Boston Radio: Red Sox A Snoozer For Sports Talk

Are the swooning Red Sox dragging sports-talk radio down with them??? That appears to be the case, according to the new spring ratings book.

The Boston Herald reports Entercom-owned WEEI 93.7 FM and CBS’ WBZ-FM 98.5 FM The Sports Hub both took some hits in April, May and June with ’EEI — the station that broadcasts the Sox games — getting no bump from the returning World Champs, and The Sports Hub losing audience overall but really tanking in June.

According to the numbers for both stations’ target audience, men 25-54 years old, WEEI stayed pretty flat in the ratings for the three months ending in June. WEEI — which is choking on the $17 million it pays per year for the rights to air the Sox games — picked up nothing in the early part of the season, when the team should still have had some leftover World Series goodwill. The nighttime ratings, when most of the games are broadcast, were also down across the board.

Over at The Sports Hub, there was good news and bad news: The station finished No. 1 in the target demographic in the all-important morning and afternoon drive times. But The Sports Hub lost ground every month compared with last year, and ratings were way down in June — cut nearly in half from June 2013!

WEEI GM Phil Zachary says he doesn’t think the Sox’ poor play is translating to bad sports talk numbers.

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