NYC Radio: Carton& Roberts Building On Ratings Lead

WFAN’s Craig Carton and Evan Roberts largely maintained in May the ratings lead they have built in afternoon drive time, nearly matching their figures relative to ESPN New York’s "The Michael Kay Show" in April, according to Neil Best at Newsday.

For the 4 ½ hours in which the programs overlap from 2 to 6:30 p.m., Carton and Roberts ranked third overall in the New York market among men ages 25-54 from April 29 to May 26, averaging 5.9% of those listening in that key demographic, according to Nielsen Audio data obtained by Newsday from an industry source.

Kay finished seventh for that period, averaging 4.2%.

Those figures are similar to April’s, when Carton and Roberts finished third among all stations with 6.4% of the audience while Kay averaged the same 4.2% he got in May.

This was the first month since Carton returned to WFAN in November and was paired with Roberts that they did not improve their performance relative to Kay, but the race appears to have stabilized with WFAN well in front.

The data includes both over-the-air and streaming audiences.

From 6 to 10 a.m., WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti again finished first in May, averaging 7.4% of men ages 25-54, while ESPN ranked ninth at 3.4.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., WFAN’s Maggie Gray and Marc Malusis finished fourth at 5.4% and ESPN was seventh at 3.5%.

➤May PPMs:  Click Here To View Topline Numbers For Subscribing Nielsen Stations.