From Ed Sherman's blog on Crain's website this morning:
'Mike & Mike' is No. 1 in Chicago sports talk radio
Former WMVP General Manager Bob Snyder reminds me all the time that I always pushed him to bring more local programming during his tenure at the station. I told him that national shows weren't the way to go for a fairly provincial sports town. We want to hear about the Sox and Cubs, not Yankees and Mets.
Looks like I was wrong.
Currently, the Mike & Mike morning show on WMVP is the No. 1 sports talk program in the Chicago market. The show, featuring Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, airs out of ESPN's studios in Bristol, Conn.
I listen to portions of the show from time to time, but I admit I go local and tune in much more to Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley at WSCR in the morning. Apparently, though, plenty of listeners prefer the Mikes.
Mr. Snyder, who now operates his own radio consulting consulting company, Beason Broadcast Partners, says the Mike & Mike show is reaping the benefits of being on the air for nine years.
"Radio is an habitual medium," Mr. Snyder said. "When you start talking about a morning drive show on the same station for nine years, people get in the habit of listening. Now it's part of their morning. It's very hard to make them change."
Dan McNeil took it as a personal affront that Mike & Mike are No. 1 in this market. Last month, he wrote in his Sun-Times column:
"They do a fine show, but it's best consumed in markets such as Bangor, Maine, or Enid, Okla., or Salem, Ore. In big towns like ours, local sports talk never should lose to a more vanilla national show. Shame on all of us."
ESPN didn't take kindly to Mr. McNeil's view. It contributed to his split from WMVP last month.
I do agree with Mr. McNeil. Not to take anything away from the Mikes, but the local guys should be embarrassed that a national show is beating them on their own turf. I still find it baffling regardless of what anyone says.
At the Super Bowl, I ran into Mr. Greenberg, an alum of Northwestern who got his start at WSCR. I asked him about the show's success and about Mr. McNeil's assertion that they do a "vanilla" show.
Why do you think your show is No. 1 in Chicago?
Mr. Greenberg: We just do the show the best we can. There was a time a long time ago we thought we needed to do something because that's what the people in Chicago wanted to hear. Somewhere along the line, we just figured out we've got to do what we do and hopefully people will like it. We do what we think what is the most important story of the day. and hope sports fans are interested in hearing it.
Talk about your approach.
Mr. Greenberg: These days sports fans have so many places to get their information. They choose what they want to listen to based on the presentation. Our approach is a little less negative. Maybe people like that. If one thing has worked for us, it's that we're generally pretty happy people.
What is your reaction to Mr. McNeil's comment?
Mr. Greenberg: I've known Dan McNeil for 17 years. I was his producer at SCR. I have enormous respect for Dan. I learned everything about how to do a talk show from Dan. However, I don't understand why you have to be edgy. You have to be real. Mike and I been doing this for nine plus years. You can't put something on. We don't say, "Ok, let's have an argument now.' The arguments come naturally. They're real, they're organic. We say what we really think. That's our approach. It's worked for us.
How much is the show aided by having the ESPN brand?
Mr. Greenberg: I'm sure a lot. There's no way of quantifying it. Right now, if you're in the sports media business where would you rather be than ESPN? It's the Rolls Royce of sports broadcasting. I'm sure it has helped me in more ways than I'm even aware. I probably underestimate how much it's helped us.
How does it help to be simulcast on ESPN2 in the morning?
Mr. Greenberg: A lot of people think we've come out of nowhere. We've been together forever. I think people started to discover us when they put us on TV. The power of TV is unbelievable. I still think of ourselves as a radio show that happens to be on TV. We never do anything designed just for the sake of TV. But it would be ridiculous to sell short the impact of what being on TV has had on our show.
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