No panic over station ratings yet

Ratings at the Hamilton Bulldogs flagship radio station are low — very low — but neither the club nor TSN 1150 are sounding the alarms quite yet.

According to statistics released by Numeris early this month, fewer people are listening to the station — and listening for a smaller fraction of time — than they were a year ago, when Bulldogs games were being broadcast on AM900 CHML.

In fact, TSN, which is the lowest rated station in the city and among the lowest rated in all of Canada, appears to have roughly half the reach in the Hamilton area as it did last winter.

When asked about the trend, program director Mike Nabuurs focused on the good news. For instance, he said, some of the numbers — including the tally of unique local listeners — have risen marginally since spring. (The statistics show TSN reached roughly 11,600 people in Hamilton this fall up from 5,900, although that might not reflect the exact number of people who tuned in due to the way the ratings are tabulated.)

In other areas, however, the numbers have stagnated. They’re also down across the board compared to last December.

Nabuurs said it’s difficult to compare the newest statistics to those released last winter because the station had only recently made the switch from oldies to sports (which it did in summer 2015). Yet it’s also a problem to compare the new numbers to those from May — a period in which the station was broadcasting little local content and no local play-by-play.

This fall, the station carried Hamilton Tiger-Cats and McMaster Marauders football games, as well as the Bulldogs.

“This is a work in progress and as long as we’re seeing some growth and trends upward, I think we’re happy with that,” he added.

The Bulldogs left CHML in August — 14 months after the Ticats jumped ship for the newly-founded TSN property, which is owned by Bell Media in partnership with the CFL club.

The Marauders likewise left CHML for TSN last year.

At the time, Steve Staios, the Bulldogs president and general manager, said the team took the ratings into consideration when making its decision. He believed then — and “hopes” now — the numbers will improve.