Round 2 : SportsHub proves that it has arrived
WEEI-AM, a.k.a. Sports Radio 850, was the first all-sports station in Boston in 1991 and has dominated all pretenders since then, first on 890(WBPS), then on 1510(WNBR/WWZN) and most recently on 890(WAMG).
But, finally, WEEI is facing a serious challenge as WBZ 98.5FM, a.k.a. 98-5 The SportsHub, is closing the gap between the two all-sports stations. In the just-released October ratings book, Sports Hub experienced a ratings surge to bring it within striking distance of WEEI after just two months on the air.
Overall, WEEI registered a 5.3 rating (up from 5.2 in September) finishing in 5th place while WBZ-FM was in 14th with a 3.6 (up from a 2.5) among all listeners 6 years old and up Monday-Sunday, from 6 a.m. to midnight from September 17 to October 14. According to Arbitron's spokesperson, in its target demo category of men 25-54, WEEI-AM was once again ranked first but WBZ-FM has jumped to 3rd place. Despite still trailing in the overall numbers, WBZ-FM's management probably didn't count on such a quick growth in such a short period of time when the station launched in mid-August. According to Arbitron's overall numbers, WBZ-FM's audience grew from 488,000 in September to 780,000 in October.
The latest Arbitron numbers show Boston listeners, have noticed the SportsHub on the dial which maybe not so good news for a number of non-sports formats on FM.
While WEEI's "Dennis and Callahan" still ranked solid #1 among men 25-54, not-limitted-to-sports "Toucher and Rich" moved from 8th to 7th. But the afternoon drive may be the real story of WBZ-FM's October surge - "Felger and Massarrotti" jumped from 10th to 4th while WEEI's "Big Show" was in 2nd.
All of which begs the question: Could WEEI be feeling the heat? Maybe. Maybe not. No matter how you look at it or which side you're on, WEEI is still the top dog in this fight with an extremely-branded name in this town. Bottom line - WEEI is not going away.
But what WBZ-FM has proven so far, and what has been known all along, is this : there's more than enough of a sports radio market in Boston for both of WEEI and WBZ-FM to exist in and fight over. In many ways, both sports radio products are very different and obviously appeal to different segments of a large sports and non-sports radio base. While WBZ-FM hasn't really marketed itself very heavily thru TV, print or billboards, these latest ratings are showing that listeners are definitely aware of the new sports talk brand out there.
BRW Notebook :
Hey, what you said? : Of course, no matter how you look at this story in the Herald, it seems like Imus and WTKK relationship has seen its better days. Although middayer Michael Graham was calling into Imus the other morning, it was more of a courtesy check-in than anything else.
This and that : Familiar voice is back on WTKK 96.9FM's airwaves. Former CNBC business reporter Ron Insana is providing four daily business updates on FM Talker. Insana used to have a syndicated weekend show which used to air on WTKK on Saturdays....Jeff Santos' brainchild "Revolution Boston" has expanded again on WWZN AM 1510 this week. The station has added syndicated progressive talkers Mike Malloy(9-12a), Norman Goldman(Midnight-3am) and Leslie Marshall(3am-5am) to its roster. Since early May, in addition to Santos' morning drive show(7am-10am), the station has been running Stephanie Miller(10am-12pm), Ed Schultz(12-3pm) and Thom Hartmann(3p-6pm). Santos signed a one-year time lease with WWZN in late April to run progressive talk radio format in the Boston market.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sports stations to switch network affiliations this weekend
Sports fans in Boston are about to hear some changes at competing sports talkers WEEI AM 850 and WBZ-FM/98-5 in overnight and weekend timeslots effective this Sunday.
As was mentioned here earlier, after a four-year stay at now-defunct ESPN 890, ESPN Radio's programming is returning to WEEI AM 850. After ESPN 890 went silent on September 14, ESPN and WEEI announced a new deal on October 7(BRW 10/7) . The initial phase of the new union with ESPN was the addition of MLB playoffs earlier this month. The next phase of ESPN Radio's return to AM 850 involves weekend and overnight programming being added to WEEI's line-up starting this Sunday night after conclusion of Game 4 of the World Series. With WEEI forging forces with ESPN it also means that Boston's first sports station is dropping Fox Sports Radio programming after a four-year affiliation run(2005-2009).
But one station's loss is another station's find. After two and half months on the air, the new start-up sports talker WBZ-FM/SportsHub 98-5 is dropping Sporting News Radio's overnight and weekend shows to become Fox Sports Radio's Boston affiliate beginning this Sunday(11/1). Fox's programming will air from 11pm to 6am weekdays as well as weekend nights. Fox Sports Radio's new home in Boston will now be located on FM as national network's popular overnight personality JT The Brick will migrate from WEEI to WBZ-FM beginning this Sunday night where he'll be heard from 1am to 6am(Sun-Thur). For the past 13 years on WEEI, The Brick has built a large Boston listener base.
Sports fans in Boston are about to hear some changes at competing sports talkers WEEI AM 850 and WBZ-FM/98-5 in overnight and weekend timeslots effective this Sunday.
As was mentioned here earlier, after a four-year stay at now-defunct ESPN 890, ESPN Radio's programming is returning to WEEI AM 850. After ESPN 890 went silent on September 14, ESPN and WEEI announced a new deal on October 7(BRW 10/7) . The initial phase of the new union with ESPN was the addition of MLB playoffs earlier this month. The next phase of ESPN Radio's return to AM 850 involves weekend and overnight programming being added to WEEI's line-up starting this Sunday night after conclusion of Game 4 of the World Series. With WEEI forging forces with ESPN it also means that Boston's first sports station is dropping Fox Sports Radio programming after a four-year affiliation run(2005-2009).
But one station's loss is another station's find. After two and half months on the air, the new start-up sports talker WBZ-FM/SportsHub 98-5 is dropping Sporting News Radio's overnight and weekend shows to become Fox Sports Radio's Boston affiliate beginning this Sunday(11/1). Fox's programming will air from 11pm to 6am weekdays as well as weekend nights. Fox Sports Radio's new home in Boston will now be located on FM as national network's popular overnight personality JT The Brick will migrate from WEEI to WBZ-FM beginning this Sunday night where he'll be heard from 1am to 6am(Sun-Thur). For the past 13 years on WEEI, The Brick has built a large Boston listener base.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Raines out at the River
WXRV/The River 92.5 program director and morning personality Beau Raines has exited the Haverhill-based AAA(Adult Album Alternative) station earlier this week. Raines, a 37-year radio industry veteran took over as River's programmer and morning voice in mid-January. As was first reported here(BRW 1/12), former WROR 105.7FM(1999-2002) and WZLX 100.7FM(2002-2005) programmer who started his radio career at then-Top 40 WRKO AM 680 in the late 60's while studying at Northeastern University, became River's fifth fulltime program director in 14 years. Raines replaced Ron Bowen who left in June 2008. No word yet on who will be named River's new program director but for now music director/assistant PD Catie Wilber has been named the acting PD.
BRW Notebook :
Holiday concerts are rolling : 'Tis the time of year when listeners are inundated with radio station holiday concerts and benefit shows. You know the drill, big-label artits turn up and sing a few tunes for charity or/and promote the sponsoring station. WXRV-FM/The River 92.5 hosts its annual RiverFeast to benefit Greater Boston Foodbank on Fri. November 20 at Peabody Essex Museum with Marc Cohn, Needtobreathe and Eli "Paperboy" Reed. WFNX's annual "Miracle on Tremont Street" returns to the Orpheum on Friday, December 4th with Sppon, Phoenix and Passion Pit. This year's WXKS/Kiss 108's Jingle Ball at Tsongas Arena in Lowell on Thu. December 10th is already a sell-out despite no-flash line-up - Boys Like Girls, The Fray, Jordin Sparks, Sean Kingston, Justin Bieber and Jay Sean. Boys Like Girls, Kingston and Sparks all performed at the Jingle Ball concert in 2007, while The Fray performed in 2006.
One notable absence on the local seasonal radio concert circuit is Mix 104.1's annual MixFest concert. WBMX which moved its format from 98.5FM frequency to a more powerful 104.1FM this past August has apparently left its major annual station promotion on its former frequency. MixFest dates back to 1993 when Mix started it out as the FallFest.
The American Invasion : Tomorrow's Patriots-Bucs game from Wembley Stadium will be streamed live on SportsHub 98.5's website. Gil Santos and Gino Capelletti will deliver the play-by-play from London at 1pm. If you prefer to hear the British commentary from BBC 5 Sports Extra's Neil Reynolds, it will be found here.
The Pirates From Oz : Pirate radio will be back in the news, thanks to the upcoming comedy flick Pirate Radio (released as The Boat that Rocked). It's a comedy about 1960's Britain where there was no commercial radio and the stuffy old BBC was depriving the nation of the swinging sounds of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and the Who. Pirate radio stations sailed to the rescue, dropping anchor in international waters and blasting the mainland with the latest groovy sounds. Pirate Radio opens at a theater near you on November 13.
WXRV/The River 92.5 program director and morning personality Beau Raines has exited the Haverhill-based AAA(Adult Album Alternative) station earlier this week. Raines, a 37-year radio industry veteran took over as River's programmer and morning voice in mid-January. As was first reported here(BRW 1/12), former WROR 105.7FM(1999-2002) and WZLX 100.7FM(2002-2005) programmer who started his radio career at then-Top 40 WRKO AM 680 in the late 60's while studying at Northeastern University, became River's fifth fulltime program director in 14 years. Raines replaced Ron Bowen who left in June 2008. No word yet on who will be named River's new program director but for now music director/assistant PD Catie Wilber has been named the acting PD.
BRW Notebook :
Holiday concerts are rolling : 'Tis the time of year when listeners are inundated with radio station holiday concerts and benefit shows. You know the drill, big-label artits turn up and sing a few tunes for charity or/and promote the sponsoring station. WXRV-FM/The River 92.5 hosts its annual RiverFeast to benefit Greater Boston Foodbank on Fri. November 20 at Peabody Essex Museum with Marc Cohn, Needtobreathe and Eli "Paperboy" Reed. WFNX's annual "Miracle on Tremont Street" returns to the Orpheum on Friday, December 4th with Sppon, Phoenix and Passion Pit. This year's WXKS/Kiss 108's Jingle Ball at Tsongas Arena in Lowell on Thu. December 10th is already a sell-out despite no-flash line-up - Boys Like Girls, The Fray, Jordin Sparks, Sean Kingston, Justin Bieber and Jay Sean. Boys Like Girls, Kingston and Sparks all performed at the Jingle Ball concert in 2007, while The Fray performed in 2006.
One notable absence on the local seasonal radio concert circuit is Mix 104.1's annual MixFest concert. WBMX which moved its format from 98.5FM frequency to a more powerful 104.1FM this past August has apparently left its major annual station promotion on its former frequency. MixFest dates back to 1993 when Mix started it out as the FallFest.
The American Invasion : Tomorrow's Patriots-Bucs game from Wembley Stadium will be streamed live on SportsHub 98.5's website. Gil Santos and Gino Capelletti will deliver the play-by-play from London at 1pm. If you prefer to hear the British commentary from BBC 5 Sports Extra's Neil Reynolds, it will be found here.
The Pirates From Oz : Pirate radio will be back in the news, thanks to the upcoming comedy flick Pirate Radio (released as The Boat that Rocked). It's a comedy about 1960's Britain where there was no commercial radio and the stuffy old BBC was depriving the nation of the swinging sounds of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and the Who. Pirate radio stations sailed to the rescue, dropping anchor in international waters and blasting the mainland with the latest groovy sounds. Pirate Radio opens at a theater near you on November 13.
Friday, October 9, 2009
The new FM sports talker off to an encouraging start
The newest contender in sports-talk radio field has something to smile about according to September ratings report released by Arbitron yesterday.
Not only did the new Sports Hub 98.5 earn very respectable numbers in its target male demos but starting out with zero listeners on August 13th the new sports talker registered an estimated 488,000 weekly listeners after the first five weeks on the air. Meanwhile, now-dark ESPN 890 only pulled an estimated 52,000 weekly listeners after four years on the air.
In the overall listeners 6+ category, SportsHub 98.5/WBZ-FM came in 17th but in its target demo of male listeners 25-54, the station was tied for 8th place(not the 11th as was reported in the Boston Herald today). WEEI AM 850 finished first in that same demo. But in the younger male 18-34 demo which favors FM to AM listening, the gap between WEEI AM and WBZ-FM was much smaller - WEEI was tied for 6th while WBZ-FM was tied for 8th according to an Arbitron spokesperson who provided the rankings to BRW.
While the SportsHub came strong out of the gate, the sports audience also grew for WEEI in September which means the rookie sports talker pulled its audience from other FM stations on the dial, and not so much from the established AM sports talker.
BRW Notebook :
More changes on the way? : While SportsHub 98-5 may not be putting any major dents into WEEI's armor, it could be having an impact on the first FM all-talk station in the market. While the SportsHub may be all sports from 10am on, it has everything-goes format(including sports, of course) with super popular "Toucher and Rich".
As mentioned here last week, WTKK 96.9FM dropped the last two hours of syndicated Don Imus' morning show(the live show is now heard from 6am-7am) and shifted around its local line-up. Interestingly enough, "Eagan and Braude", the new morning team at WTKK were doing their own version of whatever-sticks format this week.(Yes, they even talked about the Red Sox' playoff game today.)
But there were a number of other changes, in front and behind the mic, that were made at WTKK : station's news director and afternoon anchor Ed Cherubino was let go and as of this week, WTKK hasn't been doing live afternoon news updates during Michael Graham and Jay Severin shows. Cherubino, a 25-year Boston radio veteran, was the lone holdover from Smooth Jazz 96.9FM sign-off in August 1999. Longtime assistant program director Eric Caldwell and promotions coordinator Corey Anderson were shown the door. WTKK's changed its on-air slogan from "Boston's Talk Evolution" to "Boston Talks". A number of Boston radio insiders expect Imus' show be dropped altogether by year's end.
The newest contender in sports-talk radio field has something to smile about according to September ratings report released by Arbitron yesterday.
Not only did the new Sports Hub 98.5 earn very respectable numbers in its target male demos but starting out with zero listeners on August 13th the new sports talker registered an estimated 488,000 weekly listeners after the first five weeks on the air. Meanwhile, now-dark ESPN 890 only pulled an estimated 52,000 weekly listeners after four years on the air.
In the overall listeners 6+ category, SportsHub 98.5/WBZ-FM came in 17th but in its target demo of male listeners 25-54, the station was tied for 8th place(not the 11th as was reported in the Boston Herald today). WEEI AM 850 finished first in that same demo. But in the younger male 18-34 demo which favors FM to AM listening, the gap between WEEI AM and WBZ-FM was much smaller - WEEI was tied for 6th while WBZ-FM was tied for 8th according to an Arbitron spokesperson who provided the rankings to BRW.
While the SportsHub came strong out of the gate, the sports audience also grew for WEEI in September which means the rookie sports talker pulled its audience from other FM stations on the dial, and not so much from the established AM sports talker.
BRW Notebook :
More changes on the way? : While SportsHub 98-5 may not be putting any major dents into WEEI's armor, it could be having an impact on the first FM all-talk station in the market. While the SportsHub may be all sports from 10am on, it has everything-goes format(including sports, of course) with super popular "Toucher and Rich".
As mentioned here last week, WTKK 96.9FM dropped the last two hours of syndicated Don Imus' morning show(the live show is now heard from 6am-7am) and shifted around its local line-up. Interestingly enough, "Eagan and Braude", the new morning team at WTKK were doing their own version of whatever-sticks format this week.(Yes, they even talked about the Red Sox' playoff game today.)
But there were a number of other changes, in front and behind the mic, that were made at WTKK : station's news director and afternoon anchor Ed Cherubino was let go and as of this week, WTKK hasn't been doing live afternoon news updates during Michael Graham and Jay Severin shows. Cherubino, a 25-year Boston radio veteran, was the lone holdover from Smooth Jazz 96.9FM sign-off in August 1999. Longtime assistant program director Eric Caldwell and promotions coordinator Corey Anderson were shown the door. WTKK's changed its on-air slogan from "Boston's Talk Evolution" to "Boston Talks". A number of Boston radio insiders expect Imus' show be dropped altogether by year's end.
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