A very concisely written article with plenty of ratings nuggets:
Consistency lifts Score over WMVP
Link: http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/beatw ... column=cox
By Ted Cox
TV/Radio critic
Posted Friday, August 03, 2007
With WMVP 1000-AM still trying to break in a new local morning-midday show, and about to be forced to change hosts in midday afternoons with the departure of Dan Patrick from ESPN Radio later this month, it figures that WSCR 670-AM should trumpet its stable lineup.
“The key thing is consistency,” said Score program director Mitch Rosen. “At the end of the day, it’s consistency that brings us to the forefront.”
It sure brought them to the forefront in the quarterly spring Arbitron ratings book released last week. The Score pretty much wiped WMVP in the all-sports race.
“It was a victory across the board,” crowed Rosen.
If that’s bulletin-board material at WMVP, it comes at a painful cost. After both stations weathered the harsh sports winter with a 1.5 percent share of the overall audience 12 and older, the Score rebounded to a 1.9 share, while WMVP dipped to a 1.3. The Score also beat WMVP in the target demographic of men age 25 to 54 with a 3.9 share to 2.8, after WMVP led 3.7 to 3.2 in the winter.
The Score’s Mike North won mornings from 6 to 10 in the demo, 4.6 to 4.3, although he pretty much tied head to head with ESPN Radio syndicated hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic.
Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley swamped WMVP’s new team of Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman from 10 to noon with the Score’s highest average share, 4.9 to 2.4, and although Mike Murphy was inexplicably down in the midst of Cubs mania from noon to 2, Patrick was down more, 3.8 to 2.7.
Dan Bernstein and Terry Boers even dominated Patrick leading in for Dan McNeil, John Jurkovic and Harry Teinowitz from 2 to 6 p.m., 4.3 to 3.0, and Mac’s rhymes-with-witch-slap suspension had little to do with it, coming at the tail end of the ratings period.
Yet it does illustrate Rosen’s point about consistency. I don’t think there’s a Chicago sports fan worth his or her salt who prefers the departed Steve Rosenbloom and Sean Salisbury to Waddle and Silvy, but when you change hosts you inevitably lose loyal fans of one show while others are yet to find the new one. (That’s the phenomenon that kept Dan Rather anchor of “The CBS Evening News” for years after he should’ve been hung out to dry in the Texas sun.) And it doesn’t help to suspend the station’s marquee star excessively — yes, excessively.
Not to applaud Mac’s choice of words, but send him home for a few days as punishment and you generate a lot of press and buzz and posts on the Chicago Sports Fan Message Board. Send him home for a month with Carmen DeFalco and Jeff Dickerson sitting in his place and you lose listeners. That puts WMVP in a hole starting the summer ratings period as well — with Patrick set for departure Aug. 17.
Yet as Rosen chirps about consistency and declares, “North had his best book in mornings,” it raises the issue that North’s contract at the station expires next year. He’s suddenly sitting pretty, after radio execs planted the story that he could be let go when the deal expires in a media column earlier this year, when he was still losing to Mike & Mike. That was also back when CBS Radio could at least float the idea of moving Don Imus’ syndicated show in for morning drive. That, of course, is no longer an option.
Is the station ready to pay to maintain consistency? “We don’t comment on contract negotiations,” Rosen said.
Fine, but look for the this column to end up on the bargaining table as well as on the WMVP bulletin board. (Grid comment: Good call Ted!)
In the air
Remotely interesting: The Cubs posted their highest ratings ever on Comcast SportsNet with a 6.9 local Nielsen for Wednesday night’s game that sent them into first place. That translates to about 240,000 Chicago-area households. CSNC revisits the Sting’s 1981 North American Soccer League championship on “SportsNite” at 10 p.m. today.
ESPN Desportes will cover the Cubs’ Sunday night game against the Mets in Spanish, with Ernesto Jerez and Candy Maldonado on the call. … NBC Sports airs the AVP Beach Volleyball Chicago Open championships at North Avenue Beach this weekend, with the men at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and the women at 3:30 p.m. Sunday on Channel 5. … The Big Ten Network promotes its Aug. 30 debut with an event at Finn McCool’s, 15 W. Division St., downtown, from 6 to 9 p.m. today. … HBO’s “Hard Knocks” returns at 9 p.m. Wednesday, this year looking at training camp with the Kansas City Chiefs. (Grid comment: Zzzzzz)
End of the dial: Dan McNeil has an extensive post on the Chicago Sports Fan Message Board at Redacted answering listener questions. It’s required reading for all fans of his WMVP 1000-AM afternoon show — and for his station colleagues as well.
George Castle’s syndicated “Diamond Gems” devotes the entire show to Cubs manager Lou Piniella, including an exclusive one-on-one interview, this weekend at 3 p.m. Saturday on WLBK 1360-AM and Sunday at 8 a.m. on WSSP 1340-AM and at about 5 p.m. on WJOL 1340-AM.
