There's a little something for everyone in the September radio ratings battle between rechristened Sportsnet Radio 590 The Fan and upstart TSN Radio 1050. As expected, The Fan continues to be the dominant sports station for men aged 18-54 by wide margins. In the post-35 age group, The Fan is unchallenged as the Bob McCown generation is staying loyal to its Swami. That dominance spills over across The Fan's listening schedule. (Not that McCown would ever use such numbers in his contract negotiations.)
The glimmer of sunshine for TSN Radio can be found in the 18-35 male demographic, where the station is showing growth. For instance, the Mike Richards morning drive show (6 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET) has made up a lot of ground in the younger demographic against Greg Brady and Jim Lang at The Fan. At a 5.5 share, Richards is sitting just 0.7 behind after lagging by double digits earlier this year. Brady and Lang continue to hold a comfortable margin in the 40-and-older group, however.
It's a positive for TSN, but can you build a sports-radio audience on the 18-35 demographic in the fickle Toronto market, where people set the radio buttons at 21 and don't change? With AM640 effectively out of sports talk, a few listeners have migrated to TSN, but we still haven't seen a watershed moment in the battle between the remaining sports format stations. That probably will come with the determination of the Maple Leafs radio rights for next season.
Better plate than never
Watching Detroit's Miguel Cabrera unsuccessfully snowplow Texas catcher Mike Napoli at home plate in Game Four of the American League Championship Series Wednesday put us in mind of the recent complaint by a certain hockey TV analyst – whose name slips our mind at the moment – who sought to contrast hockey's progressive attitude to concussions with baseball's traditional approach of letting the runner hammer the catcher at home plate to jar loose the ball. If memory serves, the hockey expert said baseball didn't mess with its hard-hitting image of home plate collisions while the NHL wants to put skirts on players.
Uh, sorry. This past summer, San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy ordered his catchers not to block home on such plays after losing his star Buster Posey in a violent crunch-up at home. " I do think we need to consider changing the rules there a little bit," Bochy, a former catcher himself, said after the collision, "because the catcher's so vulnerable and there's so many that have gotten hurt. And not just a little bit. I mean, careers ended or shortened."
The traditional baseball media – like their hockey brethren – roiled for weeks on the issue of tradition versus caution when it comes to protecting catchers. But apparently some people were too busy burnishing their halo to have noticed.
Hardball ratings
Usual Suspects is such a grump. Here we are predicting the demise of baseball as a relevant sport and yet droves of people are still watching Sportsnet's nightly four-hour festival of spittin', scratchin' and showers – more popularly known as the Major League Baseball postseason. The network set a record average audience of 490,000 viewers for each game in the four divisional series. That was up 21 per cent compared to the 2010 average (404,000 viewers). That tops Sportsnet's 2009 record when the MLB divisional series drew 434,000 viewers.
Over at FOX, according to Nielsen, Game 3 of the American League Championship Series "drew 8.4 million viewers for a 5.3 rating and 8 share, the strongest Tuesday night Fox audience in 12 weeks. … Wednesday's Game 3 ratings demonstrated a 61-per-cent increase over the Giants-Phillies Game 3 one year ago."
Take that, sportswriter boy.
Labour pain
Finally, pining for the good old days of the 2004-05 NHL lockout? Miss those CBA updates, treatises on labour law and drop-dead dates for a 54-game schedule? Then you'll be enjoying the NBA labour talks now happening on ESPN. The entire repertoire of labour feints and jabs so beloved by hockey fans are being repeated by the sides in the NBA lockout. (We prefer David Stern's sorrowful scowl to Gary Bettman's baleful brow.)
Even more precious are the American media types who sat out the NHL strife, eagerly following the predictable twists and turns with a rapt, childlike attention. As jaded hockey fans can tell you, despite the meetings, the rhetoric, it doesn't get serious till the holidays. Much as we're eagerly awaiting the next Raptors' season (cough), we've been there and have the labour pain T-shirt. Have fun, boys, and see you next year.