This Wednesday, Phillies on WIP

[aindik]

I heard an ad on WIP this weekend that they are carrying the Phillies game on Wednesday, a day game against the Red Sox. I assume this means that WPHT will air Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity instead of the Phillies that day?

I happen to think all Phillies games should be on WIP. But, barring that, shouldn't they all be on WPHT, rather than shifted around based on time of day? Are they going to air audio into and out of commercial breaks telling people where to find the game?

In New York, all-news WCBS is the flagship station of the Yankees. Would it make more sense to air Yankees games on sister station WFAN when the Mets (who air on WFAN) aren't playing? Sure it would, but that's way too confusing. You want the team's fans to be able to find the game.

 

[JaMa]

I think the game will still be on WPHT. CBS is simulcasting the game on WIP, because they think most of WIP's audience will be tuned to the game anyway. It's the same reasoning behind WIP airing the WYSP broadcasts of Eagles games this season.

 

[aindik]

If "most of WIP's audience" listens to local sports play by play when it is on, why isn't all of CBS's sports play by play on WIP?

 

[Kyle D]

If "most of WIP's audience" listens to local sports play by play when it is on, why isn't all of CBS's sports play by play on WIP?

So just because you don't like the games on 1210, they shouldn't be there, right? Why does this constantly come up every few months? WCBS carries the Yankees in New York for Pete's sake, and that's an "all news" station.

When you're running CBS, you can take the Phillies (and any other play-by-play for that matter) off of 1210 and put them onto 610. Until that happens, I guess you're going to have to learn to live with it.

 

[DToTheJ]

WCBS carries the Yankees in New York for Pete's sake, and that's an "all news" station.

And guess what? Before WCBS, it was WABC that was the Yankees' flagship for years... under their news/talk format! (WABC also had the dubious distinction of carrying XFL play-by-play that one year... Still can't forget those Johnny Donovan-voiced "The XFL" bumpers...)

 

[Rockin Rob]

Let us not forget when the Phils had their tremedous run (1977-1983, I wanna say 3 for the upper end) when the Phils were on.... KYW! Yes, believe it or not, they broke from "All News All The Time" to be the radio voice of the Phitins... including the 1980 World Championship run.

 

[ccuphl]

If "most of WIP's audience" listens to local sports play by play when it is on, why isn't all of CBS's sports play by play on WIP?

WIP is rolling in cash, with or without play-by-play. WIP is a male-demo machine.

WPHT, on the other hand, is not rolling in cash. What's an easy way to bring in money? Sports! High school, college, or pro, sports brings in money. Every mon and pop pizza place wants to sponsor their local high school games; every car dealer wants to be on with the Eagles.

Why put all your play-by-play eggs in one basket when you can spread them around?

 

[aindik]

If "most of WIP's audience" listens to local sports play by play when it is on, why isn't all of CBS's sports play by play on WIP?

So just because you don't like the games on 1210, they shouldn't be there, right? Why does this constantly come up every few months? WCBS carries the Yankees in New York for Pete's sake, and that's an "all news" station.

That's because a) CBS owns two all news stations in New York, so there's another one on the air during Yankees games, and b) CBS's sports station in New York is airing Mets games and the games are on at the same time most days. CBS has no better option for Yankees games in New York (though, I might have put the games on 92.3 if it was still running a talk format). Not so here, where WIP is airing, what, the Ike Reese Show during Phillies games?

When you're running CBS, you can take the Phillies (and any other play-by-play for that matter) off of 1210 and put them onto 610. Until that happens, I guess you're going to have to learn to live with it.

Remind me to link back to this post next time you criticize any radio company for anything. Is this the new rule on the forum? Don't post unless you run the radio station you're posting about?

I'm not saying that sports should only be on sports stations. What I'm saying is, if a company owns play by play rights and it owns a sports station, and the sports station isn't already airing other play by play, it makes the most sense for the play by play to be on the sports station.

 

[Kyle D]

I'm not saying that sports should only be on sports stations. What I'm saying is, if a company owns play by play rights and it owns a sports station, and the sports station isn't already airing other play by play, it makes the most sense for the play by play to be on the sports station.

It makes sense to YOU. Radio isn't about you. It's about money. CBS has made a business decision to put the games on 1210. I'm not a big Ike Reese fan (yet), but on WIP it doesn't matter. The timeslot makes money. 1210 makes a MINT off of the Phillies, way more then they can make off of the regular programming.

When you learn that radio isn't about "making sense", you'll be a whole lot better off. CBS would be complete idiots putting the Phillies on 610, thus slashing profits.

As for your little New York anecdote, do you think 880 makes any money off of airing Yankees games? Thought so. I'm guessing Yankees baseball probably pulls in more cash for CBS than the news product, during evening hours. Just a hunch...

I sometimes wonder why I waste the keystrokes...

 

[aindik]

I'm not saying that sports should only be on sports stations. What I'm saying is, if a company owns play by play rights and it owns a sports station, and the sports station isn't already airing other play by play, it makes the most sense for the play by play to be on the sports station.

It makes sense to YOU. Radio isn't about you. It's about money. CBS has made a business decision to put the games on 1210. I'm not a big Ike Reese fan (yet), but on WIP it doesn't matter. The timeslot makes money. 1210 makes a MINT off of the Phillies, way more then they can make off of the regular programming.

It's not about me. It's about making money. I never said anything else. Having consistent brands and formats is part of making money. So is not having two stations canabalizing each other over the same demos.

Of course the Phillies make lots of money for CBS. I never said CBS shouldn't air them. The question is whether CBS should air them on WIP or on WPHT. You're making a false comparison between 1210's regular programming and the Phillies. That's not the choice CBS has to make. It's going to air the Phillies - the question is where.

The choice, IOW, is to air Phillies on 1210 + Ike Reese on 610 or Phillies on 610 + Dom Giordano/Anthony Mazzarelli on 1210.

Which combination will result in more listeners (in demos that matter) for the two CBS stations combined, in that time slot? I'd bet Ike Reese canabalizes more Phillies listeners than would Giordano/Mazzarelli, so I'd think the Phillies ratings would be higher on 610 than they are on 1210. Enough to make up the difference between Ike Reese and Giordano/Mazzarelli? I have no idea what the spread is between them or even if Reese's ratings are higher. I suspect, though, that the consistent branding of a sports station and a talk station will increase ratings for both.

And that's just for night games. For day games it makes even less financial sense to pre-empt Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity (who make money for WPHT, right?) to air the Phillies, instead of pre-empting Anthony Gargano and Glen Macnow. To pre-empt both, like CBS is doing tomorrow, seems even sillier.

When you learn that radio isn't about "making sense", you'll be a whole lot better off. CBS would be complete idiots putting the Phillies on 610, thus slashing profits.

You've yet to demonstrate how Ike Reese is so much more profitable on at the same time as the Phillies than talk programming on WPHT would be.

As for your little New York anecdote, do you think 880 makes any money off of airing Yankees games? Thought so. I'm guessing Yankees baseball probably pulls in more cash for CBS than the news product, during evening hours. Just a hunch...

I sometimes wonder why I waste the keystrokes...

Where did I say WCBS shouldn't air the Yankees? Of course they make more money than news does at night (especially where CBS splits news audience over two stations).

If WFAN somehow lost the Mets rights, do you think CBS would wait more than 10 seconds before moving the Yankees to WFAN? Of course not. Why would you air sports talk against the Yankees on your own sister station, when you can attract a non-sports audience with news instead?

 

[imhomerjay]

My theory as to "Why would you air sports talk against the Yankees on your own sister station, when you can attract a non-sports audience with news instead?" question is that it might be that the non-baseball fans who would tune out from the sports station would be a bigger loss numbers-wise than the number of displaced talk listeners. If so, it makes business sense.

As to consistency of branding, 1210 is well-known as the Phillies home in recent years by most listeners.

 

[carnyfeet]

Someone mentioned the "next-morning" effect, in which you get in the car to go to work in the morning, and 1210 is on from the Phillies game the night before. They're hoping to grab some listeners for their other programming, because Phils fans need no coaxing to listen to 610. I think that thread about cross-station promotions has a lot of answers for this one.

 

[mjdecastro]

WIP was a great choice if you wanted to have multiple layers of delay on your broadcast.

At the game's outset, WNPV seemed the closest to real-time from my listening post, with WPHT delayed in comparison, and WIP delayed even further in comparison to WPHT. Stayed with 'NPV for the duration of the loss to the Red Sox, so whether any adaptions occurred at the CBS properties is unknown to these ears.

Makes me wonder how the football simulcast is going to wind up being. WIP is supposed to be the closest to real-time, as compared to WYSP which is supposed to to sync with the TV so you can turn down the Fox/CBS/NBC/ESPN crew and turn up Merrill & Mike) when Eagles season rolls around.