The battle for sports talk radio supremacy in central Indiana rages on—and is delivering some unlikely results. The biggest
winner in 2009’s first quarter radio ratings is basketball coach turned on-air personality Dan Dakich.
More than a few listeners scoffed last October when Emmis Communications officials replaced national talk show host Colin Cowherd with Dakich, who was a communications major in college but had no previous radio experience. But the former Indiana and Bowling Green coach has flourished at the 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. time slot.
Dakich earned a 2.9 rating for men 25 to 54, which is a key demographic for sports talk radio. That means Dakich is attracting 2.9 percent of the radio listening audience in that demographic set in this market at the time. That’s a solid rating for niche programming. Even more impressive, Dakich scored a 3.4 rating for all men 18 years old and older. That’s up from his first quarter on the air, when he registered a 2.5 rating. Ratings are tabulated by New York-based Aribitron Inc.
Dakich has the good fortune of following ESPN’s popular nationally syndicated Mike and Mike show, which also airs on WFNI. But he also goes up against nationally syndicated Dan Patrick and Jim Rome, whose shows are on WFNI’s chief rival, WNDE-AM 1260. Dakich’s ratings are outpacing WNDE’s during his time slot.
During the important afternoon drive slot (3 p.m. to 7 p.m.) Clear Channel-owned WNDE, which has been doing sports talk for well over a decade, maintains an advantage over WFNI. The Drive with JMV hosted by John Michael Vincent still sits atop the ratings heap, scoring a 3.9 with men 25 to 54 and 3.1 with men 18 plus.
WFNI, whose afternoon drive show is anchored by Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz and former Reebok executive Eddie White registered a 2.6 with men 25 to 54 and a 2.5 with men 18 plus. Perhaps most encouraging for WFNI, the Kravitz and Eddie Show has seen its ratings increase among key demographics almost every quarter, moving up from its 1.7 rating in the spring, 2008 quarter.
WXLW-AM 950 is a distant third in the sports talk war, and its efforts won’t be helped by the defection by on-air personality Greg Rakestraw, whose last WXLW show will be today. Rakestraw, who is largely the face of the station, has hosted WXLW’s afternoon drive show since 2002.
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I appreciate the IBJ staying on top of this story.
If WFNI wants to clean house - move Dakich to the afternoon slot with Kravitz on color. Sprinkle Boyle in for good flavor.
Oh yeah, there's that minor detail of JMV being a terrific personality that isn't annoying by trying to hard, aka Kravitz and especially Eddie White. JMV is a guy you'd like to have a beer with, Eddie White is a guy you'd like to throw a beer on. I had to stop listening because if I heard him refer to one more guest as dog I was going to pull a Sonny Bono and drive into the nearest tree.
I find it somewhat troubling that they didn't make the correlation in this article that the reason the terrible Kravitz and Eddie show is rising is due to them following Dackich. It certainly isn't because they have a better product, especially compared to JMV.
Since it's May...that's like being the crew chief for a 500 team that is feeling good about themselves because their lap times are increasing by a half-second each lap but the leader is getting faster by a full sec per lap. Sure, you may be doing better' but you're still getting it handed to you in comparison to the competition.
That also doesn't bring up the point that WFNI is a legacy station with 50,000 watts and WNDE has a pea-shooter of a signal that isn't even picked up on the West Side of Indy half the time. Yet, despite that handicap, JMV is literally beating Kravitz and Eddie's backside like a drum and it hasn't gotten any better for WFNI in the year and half those two clowns have been on the air.
It's pretty simple, really...and that's that JMV has a far superior product and the numbers point that out.
I struggle equally with JMV & Eddie White. So I've abandoned them both and listen to Boers & Bernstein on 670AM out of Chicago.
Sorry to see Rakestraw go, he is a class guy, but there is no way this town was going to support three all sports stations. Anyone know where he is headed?
As for Kravitz & Eddie, I tend to agree Eddie tries to hard and is way too am radio guy. Thing is, he's actually getting better. The first 6-9 months he was practically insufferable because he was just rambling like a drunk teenager. Adding Michael the producer in the Ernie Johnson role as voice of logic helps.
The real surprise is Dakish, and if they added Boyle as a co-host, that show would rule.
I think FNI has a great lineup of local talent: Kravitz & Eddie, Dakich is a joy and quite the surprise, and Jersey and Boyle are all very talented and engaging -- all of them bring unique talent to the table. This is one big-league, big market sports station folks. They do a great job of being entertaining and irreverent, and without the normal jock-talk so common with so many smaller market broadcasters. In a way, it's good that some people really hate K&E. They're pushing somebody's buttons -- that makes for great sports talk radio! Competition and controversy, in anything, is a GOOD thing. All that, and FNI has much better guests.
Last but not least, they're locally owned. You cannot say the same about WNDE or most radio stations. 1070 is home to the Colts, Pacers, Speedway races, IU, and the high school sports dude (Bob Lovell?). That's a hell of a local lineup. JMV is the ONLY local thing about WNDE. Outside of that, they just plug into something else. Other than Purdue football, what local or state sports do they carry? Unless I'm missing something, there's really little about them that's local, morning, noon, night, and weekends.
I'm no shill for Emmis, and do not get the personal digs at some of the management. Jeez, who cares? Did Emmis fire some of y'all?
The Fan seems to make a real effort to bring us sports fans a local station. All of these odd fans of JMV's do nothing but moan about how this is somehow a duel to the death between two shows. I listen to both JMV and Kravitz and Eddie, and I can't recall a single time that either Bob or Eddie ever mentioned JMV. If this is a fight, those guys certainly aren't acting like it. JMV on the other hand sounds like he would have little to talk about without talking about The Fan and other Emmis stations. I have no problem with JMV, but Kravitz and Eddie bring a cool energy to Indy.
While The Fan was doing live coverage today of Pole Day, where was WNDE? We need more local sports, not less.
I'm also curious about the constant harrassment of Sterling. What has he done other than program a sports station, and really pretty well?
The signal is only relevant as it effects the metro area where the ratings are measured. The DMA for the ratings extends only to the 13 counties closest to Indy, and both signals reach the entire area during the day. It can be argued that WNDE enjoys a signal advantage at night because it hits all of Hamilton County, whereas The Fan's catches only the southern most area there.
Building a new brand takes roughly two years. That is what we have found over here. This bizarre notion Thomas advances that WNDE is in some kind of position as the underdog in this battle is patently ridiculous. Having a 14 year head start formattically is quite a powerful advantage. If Kravitz and Eddie were Bob & Tom, it would still take two years to gain a lot of traction (as it did for Bob & Tom in the mid-1980s).
This ripping of The Fan, which I only see or hear on silly message boards, is silly and I would assume the folks at WNDE agree. The more good radio we have here, the better for all stations. Kravitz and Eddie (and the rest of The Fan's offerings) are good radio. We need more of it, not less.
Good for Emmis and The Fan for doing what a lot of companies refuse to - launching a creative and local brand. It's not easy, and I think they have done a great job.