The sports radio ratings battle between WFAN's Mike Francesa and ESPN Radio's Michael Kay had "one of its most contentious on-air back-and-forths yet" yesterday due to "conflicting interpretations" of the winter ratings book, according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. ESPN Radio 98.7 N.Y. "celebrated what it considered a victory" in the quarterly report -- which covered Jan. 3-March 27. But Francesa said on air, “I have nothing but sadness and pity for you that you would actually claim a victory that wasn’t real.” He added, “You’re ESPN, and you get beat like a rented mule for 20 years, it’s got to hurt.” Kay "got wind of Francesa’s remarks via social media and a caller asked about them." Kay answered Francesa and said, “Whichever metric you want to use here, we kick your (expletive).” He added, “We won. We celebrated. We had cake. We had a little champagne. We laughed, because finally the peashooters won. You can spin it whatever way you want. The industry knows you lost this book.” Kay: “I’m going to tell you one thing, Mike, you’ve had an iconic career and now you’re embarrassing yourself. People in the industry are laughing at you" (NEWSDAY, 4/16). Kay this morning said of the back-and-forth with Francesa, "It takes some of the happiness away from the fact that we finally won because he's disputing it. ... He was never gracious in victory and he’s certainly not gracious in defeat” (“The Dan Le Batard Show,” ESPN Radio, 4/16).
BY THE NUMBERS: In N.Y., Andrew Marchand notes both sides "claimed victory" yesterday. In the initial winter book ratings from 3:00-6:30pm ET, Kay "picked up a 5.9 rating, while Francesa had a 5.5 in the male 25-54 demographic." Under this calculation, Kay was second and Francesa fifth. But if the streaming number is added, then Francesa "noses ahead of Kay," 6.2-5.9, into second overall. Meanwhile, if adding in TV and paid apps, one could "make the argument that Kay’s program is more popular." Kay averages around 20,000 viewers a day on his YES simulcast. Francesa, without "any neutral verification, indicated toward the end of last year that he might have 1,000 paid app subscribers." The "biggest buzz the stations have created in recent weeks belonged to Kay, with his show’s interviews of Knicks owner James Dolan, Lenny Dykstra and a post-sentencing sit-down with [Craig] Carton" (N.Y. POST, 4/16). In Newark, James Kratch noted Francesa "took aim at ESPN Radio general manager Tim McCarthy, who suggested ... that Francesa is only making an issue out of the streaming number now that Kay has beaten him." Francesa: "I don't expect him to understand the ratings. He obviously proved he doesn't understand the ratings. Look at his product" (NJ.com, 4/15).
