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After Imus' firing, ratings didn't hit the 'FAN

C

Cornflake the Destroyer

By DAVID HINCKLEY
NYDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, May 30th 2007, 4:00 AM


The good news for WFAN (660 AM) is that the station's ratings didn't immediately fall off a cliff following the firing of morning host Don Imus in mid-April.

But then, no one expected they would. Unlike Howard Stern at WXRK (92.3 FM), where ratings did nosedive when Stern left for Sirius Satellite Radio in January 2006, Imus never pulled a huge audience - just a quality audience, one WFAN and its advertisers found attractive enough so Imus was earning $10 million a year.

The ratings service Arbitron yesterday released the first numbers since Imus' departure, covering February, March and April. So they include 2 1/2 months of WFAN with Imus and about two weeks without.


http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...after_imus_firing_ratings_didnt_hit_the_.html
 
The ratings service Arbitron yesterday released the first numbers since Imus' departure, covering February, March and April. So they include 2 1/2 months of WFAN with Imus and about two weeks without.


[/quote]

Two weeks averaged into a total of 12? Get real. That's no indication. There could have been a huge spike in the days immediately following, followed by a huge drop off. Or... it could be the normal statistical wobble that causes Arbitron to disclaim anything but a three month rolling average. Trying to make an assumption with two weeks in the sample is just voodoo math.
 
SonoSational18 said:
Two weeks averaged into a total of 12? Get real. That's no indication. There could have been a huge spike in the days immediately following, followed by a huge drop off. Or... it could be the normal statistical wobble that causes Arbitron to disclaim anything but a three month rolling average. Trying to make an assumption with two weeks in the sample is just voodoo math.
Click to expand...

You saw that too.

I guess we should know better than to expect insightful analysis or a balanced presentation from a newspaper writer, eh? They have a certain number of column inches to fill each time, whether there's anything to say or not.
 
Actually Hinckley is pretty knowledgeable and a fine writer.......but in this case, there really isn't enough "evidence" to make any call as to whether the audience is gone. In fact, much of the listenership in the two weeks after Imus' departure I'd dare say were people tuning in to hear more on the Imus fallout or maybe a curiousity to see what WFAN was doing in his wake......certainly no determination can be made as to whether that audience had bailed out or not. The next book will be interesting, but the last two weeks of a monthly??? Blah.
 
Exactly. It's just far too early to tell. The next monthly trend, which will be fully without Imus, will be more revealing.
 
Imus was awful and CBS/WFAN are better off eating the contract and defending the lawsuit. If I were a sales manager at 'FAN I'd have issues showing prospects the MSNBC simulcast. One look at Imus and my marketing dollars would be earmarked elsewhere (especially in the early days of the MSNBC cast). How that show survived in New York represents a perfect example of why NYC radio is perceived as backward. And this market still thinks "Cousin Brucie" should be back on 101.1 too!
 
slickkicker said:
Imus was awful and CBS/WFAN are better off eating the contract and defending the lawsuit. If I were a sales manager at 'FAN I'd have issues showing prospects the MSNBC simulcast. One look at Imus and my marketing dollars would be earmarked elsewhere (especially in the early days of the MSNBC cast). How that show survived in New York represents a perfect example of why NYC radio is perceived as backward. And this market still thinks "Cousin Brucie" should be back on 101.1 too!
Click to expand...

Why would the sales managers even show the MSNBC simulcast? None of the ads are shared. Your logic makes no sense. Especially since WFAN is the highest billing station in the country.

And MSNBC apparently lost a major portion of their audience in that spot.
 
Logic doesn't apply. Advertisers who target 18-49 could take one look at the cartoonish, leather-faced nursing home candidate and surmise that there product shouldn't be associated with the show. Why Imus' agent let him be seen bumbling through the first hour of his show on MSNBC is beyond me. At times the guy was hardly awake.
 
slickkicker said:
Logic doesn't apply. Advertisers who target 18-49 could take one look at the cartoonish, leather-faced nursing home candidate and surmise that there product shouldn't be associated with the show. Why Imus' agent let him be seen bumbling through the first hour of his show on MSNBC is beyond me. At times the guy was hardly awake.
Click to expand...

Good point. Wrong though. Imus' show was the second highest rated show on MSNBC (behind Keith Olbermann), AND
do you think that advertisers base their buys on what Imus' face looked like? Cmon.
 
Actually, in Hickey's defense the article was much more balanced than the way it was portrayed in the original post.

As for the "18-49" advertiser.... well they weren't buying Imus in the first place... but those people who wanted 35-64 year olds (read: Boby Boomers now coming into tons of new disposable income) were right on target with Imus.

I agree... he always did have a face for radio.... but apparently MSNBC thought otherwise... or put him on in spite of that fact.
 
Bottom line, the radio ratings won't really show what happened for a while.
But MSNBC lost over 50% of its morning audience, and that spells BIG MONEY.
The top CBS executives who fired Imus should themselves get the axe.
Any executive who bows down and kisses Al Sharptons behind, and fires a VALUABLE COMMODITY like Imus, needs to be run out of the business.
Imus had a contract, he did not violate it. The FCC said he did not warrent any action from them. and CBS still fired him? I hope don cleans them out with the lawsuit.
 
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