The Nielsen numbers were released yesterday, and not a huge shock — the Giants are pulling in massive ratings for KNBR 680 (which finished No. 1 overall in San Francisco in May). It turns out that a really strong signal, the best group of announcers in the sport and the league’s top record add up to an impressive number of listeners. Who knew?
San Francisco |
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March |
April |
May |
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| Station |
AQH% |
Reach |
AQH% |
Reach |
AQH% |
Reach |
Owner |
| KNBR-AM | 3.8 | 605,900 | 5.4 | 918,000 | 6.1 | 986,500 | Cumulus |
| KGMZ-FM | 1.1 | 217,900 | 1.3 | 305,300 | 1.5 | 286,400 | Entercom |
| KTCT-AM | 0.6 | 194,300 | 0.6 | 207,100 | 0.5 | 190,200 | Cumulus |
San Jose |
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March |
April |
May |
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| Station |
AQH% |
Reach |
AQH% |
Reach |
AQH% |
Reach |
Owner |
| KNBR-AM | 2.6 | 136,000 | 4.7 | 204,200 | 5.3 | 218,500 | Cumulus |
| KGMZ-FM | 0.7 | 35,900 | 0.7 | 50,300 | 0.8 | 61,200 | Entercom |
| KTCT-AM | 0.4 | 39,500 | 0.4 | 40,700 | 0.5 | 48,600 | Cumulus |
Radio ramblings
— KGMZ program director Jason Barrett is pleased with his station’s performance (he’s probably referring to Men age 25-54 here):
Thanks to our passionate & loyal @957thegame audience. Top 7 M-F & Top 9 M-SU in May. We appreciate the support as we continue to improve!
— Jason Barrett (@sportsradiopd) June 9, 2014
— Whenever KNBR gets a huge ratings bump, we all just assume it’s Giants-related. Do the A’s provide a similar push for 95.7, albeit on a much smaller scale? Oakland is playing pretty well these days, too.
— Barrett, like many Americans, isn’t a big fan of soccer. So even though 95.7’s ESPN affiliation gives them the rights to broadcast World Cup games (I heard a commercial for the World Cup on 95.7 during Game 1 of the NBA Finals), I’ve been told that Barrett isn’t interested in airing any of the games. As a result, English-language broadcasts of the US Men’s National Team will be heard on ESPN Deportes (KTRB – 860 AM).
I was also told that World Cup games did really well for KNBR 1050 back in 2010. However, we started monitoring the local ratings in 2011 and I can’t find any reports from that far back to confirm whether or not that’s true.
— If the World Cup gets fantastic ratings, it’s a curious move by Barrett. But KNBR has a sister station, so they didn’t have to break into their normally scheduled programming on 680 to broadcast soccer matches in 2010. With so many lineup changes (and A’s baseball often cutting into their new drive time show), I can see why Barrett wouldn’t want to risk losing momentum for his “permanent” shows now for a short-term bump, especially if he thinks those listeners wouldn’t stick around after the World Cup coverage concluded.
Then again … getting the word out that there’s a sports station in the Bay Area that caters to all types of fans might not be such a bad thing, either.
— May 2013 ratings for San Francisco: KNBR (6.1; 1,013,000), KGMZ (1.2; 291,800), KTCT (0.8; 337,900)
— May 2013 numbers for San Jose: KNBR (4.3; 200,700), KGMZ (1.1; 53,200), KTCT (0.5; 71,500)
— I think we can safely close the book on Eric Byrnes co-hosting with Tom Tolbert on a semi-regular basis any time soon. Since he’s a baseball guy and it’s already June — and he seems to be busy with MLB Network and a million other things — it appears that Tolbert and the Ray du jour (usually Ratto) is what we’ll hear from 3-7 pm for the foreseeable future. (Thank goodness.)
