The novel coronavirus pandemic’s impact on Vancouver’s sports radio market is clear. Like just about every other aspect of life, it’s mostly negative.
The latest ratings book from Numeris was released Wednesday, tracking listeners of Lower Mainland radio stations from Feb. 24 to May 24. That period, of course, is mostly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
While some of the market’s biggest names — such as CKNW, CBC and Rock 101 — have managed to keep their numbers steady despite the upheavals in daily life, both of Vancouver’s sports radio stations have seen their ratings drop.
Overall, 650’s rating fell to just a 0.4 per cent share of listeners during the latest ratings period, down from 1.5. TSN 1040’s numbers also fell, from 2.5 over the winter to 1.9.
With almost no live sports happening, creating listener-pleasing programming has been a challenge. But it’s also clear that having fewer people driving around the city has had an impact.
In a niche market like sports talk radio, the difference one or two people can make on the ratings is huge. And with sports radio traditionally so car-centric in its listenership, having vehicles parked during the pandemic can have a drastic effect on ratings, especially when you’re in sports radio and so heavily focused on the 24- to 54-year-old male audience.
Aziz Rajwani, a business instructor at Langara’s School of Management and the Sauder School of Business, said the decline for both stations wasn’t a big surprise.
“It makes total sense because their programming is all centred around Canucks broadcasts,” he noted of 650’s struggles.
It’s been a tough go for the upstart station since launching in 2017. Sportsnet has been buttressed at times by having the rights to the Canucks, but in general have trailed 1040 in the ratings. The TSN station just celebrated its 19th year on the air. And in the competitive world of sports radio, listener loyalty means a lot.
“That 1040 didn’t drop as much, that’s what happens with brands that are first in their market,” Rajwani said. But he also pointed a finger at former station director Rob Gray, who he said made some shrewd calls when 1040 lost the rights to radio broadcasts of Canucks games in 2017.
“You absolutely have to give credit to Rob Gray, the minute they lost the rights. He put people on Canucks watch 24/7. He sent Jeff Paterson on the road. They’ve been innovative,” he said.
“Over the years they’ve developed a trust in place, they’ve made themselves familiar names and they continue to do so.”
Sportsnet’s morning show, with James Cybulski and Perry Solkowski, has taken the biggest hammering, pulling just 0.3 per cent of all male listeners between 25 and 54 years of age, the key demographic for sports radio. Sportsnet, which has the Scott Rintoul show starting at 9 a.m and running until noon, is last for the 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. time slot. Over the winter, they were at 1.4, still near the bottom.
TSN 1040’s morning show, with Mike Halford and Jason Brough, has also taken a hit, falling from a 3.9 share in the winter to 2.5 in the past three months. They were 10th in the market for their key demographic but now sit 12th.
Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when 1040 has Don Taylor and Bob Marjanovich in the hosts’ chairs, 1040 has actually managed to improve its ratings, going from a 3.9 share in the winter book to a 4.4 share. The station is now eighth in the market in that four-hour block.
That number is especially impressive, given that Taylor and Marjanovich were on vacation for a two-week period in mid-April.
Sportsnet, which normally runs Canucks Central between noon and 1 p.m. with Scott Rintoul and Bik Nizzar, followed by Randip Janda and Dan Riccio from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., saw their midday number cut in half, from 1.5 to 0.7 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. They’re 17th out of 19 English-language stations in the market for that window.
The afternoon battle kept in form, with both stations seeing declines between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., but 1040’s pairing of Matt Sekeres and Blake Price kept its number to a respectable 6.4 share, eighth in the market in the key demographic. That’s a decline from 7.9 in the previous book, that had put 1040, impressively, in fourth position in the market.
Janda and Riccio combined with the afternoon show’s Andrew Walker and Sat Shah to post just a 0.6 share, a decline from 1.5 in the previous book.
Walker and Shah saw bumped forward in the schedule for several weeks in April because of a network decision to air classic Blue Jays games from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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