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

Comments

[baseballfan]

Hold on... Watters is tied with Stafford for the highest audience at 640? When you midday show (10am-12pm) is drawing the same number of listeners as your drive home show, that's not a good sign.

Having said that, the Mike Stafford show is excellent -- one of the best on Toronto radio.

[Rob Janssens]

When is the FAN finally going to dump its morning show duo of Stellick and Blandry? It's the same lame shtick day in day out. Landry's smug chuckle makes me flip to WGR everytime. We get it..you love the Leafs, Raptors, Blue Jays, Rock, Argos, and TFC. NEXT!!!

[James]

I really enjoy Prime Time, but I don't listen to the Watters show. Just too hockey focused for me. I like McCowns sports business angle, and I like hearing Leafs/Jays/Raptors talk. I'm not really interesting in hearing interviews with players on the Chicago Blackhawks or Windsor Spitfires etc all the time.

Also - McCown's lead has slipped from a year ago, but hasn't it actually risen since the last book?

PRIMETIME SPORTS vs. WATTERS SHOW

Men 25-54

S2-2008 8.7 to 2.5
S1-2009 7.3 to 3.5
S2-2009 8.4 to 3.4

With those numbers, is it really accurate to say that Watters continues to gain on McCown?

[Jeremy]

The FAN morning show is awful. Stellick wouldn't be bad with another partner, but everyone realizes Landry brings nothing to the table, no opinion, no substance, and I don't even let one of their lame comedy bits start before I have changed the station.

It's that played out.

I think these ratings for McCown and Watters probably pleases both shows, and both bosses. Watters can claim he's a lot closer than a year ago at this time, while McCown bounced back after a soft Jan/Feb book and more gains for Watters.

Either way, neither show is going anywhere soon, and that's good for listeners in such a huge city to have some variety. Most of us probably listen to each show close to half the time, depending on what's more interesting.

[Dan]

A little too hockey oriented? That show is awful to listen to, Watters on radio is irritating with his back handed comments on MLSE....Everyone gets it already, he doesn't get along with them. McCown's show is more listenable only because when they talk about other sports other than hockey they actually sound like they know what they are talking about. With the 640 show anything but hockey just sounds like a fill in

[Steve Fleschman]

It's no surprise the Watters show is gaining ground. They're having a good time on that show and Bill is without peer when it comes to storytelling. What's immediately obvious with McCown is the fact he's mailing it in. His guests are the usual suspects and all seem to be Friends of Bob. And while Stephen Brunt can ably construct sentences in the Globe, he certainly can't on air. Maybe if the two of them put their Balsillie pom pom's down, it would be a more listenable program.

[Phuket]

Not a hockey fan but I like how AM640 handles it. Bill isn't like the other sports shows who just fawn over the Leafs.

[jet]

way too much hockey on both stations. I now have xm radio in my car I listen to espn radio for more balance. The fan morning show should be called the hockey show its a bit much.

[Dan]

The problem with 640 is that they don't just cover the Leafs more than the Jays and Raptors ... they will talk more indepth about any NHL club over the Jays and Raptors.

I like hockey...but give me a break. This is Toronto, I want to hear about Toronto teams more than the Sharks or Blues.

The crazy hockey focus must limit their audience to purely hardcore puckheads. It's not really listenable to the general Toronto sports fan.

[BJJ]

Hopefully the rumours are true & Don Landry is leaving the Fan!

[Jerry Sena]

I think what will help McCown is his new web site - www.fadoo.ca.
Looks like he will be leading people from the air to online and vice versa. Pretty smart actually