KNBR makes lineup change: More P-Con, less Fitz and Brooks
Patrick Connor, producer for “Murph and Mac” and frequent weekend contributor, will get his own one-hour show starting at 5 am each weekday. This was announced this morning on KNBR, according to several listeners and confirmed by Kate Scott.
@JimmyAndersen Just announced it this morning, so it’ll prob be on the web in a bit. We’re moving to 6-10am, P-Con will host from 5-6am.
— Kate Scott (@katetscott) April 19, 2016
No schedule changes have been noted on KNBR’s website yet, but Brian Murphy apparently discussed the move well before I woke up this morning (leave me alone, I didn’t get home from Oracle Arena until 1:30 am last night). It sounds like both M&M and “The Gary Radnich Show with Larry Krueger” will be on for the same amount of time, starting/ending an hour later. That leaves Fitz and Brooks, which will lose an hour.
@LOLKNBR This morning they announced Pcon 5-6, Murph and Mac 6-10, Larry and Gary 10-1.
— Steve (@sgmarich) April 19, 2016
@LOLKNBR @davelamb9000 per Murph it is indeed Fitz and Brooks moving to 1-3 (1hr less of Fitz is welcome)
— Stephen Seymour (@stevos209) April 19, 2016
KNBR staffers didn’t hear of the changes until yesterday, and so far I’ve been unable to unearth the reason(s) they were made. But if I were to make a few guesses …
1. Murph and Mac, who’ve pulled strong ratings numbers for years (according to the “secret” listener demographics ratings (men 25-54) that former 95.7 program director Jason Barrett published on his own blog, M&M beat Flight 957 handily in December), may have wanted to get up an hour later.
2. Maybe Cumulus is looking to make some comparisons between it’s lineup and the competition. The new lineup allows M&M to take off at the same time as Flight 957, while The Gary Radnich Show with Larry Krueger will now start at the same time Guy Haberman and John Middlekauff begin their show on 95.7.
3. 95.7’s noon-to-3 show hosted by Greg Papa and John Lund beat Fitz & Brooks in the December ratings by a score of 4.2 to 3.1. Radnich and Krueger held a slight edge over Haberkauff in the men 25-54 demo in December, according to Barrett.
4. There could be some sort of scheduling conflict for either Bob Fitzgerald or Rod Brooks, or one of the two hosts could even take a break from hosting for a while.
5. Cumulus management loves P-Con and this is a tryout of sorts. Connor has hosted “The Sports Saloon” during football season and joined Marty Lurie for “Weekends at the Park” before Giants weekend home games for multiple years.
This doesn’t necessarily represent a major change, and will only affect early risers and those who’ve built their lunch schedule around Fitz and Brooks. However, this is the first lineup tweak in several years for “The Sports Leader,” and any alterations made by Cumulus can be considered noteworthy in light of the layoffs (at least 20 full-time staffers) seen at KGO and KFOG a few weeks ago.
