WSCR got a strong performance from Mike North, who saw a healthy jump in his morning show from 2.7 last fall to 3.7 in men 18-plus.

OK, he's up. Can't deny it. Congrats to him. However . . . also from the Sherman column:

"It was a huge book for Mike North," program director Mitch Rosen said. "He is placing more focus on sports, and it's working."

Well, duhhhh, a lot of us could have told them that back when this show was launched and they announced all the plans for more non-sports stuff. Now they're all busy patting themselves on the back for figuring out something most of us suspected over a year ago. So, does this mean we'll soon see the likes of the Dick Durbin interviews and the appearances by Zanie's comedians phased out completely?

And, look at the numbers closely. Was this really "a huge book" for North as Rosen claims? Seems to me listenership was up basically across the board for sports radio, probably due to the Sox and Bears excitement. In fact, if I'm reading this correctly, it appears the ratings went up MORE for all the other programs on the Score than they did for North. I confess to being biased because I don't like him, but I'm seeing two things: the original concept for the new North morning show was a failure and he's still underperforming, at least in terms of percentage increase for the fall, compared to the other shows in the revised lineup.

He is up in the ratings. But a 3.6, is by no means a good number. It just seems good because his previous number was so horrible. For what he is getting paid that is still a horrible number.

I'm sure Pappy will be patting him self on the back for 4 hours tomorrow.

A couple of comments:

1) Rosen mentions that North is talking more sports now, and that's reflective in the improved ratings. Yeah, he's talking more sports than maybe 1 year ago, but I thought about 3 months ago, he was doing a solid sports show (with the occasional political/social rant)....Lately, and maybe it's because I don't listen for more than a few minutes, it just seems to me that there's more non-sports things coming back again.

2) With all the morning options that already are entrenched, how possible is it to even get good morning ratings ? What is an acceptable rating for a sports talk radio station ?

3) North was going off today on the Score commercials that said, 'we talk Bears all day long', and said that was common sense, everyone knows that, blah, blah, blah....Funny, I didn't hear those same complaints when the Score ran commericals for his show saying 'Mike North DOES talk sports' about 3 months ago...How pathetic (or misguided at the least) was the show's direction (or lack of) when you have to run commercials saying that a sports talk program does talk sports ? Maybe North hasn't figured it out, but some people weren't listening when he wasn't talking sports.

what a load of shit! Theres THREE reasons why his numbers are up.


1. Bears

2. Bears

3. Bears

Thats it. After the season they are gonna have a huge drop off because of the lack of interest in the Bulls. My Sox may help things for them in April but not from me. I'll get my Sox info from smoke signals before I hear it from Mike Pesci.

The bottom line is the Score bet the ranch on this shit for brains and numbers do not justify his existence. Kill the prick now!

How did Mike and Mike do?

They're not great either, but better than this crap. I'm surprised people listen, with no activity on this board and people switching to Johnny B. Either Mike brought the homeless some radios (maybe it's the streaming) or people are retarded

Probably the worst thing that could've happened to the Score, now Rock and the gayng will think they're great and there's less of an excuse to get rid of north

The thing that gets overlooked is that the score is on a great frequentcy and this is a sport crazzed town. They should do a an overall 1.9 by accident.

You are correct, North will drop in the next book to his typical low numbers because the Bears will be done. Plus this current 3.7 in male demo is not even top 10 in mourning drive. Murph and Fred would have got the same numbers.

They are paying Pappy 1.7 million and he has yet to produce anything.

talking sports? then get rid of annie & bucky!

Anything that encourages a return of the full sports format is fine by me. I have said it before and I will say it again, Mike is a solid host when he is talking sports. The numbers seem to reflect this opinion.

My wish would be that they lose Tranny.

There are still WAY too many pointless, forced debates between Mike and Anne. It is not interesting or entertaining. I have nothing against Anne personally, but she's the proverbial 400 pound gorilla. Swallow your pride, send her back to nursing home radio, and move on.

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"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

If Anne is the "proverbial 400 pound gorilla", then Fred must be the 800-pound gorilla. He needs to go, too. Haven't heard an intelligent opinion from him, ever. He is an odious, uninformed, self-important twit.

excellent "midget"

I almost spilled my beer laughing so hard. 800lb gorilla! i love it

The Sox and Bears have no doubt helped by providing stimulating subject matter. The lack of a local sports talk station opposing North should allow him to win the morning slot. The convoluted beginnings of the show have worked themselves out and politics/entertainment talk now takes the back burner. The show is now where it should be ratings wise. North's challenge is to maintain the current ratings through the summer and improve them again next fall.

1) Papi draws top 5 pay but his ratings don't even approach the top 10 (is he stealing money?)

2) According to Abbatacola, Murph and Fred beat M&M so Papi is bascially treading water at a much higher cost

3) The White Sox/Bears have apparently bought a surge of listeners to both MVP and SCR. The guess is that these listeners are tuning to hear Bears/Sox talk and not to hear Papi discuss foreign policy. The question is will Papi be able to keep these listeners.

I agree with this - I still question the direction of his show, and wonder now what's going to be talked about with no Bears or baseball, but the ratings have improved. If they stayed the same/gotten wrose, we'd be hearing on this board about that.

Sure. I dislike North's act, and generally, the ratings agree with my opinion. His ratings seemed to have improved this last period, but I still dislike his act.

People who use the ratings to justify their opinions may be on shakey ground, but at least "the ratings" is something tangible, a baseline, for discussion. I mean, how much do I "dislike", versus someone else's "hate", or ... ?

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

Congratulations Mike. Your ratings went from atrocious all the way to shitty. You should be proud. You are, in your own words, "the valadictorian of your summer school class."

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"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken