We’ll get to the latest radio ratings shortly, but for now the big news is 610 Sports…
Because not only did Entercom’s KCSP AM rocket into fourth place in the overall ratings released in November, its cume rose to just shy of a half million listeners.
Anybody out there think the Kansas City Royals might have had anything to do with that?
No?
Well, just last March – prior to the start of Major League Baseball – 610 Sports was languishing in 12th place with a 2.7 share and a cume of 187,200 listeners.
Now flash forward to the present…
In the latest ratings 610 knocked back a 5.6 share – more than double the March numbers – with a cume of 482,200 listeners and a strong 4th place finish.
“That’s almost third of all Kansas City that sampled the station,” says a radio insider. “This could be a turning of the tide for KCSP, because if they got all those WHB listeners and Royals fan tuning in, some of them will stay with the station if people liked what they heard.”
The bottom line:
“This was huge. They couldn’t have gotten those kind of numbers of people tuning in by just advertising. The thing that drove the sampling was the World Series, no question. And this is the first time this many people ever tuned in to 610 Sports. The question is, did they like what they heard?”
The $64 million question:
How did rival local sports station WHB fare in the ratings?
WHB – which has long held a lead in listenership over 610 – also broadcast the Royals playoffs and World Series games via ESPN’s national feed.
And in addition to buying print ads in the Kansas City Star sports section to promote that fact, you can bet your bottom dollar WHB promoted the you-know-what out of the fact that it was carrying game to its listeners.
However since WHB’s too cheap to pay the six-figures sum to Neilsen to get the ratings, its numbers are not available, except to other Neilsen subscribers.
That said, it’s hard to imagine WHB doing much damage given 610’s carrying of the Royals all season and its stellar showing.
Stay tuned…
I’m believing every sports media got a huge shot in the arm
from the royals run.
The star did incredible…the sports stations probably all did
well….the tv stations special coverage…and I heard that the
ratings were incredible on the games (surpassing super bowl).
it was a great great 3 months for everyone. And having been at
vip area at power and light for the away games I know they did some big numbers!!!!!
And had it not been for Harley getting glaze man to recite “its over..its over”
on a daily basis nothing would have happened. I madea believer out of
glaze and the rest of the city…except Kero.
I watched a lot of the local television coverage and it mostly sucked – very weak. The national stuff was all pretty good – less so I thought during the Series.
I don’t think it’s that simple though, Harley.
People very specifically went to 610 because they carried the Royals. If anybody went to local tv news to get Royals coverage they were either major disappointed or easily entertained. I’m working on finding out how WHB fared but I doubt they got anything like the bump KCSP got
So you mean, the Royals knocked one out of the park in fall ratings.
Well, yes…
But for the reasons mentioned above, 610 Sports was the beneficiary of those ratings and the revenues derived from them.
Still waiting to hear what WHB did but it’s hard to imagine they came close, frankly
Where is Old Man Kessel ?
I think he went down hard when Greg Hall scuttled his schooner
The official Royals coverage is good and so for the most part is the 610 guy who does the pregame and postgame shows. Aside from that, however, the local programming should be used to torture captured terrorists at Gitmo. After listening to that crap for any length of time, they’ll be begging for the waterboarding experience.