RADIO WARS: 94 WIP Thumps 97.5 the Fanatic in Fall Ratings Book, Unseats Preston and Steve from Morning Throne (UPDATED)

Ho hum, another monolithic performance from 94 WIP in the 2023 Fall ratings book.

This is the most important time period for sports talk radio, because it captures the back half of the baseball season and most of the football schedule over a stretch that begins in mid-September and carries through mid-December. Consider that WIP is the official radio partner for both the Phillies and Eagles and you’ll understand why this book’s ratings are astronomic, and only deepen the current Mariana Trench-sized chasm separating 94.1 from its main competition.

Per our usual disclaimer, we’re looking at Nielsen meters plus streaming, using the demographic of men in the 25 to 54 age range. That’s the key demo on which advertising rates are set. When we parse the data, we separate the 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.

To the ratings! –

Mornings

• 94 WIP: 19.4 (10.4 over the air, 9.0 stream)
• 97.5 the Fanatic: 3.3

Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie finished 1st place in the morning, with a sensational victory over Preston and Steve, who have been #1 in the time slot for years now.* WMMR still posted a massive 16.9 share, so you’re looking at two behemoths in Philadelphia A.M. drive. Consider, too, that Angelo Cataldi’s final fall book pulled a 15.5, so year-to-year, WIP is up 3.9 in the same time period.

At the Fanatic, John Kincade finished 8th overall.

*I am going to add a caveat here regarding Nielsen data. As we state at the beginning of each of these posts, we look at men 25 to 54 because it’s the most valuable demographic in sports talk radio. For a show like Preston and Steve, WMMR/Beasley instead values the adults 25-54 demo, which obviously includes both men and women. In that demo, Preston and Steve remain #1, so in the grand scheme of things, they’re still top dog. That being said, it’s still uber-significant that WIP beat them in M25-54, because Preston and Steve have owned that demographic in addition to A25-54 for many years now. Essentially what we have here is WIP winning their most important demo and WMMR winning their most important demo in the same day part. Make sense? Good. 

Midday

• 94 WIP: 9.8  (8.7 over the air, 1.1 stream)
• 97.5 the Fanatic: 2.8

Joe Giglio and Hugh Douglas finished third behind WMMR and WMGK, which posted numbers of 11.3 and 10.7, respectively.

97.5 lost Anthony Gargano during this ratings period, and with Andrew Salciunas covering the rest of the book, the Fanatic finished in a tie for 12th.

Afternoons

• 94 WIP: 12.8 (12.1 over the air, 0.7 stream)
• 97.5 the Fanatic: 4.0

Jon Marks’ final WIP ratings period was another huge success, as he and Ike Reese once again finished first in P.M. drive.

Meantime, The Best Show Ever? finished 9th, and has been the Fanatic’s best-performing program for three consecutive books.

Evenings

• 94 WIP: 17.3 (15.7 over the air, 1.6 stream)
• 97.5 the Fanatic: 2.6

No surprises here. WIP rode the strength of another deep Phillies playoff run to a #1 ranking and massive over the air number. The Fanatic finished 15th.

Prime

Across all time slots, WIP finished #1 with a 14.2 number (10.6 OTA/3.6 stream). The Fanatic was 10th with a 3.3.

Takeaways?

The obvious one is Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie not only posting a HUGE number, but defeating Preston and Steve and improving upon Angelo Cataldi’s performance from a year prior. That 19.4 is a monstrous share and we should all be curious to see how WMMR and WIP slug it out in this time slot as we ride the seasonal football and baseball waves.

For 97.5 the Fanatic, it’s much of the same – low numbers across the board. They have not been competitive in this demographic, and lost both Anthony Gargano and Devon Givens to All City, resulting in a lawsuit that is keeping Cuz on lockdown until April. They do have some traction with TBSE?, which once again outperformed the other Fanatic dayparts, and with new Program Director Scott Masteller in the fold, they’re going to have a lot of work to do to make RADIO WARS an actual war again. Right now WIP is brandishing the radio equivalent of a plasma cannon while 97.5 is loading lead balls into a rusty blunderbuss.

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