Ladies and gentleman we have the tightest grouping of radio sports talk gabbers in the six-plus years of the three-station competition for listeners in Dallas-Fort Worth.
In the hallowed ratings demographic of men between the ages of 25 and 54, sports talk’s target audience, the March ratings book showed it was SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket at 3.0, 105.3FM The Fan at 2.8 and KESN 103.3 FM at 2.6.
Among all stations in the market, the Ticket ranked tied for 12th in men 25-54, The Fan was 14th and KESN, aka ESPN, was 16th.
Let’s compare March 2015 to March 2014. The Ticket dominated the men 25-54 ratings in sports talk a year ago. It was the Ticket 6.9, Fan 3.1, ESPN 2.9.
If you believe all listeners matter and hence prefer a more egalitarian approach, the stations ratings were just as tight. It was the Ticket (1.5), Fan (1.4) and ESPN (1.3).
For the record, the March book was from Feb. 26 to March 25. Among the big topics of sports conversation were DeMarco Murray’s departure to the Philadelphia Eagles, Greg Hardy joining the Cowboys, Yu Darvish’s injury, the Rangers season prospects and the early rounds of the NCAA tournament.
The most competitive block of the day came during 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. afternoon drive. The Fan’s Ben & Skin scored a 3.1, followed by The Ticket’s Hardline at 3.0 and ESPN’s Afternoon Show, anchored by an hour of assorted programming at 6 p.m., at 2.9.
How’s this? Ben & Skin (3.1) was No. 1 in the sports talk universe at 3 p.m.; The Afternoon Show (3.7) was No. 1 at 4 p.m.; The Hardline was No. 1 the final two hours (4.0, 3.8).
The lowest rated show on any of the three stations was Colin Cowherd’s two morning hours of ranting on ESPN. The national show out of Bristol, Conn., scored a 1.5 share at 9 a.m. and a 0.7 at 10 a.m.
On the flip side, the only other national show on the daily schedule, ESPN’s Mike & Mike, turned in the two top-rated hours of the day at the station – 5.4 at 7 a.m. and 4.3 at 8 a.m.
As usual, the Ticket’s Musers turned in the highest rated hour at 8 a.m., scoring an 8.3.
Credit to the Dallas News who originally published this article
