New FAN trio holding off Kay show for now

No Mike Francesa, no problem. At least, so far for WFAN.

After the equivalent of three innings of play, WFAN’s new afternoon team of Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott held its own in the initials ratings. However, ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show” appeared to rally late.

For the month of January — the first month of the quarterly ratings book — “Afternoon Drive with Carlin, Maggie and Bart” rated a full point better than “The Michael Kay Show,” according to Nielsen Audio figures.

While it may seem Kay’s show would have an advantage with Francesa leaving, listeners are slow to change their radio preset dials, even when longtime hosts exit, and the new show has the curiosity factor to its advantage.

Overall, in January, “Carlin, Maggie and Bart” scored a 4.5 rating, which was tied for eighth in the market. Kay’s show, with Don LaGreca and Peter Rosenberg, was 12th at 3.5. However, after the new FAN show had been on the air for three weeks, Kay’s program beat FAN’s 4.1 to 3.8 from 3-6:30 p.m in the final seven days of the month.

CMB, as the new program is known in short, is going to have to show it can retain its advantage. The trio is trying to find its chemistry and seems to particularly struggle talking baseball, which is a Kay show specialty.

While this initial month is a small and, frankly, not a completely trustworthy sample size, it can’t be totally discarded. The Kay show celebrated last June after beating Francesa for that month for the first time ever.

While Kay and Co. put credence in that month’s victory, someone who didn’t think the one-month ratings meant anything was Fran- cesa. He equated it to scoring more points in the fourth quarter of a blowout loss.

“We don’t go by months,” Francesa said on the air. “We go by books.”

Radio ratings are judged in three 12-week books during the spring, winter and fall. The summer is not considered a legitimate measurement.

WFAN vice president Mark Chernoff declined comment on the ratings, while ESPN New York’s gen- eral manager Tim McCarthy said it is too early to make any declarations.

“You can’t judge the first month of a winter book on any station,” McCarthy said. “It is an aggregate over months. I have faith in the content of the Kay show.”

Overall, the sports talk ratings were down in the market, which likely can be attributed to the active local pro teams all largely being bad and uninteresting.