Drama circles the New York sports radio airwaves again as WFAN’s Mike Francesa and ESPN NY’s The Michael Kay Show are both claiming to have won the winter ratings battle.
The outcome and reactions were anticipated for weeks and while both shows have the ability to claim victory, an inarguable fact is that the ratings gap between them is next to “nil.”
Nielsen reported a 5.9 winter book rating for Kay and a 5.5 for Francesa in the male 25-54 demo, but what used to be straight forward now includes variables as ESPN adds their streaming audience to the number, while Entercom does not. When including the digital audience for both WFAN and ESPN, Francesa out-rates Kay 6.2 – 5.9.
Nielsen reporting a higher number for Kay led to an ESPN celebration, sending out a press release stating The Michael Kay Show beat WFAN in the winter ratings book. Shortly after, Francesa tweeted, “Everybody in the industry knows the “official” number. To count their stream and eliminate our stream would be ridiculous. The sports competition got beat..like it always has.”
“I have nothing but sadness and pity for you that you would actually claim a victory that wasn’t real,” Francesa said during his Monday show. Kay responded with “pity” for Francesa, adding “move aside because we kicked your ass.”
What once was an easy quarterly victory for Francesa has now become a down to the wire battle, sending the WFAN afternoon host scrambling to make decisions about his future. In recent weeks, the New York radio icon admitted his daily WFAN show and the Mike’s On app might not be compatible, also acknowledging he could bring on a second voice.
While The Kay Show celebrated with cake and champagne, the New York sports radio drama continued as Francesa was prompted to detail a behind-the-scenes outburst which was first discussed by WFAN’s morning show, Boomer and Gio.
Last Wednesday, after Gregg Giannotti finished an impression of the afternoon host, Esiason said “Al, did you hear about the screaming and yelling going on around here…I heard somebody wanted you fired.” Esiason eluded to Francesa being upset with a post from their morning show Twitter account regarding Craig Carton.
“The morning show tweeted on their website they didn’t feel Carton had stabbed them in the back, which I said how absurd is that,” Francesa commented on Monday, referring to the below tweet.
Andrew Marchand of The New York Post added the incident in his ratings report, leading Francesa to claim inaccuracies, while also confirming the story. According to Francesa, Entercom approached him about allowing Carton on his show for a tell-all, which the afternoon host declined.
Francesa said management told him he was their first choice for the Carton interview, a claim he later found out was a lie. Carton instead did what Francesa considered to be a backstabbing move to FAN and joined Michael Kay’s afternoon program, a show the former morning host regularly mocked.
Francesa confirmed that he yelled at Entercom regional president Susan Larkin and VP Mark Chernoff in a crowded FAN newsroom over the Carton situation.
“I don’t raise my voice around here very often,” WFAN’s afternoon host said. “I did at the bosses here over the fact, first of all, that I felt they were silly to go to court and support Craig and then have Craig go to a competitor when he had just been given support by them. And that’s what I said to them, I said you got played.”
With no shortage of sports topics, the hottest discussion on WFAN and ESPN NY was about each other and odds are this won’t be the last time they sling arrows while debating who out-rates who. However you view the numbers, a ratings battle that for well over a decade wasn’t close, is now separated by tenths of a point, regardless of who’s in the lead.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.
