Michael Kay beats Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts in first winter ratings
Michael Kay attends David Cone's 20th anniversary of his perfect game on June 19, 2019 in New York City. Credit: Getty Images/Dimitrios Kambouris
ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show” continued its recent ratings success in January, finishing first in New York among men 25-54 and comfortably surpassing WFAN’s new afternoon show head-to-head from 3 to 6 p.m.
Kay averaged 8.1 percent of those listening in the target demographic for those three hours compared with 6.7 for Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts, who were second overall in the market, according to Nielsen Audio data.
Still, Benigno and Roberts did well in retaining the station’s afternoon audience in the absence of Mike Francesa, who left drive time on Dec. 6.
For the full autumn book, Kay’s show had beaten Francesa, 7.4 to 6.1.
Roberts and Benigno averaged a 7.2 share for the entirety of their 2 to 6 p.m. show, finishing No. 2 overall in the market to ESPN’s 7.8 for those four hours.
Francesa now appears on WFAN daily from 6 to 6:30 p.m. For that half hour, Kay’s show led in January, 8.5 percent to 6.5.
WFAN’s new midday show featuring Maggie Gray and Marc Malusis was first overall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in its first month with 6.3 percent of the audience compared with ESPN’s 4.6, which was sixth overall.
The WFAN morning show featuring Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti won handily over ESPN’s national show, more than doubling its share, 7.9 to 3.2.
The monthly data covers Jan. 2-29 and is akin to the first period of a hockey game. Radio ratings traditionally are judged in quarterly “books,” so the final winter results will not be known until April.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
