Feature: Media: Game On
Missanelli foresaw something bad awaiting him at Brownie’s that day. What no one could have imagined was that his firing would turn a struggling wannabe into a threat, and spark a first for sports-talk radio in this town and for WIP — a bona fide ratings war. “Mike was the perfect hire,” says national radio analyst Bob Snyder. “WIP has a formidable contender. This is a battle.”
TO BE FAIR, the battle between WIP and ESPN Radio, now called The Fanatic, is more David and Goliath than Rumble in the Jungle. As recently as January 2009, The Fanatic was so far down the ratings ladder, it was barely beating a station playing “Spanish tropical.” Over at WIP, audience devotion runs so deep that on one of the first sunny, snow-free Saturdays this past brutal winter, a few hundred fans opted to stay indoors, packing Chickie’s & Pete’s in South Philly to watch the station’s hosts in ’IP’s annual Great Eagles Debate. Like KYW Newsradio 1060, WIP has been so dominant for so long, it’s hard to imagine an alternative. But many of WIP’s hosts have been with the station for at least a decade and are north of 50 years old. And for some listeners, their act has grown stale.
Enter The Fanatic’s younger, hipper brand of sports chatter, simulcast on both 950 AM and, since October, on 97.5 FM. Many of its hosts are under 40, and its FM portal is attracting listeners who probably don’t know AM radio exists. The callers sound like college kids, not guys who swear Norm Van Brocklin is the greatest Iggles quarterback because they saw him play. And the difference between FM and AM is like watching Avatar in IMAX 3D and on a VHS tape on your grandma’s tube television.
After the Great Eagles Debate, I asked WIP program director Andy Bloom about his competition. He spent the next 30 minutes explaining just how meaningless The Fanatic is. Regarding his competitor’s increased ratings among men in the ages-18-to-49 demographic, Bloom said, “Men 25 to 54 is all I care about. That’s what I get a bonus for.”
When I mentioned that Missanelli bested WIP’s Howard Eskin among men 25 to 54 after just one year on the air, Bloom’s voice rose like one of his callers raging against the Dallas Cowboys. “Good for them,” he said. “Crow all you want. You’re not affecting us in the least. Mike Missanelli, God bless you. You have no impact. … Go punch another producer. That’s the most interesting thing he’s done.”
Weeks later, Bloom had second thoughts about cooperating for this story. I’d asked if I could spend a day at the station, hanging out with Cataldi’s crew in the morning and staying through Eskin’s afternoon-drive shift with his new co-host, ex-Eagle Ike Reese. “I think I’ve said enough,” Bloom wrote in an e-mail after canceling my visit. Later that day, I heard from him again. “I’ve explained myself all too well,” he wrote. I never got the chance to ask why he’s so intent on dismissing WIP’s new rival, or so seemingly angry about Missanelli. Bloom joined WIP after the Brownie’s incident, and he and Missanelli have never met. All I’m left with is Bloom’s parting shot from our discussion regarding Mikey Miss, his “meaningless” non-competitor across the dial: “He’s a first-rate scumbag.”
