Philly Radio: WIP Scores Win Over WPEN

Angelo Cataldi

The NFL Eagles season has been a boon to both Philadelphia sports radio stations, as every show saw ratings increases over last quarter. But once again, Entercom's WIP 94.1 FM has topped rival WPEN 97.5 FM The Fanatic, this time in the 2017 fall ratings book, which uses data gathered from Sept. 14 to Dec. 6 to measure the popularity of stations and shows.

WIP ended the quarter up 22 percent over last year to finish second in the market among men ages 25 to 54, a key demographic desired by both radio stations, according to numbers obtained from Nielsen. WIP finished more than three shares ahead of the The Fanatic, which ended the quarter in seventh place.

According to philly.com, in the mornings, Angelo Cataldi (who recently extended his contract with WIP) and his crew remained dominant, crushing The Fanatic’s new duo of Anthony Gargano and former Daily News reporter Bob Cooney. Cataldi nearly doubled Gargano’s ratings share and finished the quarter up over last year, ending in second place. Gargano, whose ratings were slightly down compared to last year, finished the quarter in seventh place.

For middays, WIP’s duo of Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie continued their upward trend with a third-place finish, up a whopping 32 percent over last year. At The Fanatic, despite Gargano’s diminishing lead-in, the new midday team of Harry Mayes and Jason Myrtetus have also managed to slightly grow their ratings share compared to last year. The duo finished the quarter in sixth place, and the hope for The Fanatic has to be that some long-needed consistency in the midday spot can help it retain listeners.

The only real bright spot for The Fanatic was popular afternoon host Mike Missanelli, who ended the quarter in second place over WIP’s duo of the now-departed Chris Carlin and Ike Reese, who landed in third.

New program director Eric Johnson took over at The Fanatic on Dec. 4, and said his immediate goal was to close the overall gap with WIP.