• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

97.5 crushes WIP on Andy Reid D-Day

O

orange434

i don't know if it'll be reflected in the december PPMs, but WIP has dropped the ball (pun intended) big time on the day of the biggest sports story in philadelphia in quite some time. we knew for weeks that on the day after the NFL regular season ended andy reid would probably be fired, yet most of WIP's regulars are MIA. morning drive had jody macdonald flying solo instead of angelo & the morning team. 10-1 had michael barkann on a pathetic sounding ISDN line from the CSN studio with ike reese. and anthony & glen are off for the PM drive, making way for rob ellis and the unlistenable hollis thomas.

meanwhile 97.5 actually had a local morning show (presumably mike & mike were off today) with tim mcmanus and others. in the other slots bruno & marks and missanelli have been business as usual today. i know where my radio has been on a day that sports talk radio was created for.
 
orange434 said:
i know where my radio has been on a day that sports talk radio was created for.
Click to expand...
Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but other than it actually happening today, it's hardly news here to the sports world or even Andy himself. It's already BEEN the Philadelphia sports headline for the last few months, maybe even a year. If you didn't really address it until today, you didn't do your job.
 
thataveragejoe said:
orange434 said:
i know where my radio has been on a day that sports talk radio was created for.
Click to expand...
Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but other than it actually happening today, it's hardly news here to the sports world or even Andy himself. It's already BEEN the Philadelphia sports headline for the last few months, maybe even a year. If you didn't really address it until today, you didn't do your job.
Click to expand...

of course it has been talked about ad naseum, everyone knew it was coming, but this was still a big day. the man had been coaching here for 14 years. it's the team that matters most by far in this town. something just seems backwards to me for a sports station in philly to have 75% of its airstaff off when the word officially comes down.
 
orange434 said:
thataveragejoe said:
orange434 said:
i know where my radio has been on a day that sports talk radio was created for.
Click to expand...
Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but other than it actually happening today, it's hardly news here to the sports world or even Andy himself. It's already BEEN the Philadelphia sports headline for the last few months, maybe even a year. If you didn't really address it until today, you didn't do your job.
Click to expand...

of course it has been talked about ad naseum, everyone knew it was coming, but this was still a big day. the man had been coaching here for 14 years. it's the team that matters most by far in this town. something just seems backwards to me for a sports station in philly to have 75% of its airstaff off when the word officially comes down.
Click to expand...

I just like the Fanatic overall better than WIP. Always have..in spite of the national morning show. If I were the Fanatic, I'd be running tons of promos today reflecting their coverage yesterday of the Andy firing. If a big news story breaks on the weekend, the weekday network anchors always come in and work it. WIP should have had a plan in place to bring everybody back yesterday. Bad move.
 
Forgive me for scratching my head on this one, but I can't see how "WIP has dropped the ball" on the Andy Reid exit from the Eagles. If they had failed to report "the biggest sports story in Philadelphia in quite some time" that would be an unforgivable "missing it" -- but not having all of the usual weekday hosts in place?

Yes, network and local TV stations bring in their main anchors for major news developments. But, with all due respect, Sports Talk hosts are NOT anchors. They talk about the sports news and generally attempt to stir up listeners to respond and create (hopefully) interesting and entertaining discussions/debate.

The Sports Talk host is the equivalent of the music format's DJ, as also is the case with News Talk hosts. The Talk host is not the News Director or "Main Anchor" in the sense of Scott Pelley or Brian Williams -- or even Susan Barnett and Chris May.

Those who regularly listen to WIP have heard it all from the station's "main hosts" on the Eagles, Andy Reid, etc., for months now. Would they suddenly say something different now? Methinks not.

As for Rob Ellis being on for the totally expected day that Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie told everyone that Andy was indeed out, it could be argued that CBS Philly has upped the status of Rob Ellis from his recently acquired additional role as a CBS3 sports anchor with a good deal of TV "face time" during Lesley Van Arsdall's maternity leave (with Beasley Reece still taking a lot of time off). "See," says hypothetical management response to this thread, "we brought in the CBS3 TV Sports Anchor Rob Ellis for the big Sports story."
 
Jody Mac is hardly chopped liver. Matter of fact, there are those that would consider him an upgrade. Besides that, the comment in the original post, something like we all knew this would probably happen is an intrasentence downgrade in probability, so I don't know how fair it is to criticize WIP for the AM drive vacation fill in when I don't believe a press conference was scheduled until Monday morning.

Seems to me like Jody Mac's been jerked around a fair amount in his career. He was probably given advanced notice of the schedule to work Monday nicely in advance. To me, solid pro that he is, I cannot imagine Jody getting a last minute call saying, "hey, Mac Man, we don't need you Monday morning because of breaking news that you aren't as appealing to cover as our regular staff."

Doesn't seem like WIP dropped the ball.
 
KBland said:
Jody Mac is hardly chopped liver. Matter of fact, there are those that would consider him an upgrade. Besides that, the comment in the original post, something like we all knew this would probably happen is an intrasentence downgrade in probability, so I don't know how fair it is to criticize WIP for the AM drive vacation fill in when I don't believe a press conference was scheduled until Monday morning.
Click to expand...

i'd venture to say 9 out of 10 NFL head coach firings happen on the monday after the season ends. it wasn't going out on a limb to predict that's when reid would be gone, regardless of when the timing of the press conference was finally announced.

monday is the kind of the day where sports talk radio goes beyond the usual listeners that are tuned in all season long. i can't believe you wouldn't want to have your main hosts promoting your brand on a day like that.
 
but they had their regular airstaff on the 31st, INCLUDING placing local talent in a daypart they usually air syndication in. that's the point. obviously GM found it an important enough day to "miraculously" coordinate vacation schedules and get everyone in the building. nobody cares who was on the day after, a day much more people have off anyway.
 
Orange you're grasping at straws and in the minority. It wasn't election night, and they aren't a NEWS outlet. RadioPro said it best. These guys are human, and entitled to their vacation just like anyone else. Stories break all the time when Francesa is on vacation on WFAN and you don't see him running in to comfort people like you do you? Why would this be any different? Be realistic.
 
Total non-story here, and as mention many people would consider Jody Mac an upgrade, but doubtful they had that many listeners anyway as it was a light workday anyhow.

Same with Rob Ellis, who isn't a backup to begin with. Many people consider him the most knowledgeable host on wip.

all in all this won't reflect any in the ratings, and i'm sure Mike Miss & others weren't happy they were ordered to come in & work a day during their vacation.
 
orange434 said:
but they had their regular airstaff on the 31st, INCLUDING placing local talent in a daypart they usually air syndication in. that's the point. obviously GM found it an important enough day to "miraculously" coordinate vacation schedules and get everyone in the building. nobody cares who was on the day after, a day much more people have off anyway.
Click to expand...

Maybe check the ratings book. Last time I checked WIP overall was still beating 97.5 One day isnt going to hurt the ratings.
 
I can see both points of view on this one. On the one hand, your marquee guys being heard from is probably prudent. On the other hand, I don't think it effects the ratings at all.

Rob Ellis is solid. Jody Mac has seen better days but he does know sports.

I sense that, outside of the morning show, IP is taking sports seriously again. I have been leaning towards 97.5 but still listen to IP quite a bit.
 
It was certainly not done as any kind of ratings grab. I'm not even sure the period between Christmas and New Years is even rated.

But it WAS likely done as a credibility grab. All of the people who WANTED to discuss the subject after it was official, would seek out the sports-talk stations and some would realize that one station had an A-team, and the other did not. It's something that the Fanatic people would like filed away for future reference - and the next time a big story develops, they may remember and tune in.

It's like in network TV. You tune in to NBC and they're not covering a major news story. So you go to ABC or CBS who are - and you might remember next time.
 
HGN2001 said:
It was certainly not done as any kind of ratings grab. I'm not even sure the period between Christmas and New Years is even rated.
Click to expand...

Every day is rated. It's been that way since the introduction of the PPM.
 
aindik said:
HGN2001 said:
It was certainly not done as any kind of ratings grab. I'm not even sure the period between Christmas and New Years is even rated.
Click to expand...

Every day is rated. It's been that way since the introduction of the PPM.
Click to expand...

But the point is that that particular period of time is relatively unimportant. I know for a fact that no radio ad buys are based on the "Holiday" book. Many stations go into a holiday mode, give staff time off, have lots of substitutes, etc., so naturally no-one pays any attention to any numbers that result.

The All-Christmas stations get a big boost - but it's basically for naught.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom