NYC Radio: Michael Kay Show Ties for First Place

The New York sports radio ratings war heads into its final month with WEPN ESPN New York 98.7 FM’s Michael Kay closing in on his nemesis, WFAN’s Mike Francesa. Kay tied Francesa atop all of New York afternoon radio ratings with the exact same 6.26 share in their coveted 25-54 male demographic for the latest month (Oct. 11 through Nov. 7).

According to The NY Post, The Kay show has beaten Francesa for a month only once in the history of the two programs — in June 2017, when Francesa was just in the midst of his “retirement tour.” This is the first time that Kay’s show has ever finished first in a month, while Francesa has done it often over his nearly three decades on the air.

The two programs combined for more than 12 percent of the listening audience, which is an astounding number; especially considering how poorly the New York sports teams have performed of late.

For this fall book, Francesa still is the favorite as the two shows enter what is the equivalent to the final three innings. In the first month, Francesa (6.3) finished second overall to Kay’s fourth (5.5). So Francesa has the numbers edge to squeak out the neck-and-neck battle.

Besides the numbers on his side, Francesa has the advantage of being heard on two signals (660 AM/101.9 FM) and a better lead-in with Carlin, Maggie and Bart, compared to Kay with Stephen A. Smith’s national show on ESPN.

Kay’s show is helped by the promotion of its simulcast on the YES network, but it could hurt radio ratings.

For this past month, Kay’s show was more consistent, beating Francesa three of the four weeks. However, the one week Francesa won, he won big with a monstrous 7.8 to Kay’s second of 5.96.

It seems to reason that Kay’s program owes some of its jump to the third man on the show, Peter Rosenberg. Rosenberg, who also is a WQHT Hot 97 morning host, joined  Kay and his longtime partner, Don LaGreca, in 2015. Rosenberg has a segment starting at 6 p.m. — in which he delivers the sports news and the trio comment on it  — is regularly the show’s most listened-to segment.

FAN reigned in the sports mornings for the month as Boomer & Gio finished second with a 5.4 ratings, while ESPN’s Golic & Wingo were 10th (3.9). In the mid-mornings, Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts were third at 5.9 compared to ESPN’s Humpty & Canty with Dave Rothenberg, 11th (3.4).

NOTE: WABC made the book with a 1.2 share, the omission above is a screw-up in the file made available to the radio trades.