When you think about the saying “the sum is greater than the parts”, 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore certainly comes to mind.
With a lunch pail attitude and work ethic, the all-sports station continues to deliver great content for sports fans in Baltimore and the station has been rewarded with tremendous ratings and recognition. All of their weekday shows, from morning drive through the evening, are over a ten share among men, while the station is in the top four in persons.
“We’ve just been on this incredible roll,” said Chuck Sapienza, Brand Manager of Sports for Audacy in Baltimore. “To do it here, with the staff that we have is just so rewarding because we don’t have a ton of resources…it’s Baltimore. Everybody works their ass off. We have this incredible group of men and women. We’re making it work and we’re doing it at such a high level…it’s very rewarding.”
The Fan was just starting to peak when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020. Without any sports, the radio station saw a dip but they’ve come out of the pandemic doing very well and that has continued all the way to where things are today.
Even last month, a sort of “dead” month for sports following the NFL and before the start of spring training, The Fan continued to excel.
Whether it was fans talking about if quarterback Lamar Jackson was going to return to the Ravens or the optimism of the upcoming Orioles season with young players like Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, there are no shortage of topics for the hosts to tackle.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Sapienza. “The station has been incredible. In February, the lowest show I had had a 10.9 in men and had a five and a half in persons. The station has done a really good job in coming up with storylines. We work very hard on our content. We spend more time coming up with good solid content, we can’t just say ‘Every day talk about Lamar’, we have to change it up and figure out different angles and different ways to present everything so it doesn’t get stale.”
Last week, The Fan announced the return of Baltimore Baseball Tonight to be hosted by Ryan Ripken, the son of Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., with the season debut set for March 30th. The station was the longtime flagship of the Orioles, but last year the team decided to go in another direction.
That didn’t stop The Fan from covering the Orioles, as well as the Ravens, like a blanket even though they don’t carry the games.
“I don’t think you need the games to put on the best coverage,” said Sapienza. “I believe our coverage outdoes the flagship for both the Ravens and the Orioles. We outperform the flagship with our pre and post-game coverage. By not running the Orioles games, we were able to have some flexibility to put on just a tremendous pre-game show.”
Under Sapienza’s leadership, the station has been very successful in the Baltimore market and people in the industry around the country have noticed. In fact, The Fan turned up in a number of categories in Barrett Sports Media’s Top 20 for 2022 for mid-market all-sports stations.
Sapienza was 7th among program directors. The Big Bad Morning Show was 11th among morning shows.Vinnie and Haynie was 5th among midday shows. Inside Access was 13th among afternoon shows.
Numbers don’t like in ratings and in rankings.
“The fact that you get it from your peers is amazing,” said Sapienza. “It’s humbling, to be honest with you. We put together a really talented staff and they work hard. People go for splash hires with name recognition and we got guys who work their butts off and they’ve earned it. I want to give credit to everybody, but the morning show has been a monster. I’m so honored to be with these people.”
And the honors — and ratings — keep coming in for Chuck Sapienza and 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore.
Peter Schwartz writes weekly sports radio features for Barrett Media. He has been involved in New York sports media for over three decades, and has worked for notable brands such as WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WCBS 880, ESPN New York, and FOX News Radio. Peter has also served as play by play announcer for the New Yok Riptide, New York Dragons, New York Hitmen, Varsity Media and the Long Island Sports Network. You can find him on Twitter @SchwartzSports or email him at DragonsRadio@aol.com.
