Sports radio in St. Louis and Denver was alive and well during the first quarter of 2020. The market leaders in both cities, 101 ESPN in St. Louis and 104.3 The Fan in Denver turned in stellar performances but so too did Denver’s second sports radio brand Altitude Sports Radio 92.5.
Starting with St. Louis, according to Nielsen Audio, 101 ESPN registered a 4.9 in weekday prime (M-F 6a-7p) with men 25-54. That placed St. Louis’ leading sports station 9th overall. In mornings (6a-10a), the combination of 1-hour of Golic & Wingo and the Bernie Miklasz Show produced a 5.3 share to finish 4th in the market.
Turning to middays, 101 ESPN placed 9th with a 4.5 between the hours of 10a-3p. Those hours feature Anthony Stalter and Jamie Rivers from 10a-2p and 1-hour of the station’s afternoon show The Fast Lane. Rounding things out in PM drive between the hours of 3p-7p is the aforementioned Fast Lane with Randy Karraker, Brad Thompson, and Chris Rongey. The popular St. Louis trio and 1-hour of either St. Louis Blues pregame or ESPN Radio programming delivered the best performance on the station for the quarter, ranking 4th with a strong 7.5 share.
One additional note worth sharing was 101’s performance in evenings. The station generated an impressive 11.1 share from 7p-midnight, depicting a strong performance from their newly acquired St. Louis Blues broadcasts. 101 ESPN and the Blues agreed to a broadcast partnership last year and it has already started to pay dividends. The city’s other sports radio station, 590 The Fan KFNS didn’t record a rating in the winter book.
In Denver, the news was great for 104.3 The Fan. The Denver sports station received a massive performance from Mark Schlereth and Mike Evans, who finished 1st by a wide margin in the target demo of men 25-54. The popular duo produced an incredible 12.9, more than double the share of the market’s 2nd ranked station. It was one of the best performances in the entire sports format this quarter.
Also turning in a strong quarter was the station’s revamped afternoon show featuring Darren ‘DMac’ McKee, Tyler Polumbus and Nick Ferguson. ‘The Drive’ delivered an 8.0, giving 104.3 The Fan a 1st place finish in both mornings and afternoons. The Fan’s midday shows featuring Sandy Clough and Orlando Franklin, and Brandon Stokley and Zach Bye ranked 3rd with mid 6 shares.
The winter book also provided positive news for Denver’s Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 as the two-year old sports station saw tremendous growth in all of its key dayparts. In mornings, Marc Moser, Vic Lombardi and Brett Kane quadrupled their share year-over-year, rising from 0.6 and 24th in 2019 to 2.3 and 13th in 2020. In middays, the trio of Harris, Hastings and Dover also enjoyed a spike, soaring from 0.7 and 24th in 2019 to 2.9 and 14th in 2020.
Altitude’s best performance in the winter book came from their afternoon show with Nate Kreckman and Andy Lindahl. Nate and Andy grew their share nearly seven times higher than 2019 climbing from 0.5 and 24th in 2019 to 3.4 and 10th in 2020. Altitude also saw their weekday (M-F 6a-6p) performance jump from .6 in 2019 to 2.9 in 2020.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
