Francesa-less WFAN passed by Kay
MIKE Francesa is gone and so is WFAN’s afternoon supremacy atop the ratings. The “Michael Kay Show” on 98.7 FM ESPN New York beat Francesa’s FAN replacements, “The Afternoon Drive” with Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott. In Nielsen ratings that sports stations judge themselves by, Kay had a 4.4 rating to CMB’s 4.2 with men 25-54, according to 98.7 FM GM Tim McCarthy, from 3-6:30 p.m., when the two programs go head-to-head. Carlin, Maggie & Bart runs from 2-6:30 p.m., while Kay is on from 3-7 p.m.
The Kay Show, with Don La Greca and Peter Rosenberg, never beat Francesa in a full book. The whole sports radio genre was down in the ratings as Kay’s number was good for eighth in the three-month session, while CMB’s was 10th. The winter radio book goes from January through March.
Overall, The FAN, which has the Yankees broadcasts and only features local talk, had a ratings advantage of 4.6-3.2. From 2-6:30, CMB beat ESPN, 4.3-3.9, according to FAN’s Mark Chernoff. This was due to the 2 p.m. hour — when ESPN has the “Stephen A. Smith Show” on — in which FAN had a 4.9 to 2.5 advantage. In the spring book, Kay’s show will now try to use its seeming advantage in baseball with Kay, the voice of the Yankees, compared with Carlin, Gray and Scott, who have shown limited expertise on the Yankees and Mets.
CMB is still trying to find its full footing as a team. The trio did not know one another well before its debut, and it takes time to mesh, but still there are major questions in the wake of replacing Francesa.
First, it is unclear if three voices really can work, as it sometimes feels as if CMB lacks a flow to the conversation. Carlin has served as the leader of the show, but he is not the central figure, like Kay is on ESPN.
Since Carlin is the one who drives the program, it likely will fall on him to find a way to give it more genuine sparks, as Francesa and Chris Russo did early on with their arguments over Don Mattingly versus Will Clark, among other things.
Gray has shown a strong, likable personality. It is apparent she is putting in the work, but will need to dig even deeper to make listeners truly want to hear her opinions on the local teams.
As good as Scott is on football, where he has upper-level knowledge of the game and owns a very strong grasp on transactions, he is equally as unprepared on baseball, where he sounds more like he is guessing than anything else. WFAN will have to figure out how to balance all these things as they wait for fall, when Scott could excel.
For the Kay Show, the victory is bittersweet, as the real goal was to beat Francesa, whom they only took one month from in all the ratings books. They did it with Rosenberg in the third chair.
Rosenberg is a polarizer, which makes some fans and critics burn, but it is what talk radio is built on. He is big in the hip-hop scene and has not been shy about calling out Francesa, among others.
While Rosenberg is a big part of the show, he is the third voice after Kay and La Greca, which is a model that FAN may have to consider so it doesn’t sound so busy.
FAN could rationalize that since CMB is likely only making a third of the millions that Francesa was pulling in, then it may not need as high a rating.
Meanwhile, Francesa has not yet announced his future plans. At 64, he walked away from WFAN by his choice. It is premature to think a return is imminent, but it also cannot be ruled out entirely.