Watters show keeps growing, but has a long way to go

When 640 Toronto decided to take on the big guy in sports talk radio almost three years ago, few gave  former Leaf executive-agent-bon vivant Bill Watters much of a chance. After all, The FAN 590's Bob McCown was the king of afternoon sports talk and 640 was pretty much at the bottom of the radio ladder here.

But Watters has survived and indeed flourished, as the spring radio ratings show. His share of adult male listeners is up from 2.5 per cent to 3.3 since last spring, while McCown's audience share has dropped from 8.7 to 8.3.

``The Watters show continues to narrow the gap with Bob," says 640 program director Gord Harris, noting that the show's reach has jumped 54 per cent since the show's first ratings report.

In fact, Watters is now tied with the Mike Stafford show for highest audience share at 640.

That's all well and good and there's no doubt the show has raised the bar with some fascinating guests, though it's still a little too hockey-oriented for many tastes. On Wednesday, for example, the show included an interview with Sean Hill, the first NHL player to test positive for steroids. That was time to a report linking NHL players to the performance-enhancing drug.

But Watters has a big hill to climb. His show's total reach of 79,625 listeners is less than half of McCown's 173,610.

While 640 gained some ground in drive time, it lost big time at noon. Its Leafs Lunch show dropped from a 5.5 share to a 2.9 while The FAN/Rogers Sportsnet simulcast of HockeyCentral at Noon jumped from 4.7 to 7.3.

Those numbers were complicated by the fact that this year's ratings period (March and April) didn't quite mesh with last year's (April 15 to June 15.) Since the Leafs were out of it by March and long gone by April, a decrease in listeners was expected at 640. But still, that's a pretty big drop.

Overall, the FAN fared well in the ratings. The station's overall share held at 5.2 while most shows pretty much held their own. The morning show dropped from 5.7 to 4.9 while the mid-morning Bullpen rose from 5.0 to 5.5 and the afternoon Game Plan moved up from 5.0 to 5.4.

``Overall, I'm pleased," said FAN vice-president and general manager Nelson Millman. ``We saw (cumulative audience) increases everywhere and when you see share increases or decreases of half a point, it doesn't mean all that much."

RADIO DAZE: The opposition got an unexpected plug on the FAN's Prime Time Sports this week when Denver Post reporter Adrian Dater credited ``Darren Dreger of TSN" for his work on the Patrick Roy story. What made it awkward for fill-in host Rob Faulds and co-host Jim Kelley was that the show was simulcast on Rogers Sportsnet. It didn't help that Dreger is a former Sportsnet guy who hosts Leafs Lunch on 640. ... McCown's on vacation, but that hasn't stopped him from keeping the cold war with Cito Gaston alive. Check out his blog at http://www.fadoo.ca/blog/display/the-race-card-replayed-182

Hockey's been very, very good to TSN

The verdict is still out on what CBC got for its increased payments to the National Hockey League, but there's no doubt TSN's new deal got good results.

TSN reports that ratings were up in every round this spring and 35 per cent overall. While the big increase (42 per cent) in the first round was a foregone conclusion considering TSN had a Canadian series for the first time in its 24-year history,  the subsequent two rounds did well, too. Even the third round held up, 17 per cent ahead of last year.

Meanwhile, CBC saw its second-round numbers drop by 1 per cent, and things aren't looking great on Round 3. The main reason for that is CBC stayed out of the first two games and by the time it got in, both series were looking decidely one-sided. That's more bad luck than anything else.

Hockey interest takes its usual third-round dive

The two-month battle to determine who gets to abuse the Stanley Cup in small towns around the world is indeed a strange creature. For one, it's the only playoff that features players who look like they're either bearded lumberjacks or car-crash victims. It also has to be the only pro sports playoff that sees the public lose interest the more important the games become.

The first weekend of CBC's third-round coverage produced audiences that didn't even match the average for a regular-season Saturday night. In fact, barring a huge surge in interest, the third round won't come close to the second-round average of 1,366,000.

This is, by the way, nothing unusual. It happened last year, too. Basically, as long as there's no Canadian team involved, Canadian ratings will decrease until the final. 

But there is hope for solid ratings in the next round. The thought of the kind of hockey that could be produced in a Detroit-Pittsburgh series should have hockey fans salivating, or at least breathing heavily.

It wasn't much of a weekend for the Memorial Cup final, with ratings off 20 per cent from last season. But last year, the game didn't go head-to-head against a Stanley Cup playoff match.

For those who see some sort of bias against the NBA in this corner, the weekend ratings should silence them. Two conference final games barely broke the 100,000 mark on TSN. Hey, at least the NBA is doing better than Toronto FC.

The most incredible rating of the weekend: 180,000 tuning in to TSN for the NASCAR pre-race gabfest. Of course, they didn't know the race was going to be postponed.

 Here are the weekend ratings according to BBM Nielsen Media Research overnight calculations:

1. Hockey, Red Wings at Blackhawks, Friday, CBC: 1,111,000

2. Hockey, Penguins at Hurricanes, Saturday, CBC: 1,056,000

3. Hockey, Red Wings at Blackhawks, Sunday, CBC: 591,000*

4. Auto racing, Indianapolis 500, Sunday, TSN: 252,000*

5. Hockey, Memorial Cup final, Sunday, Sportsnet: 234,000

6. Auto racing, NASCAR Coke 600, Sunday, TSN: 180,000*

7.  Baseball, Blue Jays at Braves, Saturday, Sportsnet: 168,000*

8. Auto racing, F1 Monaco Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 158,000

9. Hockey, Memorial Cup: Windsor vs. Drummondville, Sportsnet: 150,000

10. Basketball, Lakers at Nuggets, Saturday, TSN: 125,000

11. Basketball, Magic at Cavaliers, Friday, TSN: 122,000

12. Soccer, New England at Toronto, Saturday, CBC: 76,000

* Canadian viewers on U.S. channel not calculated

Not ready for prime time: Stuff that didn't make it to the dead trees

As always, the bosses stifled my creativity wisely restricted me to 150 words on the good, bad and ugly commentary, so a lot of good stuff didn't make the paper. Being an environmentalist, I try to recycle whenever possible while avoiding re-using.

HOCKEY ACCORDING TO DON: Hockey Night In Canada fashion consultant Don Cherry has actually been making more sense than usual during the playoffs, which is when he does his best work. But even when he's avoiding slagging an entire continent and promoting his violent videos, he still can't bring himself to praise the people who are making the playoffs so watchable. After Saturday's Pittsburgh-Carolina game, Cherry avoided all mention of the players who dominated the game: Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. Instead, he gave us a tribute to losing goaltender Cam Ward that included highlights from two seasons ago and a teary-eyed paen to plugger Chris Kunitz. It took analyst Greg Millen to pay proper tribute to Malkin: ``The Hurricanes have no answer for his speed. He's a big guy and he can play physical, too." Okay, but is he as good as Kunitz? ... One HNIC decision that pays off is broadcasting the anthems. It's the perfect set-up to the game.  ... How do you like those post-game press conferences where you usually can't even hear the questions? Yeah, me neither. ... As HNIC's Scott Morrison pointed out Saturday, the NHL is trying to move up the June 5 start of the final if both conference finals end this week. Let's hope they succeed. An eight or nine-day layoff is the last thing the league needs.

GOOD AND BAD: CBC soccer analyst Jason de Vos did what good analysts are supposed to do during Saturday's Toronto FC game. Commenting on Dwayne De Rosario's complaints about the artificial turf at BMO Field, de Vos said, ``Part of being a professional footballer is dealing with adversity and Dwayne and his teammates need to get on with it."  ... When Terrell Owens showed up for that workout in Buffalo last week, several TV stations actually ran footage of quarterback Trent Edwards describing the pass he threw the clubhouse cancer star receiver. What's next, a telestrator showing how T.O. got from the locker room to the field?

AN INDY PROJECT: ABC's Marty Reid on Marco Andretti and Mario Moraes being knocked out on the first lap of the Indy 500: ``The national anthem lasted longer than those two did." ... ABC (or is it ESPN or is it ESPN on ABC?) came up with a great solution to an event without schedules ad breaks, other than the frequent cautions. It simply squeeze the ads on to the screen next to video from the race. ... No sports gets better coverage than auto racing, but sometimes the coverage provides way too much information. When the pit reporters are talking about wing adjustments, downforce, fuel position 3 vs. fuel position 4 and a whole lot of other gearhead stuff, millions of eyes are glazing over across North America. ad squeeze.

BOSH BLOWS IT: And speaking of bad, how did Chris Bosh get himself involved with this cheesy commercial? The guy's a media star -- his turn as a weatherman on CFTO was brilliant and that all-star push was brilliant. This gum commercial, which is getting way too much airtime during the NBA playoffs, blows big time -- and we're not talking bubbles.

Sportsnet ensures more junior hockey and more complaints

Rogers Sportsnet managed to do two things Sunday afternoon, three if you count giving Peter Loubardias a big national audience. 

By signing a new deal with the CHL, it guaranteed a television home for junior hockey and the Memorial Cup for the next five years.

That's a good thing for the CHL and the Memorial Cup, whose ratings are up about 12 per cent this spring. We're not sure it lived up to the ``major announcement" that Sportsnet touted during the Memorial Cup final, but it's a good deal for both sides.

It also guaranteed that Blue Jays fans will have something to complain about besides J.P. Ricciardi for the next five years, too.

The deal means that the national junior hockey tournament will dominate Sportsnet's lineup during May through 2014, ensuring that the Rogers-owned Blue Jays will be bumped off the Rogers-owned network for a week.

Things will almost surely change for the better next year, though. Instead of putting the opposing team's feed on the Rogers digital promo channel, the Jays probably will find a better home for those May games on TSN2.

There's no deal in place to do that, but it would be a logical move for both the Jays and TSN.

(TSN, if you haven't been paying attention, is too busy with NHL playoffs to take on baseball in May.)

That should mollify most Jays fans, though those without digital TV will still be out of luck. But that's been the case for a few years now.

Millions of reasons why the Leafs don't want Hamilton in the NHL club

BlackBerry gazillionaire Jim Balsillie was on the FAN 590's Prime Time Sports Wednesday, an interview that was more revealing than you'd expect.

First, host Bob McCown finally asked the question that's been haunting media types for months: How DO you pronounce Balsillie? According to the man himself, it's BALL-sillie. Not Bal-SILLIE. We'll take his word for it.

Second, Balsillie sounded like he'd scored a major victory in that Phoenix courtroom, which showed that he's either seriously deluded or knows something we don't.

Third, McCown told Balsillie that he'd heard Leaf honcho Larry Tanenbaum had told a third party that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment would never agree to another team in this area. Since MLSE isn't talking on this issue, we'll never know if this is just gossip or fact. Balsillie said pretty much the same thing in his response, by the way.

Gossip or no, the Leafs have about 20 million reasons to object. That's what they'd stand to lose every year in television money if another team invaded their territory.

For example, Rogers Sportsnet pays about $15 million for the rights to 28 games in the Leafs region, which covers all of Ontario west of Belleville (approximately.) The NHL would have to give a new team its own region, which could cut the potential Leafs audience by as much as 50 per cent depending on what territory the Hamilton Coyotes were given. That would severely reduce the value of those rights.

The Leafs would then have to share a piece of the national pie on CBC and TSN broadcasts. Sources say the total reduction in TV rights could be as much as $15 million a year. One would not expect MLSE to accept that, unless Balsillie is willing to cough up that and probably a lot more. And that's just to cover potential losses on TV revenues.

That's a lot of BlackBerry sales.

On the topic of sports talk, The Bill Watters Show on Toronto 640 plans to have Larry King on Friday afternoon, which made at least one media critic wonder what King's connection was to sports. In fact, King used to do the pre and post-game shows for the Washington Capitals a couple of decades ago.

We're not sure if he did them wearing suspenders.

TSN2 throws Jays fans a curveball

Many Blue Jays fans rejoicing at the prospect of being able to watch their beloved team's way-too-early-to-matter-much big series opener in Boston Tuesday night probably took a double take, or maybe a triple take, when they tuned in to TSN2.

Expecting to see a TSN production in the channel's much-ballyhooed debut on Rogers Cable, they were no doubt taken aback when they got the Red Sox NESN broadcast. Heck, they could have got this on the Rogers promo channel.

Not to imply that TSN did this on the cheap, but TSN did this on the cheap.

Okay, there were mitigating circumstances. According to TSN insiders, the company wasn't keen on paying $300,000 in production costs for what might amount to an audience of 50,000, which is what the games probably would have drawn had TSN2 not finalized its deal with Rogers. So, with the Rogers deal still up in the air, TSN made the decision to pick up the NESN feed.

By the time the Rogers deal went down two days before the series opener, TSN couldn't have found a production trailer even if it wanted to do the game itself. So it stuck with NESN.

That's all well and good and it was probably a wise business move to save a few hundred thousand dollars. But you might think that a little-watched channel might have taken a gamble to at least look like a real channel for its first turn on the big stage.

By the way, it's NESN all the way for this series. We'll assume TSN2's two other Blue Jays games will be done the right way.

Stanley Cup producing ratings increases, at least so far

It's been a pretty good spring for the National Hockey League, at least as far as things not involving the word ``Balsillie" go.

 TSN reports a 21 per cent increase in ratings over its second-round coverage last season with a 681,000 average. Sunday's Chicago-Detroit game gave NBC a 2.0 rating, 33 per cent better than last year's conference final opener. Versus continues to score big ratings, at least by Versus standards.

But there are causes for concern. The second round was a slight downer on CBC, the 1,366,000 average being 1 per cent off last spring's comparable numbers despite the great hockey on display.

And while Sunday's NBC audience was encouraging, you have to wonder if the third round can keep things going. The second round was filled with seven-game series and that incredible Crosby-Ovechkin showdown. The conference finals will need to go seven games to keep the ratings momentum going.

Still, hockey is king in Canada, which was illustrated by Toronto FC's ratings. Three weeks ago, following an NHL game on CBC, the soccer team drew 261,000 viewers. This Saturday, with no hockey to lure an audience to CBC, the TFC game against Chicago attracted only 56,000 viewers.

 Here are the weekend ratings, according to BBM Nielsen Media Research overnight figures:

1. Hockey, Hurricanes at Penguins, Sunday, TSN: 581,000*

2. Baseball, White Sox at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 411,000

3. Baseball, White Sox at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 317,000

4. Hockey, Memorial Cup: Drummondville  vs. Windsor, Saturday, Sportsnet: 209,000

5. Tennis, ATP Madrid semifinal, Saturday, TSN: 206,000

6. Auto racing, NASCAR All-Star Challenge, Saturday, TSN: 204,000

7. Basketball, Magic at Celtics, Sunday, TSN: 180,000

8. Hockey, Memorial Cup: Rimouski vs. Windsor, Sunday, Sportsnet: 173,000

9. Hockey, Memorial Cup: Kelowna vs. Rimouski, Friday, Sportsnet: 157,000

10. Tennis, ATP Madrid final, Sunday, TSN: 133,000

* Canadian viewers on NBC not calculated

Kornheiser shows why fear of flying is a good thing

Tony Kornheiser's story, and at last report he's sticking to it, is that he quit Monday Night Football because his fear of flying was just too much to handle. It's possible, though his fear of planes was matched by viewers' fears of turning on their television sets Monday nights and being overwhelmed by yet another torrent of words from TV's latest attempt at revive the corpse of Howard Cosell.

The three-man booth seldom works, especially when one of them is trying to be funny instead of trying to tell us about football. It didn't work with Dennis Miller and he was a professional comedian, at least before he became a right-wing lunatic commentator.

Unfortunately, Kornheiser's replacement is coach-in-waiting Jon Gruden. While having a football guy in the booth is a good thing, having a guy afraid to step on toes for fear of hurting his job prospects is not. You can count on one finger the guys who were good, honest analysts while waiting for a team to call them. And I forget who that guy was.

Not ready for prime-time: More thoughts on the weekend that was

Aren't you glad that TSN2-Rogers thing is over? Maybe now we can focus our attention on the battle between TSN2 and Mountain Cable.

I'll have to plead guilty on this one, but never was so much written about a channel that shows 90 per cent repeats. But you do have to wonder how two dozen Toronto Raptors games didn't have the power of three Blue Jays games in settling this deal. Oh wait, Rogers doesn't own the Raptors ...

ON THE ICE: What is this obsession Hockey Night In Canada has with guys in suits? And I don't mean loud, floral-print ones. To illustrate, here's how the network that invented hockey coverage handles goals: The guy scores, the cameras show the on-ice celebration before instantly going to the private boxes to show some rich guy in a suit (the owner) or another guy in a suit (the GM) reacting to the goal. How many viewers are sitting at home thinking, ``Geez, I wonder how Dale Tallon is going to react to that goal?" The answer: Mrs. Tallon and about 10 relatives. ... Why Bob Cole's time has come: In his last game he credited a goaltender with a great save even though he never moved as the puck hit him in the chest and later identified a shot that just missed the net as a pass in front. Maybe it's the glasses. ... NBC hockey analyst Ed Olczyk is one of the best, but got caught nattering during Sunday's Detroit-Chicago game. He was rambling about Detroit forward Mikael Samuelsson's contract situation as the Wings scored their fourth goal. It's the playoffs, Ed. What's happening on the ice is a lot more important than post-season contract talks.

ON THE PITCH: Toronto FC announcer Nigel Reed continues to forget which side of the Atlantic Ocean -- or maybe which planet -- he's on. As the teams entered the stadium before Saturday's game on CBC, Reed referred to Dwayne De Rosario ``bringing up the twale." Or was it twail? Neither word appears in my dictionary. ... There was a nice feature by Brenda Irving on TFC strength and fitness guy Paul Winsper during Saturday's game. It was a good look behind the scenes.

ON THE FIELD: During Sunday's Blue Jays game on Rogers Sportsnet, Chicago pitcher Gavin Floyd appeared as ``Gavon Floyd" in a graphic. Moments later, another graphic referred to ``yesterdays (sic) line." Spell checker not working? ... Good line by Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell after Alex Rios hit a line-drive homerun on Alex Rios bobblehead day: ``That probably broke a few bobbleheads."  ... Don't you love those Sportsnet in-game interviews with Buffalo Bills players? Neither do I.