• 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

Message board dentist dying to get noticed by Mike Francesa

wadio said:
And for once nobody is sucking up in agreement so maybe that's the reason for the lashing out.
Click to expand...

What is not understood over there is that radio still has enormous circulation, but the amount of time spent listening has declined considerably, with the greatest declines in the last two to three years.

In 2000, the total rating for the New York Market was 17.8 in a figure called "Persons Using Radio". Today, that figure is 6.8.

In other words, the 6 AM to Midnight percentage of the population 15 years ago who were on average listening to the radio was two and a half times higher than it is today. And the listening decline is particularly notable among 18-24 and 18-34 persons, with the percentage of them not listening to even an hour of radio a week increasing dramatically.


What has to be recognized is that radio needs to promote its reach, because the hours-per-week usage is declining and will continue to decline.
 
TheBigA said:
Except when they want to listen to play by play sports.
Click to expand...

In Boston, every local pro team is on FM. Yes, some college sports can still be found on AM, but Boston may just be the worst market for college sports in the country. (New York is right up there, too.) Here in the Hartford area, we still have AM blowtorch WTIC with the Red Sox, Giants, Patriots and UConn basketball, but with CBS Radio reportedly interested in selling off its Hartford cluster, I wouldn't be surprised if a future buyer puts the play-by-play on FM, either by blowing up an existing FM for full-time sports or making play-by-play a format breaker on the existing FM, as classic rock WAQY Springfield now does for the Patriots.
 
Last edited:
TheBigA said:
There are lots of other markets besides Boston.
Click to expand...

Of course. But don't you think this may become a trend? And if not, why, given AM's problems?

Surely WFAN New York won't remain an AM/FM 100 percent simulcast forever. At some point, the valuable programming will go where the listeners are and the AM will become a dumping ground for miscellany and birdfeed, the way WPOP has become here in Hartford since iHeart moved WUCS into town from Springfield and WEEI (AM) has become in Boston since Entercom moved all the sports people actually want to listen to to 93.7 after blowing up the variety hits format.

Of course those are Entercom and iHeart decisions. Maybe other chains still see a future in AM and will keep sports PBP on energy pigs like WFAN and WTIC a while longer. But how much longer?
 
Last edited:
TheBigA said:
It depends on the market. In San Francisco, the Giants fans are quite happy hearing their games on AM.
Click to expand...

There are lots of other markets besides San Francisco. ;)

I have no desire to see sports PBP leave AM. I have fond memories of listening to baseball PBP on skywave at night, and for those who don't want to (or can't) pay for broadcasts through SiriusXM or MLB, that's the only way to keep up with any teams but your local ones. Even with the hash and crackling and buzzing, WJR and WSB still make their way into Connecticut at night, but the Tigers and Braves are long gone, both to FM/AM simulcasts for now, but the AM side is limited-signal. I'd have to think most of the listeners in the metro areas of both are tuned to the FM, unless there are surprising rating numbers that can prove me wrong.
 
Last edited:
TTalkradio1 said:
But that's not enough to keep it alive. When Rutgers students tune in to whatever station airs their games, they don't become listeners. Even the WFAN isn't that big besides Mike Francesa.
Click to expand...

Are you sure about that? You think Mike gets more listeners than the Yankees?

As for Rutgers students, if they listen for an hour a week, they're listeners. Radio sales aren't based on TSL any more. Haven't been for 15 years.
 
TheBigA said:
Are you sure about that? You think Mike gets more listeners than the Yankees?
Click to expand...

Mike is on in the afternoon, when more people are listening to the radio than in the evening, when the Yankees play most of their games. He also talks about more than just the Yankees, which gives fans of other teams and other sports a reason to tune in. Why would a Mets fan or someone uninterested in baseball listen to a Yankees game? They'll listen to Francesa because they know he's going to get around to discussing the Mets or Giants or Jets or Knicks or the hot national sports story of the day. I would be surprised if the numbers for his show WEREN'T better than those for Yankees play-by-play.
 
Last edited:
CTListener said:
Mike is on in the afternoon, when more people are listening to the radio than in the evening, when the Yankees play most of their games. He also talks about more than just the Yankees, which gives fans of other teams and other sports a reason to tune in. Why would a Mets fan or someone uninterested in baseball listen to a Yankees game? They'll listen to Francesa because they know he's going to get around to discussing the Mets or Giants or Jets or Knicks or the hot national sports story of the day. I would be surprised if the numbers for his show WEREN'T better than those for Yankees play-by-play.
Click to expand...

The whole reason why stations do those rich play by play deals is that generally the games get more audience than the rest of the station and produce more money.

Granted, this could be the exception but every breakout I have seen show local major league Baseball beating the normal programming.
 
DavidEduardo said:


The whole reason why stations do those rich play by play deals is that generally the games get more audience than the rest of the station and produce more money.

Granted, this could be the exception but every breakout I have seen show local major league Baseball beating the normal programming.
Click to expand...

Then I stand corrected. This really surprises me, considering how radio listening drops sharply at night, but you've got the numbers and I don't.
 
I learned a great deal on the NYRMB. I understand that he has his own methods of moderating his site. The benefits of having NYRMB far outweigh any idiosyncracies of its owner or posters!

As long as he doesn't start shooting lions, I owe him a debt of gratitude for his pioneering contribution to radio!
 
TheBigA said:
Are you sure about that? You think Mike gets more listeners than the Yankees?

As for Rutgers students, if they listen for an hour a week, they're listeners. Radio sales aren't based on TSL any more. Haven't been for 15 years.
Click to expand...

Which is why AM radio isn't doing as well. You don't know how many of those Yankee listeners are under 35. Most of AM isn't sports anyway,
 
xyz said:
I learned a great deal on the NYRMB. I understand that he has his own methods of moderating his site. The benefits of having NYRMB far outweigh any idiosyncracies of its owner or posters!

As long as he doesn't start shooting lions, I owe him a debt of gratitude for his pioneering contribution to radio!
Click to expand...

Randomly deleting posts isn't a good way to run a board.
 
Are you saying that because he was the only one to create a professional looking site, he was the only one with the ability to do so?

Maybe the case is because there a number of great fans of WABC and New York radio, but not a lot of us concerned with the business side of things. That's what his site has been about for many years.

Whatever the case may be, his is a password protected site with the password protection usually OFF.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Granted, this could be the exception but every breakout I have seen show local major league Baseball beating the normal programming.
Click to expand...

Related: Usually the only time AM stations have any kind of nighttime ratings is when they're running the local baseball game, both in and out of demo.

Generally, baseball listeners don't tend to stick around for regular programming. When the game is over they're back to their normal habits.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Actually, he was among the first to debunk the "king of all media" assertions.

What he saw was that Stern had very low cume compared with the other top stations in mornings, but he got incredible TSL.

We now can do probability runs based on how Stern would have done in the PPM and it shows that most of the models do not even produce a top 10 AQH rank in LA or New York, due to low cume that would not have expanded much in the PPM and highly exaggerated "voting" in the diaries by the same kind of Stern addicts that would push their way into press conferences and other public gatherings.
Click to expand...

Stern revolutionized radio. On the other hand, Sniffen the dentist has a radio messageboard. Stern doesn’t give advice on root canals, so Sniffen should STFU about radio,
 
joeybabe25 said:
Are you saying that because he was the only one to create a professional looking site, he was the only one with the ability to do so?

Maybe the case is because there a number of great fans of WABC and New York radio, but not a lot of us concerned with the business side of things. That's what his site has been about for many years.

Whatever the case may be, his is a password protected site with the password protection usually OFF.
Click to expand...

There's no point in posting, if most of the time he'll delete your post. I haven't been on his board since I posted that.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom