Philly Radio: WIP Dethrones WPEN's Missanelli

Ike Reese and Jon Marks

Jon Marks and his WIP 94.1 FM  co-host, former Eagles linebacker Ike Reese, defeated WPEN 97.5 The Fanatic’s longtime ratings champ in the 2018 winter ratings book, which uses data gathered from January through March to measure popularity.

According to philly.com, it was a narrow victory, less than a share among men ages 25 to 54, the most important listening demographic for both radio stations (all numbers in this story are for men 25 to 54). But it was the first time WIP defeated Missanelli in a quarterly book since 2015, when Missanelli lost to WIP’s short-lived duo of Josh Innes and Tony Bruno. Marks and Reese ended the most recent quarter in third place in the market, while Missanelli finished narrowly behind them in fourth place.

But Eric Johnson, who took over as program director of The Fanatic in December, isn’t ready to concede the victory. Johnson pointed out that if you combine the terrestrial numbers with streaming ratings offered by Nielsen, Missanelli eked out the win over WIP.

Most radio stations count only the terrestrial ratings numbers to determine things like advertising rates and bonus offers, which is why Nielsen reports the two as seperate numbers. But stations rarely use Nielsen numbers to sell ads online anyway, due to their volatility and web analytics that let companies track the exact numbers of their streaming audience.

WIP finished third overall in the market, nearly four full ratings shares ahead of The Fanatic, which ended the quarter in fourth place. Year-to-year, both stations were up, but WIP managed to grow its ratings more than 100 percent compared to 2017, and ended the quarter with the highest-rated winter ratings book in the station’s history.

MORNING DRIVE

Once again, Cataldi and the WIP Morning Show crew crushed Anthony Gargano, more than doubling his ratings for the quarter. The second-place finish isn’t in itself surprising, considering Cataldi’s popularity and WIP’s partnership with the Eagles. But Gargano and co-host Bob Cooney, who finished in fifth place, benefited the least from the ratings bump every sports show in the city enjoyed due to the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory.

Ironically, both sports stations were defeated during the Eagles’ historic postseason run by WMMR’s Preston & Steve, who have dominated ratings in Philadelphia for nearly a decade. Once again, the duo of Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison finished in first place in the market, well ahead of both Cataldi and Gargano.