Good summer for the FAN. Too bad about the cutbacks ...

Things in the radio business have been just about as bleak as they've been in the newspaper world. Okay, maybe not quite that bleak, but the cash cow that was radio has fallen on lean times.

Even the deep pockets of sugar daddy Rogers Communications haven't been enough to shield the FAN 590 from tough times. The station even cut back the number of trips Leafs reporter Howard Berger will take this season, a few months after asking Day Oner Norm Rumack to close the door from the outside.

So the latest radio ratings have to lift spirits at the all-sports radio station, though Berger's frequent flyer account will suffer. The FAN's overall audience share was up from 4.1 to 4.8 in its adult male target group over laat summer, according to the summer ratings. 

While the summer ratings, compiled during July and August, are considered the least important of the year, there were some big winners.

Bob McCown's Prime Time Sports saw its audience share jump from 7.1 last summer to 7.8. That stopped a bit of audience erosion in the last year. While 640 Toronto's Bill Watters Show saw its ratings jump from 1.9 to 2.2, it's no longer gaining ground on McCown.

That'w what Watters did last spring when its ratings went up and McCown's dropped a bit.

It was a good summer for Mike Hogan and Mike Toth, whose Bullpen ratings jumped from 1.6 to 4.2. The Game Plan's ratings also rose, from 3.3 to 3.6.

Amazingly, evenings jumped to a 9.2, making it tops among adult males. What's so amazing is that weekday evenings are almost exclusively the property of the Toronto Blue Jays and we all know what kind of year they're having.

The only downer for the FAN were the ratings for the Landry and Stellick morning show, which fell from a 4.5 share to 4.0.

By the way, these are the last radio ratings that will rely exclusively on people filling out diaries, and they probably mean as much as any of the other ratings issued under that system. That is to say, who knows?

When the people meters come in this fall, we should get a more accurate picture of who's listening to whom.

Call of the year, if not the best since Nostradamus

This is not one of those Internet alerts like the one about the couple who accidentally smuggled home a Mexican sewer rat, or the Canadian tourist whose kidney was stolen in Buffalo. This is real, and really amazing.

http://mynorthwest.com/?nid=374&sid=218287

Say goodbye to The Inside Track, one of a kind

Sunday afternoon will mark a sad day in Canada's sports broadcasting history. CBC Radio's The Inside Track will air its final show at 1:30 p.m.

It's a show that has lasted 24 years, survived budget cuts, being cut from 60 to 30 minutes, being moved from Saturday to Sunday, and an earlier attempt on its life. But it couldn't keep dodging bullets forever and when the CBC made a pile of cuts earlier this year, the sports documentary show was on the list.

"It will be a sad day," says Robin Brown, the show's fourth host and the one with the longest term of service: 14 years. (She'll appear on CBC Toronto radio in the fall on the afternoon drive show.)

Sunday's show will be a compilation of great moments from the past, with appearances by founding host Mark Lee and successor Mary Hynes. What that should do is remind listeners just how different the show was from any other sports-related radio offering, from the moment it was conceived by Lee and producer Ira Basen.

The beauty of The Inside Track was that it didn't deal with the obvious. There was an interview with Wayne Gretzky that all but ignored his on-ice feats and dealt more with his role as a father. Raptors star Chris Bosh talked about his fascination with computers and hurdler Perdita Felicien chronicled life on the road in the wild world of international athletics.

Maybe Hynes will tell the story about how the show was destined for the scrap heap back in 1994. But the weekend before the announcement was to be made, a newspaper ran a feature on the show. Too embarrassed to give it the axe, the CBC moved it to Sundays.

That certainly didn't help it. Saturday afternoons produced lot of listeners doing errands in their cars. On Sundays, most sports fans were watching TV.

Still, it was an alternative to call-in radio and a cut above most in the intelligence department. In a world more and more caught up in shrill voices and uninformed opinions, it stood out.

And you do have to wonder how much money CBC is saving on a show that operated on a shoestring budget in its latter years.

As legendary Toronto Star rewrite man Jim Foster used to say every time management made a questionable decision, "They MUST know what they're doing."

I'll echo that sentiment.

The FAN will now be vampire-free: Rumack dumped

The guy who billed himself as The Late-Night Vampire has been de-fanged.

Norm Rumack was one of the casualties today as all-sports talk station FAN 590 axed three employees. Rumack was the only on-air personality to lose his job. In total, Rogers-owned stations axed four ad reps, Rumack and an unidentified behind-the-scenes employee.

Rumack had a small audience because of his time slot, but he was one of the few FAN originals still on the payroll.

``I have to admit I didn't see this coming and it hit me pretty hard," said Rumack. ``There's no question, it's devastating."

Rumack said he's not bitter, though. ``After 17 years, I have a lot of good memories," he said. ``I'll just have to move on and see what's out there."

Rumack's last show was Saturday.

``I didn't get to say goodbye," the 54-year-old announcer said. ``I'd like to thank all those who listened."

FAN vice-president and general manager Nelson Millman said cuts were made because of the faltering economy.

``Unfortunately, it's a sign of the times we're in with ad revenues down everywhere," he said. ``I haven't fired too many people over the years."

Millman said there are no plans for a permanent replacement.

``It will be a mix of some specialty programming, extension of our play-by-play events and some of our young talent," he said.

More and more, it's a Rogers world

A couple of years ago, I interviewed Tony Viner, the new head of the Rogers media world on his plans for making this cable-TV-radio-cellular-baseball monster work. Viner, whose desk was adorned with a ``King of all Media" plate that may or may not have been a joke, talked about how he planned to cross-promote the heck out of everything. That meant pushing Rogers TV stuff on the radio stations, vice versa and a lot more such as baseball ticket offers mailed to cable customers. That was before the Bills thing came along, which has set new standards for cross-promotion.

Hoo boy, he wasn't kidding. I almost expect Trent Edwards to show up at my door one day to upgrade my cable installation or Marshawn Lynch to recommend a video (God help us.)

The latest in the cross-promotional machine is the (Rogers) FAN 590's new tennis show, which debuts Thursday night at 7. The one-hour show, hosted by Roger Lajoie and Mike Cvitkovic, is scheduled to run three times this summer. It will centre on Wimbledon and, oh yeah, the Rogers Cup.

Nothing wrong with the concept. Anything that breaks the mould is welcome and it will no doubt bring a different audience to the FAN. Tennis fans should love it and the rest of the evening crowd might find there's more to life than baseball and hockey talk.

OTHER STUFF: Win and they will come. Blue Jays ratings are up 15 per cent on Sportsnet, averaging 325,000 viewers a game. ... Former Score guy Adnan Virk is going to be one busy man in his new job with MLSE. He's going to be the pre-game host for all Maple Leafs, Raptors and Toronto FC games on Leafs TV, Raptors NBA TV and GolTV. He'll also be writing a blog on the teams' websites. ... If you're wondering what former Leafs TV host Jody Vance is doing at that new Vancouver radio station, she's one of the afternoon hosts on SHORE 104. ... TSN, which is partly owned by ESPN, is apparently trying to create its owner version of Mel Kiper, Jr., minus the pompadour. Bob McKenzie, who shed his Kiper-esque tresses a few years ago, will reveal his top 30 picks for the NHL entry draft Monday, June 22 at 7 p.m. If McKenzie's track record means anything, he'll be bang-on for most of those 30. ... The CTV-Rogers Olympic consortium has announced it will provide 50 hours of Paralympics coverage from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. It will mark the first time Paralympic coverage will be delivered either live or on a same-day basis in Canada. 

AND NOW, TODAY'S FEATURE PRESENTATION: And now, for something completely different, the best piece of satire in some time. It's from The Onion. Apparently, some have taken offence to it. I have no problem, though the breeding bit at the end is a bit questionable, but still funny. But then there are those who take offence to just about anything. Remember the ``pansification" controversy? 

However, I'm willing to change my mind on this, especially considering that Shawn is still a teenager. If I sound like I'm sitting on the fence, just check my pants for picket marks ...

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

Cheesiest product placement ever

Okay, it was nice of the FAN 590 and Rogers Sportsnet to commemorate Mexican independence day this afternoon, but boy was this one cheesy excuse for a product placement.

Prime Time Sports opened its simulcast with a mariachi trio, which did its part for international relations,  at least until Sportsnet's cameras left them to focus on a bunch of taco fixings obviously supplied by the same company that hired the band. Between shots of host Bob McCown and sidekick Jim Kelley, viewers on Rogers Sportsnet were subjected to closeups of tacos, beef, cheese and lettuce. Prime time, indeed.

At least McCown and Kelly had the decency to avoid chowing down on the air.

Radio wars: Watters chips away at McCown's big lead

As dodgy as television ratings can be, radio ratings are even more suspect.

At least TV audiences are measured with electronic gadgets attached to television sets and have some credibility assuming you buy into the belief that a few thousand meters can tell you what millions are watching. But in radio, audiences are measured by selected listeners keeping personal diaries, the equivalent of writing this blog in the ground with a stick.

But, the BBM ratings are what makes the radio world go around, so even if they're wildly inacurrate, they still carry some weight. Just ask the guys who've lost their jobs after bad ratings books.

Nobody's losing any jobs in the Toronto sports radio market, but the winter ratings released yesterday indicate that 640 Toronto's Bill Watters is taking a serious run at prime-time king Bob McCown over on the FAN 590.

Watters scored a 3.5 share of adult males, which is less than half the 7.3 recorded by McCown's Prime Time Sports. But the gap is narrowing. Watters' audience has grown 9 per cent since last winter, while McCown's audience share dropped 18 per cent.

"We've gone from 20 per cent of their audience share to half in a very short time," said 640 program director Gord Harris.

While McCown's audience took a hit, The FAN's noon hockey show saw its audience share jump 60 per cent to 6.1. It apparently did so at the expense of 640's Leafs Lunch, which plummeted 31 per cent to 3.3.

"We're wider than Leafs Lunch," said FAN general manager Nelson Millman. "You can only complain about the Leafs not making the playoffs or talk about who Brian Burke is going to trade for so long."

Here's what the rest of ratings showed:

FAN 590

Morning show: 5.8 (Down from 6.0, a negligible drop)

Bullpen: 4.4 (Off 21 per cent, which may or may not say anything)

Director's Chair: 5.4 (Up 4 per cent, but not really comparable to the `08 lineup)

Game Plan: 4.3 (Down 17 per cent from Chuck Swirsky's audience as Armstrong and MacLean break in their show)

Evenings: 2.9 (A 39 per cent decrease, no doubt thanks to lame Raptors team)

Overall: 4.7 (An 8 per cent decrease, but still maintaining 6th place among adult males)

640 TORONTO

Evenings: 2.3 (Down 4 per cent as the Leafs continue to struggle)

FAN BIDS ADIEU TO ESPN

As of this week, the late-night and weekend programming at the FAN is coming from Fox and not from ESPN.

After more than a decade of airing ESPN radio offerings, the FAN decided that asking price was just too high.

"They were looking for a 150 per cent increase in rights fees and we didn't believe that in these economic times that was a prudent decision," said Millman. "We're monitoring closely to see if what they do fits our mandate."

So far, Millman said, audience reaction has been mixed.