RADIO WARS: 94 WIP Enjoys Spring Hegemony While 97.5 the Fanatic Sees Marginal Drive Time Gains

For much of the last two years, the RADIO WARS story has been the same. 94 WIP dominates the Nielsen ratings while 97.5 the Fanatic lags behind.

Last quarter was no different. In the “winter book,” which runs through most of January, February, and March, WIP finished #2 in the market behind only 93.3 WMMR, winning easily against WPEN in the morning, midday, afternoon, and evening time slots.

This most recent book, April, May, and June, was the first for 97.5’s new lineup, and also the first full Spike Eskin book at WIP. The latter’s dominance has not waned, though interestingly enough, the numbers for both stations were slightly up from this same time last year.

As a reminder, whenever we do these posts, we’re going with Nielsen meters plus streaming, using the demographic of men in the 25 to 54 age range. The demographic data is robust, but M25-54 continues to be the focus for sports talk radio advertising. When you look at the below numbers, note that we have separate streaming and over the air numbers for WIP, while the Fanatic’s stream and air are wrapped into one singular number, known as “total line reporting” or “TLR” in industry terms.

Mornings

• 94 WIP: 14.8 (6.6 stream, 8.2 over the air)
• 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.7

No signs of slowing down for Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie, who trail only Preston and Steve in the morning. Year over year, they saw full gain of two share points from Q2, 2023 to Q2, 2024.

At the Fanatic, Andrew Salciunas and John Kincade saw the slightest of bumps, improving 0.2 points from the 3.5 posted over the winter, which was the final quarter of the Kincade/Bob Cooney/Pat Egan trio. The 3.7 was good enough for a 5th place tie in the morning, and shows how much of the morning market share is currently occupied by WMMR and WIP.

Midday

• 94 WIP: 12.5 (3.2 stream, 9.3 over the air)
• 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.1

A strong showing for Joe Giglio and Hugh Douglas, who improved upon last quarter’s 10.2 number in addition to moving 4.5 ratings points above their 2023 Q2 number of 8.0. WIP has been comfortably winning this time slot for years, though this is the first recent book in which the number came close to matching DeCamara and Ritchie or Marks/Eskin and Reese. It was good enough for a 2nd place finish market-wide.

As for WPEN, this was the time slot manned by Bob Cooney and left open for Mike Missanelli’s return. Cooney was given a rotating cast of co-hosts, including Bill Colarulo and Amy Fadool, and with the 3.1 number finished 11th in the market. That number, however, was higher than the 2.6 Salciunas pulled when thrown into the host chair following Anthony Gargano’s messy departure and PHLY lawsuit. Beasley will be hoping that Mike can make inroads here and challenge Giglio and Douglas at WIP, though after seeing the number WIP just pulled, the task may be a little steeper than originally thought.

Afternoons

• 94 WIP: 13.3 (3.0 stream, 10.3 over the air)
• 97.5 the Fanatic: 4.6

Again, Tyrone Johnson and Ricky Bottalico continue to outperform the other Fanatic dayparts, this time pulling a 4.6 and improving upon last quarter’s 4.0 number. The Best Show Ever? is not making rapid gains, but has steadily improved book after book, finishing #6 in the market this time around.

At WIP, this was the first Spike Eskin quarter and included only a small amount of Jack Fritz and Ike Reese duo shows. Jack and Ike pulled an 11.0 in the winter, and this book that number improved to a 13.3, which was also slightly up from Spring 2023, in which Marks/Reese/Fritz had a 12.3. What’s interesting is that Marks and Spike pulled almost identical over the air numbers in Spring 2023 and 2024, but the stream number in 2024 went up by a point. That was good enough for a first-place finish.

Evenings

• 94 WIP: 15.5 (2.4 stream, 13.1 over the air)
• 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.3

WIP was #1 in the evenings on the strength of the Phillies broadcasts. Fanatic finished in a tie for 11th.

Prime

• 94 WIP: 13.6 (4.3 stream, 9.3 over the air)
• 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.8

No surprises here. In the M25-54 demo, WIP romped to a 2nd place finish overall (behind WMMR) while the Fanatic was #7 overall.

Takeaways?

You would think that the spring book would dip naturally since we’re coming out of football season and picking up the basketball playoffs and beginning of the MLB season. But the numbers at both stations were up from the same time last year, and some even improved through the winter, which makes me wonder if Nielsen participants tuned out briefly after the Eagles’ 2023 Super Bowl loss and 2024 collapse, then tuned back in. The Sixers were at least compelling through the book’s first month, the Phillies were off to their best start in decades, and there was plenty of NFL draft talk as well.

Regardless, WIP continues to thump the Fanatic. This was the first quarter with 97.5’s new lineup, and ironically it’s Tyrone and Ricky, the only daypart that was kept together (Jen Scordo departure notwithstanding), which once again posted the highest number. John and Andrew saw a slight bump in the mornings, and while 0.2 is marginal, Fanatic mornings posted a 2.5 this same time last year, so they’re up 1.2 from 2023. Middays will be the focus with Mikey Miss coming back and we’ll probably need a year of Spike Eskin books to get the full picture for how WIP afternoons performs in the post-Marks eras. No signs of a slow down so far.

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