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This from today's Daily Herald. It sheds some light on some of the ratings numbers of each show. Not looking too good for the Rosenbloom-Salisbury Show:
Sox help lift Score to record-high ratings
By Ted Cox
TV/Radio critic
Posted Friday, November 03, 2006
The World Series might have produced record-low ratings for the Fox network, but don’t badmouth baseball around WSCR 670-AM.
Baseball been very, very good for the Score — and it wasn’t just the White Sox in evenings that lifted the station to a record-high 2.1 percent share of the overall audience 12 and older in summer Arbitron ratings. The Score walloped all-sports competitor WMVP 1000-AM in middays, seized the lead in afternoon drive and closed the gap in mornings.
“I’m trying not to be arrogant,” said Score program director Mitch Rosen. “I’m excited.”
But he wasn’t trying too hard to rein himself in, and why should he? The Score’s 2.1 share tied the record high for a Chicago all-sports station set last fall by ’MVP. (The Score actually posted a 2.2 share in the monthly Arbitrend released in September, but couldn’t quite hold on to it in the final quarterly book with the Sox fading from postseason contention.) Without the Sox, who powered the ratings along with ESPN’s baseball playoff coverage last fall before moving to the Score at the beginning of this season, ’MVP dropped to a 1.3 share this summer.
The Score held an even bigger lead in the male 25-54 age demographic that is the prime advertising measurement for both stations. The Score did a 3.9 share overall in that demo, WMVP a 2.8.
“Nights blew up big,” Rosen said. “The White Sox played a part, no doubt.”
WMVP had to expect that, but it was during the day where its erosion, and the Score’s charge, were most noticeable.
The Score moved into the top five in the city in afternoon drive from 2 to 6 p.m. in the top male demo with a 4.3 share, behind only music stations. All-talk WLS 890-AM was sixth and ’MVP seventh at 3.9
That’s in part because Dan McNeil’s afternoon show doesn’t start up until 3 p.m. But even in the hours from 3 to 6 p.m. in which his show overlaps with Dan Bernstein and Terry Boers at the Score, they finished in a dead heat at a 4.2 share. That was after Mac, John Jurkovic and Harry Teinowitz led all stations in that time slot with a 6.4 share only last fall.
“That’s a great victory in my mind,” Rosen said.
The Score’s victory wasn’t limited just to Rosen’s mind in middays. With Cub games on often in the afternoon on WGN 720-AM, both Mike Murphy on the Score and syndicated ESPN Radio host Dan Patrick were down from the spring from noon to 2, but Murphy was down less, posting a 3.5 share to ’MVP’s 2.4.
And from 10 a.m. to noon, the Score’s Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley stomped ’MVP’s other local show, with Steve Rosenbloom and Sean Salisbury — which Rosen derided as “the guy on the phone from Dallas and the poker columnist” — with a 4.2 share to a 1.8.
ESPN Radio’s Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic held their lead in the mornings, but the Score’s Mike North closed the gap, 4.0 to 3.7, from 6 to 10 a.m. (including the first hour of Salisbury and Rosenbloom). He continued to tweak his show to compete by emphasizing sports more as they moved into fall — especially on Mondays, when he pounded the Bears’ postmortem while the syndicated Mike & Mike had to take a more wide-ranging approach.
For instance, while North was glorying in the Bears’ comeback win over the Cards on “Monday Night Football” a couple of Tuesdays ago, Mike & Mike were interviewing Steve Lyons on his dismissal from Fox Sports.
“We feel we’re dominating,” Rosen said. “I feel game over. I’m that confident.”
The question is, can WMVP recover momentum from the loss of the Sox and the Bulls, who just moved over to WCKG 105.9-FM? I’d say it’s too early to declare the game over. Mac will be back. His show no doubt suffered from the idiotic and overlong suspensions handed to him and Teinowitz over an on-air spat in June. They’ve already announced their intention to return with a vengeance with the rebuffed and toughened “Critics@XL” segment on Tuesdays.
Salisbury and Rosenbloom are more problematic. They sound like what one gets when combining two sports-media pros with little radio experience. (By contrast, Mully and Hanley have overcome that with a lot more energy, and bring more personal experience to the table with their “Reporter’s Notebook” segments on the Bears and Bulls.) Salisbury is excellent breaking down X’s and O’s, but becomes halting when he gets at all defensive — and he gets defensive a lot about establishing his Chicago credentials.
Only in Thursday appearances with Mike Ditka does their show throb with energy.
Mac will be back, but I’m not sure if Salisbury and Rosenbloom can turn it around. Football is Salisbury’s area of expertise, so if they don’t do it this fall, they probably won’t do it at all.
In the air
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