Bears opening disaster could hurt local stations
Posted by Ed Sherman 9/15/2009 on Chicago Business

There is such a thing as peaking early in television. Sunday's Bears-Green Bay game might be as good as it gets on the local television ratings front in 2009.

The game on WMAQ-Ch. 5 did a whopping 34.8 rating in Chicago and a 53 share; 1 local ratings point is worth more than 35,000 homes and share is the percentage of television tuned to the telecast.

That was the highest rated regular-season Bears game since Dec. 11, 2006 when they played a Monday night game at St. Louis.

Sunday's number was huge for a season-opener and showed just how much fans had jumped on the Jay Cutler bandwagon.

The question is: Will they jump off after seeing the quarterback's performance Sunday and then hearing the punch-to-the-gut news that Brian Urlacher is out for the season?

The ratings still figure to be strong when CBS goes national with the late afternoon doubleheader game between the Bears and Steelers Sunday; it will be carried locally on WBBM-Ch. 2.

But with an 0-2 start looming on the horizon, the Bears ratings could drop sharply in upcoming games.

Little wonder why the heads of our local stations felt Lovie Smith's pain Monday.

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Rika Nishimura is a nude Japanese idol who enjoys the status of living legend. 2004 saw the release of the DVD compilation "Rika, 22 Years Old - A Goddess Reincarnated". Her teen DVDs & books still sell thousands yearly.

The Bears could play good football and still be 0-3 and then 3-4. That supposedly easy schedule does not look as easy now.

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And men have lost their reason.

Sunday, we get Jim Nantz & Phil Simms come 3:15p for the Steelers/Bears' game at Soldier Field on CBS Sports HD. I'm not sure when the Bears may get Joe Buck, Troy Aikman & Pam Oliver, if at all on FOX Sports HD. If the Bears stink, the quality of crews regardless if it's CBS or FOX may go down from week to week...Think about it. Do you really want to see and hear Bill Macatee & Steve Beuerlein or Don Criqui & Randy Cross call the November 1st Bears' game vs. the Browns on CBS? Do you really want to see & hear Chris Myers & Trent Green call a Bears' game vs. the Lions at the end of the season in Detroit on FOX in January? I rest my case...

But Shark, they're still better than these guys!(stolen from another thread)
I tried listening to WBBM but I just don't connect with these two the way I do other announcers. I've got serious issues with Tom Thayer and his John Madden approach to game analysis, I don't hear anything that I can't picture in my head. While I don't jibe with Joniak's vocal style, I think it's the ridiculous amount of sponsorship that gets plugged during each game that I find unlistenable. You hear it in each sport, but it just seems so distracting with the Bears broadcasts. You won't find me watching TV while listening to the radio like WBBM promotes.

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Rika Nishimura is a nude Japanese idol who enjoys the status of living legend. 2004 saw the release of the DVD compilation "Rika, 22 Years Old - A Goddess Reincarnated". Her teen DVDs & books still sell thousands yearly.

I could live without the constant in-game plugs on the WBBM Newsradio 780/Chicago Bears' Radio Network, Garo, but I think CBS Radio's syndicator Westwood One is equally as guilty in shamelessly promoting its advertisers during its national broadcasts of the NFL.

Pick two guys off the street and have them call next weeks game and I bet the ratings wouldn't be any lower than Nantz and Simms. People love the NFL and will watch their team no matter who's calling it. I can't remember ever deciding to not watch a game because of the announcers.

+1. SHARK, nobody (except for people that read your 3rd favorite website, www.awfulannouncing.com) cares about who announces the games enough to tune out. You watch the Bears locally because you like the Bears. The networks put the best announcers on games they are going to show nationally -- the rest is pretty much a crapshoot or else they try to develop a "brand" by having the same crew announce the same team on a semi regular basis.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

Agreed, what I have been saying all year...or all month

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“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

The Bears aren't going to be a ratings disaster, even if they start 0-2.