Eskin's daily show lagged in radio ratings war

Posted: August 17, 2011

Mike Missanelli's drive-time radio talk show, which is simulcast on 950-AM and 97.5-FM the Fanatic, drew far more targeted listeners than Howard Eskin's WIP-AM drive-time radio show in July, according to Arbitron ratings.

Eskin announced Monday that he will be stepping down from his long-running show in the next month to pursue other broadcasting opportunities.

Andy Bloom, WIP's program director, said Monday that Eskin's departure was unrelated to ratings and that Eskin was ahead of Missanelli in his time slot.

The Arbitron report showed that Missanelli's show had a 3.1 average quarterly hour share (246,600 average cumulative weekly audience) compared with Eskin's 1.4 share (171,200) among listeners ages 12 and older.

The Fanatic's FM signal is powerful. Only about one-eighth of Missanelli's audience listened on AM.

Missanelli's show also led in the advertiser-friendly demo of 25- to 54-year-old men, with an 8.0 overall share compared with Eskin's 2.1.

The ratings for July 2010 showed the two shows virtually even in average cumulative weekly audience.

- Inquirer staff