[ad_1]
To say that WFAN’s “Carton & Roberts” don’t talk about sports is inaccurate. What they do is talk around sports.
Most of the conversation in the afternoons on FAN is centered near sports, just not the meat-and-potatoes dissecting the intricacies of the local teams.
Craig Carton, the leader of the afternoon show, treats diehard fan topics as if they are boring vegetables. Evan Roberts lives in the daily minutia, but Carton sets the agenda. It’s Carton’s show, his radio ethos.
No segment probably encapsulates “Carton & Roberts” better than “WAG Wednesdays.” Every Wednesday at 5 p.m., the duo has a wife or girlfriend of a professional athlete in for an interview. It is not to discuss if the shift should be banned in baseball.
In the end, it is all about ratings — especially the main target of sports radio advertising, 25-to-54-year-old men. Carton is a “say-whatever, do-whatever” it takes host for the numbers. He’s a morning act, playing afternoons.
After losing the fall book to ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show,” Carton and Roberts are in the midst of a comeback.
The duo took the first month of the winter book with a share of 6.1 to Kay’s 4.9, according to Nielsen Audio Ratings.
FAN was third from 3-6:30 p.m., while ESPN New York was fifth overall. This initial month is akin to the first period of a hockey game.
While the afternoon show receives the focus, because of its tenuous ratings position, FAN is anchored by “Boomer and Gio,” which continues its dominance in the mornings, with a 9.1 share (second in the market). ESPN New York makes some dents in the morning from 5-8 when “DiPietro & Rothenberg” pick up a 3.6 share, which is 8th. (This includes ESPN NY facing the “Warm-up Show” on FAN from 5-6, which ESPN beat by a full point this month.)
However, the national program, “Keyshawn, JWill & Max” doesn’t rate in New York as it is 15th (2.7 share) in the market from 8-10 a.m.
From 10-2, FAN has usually had an open lane to dominate ESPN, which has nearly always favored national programming. FAN has seemingly upgraded in that slot with the seasoned “Tiki & Tierney” replacing “Moose & Maggie.”
Tiki Barber, the former Giants running back, has what I call the “Plus-3” effect. If you were scoring a sportscaster out of 10, the fact that he or she had a tremendous playing career allows them to start with a 3 points off the bat from the audience.
You have to build from there, and Barber does. He will take stands; especially when it hits home, like when the Giants were accused of being a racist organization.
The fact that “Tiki & Tierney” had been together for nearly a decade on CBS Sports Radio allows Tierney to go freely at Barber. The energetic Tierney has a lot of opinions. The next level is if he can convince the audience to really care about them. He doesn’t begin with the “plus three” effect.
Tiki & Tierney picked up a 4.0 share (tied for 7th) from 10-2, which bested Mike Greenberg’s show from 10-noon and Bart Scott and Alan Hahn’s show, which runs from 12-3. ESPN New York is 2.8 share (tied for 12th).
Meanwhile, ESPN New York is in the process of having a new ownership structure with Good Karma Brands coming in. The existential New York sports radio question is always the same: Will 98.7 ESPN New York ever go more local to really challenge FAN?
The answer has always been no, which is why Kay beating “Carton & Roberts” in the winter book was such a story. FAN has some built-in advantages in the afternoons, from its lead-ins to its history.
The Kay Show hits other topics, mixing in some pop culture, but really dives harder on the meat-and-potatoes of New York sports.
Meanwhile, Carton has brought Roberts into his “WAG Wednesday” world. For the first month of the winter book, the audience preferred Carton, Roberts, wives and girlfriends.
[ad_2]