Friday Four-Pack 4.21.23

Sports radio ratings. Scal in a lead role. Huge sports betting numbers.

This is a long one today.

The usual Four-Pack below with an update on MutStack Derby coverage and some other housekeeping items at the end. Basically a Five-Pack!

We’ll jump right into it.

On the spring radio ratings in Boston…

“The lowest ratings in the station’s history.”

That was the line making the rounds among former WEEI on-air hosts and executives Wednesday and Thursday after the 2023 Nielsen Winter ratings were released.

And asking around and looking thru old ratings numbers…it’s probably true dating back to the station’s fulltime move to sports. Or pretty damn close.

This covers the dates of Jan 5 to March 29, 2023. During that stretch, 98.5 The Sports Hub drew a station rating of 19.4 for men ages 25-54…the “money” demo for sports talk radio.

In that same timeframe, WEEI got a 4.0

Sports Hub was No. 1.

WEEI was No. 8.

First, the full numbers. Again, this is men 25-54. If you change the numbers to 35-64, or focus just on some older demos, WEEI would fare better. That’s part of the spin brewing internally at WEEI this morning.

But that’s not the traditional measuring stick for sports radio locally or nationally.

This is the first quarterly ratings period since WEEI made some major changes.

And look this is weird to write about since, you know, I was one of the changes. A very, very small part of the changes.

But scoreboard is scoreboard. The Sports Hub romped here. And to echo a point we made here a few weeks ago - this Spring Book is not going to help WEEI at all as the Red Sox are a non-story and the Celtics and Bruins make championship pushes.

During the regular season when the Bruins and Celtics are playing at the same time, The Hub has to push one of those games to 100.7 WZLX. It will actually happen tonight, but will happen MUCH less in the playoffs than the regular season, giving 98.5 a huge cumulative audience boost as long as one (or both) of those teams keep winning.

It could look a lot worse if both make big runs. Even if the gap remains the same, you’re talking six-plus months of complete domination.

The Fall of 2022 was only Sports Hub 19.6 - WEEI 9.0. The Hub grew their 10 point margin to 15-plus.

Could they win the Spring by 20?

Of course the context here is as important as the numbers. This is not some random three month period. This dominating book for 98.5 is the first with new shows in the midday, afternoon and nights at WEEI.

If the hope was that the changes would appeal to the audience, the early Nielsen numbers suggest the opposite.

There’s also the fact that “Toucher and Rich” did this huge AM drive number with Fred Toucher out and dealing with a throat/voice issue for basically the entire book. And they still trounced WEEI.

I do not take a lot of joy in this. I grew up on WEEI. Interned there. Worked almost 20 years there.

But that version of WEEI is dead.

What it will be going forward remains to be seen.

Some assorted notes and ramblings based on my own thoughts and from multiple people I talked to this week after the numbers came out.

• The book was not good for WEEI. The three month trends are worse. Down each month Jan-Feb-March. The March numbers I saw were horrific. Some shows in the 2s. These were raw numbers and might get adjusted up …BUT…what I saw was really bad.

• I’m painting with broad stokes here but when I listen to WEEI… I get the sense the station management and the hosts don’t really care about the listener. From some of the branding to the “trending now” updates being done by producers to the mocking of sports betting topics.

• I don’t think this leads to some major shakeup. Mentioned it here last week - there will probably be more layoffs because 1. The Ratings and 2. Audacy is struggling across the country. But some major change next week? I’d be surprised.

• BUT I will say based on some conversations I had this week - I think there is a day-part personality who will be out of their current spot by the time the Patriots open the season in September. I guess that might be considered a major shake-up?

• Unlike some people, I admit I still listen. And for a second straight week I heard Chris Curtis openly mock and question a Red Sox executive. Chaim Bloom last week. Sam Kennedy this week. And they deserve it - this roster is not good. And the answers those two try to spin are laughable most of the time, Sam especially. But credit to Chris for busting their balls. And I can’t believe I’m saying this but I think Chris Curtis might be the best personality on the air at WEEI. I would likely hate-listen to the Chris Curtis Show.

• I have plenty of thoughts on how to “fix” WEEI. But I’m not giving those away for free. But one guy did!
  
  Came across an old post on Bleacher Report from 2009!
  
  The title - WEEI - How to save the No. 1 Sports Station in the Country.” Written by “BHL.” There was a BHL on Twitter years ago maybe the same guy?
  
  Anyway - it’s a nostalgic time machine trip and a funny read if you were a WEEI listener then. Have no idea how it showed up in my Google news search for WEEI this week.

  

  This BHL guy gets it. And was one a handful of “Mut and Bradford” fans. I would listen to Ryder and Megs tomorrow if it was on the air.

There are lots of other radio rumors kicking around … but it’s just radio gossip at this point. Juicy? Yes. But maybe completely baseless… we’ll see over the next few months.

And hey it’s not bad for everyone .. some people have revenue bonuses rather than ratings bonuses! Kind of jealous, actually.

(Video credit David Cullinane)

On the Celtics broadcast team tonight…

The Celtics are going to cruise past the Hawks and into the NBA’s second round of the playoffs. No issue there. There is an issue if you’re looking for a real play-by-play announcer for tonight’s Game 3 in Atlanta.

Mike Gorman is still not cleared to travel so he’s out. Turns out NBC Sports Boston is going to let Brian Scalabrine and Eddie House call the action themselves. No formal play-by-play voice. Just a Players Only style broadcast.

What a dumb decision.

The Celtics are now basically the Vegas favorites to win the NBA Title thanks to a Giannis back injury and the local network can’t be bothered to go get a pro to call the action?

Argued with Kirk and Gerry about this for years - the play-by-play guy matters. Especially if the alternative is Scal. That will become evident tonight.

There’s just no way to justify it, right? It can’t be a money thing, can it? So in what world is Scal leading the charge better than a local voice calling the game? Or how about working with 98.5 and put Jon Wallach on the TV call and get a different radio voice.

I suspect I’ll be one of the people flipping over to Dave Pasch and Hubie Brown on ESPN sometime in the first quarter. You’re begging people to go watch it there with this decision.

On the March sports betting numbers in Massachusetts…

The numbers for March are in and like the Sports Hub’s lead on WEEI - they are massive.

Over half a billion dollars bet on sports for March - the first month of legal mobile betting on sports in Massachusetts.

Some caveats. The number is inflated by bonus bets offered at launch to new customers. And it helped that this launch fell in March with the NCAA Tournament.

But the bottom line is still huge - $568.1 million fired away on sports.

Those type of numbers will make Massachusetts a Top 10 handle state in the U.S.

As far as the mobile betting breakdown for March - the big guys dominated.

My own personal handle by book - 1. DK 2. FanDuel 3. Barstool 4. BetMGM

Given the advertising and PR push, seeing WynnBet at just 3.3% is surprising.

The month also resulted in over $9 million in tax revenue for Massachusetts. And since mobile did not launch until March 10th, that’s $9 million in tax revenue in less than a month.

Remember - there were lawmakers in Massachusetts holding this back for years. For a multitude of dumb reasons.

What a waste. And what a first month of mobile sports betting.

Comments open below - what mobile app have you been betting with in Massachusetts?

On Lou in the NESN booth…

Got our first stretch of games with Lou Merloni in the NESN booth this week. And no surprise he was great. Don’t just take my word for it.

Lots of this on social media and no surprise. People around the team and broadcast feel the same way.

Thought yesterday the way Lou explained the changes/improvements in Yoshida’s swing stood out. He’s done that type of breakdown on the radio for years but it’s more effective on the TV side.

And from what I watched this week there was plenty of that.

And unlike, say with Kevin Youkilis, there is not as much “back in my day” with Lou. It’s more focused on the game and what he’s seeing as a former player. And much less “filler.”

It will not be a surprise when NESN adds more games to his schedule - including more three man booths. You can tell Dave O’Brien is a big fan. He’s already the best guy they have and I’m sure OB knows it.

Red Sox are a tough sell right now up against the Bruins and Celtics, but NESN has the next guy in the booth. Let’s see if they’re smart enough to lock him up long-term.

On MutStack and Derby Coverage…

Working on some audio and video elements here. I’ve said that before and guess what - turns out I don’t know shit about the production side of this stuff. Turns out there is a little more to it than this moron thought.

You’ll see some tweaks and changes as we try and improve some things. Like this being MutStack instead of Mut’s Substack. And some other pieces to the MutStack brand.

I am very grateful to everyone who has subscribed here. Helped promote it. Reached out. Only plan on growing things from here. Thank you x 100.

And while there is a learning curve on some of this, I feel comfortable in saying we’ll have a Kentucky Derby Podcast/Video next week. And then content Oaks and Derby Day from Mohegan Sun.

But with no prep races tomorrow, no Saturday Derby post. We’ll more than make up for it over the next few weeks.

Comments open below.

Thanks for reading.

Good weekend.