The guy who wishes he was black (Bernstein) and the Guy who wishes everybody was black (Goff) are basically "fireproof" because of the ratings the Cubs give the station. This is why they can go off on their political rants and get into their self indulgent, holier than thou, riding into town on their super righteous horses (although I hear Dan is somewhat undersized, IE: petite so he might straddle a donkey) as they prattle on unendingly about sexual misconduct etc. I think were stuck with these two until THEY decide to do something else.

The Cubs gave B&G a huge boost (including a playoff run) through the middle of October, and they still got absolutely torched (almost two whole points) in the demo ratings by the competition in a period that runs from mid-September through early December. So basically, a solid month of stretch/playoff Cubs baseball wasn't nearly enough of a ratings boon to overcome a month of B&G swimming without their red and blue floaties. Even during the summer, we saw that the regular Cubs games were keeping B&G ahead of their afternoon competition by only a few tenths of a ratings point.

I don't think the summer ratings propped up by Cubs baseball makes either of them "untouchable" at all. Is 7 months of marginal victories over the competition enough to offset getting destroyed by them during the non-baseball months? I don't think so, not when you're paying $10MM for the broadcast rights. I think a prudent program director would rather have a show that doesn't need to be propped up by expensive IP.

Why do B&G get credit for the cubs? I never get that. Doesn't the ratings company know which days are Cubs games and which days are B&G days. Don't the Cubs have their own advertisers at their own rates? And they sell them based on Cubs ratings not B&G ratings. So why would Cubs success have anything to do with B&G?

Radio ratings aren't measured like, say, a digital cable network or podcast/video stream, where the network can tell exactly how many people are receiving the data all the time because the "network" for OTA radio is a signal of light blasted out across hundreds of miles. And the service doesn't care what specifically is on the airwaves or driving listeners, they are simply interested in accurately measuring (or convincing people they can accurately measure) how many ears are on a radio station over a given length of time.

B&G get credit for the Cubs ratings boost because they have contracts with bonuses tied to ratings performance during their timeslot, not only the times they are on the air actually doing a show. Also, tying such bonuses to ratings performance influenced by the Cubs incentivizes the hosts to keep those extra ears coming back to the station, not just tuning in for Cubs games.

I wish Beardown had a PPM because he could say that shadowy organizations are tracking him and the radio stations he listens to and he'd be right.

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I wonder if Dan and Jason see these figures and have some internal reflection about their show and their approach, or if it is just incredulity at "dumb" sports fans not getting their soul-moving content.

Dan isn't stupid. What he is is burned out on this sports talk bullshit. While I don't doubt his contempt for people who aren't smart enough to get what he's doing, I trust he knows that he's been getting away with niche content on a mainstream platform for years, and would rather be true to himself and ride it out as long as he can than try to be someone he isn't in pursuit of tiny slivers of market share and risk failing at that.

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It seems like all the "greats" at the Score burn out on the format around 50. The mid life crisis never seems to end well for them.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

les still going strong and doing his thing on a daily basis. a chicago treasure

It's always easier to just be who you really are. I don't think the Dan Bernstein who covered the Bears as a cub reporter ever envisioned that he would be able to do what he has been allowed to do, let alone find success at it. I suspect he thought he would be a traditional broadcaster. Perhaps he aspired to be like Costas. Things went a different way and now he's li'l danny.

It's the same way with North. I don't think he ever imagined that someone was going to allow his Chicago accent and "street guy" character to fly on mainstream radio. There are air checks out there from when he was trying to break into the business and he sounds like Juice's Lecture Notes.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don