so much as cracked the top 20 in overall ratings.
Similar story out of Atlanta, where neither WCNN or WQXI made the top 20 overall. In fact, their combined rating would barely crack the top 20 in the market.
Philadelphia sports fans had plenty going on during March. The Sixers and Flyers in their runs for the playoffs. Local teams in the NCAA tourney. The Phillies in spring training looking to return to the World Series. Yet, WIP 610 droped from a 3.1 to a 2.4 rating in just one month, and they had a 3.5 for the January ratings period. Like most of the other cities, the audience lost by WIP did not go over to the sports talk competition. WPEN's overall rating for March was nearly a 20% decrease from just the month before!
Of those large markets with the March ratings released thus far, only Dallas has a reasonable sports talk presence when compared with news and some music formats. A combined rating of WTCK The Ticket, KESN, and KRLD-FM would be 4th overall in the market. However, this is primarily because the 3 rival stations are bunched closely in the ratings, since none of the 3 cracked the top 20 overall in the market.
This trend would not be so alarming if one sports station was losing its audience to one or more other sports stations. The sports radio audience is sinking.
I have two separate theories as to why. (I'm interested in your feedback about which one you think is the biggest factor.)
One theory is that there continues to (in general) be too much emphasis on fan opinions and not enough on information and compelling and informative guests. Sports fans now have many other choices for sports information and can get expert opinion. They can "follow" experts of their favorite teams and sports online. They can go online and get all of the scores they want instead of hoping the local sports update will "bother" to give out of town scores.
The other theory is that sports fans have a certain amount of time to devote to following sports, and now use it to watch the actual games on TV instead of to merely hear what other fans think about them. While sports radio listenership has begun its decline, TV ratings for pro and even college sports has been rising significantly over the past couple of years.
Whether it is HD telecasts, fans wanting to get their money's worth because of paying so much more for cable or satellite packages for the games, or a combination, TV ratings keep rising. And those 2 to 3 hours spent watching one or more games each day could well be replacing the listening time to sports radio.
Just take a look at the ratings increases for every network involved in opening week telecasts of both the NBA and NHL playoffs this month. After a successful NCAA Tournament showing for CBS and Turner Sports. Coming off incredible ratings for the entire NFL season.
While on the subject, hockey fans actually "win" with the new TV package between the NHL and the NBC "family" including Versus. This new 10 year deal brings a ton of NHL games to fans around the country.
At least 100 regular season games will be televised by Versus and NBC starting next season, with Versus getting an increase from 50 to about 90 games. Come playoff time, every game will be televised on one of the channels, whether NBC, Versus, or perhaps CNBC or one of their others.
No word yet on how many telecasts NHL Network will be able to pick up starting next season.
On the local NHL television scene, it seems that the Pittsburgh Penguins were the most watched local team in terms of ratings for the 4th season in a row. The Chicago Blackhawks moved up to 2nd among local audiences, followed by Boston, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
The bigger markets also dominated the NBA local market regular season ratings. The Lakers had the biggest regular season audience, followed by Chicago (which coincidentally, came in 2nd for both of its winter sports teams), New York Knicks, and Boston.
Yet, two of those markets also had an impact at the other end of the list. New Jersey Nets telecasts on YES were the NBA's lowest local ratings, for the 2nd season in a row, with the L.A. Clippers telecasts finishing just above Jersey.
NEW YORK: WEPN 1050 is reducing The Michael Kay Show by an hour each afternoon starting next month. Mike Lupica, the columnist and also ESPN "The Sports Reporters" panelist over the years, will begin a 2 to 3 PM weekday show starting May 9th. It will be interesting to see if management is looking for Lupica to springboard to more hours on WEPN each day, or if this is targeting to replace a show on the national ESPN Radio schedule.
SAN FRANCISCO/OAKLAND: From The Wolf to The Shark for 95.7? A few days after securing the Oakland A's baseball broadcasts effective immediately, 95.7 FM dumped "The Wolf" country music format and is now SportsRadio 95.7. The station is negotiating to also bring the NHL Sharks broadcasts over from KFOX to give them year-round local play-by-play.
Word is that 95.7 is also targeting Stanford football and possibly basketball, since those have been airing on KTRB, the station which bailed on the A's broadcasts just days before the season opener and still has its ownership status in limbo.
Granted, as of press time we do not have the latest for Detroit and Boston, two of the larger markets with high performing sports stations, but even that may not be enough to stop this trend.
This late February to late March ratings period is usually friendly to sports stations. NBA and NHL teams are into playoff runs. Most major markets have at least one NCAA team ready for the NCAA Tournament, along with regional conference tournaments leading in. Spring training is underway and baseball fans begin their optimism for the coming season. There is plenty to talk about. But it appears fewer people are around to talk about it.
As I have said earlier, I look at the overall audience ratings, since sports is not limited to 25 to 54 year old males.
In New York, WFAN dropped out of the top 10 in overall (6 AM to Midnight, 12+), now having lost half of a ratings point (3.0 to 2.5) since January. During the same period, WEPN 1050 has lost about 20% of its total audience. This while the Knicks and Rangers both headed toward playoff appearances (not common over the past few years) and the Yankees and Mets were in spring training.
San Francisco's KNBR, which carries the World Champion Giants games, shows as having lost more than 100,000 listeners since January.
In Chicago, WMVP 1000 gained .4 in the ratings and passed by rival WSCR The Score for the first time in several months in overall audience. Hard to say if that is due to WMVP airing the Bulls games as they were going toward finishing the regular season with the NBA's best record, or it is due to The Score giving such poor scoreboard and information updates (as discussed last week). However, neither station finished better than 25th place overall. During this time, Chicago had the Bulls charging to the top, the Blackhawks in a rush to the playoffs to defend their Stanley Cup championship, and the White Sox and Cubs in spring training. (Maybe this audience loss will convince WSCR to forget their "interactive" White Sox exhibition broadcasts where they stop the play-by-play only to take phone calls from fans to talk with the game broadcasters about the team.)
Sports radio remains dismal in Los Angeles, although this is not much of a change from the past year. Again, neither KSPN 710 or KLAC 570 did any better than a 1.0 overall. Even worse in Houston, where KILT has no change in their audience size since January. Neither KBME or KFNC had any increase since the (previous) February ratings, and none of these 3 competing stations so much as cracked the top 20 in overall ratings.
Similar story out of Atlanta, where neither WCNN or WQXI made the top 20 overall. In fact, their combined rating would barely crack the top 20 in the market.
Philadelphia sports fans had plenty going on during March. The Sixers and Flyers in their runs for the playoffs. Local teams in the NCAA tourney. The Phillies in spring training looking to return to the World Series. Yet, WIP 610 droped from a 3.1 to a 2.4 rating in just one month, and they had a 3.5 for the January ratings period. Like most of the other cities, the audience lost by WIP did not go over to the sports talk competition. WPEN's overall rating for March was nearly a 20% decrease from just the month before!
Of those large markets with the March ratings released thus far, only Dallas has a reasonable sports talk presence when compared with news and some music formats. A combined rating of WTCK The Ticket, KESN, and KRLD-FM would be 4th overall in the market. However, this is primarily because the 3 rival stations are bunched closely in the ratings, since none of the 3 cracked the top 20 overall in the market.
This trend would not be so alarming if one sports station was losing its audience to one or more other sports stations. The sports radio audience is sinking.
I have two separate theories as to why. (I'm interested in your feedback about which one you think is the biggest factor.)
One theory is that there continues to (in general) be too much emphasis on fan opinions and not enough on information and compelling and informative guests. Sports fans now have many other choices for sports information and can get expert opinion. They can "follow" experts of their favorite teams and sports online. They can go online and get all of the scores they want instead of hoping the local sports update will "bother" to give out of town scores.
The other theory is that sports fans have a certain amount of time to devote to following sports, and now use it to watch the actual games on TV instead of to merely hear what other fans think about them. While sports radio listenership has begun its decline, TV ratings for pro and even college sports has been rising significantly over the past couple of years.
Whether it is HD telecasts, fans wanting to get their money's worth because of paying so much more for cable or satellite packages for the games, or a combination, TV ratings keep rising. And those 2 to 3 hours spent watching one or more games each day could well be replacing the listening time to sports radio.
Just take a look at the ratings increases for every network involved in opening week telecasts of both the NBA and NHL playoffs this month. After a successful NCAA Tournament showing for CBS and Turner Sports. Coming off incredible ratings for the entire NFL season.
While on the subject, hockey fans actually "win" with the new TV package between the NHL and the NBC "family" including Versus. This new 10 year deal brings a ton of NHL games to fans around the country.
At least 100 regular season games will be televised by Versus and NBC starting next season, with Versus getting an increase from 50 to about 90 games. Come playoff time, every game will be televised on one of the channels, whether NBC, Versus, or perhaps CNBC or one of their others.
No word yet on how many telecasts NHL Network will be able to pick up starting next season.
On the local NHL television scene, it seems that the Pittsburgh Penguins were the most watched local team in terms of ratings for the 4th season in a row. The Chicago Blackhawks moved up to 2nd among local audiences, followed by Boston, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
The bigger markets also dominated the NBA local market regular season ratings. The Lakers had the biggest regular season audience, followed by Chicago (which coincidentally, came in 2nd for both of its winter sports teams), New York Knicks, and Boston.
Yet, two of those markets also had an impact at the other end of the list. New Jersey Nets telecasts on YES were the NBA's lowest local ratings, for the 2nd season in a row, with the L.A. Clippers telecasts finishing just above Jersey.
NEW YORK: WEPN 1050 is reducing The Michael Kay Show by an hour each afternoon starting next month. Mike Lupica, the columnist and also ESPN "The Sports Reporters" panelist over the years, will begin a 2 to 3 PM weekday show starting May 9th. It will be interesting to see if management is looking for Lupica to springboard to more hours on WEPN each day, or if this is targeting to replace a show on the national ESPN Radio schedule.
SAN FRANCISCO/OAKLAND: From The Wolf to The Shark for 95.7? A few days after securing the Oakland A's baseball broadcasts effective immediately, 95.7 FM dumped "The Wolf" country music format and is now SportsRadio 95.7. The station is negotiating to also bring the NHL Sharks broadcasts over from KFOX to give them year-round local play-by-play.
Word is that 95.7 is also targeting Stanford football and possibly basketball, since those have been airing on KTRB, the station which bailed on the A's broadcasts just days before the season opener and still has its ownership status in limbo.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The Broadcast Booth - February 23 Update.....
Local sports radio does good. On Monday (2/21) Mike Francesa had a live one hour discussion on WFAN New York with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman which made for excellent radio. Bettman did not duck out from any of the questions, even when Francesa interrupted him to keep asking the same questions. The vast majority of the questions were timely and pertinent, including discussion of the local issue regarding the N.Y. Islanders and ownership struggling with the current arena.
The discussion included the current state of the league, the recent player suspensions for fighting, the TV contracts, realignment, and labor negotiations, in addition to the local matters such as the Islanders.
During the second half hour, Francesa took phone calls from listeners for Bettman, and these calls were clearly well screened and asked intelligent (and for the most part, non repetitive) questions. It was clear that the show's producer and/or screener did a great job in presenting the callers and keeping it interesting.
Quite honestly, Bettman being a good guest and giving clear and thorough answers to the questions carried the segment better than Francesa's often pestering questions.
Personally, as a hockey fan, I have not been happy with a lot of what Bettman has done as NHL Commissioner. Yet, after listening to him and how well he answered the questions over the course of the hour, I think better of him now than I ever did. Thus, this was sports radio doing its job by presenting another side of some key issues and causing me to think and react.
Meanwhile, another sports media story within the past few days comes from the NHL New Jersey Devils, even if it is technically "social media". It seems that the team has brought in a group of 25 hardcore fans of the team to act as the "Devils' Army Generals" to inform and communicate directly with other fans of the team from the team's "Social Media Center" on a regular basis. This will include team sources such as Facebook and Twitter. According to NHL.com, this is the first of its kind, which obviously will be closely watched by the League and its teams.
Although those first two stories are both related to the NHL, they are both tied together and important for a different reason. Let me explain.
The excellent segment on Mike Francesa's show on WFAN is all too rare on sports radio. That hour is what sports radio should be on a regular basis. An important sports figure on the air live answering pertinent questions from both the host and from callers, without boring repetition.
Each professional league has literally hundreds of players, coaches, managers, executives, scouts, and individual team personnel with a variety of responsibilities which keep the teams operating. Yet, far too many sports stations regularly go entire shows and even several hours without having anyone from a local team or a pro league on live. Not to mention local and regional college sports coaches, athletic directors, and former and current players.
Many sports stations, especially in large markets, do not have specific shows or times dedicated to the local teams. Or, if they do, they don't always have guests from that team.
Now we have the N.J. Devils taking steps to regularly address their own fans, and we know other teams will be monitoring the progress. Yet, if the local sports stations already had at least one show specific to fans of the Devils, chances are the team would not have been as inclined to take this action.
My prediction is that the Devils' new plan will be successful in helping to drive ticket and merchandise sales and raising fan interest. Other teams will follow and do the same. And they would take away the sports radio audience in the process.
Hopefully sports radio stations will take the cue and provide more thorough local team coverage. That will hold the audience way more than constant calls with fans' opinions, rumors and speculation, and merely reporting what competing sources are reporting.
Meanwhile, it is good to see the Triple Crown on one network. The NBC signing to carry all 3 races from 2012 into at least 2015 does just that. The new deal also includes Versus (now a sister network to NBC) and a total of 25 hours of race programming between them. The opportunity for NBC opened up after ESPN/ABC did not renew its 5-year deal to televise the Belmont Stakes.
NBC and Versus had respectable ratings for this past Sunday's (2/20) NHL spectacular with 3 entire games shown live between NBC and Versus. Yet, as seemingly could happen with an NHL deal, NBC will not have an NHL telecast this coming Sunday (2/27). The network did announce that it has moved the Philadelphia vs. N.Y. Rangers game of March 6 to 12:30 PM ET to be NBC's national game. They will also choose the national telecast for the four Sundays following within 13 days of each.
BOSTON: WEEI 850 rolls out its revised weekday schedule on Monday (2/28), including Michael Holley moving from middays to afternoon drive along with Glenn Ordway. Dale Arnold will shift to weekends and substituting, along with filling in for Dave O'Brien on about 25 Red Sox broadcasts when O'Brien has conflicts with his ESPN telecast schedule. This could prove to be a good move for WEEI to hold off the challenge from 98.5 The Sports Hub.
CHICAGO: While the NBA Bulls are enjoying a much better than expected season, the TV ratings reflect it. Comcast SportsNet Chicago reports a 64% increase in ratings over last season. Having started televising most of the Bulls games with the 2004-05 season, it seems that the Top 10 highest rated telecasts in its history have all come this season. Pre-game and post-game programming has also shown increased ratings, with post-game programming up 86%. Not quite on the radio side, where flagship station WMVP ESPN 1000 has fallen further behind WSCR 670 The Score in the just released radio ratings.
Dan Jiggetts, the former Chicago Bears lineman and sportscaster for Comcast SportsNet is now recovering from hip replacement surgery.
LOS ANGELES: The Dodgers are making a very understandable exception with their KABC Radio broadcast of opening day on March 31st. The season opener, at home vs. the rival World Champion San Francisco Giants will be televised on ESPN and not locally. As a result, Vin Scully will start his 62nd season broadcasting the Dodgers games by calling 6 innings on radio.
MINNEAPOLIS: The Twins will have at least 158 of their games shown on TV this season. However, other than Fox Sports Saturday regional telecasts, all other games will be shown on Fox Sports North. However, it is estimated that as much as 18% of the Twin Cities market does not currently subscribe to cable or satellite, while FSN is currently not part of the basic cable package.
TAMPA: Similar situation in Tampa, where Fox Sports Florida will televise 150 of the Rays games this season. DeWayne Staats will call his 14th season of play-by-play for the Rays. Brian Anderson (the former pitcher, not the Brewers' voice) takes over as regular analyst since Kevin Kennedy will not return to the Rays' booth. Todd Kalas continues on the Rays' beat and will do some analysis during the telecasts, marking his 14th season in his role.
MILWAUKEE: Fox Sports Wisconsin will air 135 of the Brewers games this season. Unlike Minnesota and Tampa, the Brewers are keeping 15 games over-the-air, as WMLW-TV will air a 15 game package. Thus, at least 150 of the team's 162 games will be televised. Every game not currently scheduled to be televised is a weekday afternoon game.
TORONTO: A third sports station will enter the market during early April with the debut of TSN Radio 1050. Former Calgary FAN 960 host Mike Richards will handle the morning show before the station takes from the U.S. Word is that TSN Radio 1050 will carry Dan Patrick and Jim Rome on weekdays. TSN personalities (from the TV network) are expected to be involved, as well as some content from soon-to-be sister stations in Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Ottawa. The new station is also planning mobile phone access and to stream.
SYRACUSE: Syracuse Chiefs minor league baseball has a new home for the coming season. WSKO The Score 1260 will also air a 15-minute pre-game show, with Jason Benetti returning as play-by-play voice, along with Kevin Brown (a 21 year-old sportscaster - not the former pitcher). The games will also stream on the team's web site.
The discussion included the current state of the league, the recent player suspensions for fighting, the TV contracts, realignment, and labor negotiations, in addition to the local matters such as the Islanders.
During the second half hour, Francesa took phone calls from listeners for Bettman, and these calls were clearly well screened and asked intelligent (and for the most part, non repetitive) questions. It was clear that the show's producer and/or screener did a great job in presenting the callers and keeping it interesting.
Quite honestly, Bettman being a good guest and giving clear and thorough answers to the questions carried the segment better than Francesa's often pestering questions.
Personally, as a hockey fan, I have not been happy with a lot of what Bettman has done as NHL Commissioner. Yet, after listening to him and how well he answered the questions over the course of the hour, I think better of him now than I ever did. Thus, this was sports radio doing its job by presenting another side of some key issues and causing me to think and react.
Meanwhile, another sports media story within the past few days comes from the NHL New Jersey Devils, even if it is technically "social media". It seems that the team has brought in a group of 25 hardcore fans of the team to act as the "Devils' Army Generals" to inform and communicate directly with other fans of the team from the team's "Social Media Center" on a regular basis. This will include team sources such as Facebook and Twitter. According to NHL.com, this is the first of its kind, which obviously will be closely watched by the League and its teams.
Although those first two stories are both related to the NHL, they are both tied together and important for a different reason. Let me explain.
The excellent segment on Mike Francesa's show on WFAN is all too rare on sports radio. That hour is what sports radio should be on a regular basis. An important sports figure on the air live answering pertinent questions from both the host and from callers, without boring repetition.
Each professional league has literally hundreds of players, coaches, managers, executives, scouts, and individual team personnel with a variety of responsibilities which keep the teams operating. Yet, far too many sports stations regularly go entire shows and even several hours without having anyone from a local team or a pro league on live. Not to mention local and regional college sports coaches, athletic directors, and former and current players.
Many sports stations, especially in large markets, do not have specific shows or times dedicated to the local teams. Or, if they do, they don't always have guests from that team.
Now we have the N.J. Devils taking steps to regularly address their own fans, and we know other teams will be monitoring the progress. Yet, if the local sports stations already had at least one show specific to fans of the Devils, chances are the team would not have been as inclined to take this action.
My prediction is that the Devils' new plan will be successful in helping to drive ticket and merchandise sales and raising fan interest. Other teams will follow and do the same. And they would take away the sports radio audience in the process.
Hopefully sports radio stations will take the cue and provide more thorough local team coverage. That will hold the audience way more than constant calls with fans' opinions, rumors and speculation, and merely reporting what competing sources are reporting.
Meanwhile, it is good to see the Triple Crown on one network. The NBC signing to carry all 3 races from 2012 into at least 2015 does just that. The new deal also includes Versus (now a sister network to NBC) and a total of 25 hours of race programming between them. The opportunity for NBC opened up after ESPN/ABC did not renew its 5-year deal to televise the Belmont Stakes.
NBC and Versus had respectable ratings for this past Sunday's (2/20) NHL spectacular with 3 entire games shown live between NBC and Versus. Yet, as seemingly could happen with an NHL deal, NBC will not have an NHL telecast this coming Sunday (2/27). The network did announce that it has moved the Philadelphia vs. N.Y. Rangers game of March 6 to 12:30 PM ET to be NBC's national game. They will also choose the national telecast for the four Sundays following within 13 days of each.
BOSTON: WEEI 850 rolls out its revised weekday schedule on Monday (2/28), including Michael Holley moving from middays to afternoon drive along with Glenn Ordway. Dale Arnold will shift to weekends and substituting, along with filling in for Dave O'Brien on about 25 Red Sox broadcasts when O'Brien has conflicts with his ESPN telecast schedule. This could prove to be a good move for WEEI to hold off the challenge from 98.5 The Sports Hub.
CHICAGO: While the NBA Bulls are enjoying a much better than expected season, the TV ratings reflect it. Comcast SportsNet Chicago reports a 64% increase in ratings over last season. Having started televising most of the Bulls games with the 2004-05 season, it seems that the Top 10 highest rated telecasts in its history have all come this season. Pre-game and post-game programming has also shown increased ratings, with post-game programming up 86%. Not quite on the radio side, where flagship station WMVP ESPN 1000 has fallen further behind WSCR 670 The Score in the just released radio ratings.
Dan Jiggetts, the former Chicago Bears lineman and sportscaster for Comcast SportsNet is now recovering from hip replacement surgery.
LOS ANGELES: The Dodgers are making a very understandable exception with their KABC Radio broadcast of opening day on March 31st. The season opener, at home vs. the rival World Champion San Francisco Giants will be televised on ESPN and not locally. As a result, Vin Scully will start his 62nd season broadcasting the Dodgers games by calling 6 innings on radio.
MINNEAPOLIS: The Twins will have at least 158 of their games shown on TV this season. However, other than Fox Sports Saturday regional telecasts, all other games will be shown on Fox Sports North. However, it is estimated that as much as 18% of the Twin Cities market does not currently subscribe to cable or satellite, while FSN is currently not part of the basic cable package.
TAMPA: Similar situation in Tampa, where Fox Sports Florida will televise 150 of the Rays games this season. DeWayne Staats will call his 14th season of play-by-play for the Rays. Brian Anderson (the former pitcher, not the Brewers' voice) takes over as regular analyst since Kevin Kennedy will not return to the Rays' booth. Todd Kalas continues on the Rays' beat and will do some analysis during the telecasts, marking his 14th season in his role.
MILWAUKEE: Fox Sports Wisconsin will air 135 of the Brewers games this season. Unlike Minnesota and Tampa, the Brewers are keeping 15 games over-the-air, as WMLW-TV will air a 15 game package. Thus, at least 150 of the team's 162 games will be televised. Every game not currently scheduled to be televised is a weekday afternoon game.
TORONTO: A third sports station will enter the market during early April with the debut of TSN Radio 1050. Former Calgary FAN 960 host Mike Richards will handle the morning show before the station takes from the U.S. Word is that TSN Radio 1050 will carry Dan Patrick and Jim Rome on weekdays. TSN personalities (from the TV network) are expected to be involved, as well as some content from soon-to-be sister stations in Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Ottawa. The new station is also planning mobile phone access and to stream.
SYRACUSE: Syracuse Chiefs minor league baseball has a new home for the coming season. WSKO The Score 1260 will also air a 15-minute pre-game show, with Jason Benetti returning as play-by-play voice, along with Kevin Brown (a 21 year-old sportscaster - not the former pitcher). The games will also stream on the team's web site.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - December 6th Update......
In addition to soaring TV ratings for live sports events, sports radio stations have generally increased their collective audiences over the past few weeks as well. Maybe it really is each feeding off the other.
The unlikely meeting of the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers in the World Series was a ratings factor for both markets according to the mid-October to November 10th ratings released this past week.
The Giants were a big factor in San Francisco's KNBR 680 which finished #1 in the market (for what is believed to be the first time), literally doubling its audience since the September ratings. In Dallas, the Rangers' station KRLD-FM increased its ratings by .7, more than 2 1/2 times its audience from November 2009. In addition, KESN ESPN 103.3 also shows an increase of .9 overall, giving the top 2 sports stations more than a combined 1.6 ratings increase there.
Other major markets also reflected more sports radio success in overall audience. (These reflect the overall radio audience, rather than just the 25-54 demographic.)
In Boston, WEEI finished #7 overall in the market, while Sports Hub WBZ-FM increased a full ratings point and finished 9th overall, which gives the Boston market 2 of top 9 rated stations being all sports.
Detroit's WXYT-FM The Ticket is now tied for the #1 spot overall (after previously having sole possession of the top spot), yet lower rated rival WDFN showed a .3 overall audience increase.
In Chicago, WSCR The Score 670 increased its audience lead over rival WMVP ESPN 1000, while play-by-play coverage seems to be more significant. WBBM-AM 780 came in #1 overall in the market while the NFL's Bears are off to their best season since 2006, and WGN Radio showed an audience increase as the NHL Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks broadcasts continue even while there has been change and turmoil with that station's daytime lineup.
NYC showed WFAN 660 holding steady and finishing #12 in overall audience, while lower rated WEPN ESPN 1050 went up .3.
Philadelphia, with the Phillies post-season run in progress early in the ratings period and the Eagles in contention, shows WIP at #8 overall, while KYW 1060 with its news format including regular sports updates being a solid #1.
St. Louis fans continue to flock to relative newcomer (less than 2 years on the air) WXOS, which gained again to finish #9 overall, its first ever top ten appearance. WXOS now has more than 5 times the total combined audience of KFNS and KSLG.
A similar story in Pittsburgh, where newcomer KDKA-FM rose .9 overall in one month and finished #12 overall, with WEAE-AM now having dropped .7 overall just since the September ratings period.
Yet, the sports radio competition has not made a difference in Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami in terms of overall audience.
L.A.'s KSPN went up .2, but only to a 1.1 overall rating, while KLAC 570 dropped from what little it had the month before. Miami's WQAM dipped .2 to now be only #25 in the market. A combined audience rating with WQAM and WAXY would not make the market's top 20. Sports fans seem to be drifting elsewhere in Atlanta since the Braves' fast post-season exit. WCNN dropped .8 overall and is now out of the top 20, while WAXY remains behind.
Even with the NFL Texans having an improved season, Houston sports radio has a problem. KILT dropped to #25 overall, dropping .3 in the ratings. Those listeners went to KBME (up .1) and KFNC (up .2).
On the TV side, several key markets got an NFL Manning doubleheader on Sunday (12/5), including many on the east coast and in AFC home team markets. Among the Fox-TV opening games was the Giants hosting Washington with Eli Manning at QB for New York. The primary double header game which followed was Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts hosting Dallas.
For all of the NFL's TV ratings success this season, LeBron James' return to Cleveland last Thursday (12/2) on TNT beat the Philadelphia vs. Houston NFL telecast on NFL Network by more than 22% nationally, which included a rating better than 25 in the Cleveland market. It wasn't the highest rated NBA telecast of the young season, as Miami's season opener vs. Boston continues to hold that distinction, as of now.
Hardly a day or week goes by without TV sports fans somewhere being stuck in a war between rights holding networks and cable and satellite providers. Now the biggest such "war" is between Comcast SportsNet California and Dish Network. Dish subscribers are now (as of press time) still without the San Jose Sharks and Sacramento Kings telecasts, among others. This comes after Dish had pulled MSG Network (including MSG Plus) in certain east coast areas in October. Dish acts as though its FairDealForYou.com web site is a reasonable response. The real issue is that the fans have no say. The cable or satellite providers should be able to deliver ANY network a subscribing fan wants, if he or she is willing to pay the price. Period. The phone companies don't stop us from calling certain area codes, so they shouldn't be able to stop us from receiving channels we want as long as we are willing to pay for them.
The NBA has inked another international deal, this one to bring 2 regular season telecasts per week, plus playoff games, to India, effective immediately. The result will be a record number of live telecasts available to the country with 1.2 billion people.
WILLIAMSBURG WV: What do you do when your radio station broadcasts both football and basketball, and games are about to overlap?
My answer would have been very much different from what 92.3 The Tide and 107.9 BACH-FM did on Saturday (12/4). It seems that William & Mary's basketball team had its opening game at Noon at VCU in Richmond, with the pre-game show scheduled for 11:30. However, William & Mary's football team had a 1:30 home game vs. Georgia Southern and a 1:00 pre-game show scheduled.
Granted, the basketball game was shown live on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. However, that was no reason for the radio stations to leave the basketball broadcast at 1:00 for the football pre-game show, leaving the basketball broadcast to only stream at TribeAthletics.com. They should have either put the basketball game on another station, or reduced the commercial load and had a knowledgeable studio host switch back and forth between the two broadcasts based on time outs, the closeness of the games, and scoring opportunities within the football game. (Since it was the same school, they would not upset one school or set of fans vs. another by switching around.)
LOS ANGELES: It's another difficult season for the Clippers, but even their long time broadcaster suffered an upset last Wednesday (12/1). Two accidents nearby on an interstate caused Ralph Lawler to drive only 6 miles in 6 1/2 hours and miss the Clippers home game broadcast vs. San Antonio that night. Lawler has been calling Clippers games (talk about earning combat pay!) since they were the San Diego Clippers in the early 80's. The game was also memorable because the Clippers actually won.
NEW YORK: A report from Newsday was not confirmed at press time that 1010 WINS will soon have a new morning drive sports anchor, and that it would be Sid Rosenberg. Speculation has it that Rosenberg will handle the duties from the WQAM Miami studios each morning and then continue to host afternoon drive on CBS sister station WQAM.
CHARLOTTE: Mark Packer (the son of basketball expert Billy Packer) is no longer hosting afternoons on WFNZ The Fan 610 (as of Thanksgiving weekend) after his contract ran out. The station had guest hosts filling in this past week and has yet to announce a replacement after 13 years with Packer. Yet, Packer continues to syndicate his program to 14 other stations, including Raleigh, Charleston, and Greensboro. In addition, his WJZY-TV 46 "Southern Fried Football" and sports commentary segments will continue as usual.
PROVIDENCE: Providence College basketball remains in the spotlight for 9 straight Thursdays returning January 6th on Sports Radio 103.7 WEEI at 7 PM with the (Coach) Keno Davis Show. Airing live from a local restaurant, the show (which aired last Thursday 12/2) is hosted by Dale Arnold (who co-hosts middays). Arnold is known for having done some play-by-play for the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins over the years and for having been with the station since its inception nearly 20 years ago.
The unlikely meeting of the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers in the World Series was a ratings factor for both markets according to the mid-October to November 10th ratings released this past week.
The Giants were a big factor in San Francisco's KNBR 680 which finished #1 in the market (for what is believed to be the first time), literally doubling its audience since the September ratings. In Dallas, the Rangers' station KRLD-FM increased its ratings by .7, more than 2 1/2 times its audience from November 2009. In addition, KESN ESPN 103.3 also shows an increase of .9 overall, giving the top 2 sports stations more than a combined 1.6 ratings increase there.
Other major markets also reflected more sports radio success in overall audience. (These reflect the overall radio audience, rather than just the 25-54 demographic.)
In Boston, WEEI finished #7 overall in the market, while Sports Hub WBZ-FM increased a full ratings point and finished 9th overall, which gives the Boston market 2 of top 9 rated stations being all sports.
Detroit's WXYT-FM The Ticket is now tied for the #1 spot overall (after previously having sole possession of the top spot), yet lower rated rival WDFN showed a .3 overall audience increase.
In Chicago, WSCR The Score 670 increased its audience lead over rival WMVP ESPN 1000, while play-by-play coverage seems to be more significant. WBBM-AM 780 came in #1 overall in the market while the NFL's Bears are off to their best season since 2006, and WGN Radio showed an audience increase as the NHL Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks broadcasts continue even while there has been change and turmoil with that station's daytime lineup.
NYC showed WFAN 660 holding steady and finishing #12 in overall audience, while lower rated WEPN ESPN 1050 went up .3.
Philadelphia, with the Phillies post-season run in progress early in the ratings period and the Eagles in contention, shows WIP at #8 overall, while KYW 1060 with its news format including regular sports updates being a solid #1.
St. Louis fans continue to flock to relative newcomer (less than 2 years on the air) WXOS, which gained again to finish #9 overall, its first ever top ten appearance. WXOS now has more than 5 times the total combined audience of KFNS and KSLG.
A similar story in Pittsburgh, where newcomer KDKA-FM rose .9 overall in one month and finished #12 overall, with WEAE-AM now having dropped .7 overall just since the September ratings period.
Yet, the sports radio competition has not made a difference in Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami in terms of overall audience.
L.A.'s KSPN went up .2, but only to a 1.1 overall rating, while KLAC 570 dropped from what little it had the month before. Miami's WQAM dipped .2 to now be only #25 in the market. A combined audience rating with WQAM and WAXY would not make the market's top 20. Sports fans seem to be drifting elsewhere in Atlanta since the Braves' fast post-season exit. WCNN dropped .8 overall and is now out of the top 20, while WAXY remains behind.
Even with the NFL Texans having an improved season, Houston sports radio has a problem. KILT dropped to #25 overall, dropping .3 in the ratings. Those listeners went to KBME (up .1) and KFNC (up .2).
On the TV side, several key markets got an NFL Manning doubleheader on Sunday (12/5), including many on the east coast and in AFC home team markets. Among the Fox-TV opening games was the Giants hosting Washington with Eli Manning at QB for New York. The primary double header game which followed was Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts hosting Dallas.
For all of the NFL's TV ratings success this season, LeBron James' return to Cleveland last Thursday (12/2) on TNT beat the Philadelphia vs. Houston NFL telecast on NFL Network by more than 22% nationally, which included a rating better than 25 in the Cleveland market. It wasn't the highest rated NBA telecast of the young season, as Miami's season opener vs. Boston continues to hold that distinction, as of now.
Hardly a day or week goes by without TV sports fans somewhere being stuck in a war between rights holding networks and cable and satellite providers. Now the biggest such "war" is between Comcast SportsNet California and Dish Network. Dish subscribers are now (as of press time) still without the San Jose Sharks and Sacramento Kings telecasts, among others. This comes after Dish had pulled MSG Network (including MSG Plus) in certain east coast areas in October. Dish acts as though its FairDealForYou.com web site is a reasonable response. The real issue is that the fans have no say. The cable or satellite providers should be able to deliver ANY network a subscribing fan wants, if he or she is willing to pay the price. Period. The phone companies don't stop us from calling certain area codes, so they shouldn't be able to stop us from receiving channels we want as long as we are willing to pay for them.
The NBA has inked another international deal, this one to bring 2 regular season telecasts per week, plus playoff games, to India, effective immediately. The result will be a record number of live telecasts available to the country with 1.2 billion people.
WILLIAMSBURG WV: What do you do when your radio station broadcasts both football and basketball, and games are about to overlap?
My answer would have been very much different from what 92.3 The Tide and 107.9 BACH-FM did on Saturday (12/4). It seems that William & Mary's basketball team had its opening game at Noon at VCU in Richmond, with the pre-game show scheduled for 11:30. However, William & Mary's football team had a 1:30 home game vs. Georgia Southern and a 1:00 pre-game show scheduled.
Granted, the basketball game was shown live on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. However, that was no reason for the radio stations to leave the basketball broadcast at 1:00 for the football pre-game show, leaving the basketball broadcast to only stream at TribeAthletics.com. They should have either put the basketball game on another station, or reduced the commercial load and had a knowledgeable studio host switch back and forth between the two broadcasts based on time outs, the closeness of the games, and scoring opportunities within the football game. (Since it was the same school, they would not upset one school or set of fans vs. another by switching around.)
LOS ANGELES: It's another difficult season for the Clippers, but even their long time broadcaster suffered an upset last Wednesday (12/1). Two accidents nearby on an interstate caused Ralph Lawler to drive only 6 miles in 6 1/2 hours and miss the Clippers home game broadcast vs. San Antonio that night. Lawler has been calling Clippers games (talk about earning combat pay!) since they were the San Diego Clippers in the early 80's. The game was also memorable because the Clippers actually won.
NEW YORK: A report from Newsday was not confirmed at press time that 1010 WINS will soon have a new morning drive sports anchor, and that it would be Sid Rosenberg. Speculation has it that Rosenberg will handle the duties from the WQAM Miami studios each morning and then continue to host afternoon drive on CBS sister station WQAM.
CHARLOTTE: Mark Packer (the son of basketball expert Billy Packer) is no longer hosting afternoons on WFNZ The Fan 610 (as of Thanksgiving weekend) after his contract ran out. The station had guest hosts filling in this past week and has yet to announce a replacement after 13 years with Packer. Yet, Packer continues to syndicate his program to 14 other stations, including Raleigh, Charleston, and Greensboro. In addition, his WJZY-TV 46 "Southern Fried Football" and sports commentary segments will continue as usual.
PROVIDENCE: Providence College basketball remains in the spotlight for 9 straight Thursdays returning January 6th on Sports Radio 103.7 WEEI at 7 PM with the (Coach) Keno Davis Show. Airing live from a local restaurant, the show (which aired last Thursday 12/2) is hosted by Dale Arnold (who co-hosts middays). Arnold is known for having done some play-by-play for the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins over the years and for having been with the station since its inception nearly 20 years ago.
Monday, October 11, 2010
The Broadcast Booth - October 12th Update
Sometimes it is better to not give enough information in order to keep your entire audience. A prime example took place during last week's Roy Halladay no-hitter in the Phillies vs. Reds NLDS opener.
In most time zones, this historical game climaxed during afternoon drive when a lot of baseball fans were on their commute home.
On WSCR The Score 670 Chicago, the anchor at the update desk informed listeners about the no-hitter through 8 innings. Under certain circumstances, there would be no problem with him doing this. However, the Phillies vs. Reds game happened to be carried on rival WMVP 1000, the ESPN station, and WSCR's chief competition. Therein lies the problem.
I heard about this from a long-time radio friend, who, of course, immediately switched over to the game broadcast on WMVP for the remainder of his drive home. He wasn't that interested in an opening playoff game with "out of market" teams, choosing WSCR instead. Suppose even a handful of people with PPM's reacted the same way and switched to the game broadcast. Essentially, the WSCR anchor likely helped the ratings of the competition.
From this corner, what he should have done was give the current score, that it was Philadelphia leading Cincinnati 4 to nothing in the 8th inning. We can be reasonably certain that hardly a baseball fan would be inclined to switch to the competing broadcast based on that information, given their choice to listen to the local call-in show instead.
What baffles me even more is that this same WSCR did not even give an in progress score during the 2 late nights I personally listened while the San Francisco vs. San Diego series was being played late in the regular season to help decide the N.L. West. The one time they SHOULD be giving in progress scores they didn't, and then they give "too much information" at a time they didn't have to. They would have kept their audience by waiting and talking about the no-hitter after the fact.
Years ago I worked for one Program Director at a music station who would not even allow the air personalities or news reporters to announce who the local teams would be playing that day. "We don't want to remind them to listen to or watch a game", he would tell us. A News Director I worked with at another station in a university town would tell us to promote every football and basketball telecast of the local school. His reason was that since the biggest competing station carried the games, we would rather steer the audience to TV and not the other station.
Sports stations not only talk about the competition among the teams and leagues they cover. They compete for the same audience. At least, they are supposed to.
Speaking of audience competition, I took a different approach to the latest batch of monthly ratings of the sports stations in the major cities. It is time to examine how prominent sports radio is, rather than one station vs. the other.
Admittedly, I have previously fallen into the trap and commented on the sports radio battles in Houston (with 4 sports stations) and Miami, among others. Looking at where the sports stations combine (since there are more than one sports radio stations in most markets now) sheds new light. In addition, I'm not sure that only focusing on the 25-54 males regarding sports radio is a true reflection. Teens and women are also sports fans, along with many males over the age of 55. They count, too.
In Houston, KILT remains ahead of KMBE and KFNC in overall audience figures. However, when you combine the overall audience totals for these 3 stations, the combined figure would NOT make the top 20 in overall listening.
In Los Angeles, it is the same story. KSPN 710 and KLAC 570 are within .1 of each other for overall audience. However, these stations do not combine to make the top 20 overall in the Los Angeles market. They are both getting swamped by more than 97% of the radio audience.
Plenty has been discussed about the competition in Miami, especially with the Dolphins switching stations. Again, there is more to life than males 25-54. WQAM, WAXY, and even WINZ combined would have been #20 in the market in terms of overall audience.
For Pittsburgh, relative newcomer KDKA-FM has done very well in just a few months as a sports station, leading the pack among sports stations. While faring better than Miami, Houston, and L.A. in total audience, KDKA-FM, WEAE, and WBGG combined would not make the top 10 in overall audience.
Yet, this is not reflective of the trend in sports radio in terms of overall audience. Look at many other "major league" markets and you then realize why there are so many markets with competing sports stations.
New York's WFAN triples the overall audience of WEPN, but if combined they would be #6 in overall listening in the market. In Philadelphia (for this ratings period from mid-August to mid-September and not including the Phillies clinching period) WIP has twice the overall audience of WPEN, and both stations increased over the ratings period, which would put them in the top 7 if combined.
Same story in Chicago where WSCR The Score doubles WMVP ESPN overall (and we shall see about the current ratings period!), but the 2 stations would combine to be in the top 7 in the market.
Even better for sports radio in Dallas. The Ticket continues to lead KRLD-FM and KESN, but sports radio stations would combine to be #2 overall right now, and these ratings only included the Cowboys' opening week.
In San Francisco, KNBR 680 is 7th in overall audience on its own, more than 4 times the combined audiences of KTCT and KTRB.
Boston listeners continue to support both WEEI-AM and WBZ-FM Sports Hub overall. While the Sports Hub edged up .3 and WEEI dropped .2 during the recent ratings period, these 2 stations combine for a top 4 placement.
WXYT continues to the The Ticket for ratings in Detroit. The nation's best example as the sports station claims its third consecutive month as #1 overall. Not to mention that WWJ News 950 rose to third overall and now provides sports updates at :15 and :45 each hour.
Minnesota Twins baseball moving over to KSTP-AM for the just concluded season paid big dividends in the ratings with the station up nearly one full point in overall audience during the past 3 ratings periods. KFAN The Fan, however, finished at 16th overall in the market.
In St. Louis, WXOS has better than 4 times the overall audience of KFNS and KSLG, but combined would hold a top 10 position in the market.
Kansas City's WHB is 13th overall in the latest ratings, but in this instance it should be noted that the sports station is actually 2nd overall in "non-music" stations. This market likes its music. Yet, when combined with KCSP's overall ratings, sports radio would be #3 overall.
Although these are the markets I examined, there is enough to make the point that some markets have much more of a demand for sports radio than others, and how this should be the measuring stick.
Yet, there are at least 2 markets where the sports demand is subject to interpretation. In both Cincinnati and Milwaukee, play-by-play seems to rule the roost, while talking about sports is further back.
WTMJ is a long-time solid #1 in the Milwaukee market, offering little actual sports talk but the majority of play-by-play. The station carries the majority of Brewers, Packers, Bucks, and University of Wisconsin football games (except when conflicts occur). Yet, neither of its sports stations, including one which offers extended Brewers post-game programming without the broadcasts, even register a 1 rating.
Same story in Cincinnati, where WLW dominates the ratings while carrying the Reds and most Bengals broadcasts with only occasional talk specific to sports. Even with WCKY showing more than 6 times the overall audience of WSAI, these 2 stations combined would not make the top 15.
While it's true you could make the same argument by combining various music stations and other formats and they would be #1 or #2, my point is the variation of interest in sports radio among major league cities. Looking only at the 25-54 males group does not show the whole story.
NBC-TV keeps racking up wins for Sunday night Football. There is a higher significance to the Philadelphia vs. San Francisco game winning on Sunday night (10/10), considering it was in competition with the Phillies playing Cincinnati for the NLDS, and followed the Giants' comeback win over Atlanta minutes prior.
In looking at the top metered markets for the night, I continue to be amazed that Richmond and Norfolk seem to show up in the top 10 markets most weeks, even though they are not NFL areas. It could be that the Washington Redskins have a bigger regional following than people realize. That would make sense, in that Skins' division rivals the Eagles and N.Y. Giants have been featured over the past couple of weeks.
Through the first 4 weeks (figures not available at press time for week 5), the Redskins' TV ratings were up 44% in the Washington D.C. area, which represents the 3rd biggest TV ratings increase among NFL teams locally. Houston Texans ratings were up 55% in the Houston market, followed by St. Louis at 51%. (Keep in mind this was before the Rams were destroyed by the Lions on week 5!)
On the NHL side, Versus got off to a great start with its first 2 nights of NHL games for the just underway regular season. The opening night telecast from the new Pittsburgh arena now ranks as Versus' most watched regular season game, including a #1 rating overall for the Pittsburgh market. Then, the late game telecast of defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago at Colorado set a record for most viewers for a "post 9 PM ET" start.
COOPERSTOWN: The finalists have been announced for the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rene Cardenas, Tom Cheek, Dizzy Dean, Jacques Doucet, Bill King , Ned Martin, Tim McCarver, Graham McNamee, Eric Nadel and Dave Van Horne.
The lone winner will be announced on December 7th during the Winter Meetings in Orlando. In this instance, it's too bad there will only be one. Tim McCarver is the most known based on 30 seasons in New York and at the network level. Cardenas helped to create the first ever Spanish broadcast back in the late 50's when the Dodgers moved to L.A. and worked for MLB teams for 38 years. Van Horne has just completed his 43rd season of broadcasting games, most for the Montreal Expos and now the Marlins since 2001.
What is puzzling is MLB announcing this to coincide with the playoffs in progress. These candidates deserve the spotlight to themselves. Here's hoping that in the future this announcement will come after the World Series when it can hold the spotlight.
BLOOMINGTON: As Dick Enberg comes off a tremendous season calling the Padres on TV and wanting to come back for more, he has an admirable off-season project to start on. Enberg will be doing a one-man play, "The Untold Story of College Basketball Legend Al McGuire". Enberg & McGuire were the NBC-TV #1 college basketball team for many years.
Enberg will be performing the play two times (afternoon and evening) at his alma mater, Indiana University on October 23. In a typical classy move, Enberg has already said he will engage the audience after each performance.
NEW YORK: Although the NHL is off to a good TV ratings start, it's not easy being an Islanders fan these days. If you want to hear their games. I suppose it's better than nothing, but Hofstra University's WRHU student run station is now the radio home of the Islanders. Sort of. Some of the game broadcasts will actually be a simulcast of the TV sound, while Chris King will call others. However, students will be handling the surrounding programming including intermissions and pre and post-game shows. At least they'll be on one station for this season. For the past 2 seasons, night games were on WMJC-FM while day games were on WHLI-AM, and were always the TV feed as a simulcast.
To put it politely, WRHU is something like 500 watts. Meanwhile, New Jersey Devils games air on 50,000 watt WFAN, while ESPN 1050 airs the Rangers games.
KANSAS CITY: Speaking of signal concerns, University of Missouri football fans in the K.C. area have more challenges than the team this season. KXTR 1690 is a classical music station with a limited signal that carries the day games. Their night games air on KMBZ 980, which is easier to get. The school hopes to (and needs) a better arrangement after this one expires at the end of the season. The previous arrangement with KCSP 610, which continues to carry the Royals and Kansas University, expired after last season.
BOSTON: Looks like the Red Sox fans gave up on the team long before their elimination from the post season. TV ratings for the NESN telecasts reportedly finished the season down more than 33% from the 2009 season. Thus, this is the first time since 2003 that NESN's Red Sox telecasts have not finished first among local telecast ratings.
HOUSTON: KGOW's morning show with John Granato and Lance Zierlein will be getting additional play starting this month. Comcast Sports Southwest will show the morning show's first hour (6 to 7 AM) live in the Houston area. The pair are expected to devote a couple minutes just to TV during longer radio breaks.
While the NBA Rockets play a couple of pre-season games in China this week which will be televised, it won't exactly be with the local flavor. It seems that Bill Worrell and Clyde Drexler will be calling the telecast off the monitors in a Houston studio. I would like to think that the main reason for televising these games is to share the experience of playing in China. Why couldn't they send Worrell? He could have talked with Drexler from Houston and shared what it was like. Under this setting, it may not be worth the effort to televise.
Then again San Antonio Spurs fans aren't getting any actual local telecasts of pre-season games. Spurs fans that can get Fox Sports Houston can likely pick up 2 of the pre-season telecasts done by the Rockets' crew. The Tuesday (Oct. 12) game between the Spurs and L.A. Clippers from Mexico City will be shown via NBA-TV.
WASHINGTON D.C.: Author John Feinstein made news with his appearance last week on WTEM 980, but not because of his comments. He was being interviewed live on the air when the car he was in was sideswiped and Feinstein let out an obscenity. Although the word and bleeped out over the air (though reportedly not online), the segment ended right then and there.
LOUISVILLE: NBC-TV has extended its right to cover the Kentucky Derby through 2015 with the new contract to include expanded coverage.
In most time zones, this historical game climaxed during afternoon drive when a lot of baseball fans were on their commute home.
On WSCR The Score 670 Chicago, the anchor at the update desk informed listeners about the no-hitter through 8 innings. Under certain circumstances, there would be no problem with him doing this. However, the Phillies vs. Reds game happened to be carried on rival WMVP 1000, the ESPN station, and WSCR's chief competition. Therein lies the problem.
I heard about this from a long-time radio friend, who, of course, immediately switched over to the game broadcast on WMVP for the remainder of his drive home. He wasn't that interested in an opening playoff game with "out of market" teams, choosing WSCR instead. Suppose even a handful of people with PPM's reacted the same way and switched to the game broadcast. Essentially, the WSCR anchor likely helped the ratings of the competition.
From this corner, what he should have done was give the current score, that it was Philadelphia leading Cincinnati 4 to nothing in the 8th inning. We can be reasonably certain that hardly a baseball fan would be inclined to switch to the competing broadcast based on that information, given their choice to listen to the local call-in show instead.
What baffles me even more is that this same WSCR did not even give an in progress score during the 2 late nights I personally listened while the San Francisco vs. San Diego series was being played late in the regular season to help decide the N.L. West. The one time they SHOULD be giving in progress scores they didn't, and then they give "too much information" at a time they didn't have to. They would have kept their audience by waiting and talking about the no-hitter after the fact.
Years ago I worked for one Program Director at a music station who would not even allow the air personalities or news reporters to announce who the local teams would be playing that day. "We don't want to remind them to listen to or watch a game", he would tell us. A News Director I worked with at another station in a university town would tell us to promote every football and basketball telecast of the local school. His reason was that since the biggest competing station carried the games, we would rather steer the audience to TV and not the other station.
Sports stations not only talk about the competition among the teams and leagues they cover. They compete for the same audience. At least, they are supposed to.
Speaking of audience competition, I took a different approach to the latest batch of monthly ratings of the sports stations in the major cities. It is time to examine how prominent sports radio is, rather than one station vs. the other.
Admittedly, I have previously fallen into the trap and commented on the sports radio battles in Houston (with 4 sports stations) and Miami, among others. Looking at where the sports stations combine (since there are more than one sports radio stations in most markets now) sheds new light. In addition, I'm not sure that only focusing on the 25-54 males regarding sports radio is a true reflection. Teens and women are also sports fans, along with many males over the age of 55. They count, too.
In Houston, KILT remains ahead of KMBE and KFNC in overall audience figures. However, when you combine the overall audience totals for these 3 stations, the combined figure would NOT make the top 20 in overall listening.
In Los Angeles, it is the same story. KSPN 710 and KLAC 570 are within .1 of each other for overall audience. However, these stations do not combine to make the top 20 overall in the Los Angeles market. They are both getting swamped by more than 97% of the radio audience.
Plenty has been discussed about the competition in Miami, especially with the Dolphins switching stations. Again, there is more to life than males 25-54. WQAM, WAXY, and even WINZ combined would have been #20 in the market in terms of overall audience.
For Pittsburgh, relative newcomer KDKA-FM has done very well in just a few months as a sports station, leading the pack among sports stations. While faring better than Miami, Houston, and L.A. in total audience, KDKA-FM, WEAE, and WBGG combined would not make the top 10 in overall audience.
Yet, this is not reflective of the trend in sports radio in terms of overall audience. Look at many other "major league" markets and you then realize why there are so many markets with competing sports stations.
New York's WFAN triples the overall audience of WEPN, but if combined they would be #6 in overall listening in the market. In Philadelphia (for this ratings period from mid-August to mid-September and not including the Phillies clinching period) WIP has twice the overall audience of WPEN, and both stations increased over the ratings period, which would put them in the top 7 if combined.
Same story in Chicago where WSCR The Score doubles WMVP ESPN overall (and we shall see about the current ratings period!), but the 2 stations would combine to be in the top 7 in the market.
Even better for sports radio in Dallas. The Ticket continues to lead KRLD-FM and KESN, but sports radio stations would combine to be #2 overall right now, and these ratings only included the Cowboys' opening week.
In San Francisco, KNBR 680 is 7th in overall audience on its own, more than 4 times the combined audiences of KTCT and KTRB.
Boston listeners continue to support both WEEI-AM and WBZ-FM Sports Hub overall. While the Sports Hub edged up .3 and WEEI dropped .2 during the recent ratings period, these 2 stations combine for a top 4 placement.
WXYT continues to the The Ticket for ratings in Detroit. The nation's best example as the sports station claims its third consecutive month as #1 overall. Not to mention that WWJ News 950 rose to third overall and now provides sports updates at :15 and :45 each hour.
Minnesota Twins baseball moving over to KSTP-AM for the just concluded season paid big dividends in the ratings with the station up nearly one full point in overall audience during the past 3 ratings periods. KFAN The Fan, however, finished at 16th overall in the market.
In St. Louis, WXOS has better than 4 times the overall audience of KFNS and KSLG, but combined would hold a top 10 position in the market.
Kansas City's WHB is 13th overall in the latest ratings, but in this instance it should be noted that the sports station is actually 2nd overall in "non-music" stations. This market likes its music. Yet, when combined with KCSP's overall ratings, sports radio would be #3 overall.
Although these are the markets I examined, there is enough to make the point that some markets have much more of a demand for sports radio than others, and how this should be the measuring stick.
Yet, there are at least 2 markets where the sports demand is subject to interpretation. In both Cincinnati and Milwaukee, play-by-play seems to rule the roost, while talking about sports is further back.
WTMJ is a long-time solid #1 in the Milwaukee market, offering little actual sports talk but the majority of play-by-play. The station carries the majority of Brewers, Packers, Bucks, and University of Wisconsin football games (except when conflicts occur). Yet, neither of its sports stations, including one which offers extended Brewers post-game programming without the broadcasts, even register a 1 rating.
Same story in Cincinnati, where WLW dominates the ratings while carrying the Reds and most Bengals broadcasts with only occasional talk specific to sports. Even with WCKY showing more than 6 times the overall audience of WSAI, these 2 stations combined would not make the top 15.
While it's true you could make the same argument by combining various music stations and other formats and they would be #1 or #2, my point is the variation of interest in sports radio among major league cities. Looking only at the 25-54 males group does not show the whole story.
NBC-TV keeps racking up wins for Sunday night Football. There is a higher significance to the Philadelphia vs. San Francisco game winning on Sunday night (10/10), considering it was in competition with the Phillies playing Cincinnati for the NLDS, and followed the Giants' comeback win over Atlanta minutes prior.
In looking at the top metered markets for the night, I continue to be amazed that Richmond and Norfolk seem to show up in the top 10 markets most weeks, even though they are not NFL areas. It could be that the Washington Redskins have a bigger regional following than people realize. That would make sense, in that Skins' division rivals the Eagles and N.Y. Giants have been featured over the past couple of weeks.
Through the first 4 weeks (figures not available at press time for week 5), the Redskins' TV ratings were up 44% in the Washington D.C. area, which represents the 3rd biggest TV ratings increase among NFL teams locally. Houston Texans ratings were up 55% in the Houston market, followed by St. Louis at 51%. (Keep in mind this was before the Rams were destroyed by the Lions on week 5!)
On the NHL side, Versus got off to a great start with its first 2 nights of NHL games for the just underway regular season. The opening night telecast from the new Pittsburgh arena now ranks as Versus' most watched regular season game, including a #1 rating overall for the Pittsburgh market. Then, the late game telecast of defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago at Colorado set a record for most viewers for a "post 9 PM ET" start.
COOPERSTOWN: The finalists have been announced for the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rene Cardenas, Tom Cheek, Dizzy Dean, Jacques Doucet, Bill King , Ned Martin, Tim McCarver, Graham McNamee, Eric Nadel and Dave Van Horne.
The lone winner will be announced on December 7th during the Winter Meetings in Orlando. In this instance, it's too bad there will only be one. Tim McCarver is the most known based on 30 seasons in New York and at the network level. Cardenas helped to create the first ever Spanish broadcast back in the late 50's when the Dodgers moved to L.A. and worked for MLB teams for 38 years. Van Horne has just completed his 43rd season of broadcasting games, most for the Montreal Expos and now the Marlins since 2001.
What is puzzling is MLB announcing this to coincide with the playoffs in progress. These candidates deserve the spotlight to themselves. Here's hoping that in the future this announcement will come after the World Series when it can hold the spotlight.
BLOOMINGTON: As Dick Enberg comes off a tremendous season calling the Padres on TV and wanting to come back for more, he has an admirable off-season project to start on. Enberg will be doing a one-man play, "The Untold Story of College Basketball Legend Al McGuire". Enberg & McGuire were the NBC-TV #1 college basketball team for many years.
Enberg will be performing the play two times (afternoon and evening) at his alma mater, Indiana University on October 23. In a typical classy move, Enberg has already said he will engage the audience after each performance.
NEW YORK: Although the NHL is off to a good TV ratings start, it's not easy being an Islanders fan these days. If you want to hear their games. I suppose it's better than nothing, but Hofstra University's WRHU student run station is now the radio home of the Islanders. Sort of. Some of the game broadcasts will actually be a simulcast of the TV sound, while Chris King will call others. However, students will be handling the surrounding programming including intermissions and pre and post-game shows. At least they'll be on one station for this season. For the past 2 seasons, night games were on WMJC-FM while day games were on WHLI-AM, and were always the TV feed as a simulcast.
To put it politely, WRHU is something like 500 watts. Meanwhile, New Jersey Devils games air on 50,000 watt WFAN, while ESPN 1050 airs the Rangers games.
KANSAS CITY: Speaking of signal concerns, University of Missouri football fans in the K.C. area have more challenges than the team this season. KXTR 1690 is a classical music station with a limited signal that carries the day games. Their night games air on KMBZ 980, which is easier to get. The school hopes to (and needs) a better arrangement after this one expires at the end of the season. The previous arrangement with KCSP 610, which continues to carry the Royals and Kansas University, expired after last season.
BOSTON: Looks like the Red Sox fans gave up on the team long before their elimination from the post season. TV ratings for the NESN telecasts reportedly finished the season down more than 33% from the 2009 season. Thus, this is the first time since 2003 that NESN's Red Sox telecasts have not finished first among local telecast ratings.
HOUSTON: KGOW's morning show with John Granato and Lance Zierlein will be getting additional play starting this month. Comcast Sports Southwest will show the morning show's first hour (6 to 7 AM) live in the Houston area. The pair are expected to devote a couple minutes just to TV during longer radio breaks.
While the NBA Rockets play a couple of pre-season games in China this week which will be televised, it won't exactly be with the local flavor. It seems that Bill Worrell and Clyde Drexler will be calling the telecast off the monitors in a Houston studio. I would like to think that the main reason for televising these games is to share the experience of playing in China. Why couldn't they send Worrell? He could have talked with Drexler from Houston and shared what it was like. Under this setting, it may not be worth the effort to televise.
Then again San Antonio Spurs fans aren't getting any actual local telecasts of pre-season games. Spurs fans that can get Fox Sports Houston can likely pick up 2 of the pre-season telecasts done by the Rockets' crew. The Tuesday (Oct. 12) game between the Spurs and L.A. Clippers from Mexico City will be shown via NBA-TV.
WASHINGTON D.C.: Author John Feinstein made news with his appearance last week on WTEM 980, but not because of his comments. He was being interviewed live on the air when the car he was in was sideswiped and Feinstein let out an obscenity. Although the word and bleeped out over the air (though reportedly not online), the segment ended right then and there.
LOUISVILLE: NBC-TV has extended its right to cover the Kentucky Derby through 2015 with the new contract to include expanded coverage.
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