The full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on New York sports radio hit home on Tuesday with the release of the quarterly spring ratings, Newsday reports.
To no one’s surprise, numbers were down across the board, given the lack of sports this spring and the fact fewer people were commuting to work and listening in their cars to WFAN and ESPN New York.
In the stations’ target demographic of men ages 25-54, WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti finished fourth among all New York-area stations from 6 to 10 a.m. with an average of 5.5% of the audience, and WEPN ESPN was a distant 20th at 1.4.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., WFAN’s Maggie Gray and Marc Malusis finished eighth at 3.4% and ESPN 10th at 3.1.
From 2 to 6 p.m., ESPN finished fourth at 5.0% and WFAN 10th at 3.6.
From 3 to 6 p.m., when ESPN’s “The Michael Kay Show” competes head-to-head with WFAN’s Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts, ESPN was fourth at 5.2% and WFAN 13th at 3.2.The spring book covered the period March 26 through June 17.
In mid-June, Chris Oliviero, market manager for Entercom New York, said of Benigno and Roberts, "They have a long track record of ratings success [in midday], so to me it is unfair to judge them solely on the last two months.
ESPN, which long has struggled in the morning in New York with its national programming, will revamp its radio lineup effective Aug. 17, notably with former Jet Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams and Zubin Mehenti replacing Trey Wingo and Mike Golic in the morning.
In the winter, most of which was pre-COVID-19, WFAN finished first from 6 to 10 a.m. with an average of 6.7% of the audience in the key demo, ahead of ESPN’s 2.9.
The X-factor could be former morning WFAN co-host Craig Carton, who was released from prison in June after serving one year of a 42-month sentence for running a fraudulent business to pay off gambling debts.
No comments:
Post a Comment