Just like the Bills

[x13thfloorrand]

Interesting article about two Buffalo natives working on 590, The "Fan" in Toronto, former Buffalo News columnist Jim Kelley, and ex Niagara Basketball coach Jack Armstrong, have sports shows. Like the little digs at GR 550.

But as the subject mentions about our NFL team, it's not exactly a secret about talent swapping across the Rainbow bridge nor about sports coverage in two countries. Has anyone checked out "The Fan"? . I'm intrigued mostly for another, better sports voice in the 'market'

Thoughts?

Link: http://www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/story/415860.html

[ThePickleReport]

I didn't realize until fairly recently that 590 comes in like gangbusters in Buffalo, at least on my radios. I was tuning around for WGR one morning and missed.

[Yeziknoradio]

I didn't realize until fairly recently that 590 comes in like gangbusters in Buffalo, at least on my radios. I was tuning around for WGR one morning and missed.

590 is a pretty powerful frequency indeed. No arguments there.

The Bills recently played in Toronto's Rogers centre (aka "Skydome")
So it's no surprise that, seperate from the fact that 590 is a sports station, it gave the Bills extra special attention.

Fan 590 is owned by Rogers, which also owns the Rogers centre...and perhaps an NFL team in the future (?)

Next Bills game in Toronto: December 7, 2008
Is it just me or are the (Rogers centre) ticket prices just a wee bit too high?

[Element9]

Yes, Bills ticket prices in Toronto are high especially from a Buffalo perspective. There appeared to be many empty seats for the Bills-Steelers pre-season game. Not a surprise, given that a reasonable seat for that game cost $250. In Buffalo, that same seat goes for about $70 for a season ticket holder. Give the Toronto Bills fans credit: No reason to spend that kind of cash for a pre-season game. Save it for the Bills-Dolphins regular season match-up in December.

The difference between Buffalo and Toronto is the level and number of corporate boxes and buy-in. The NFL is no longer a (common) fans' league. It matters less that Bills fans bought out home games 80 thousand strong in the 90s when there was a great product on the field or that 71 thousand fans packed The Ralph for home games last season. These days, it's all about corporations and box seats. Blame new-market economics, courtesy of Jerry Jones (Cowboys) and Dan Snyder (Redskins.)

Now then, about 590 The Fan. Good station. Very powerful. But it's Toronto, not Buffalo. It's the Leafs and Argos and Raptors, not the Sabres and the Bills. It doesn't have a Buffalo mentality (for better or worse, you make the call on that description.) It's really not a factor in the Buffalo market and this poster doesn't see it becoming one any time soon. Rogers may be a media magnate, but he doesn't have the key to Buffalo.

Finally, about WGR. Got a look at the complete Spring book about a week ago. WGR got spanked in its target demo, Men 25-54. There were dayparts where the Lake beat it and even an AC chick station had better shares. The saving grace was WGR had reasonable cume numbers, not great but not bad. Listeners were checking in, but not staying long enough to build share. WGR lives and dies by the Sabres. If any book is proof of this, Spring 08 is the one.

WGR management loves to trumpet how strong the station is because of its personality line-up, but the numbers clearly refute that assertion. If their personalities are as good as they say, those cume numbers should have turned into better share numbers. Didn't happen. The Sabres sucked, missed the playoffs and consequently, WGR had a lousy book in all dayparts. Frankly, it's no surprise. If anything, the Spring 08 book was a more realistic assessment of WGR than any of the Cinderella books it had courtesy of the Sabres, which pumped up the station's ratings.

-9-

[ThePickleReport]

WGR lives and dies by the Sabres. If any book is proof of this, Spring 08 is the one.

Yeah and usually there's a pretty big drop-off in the Summer book when the only thing to talk about is the upcoming Bills and Sabres seasons. The end of May, June, and most of July are wastelands for sports in Buffalo.

[SirRoxalot]

Let's face it, the amount of actual sports expertise on WGR is infinitessimal. They've gone the "we're fans just like you" route, and they have nothing to talk about when they're not feeding the lastest fan controversy.

The high cumes show that people want to listen, but find the content lacking. I tune in, but find tune-out factor after tune-out factor. For example, I like Howard Simon. I remember him from his days on WNSA when he had interesting guests and sports talk directed toward intelligent adults. Now, I tune him in, and get an earful of Jeremy White, who cuts Simon off with strident opinions based on his "expertise" as a fan. Guess how long I listen to that?

I'm not part of the Cow herd. As far as I'm concern, Rome is burnt. Schopp admits that he knows nothing about a topic, then goes on to express and defend an opinion anyway. Bulldog is reduced to the "lovable oaf" role, which is really disappointing if you remember him from evenings on WBEN. They can't even get Dennis William's name right on their website, so that gives you an indication of the esteem that the have for his contribution.

Let's face it. WGR is a bad radio station, and Andy Roth is nothing special as a programmer. The Sabres disguise their failings. If WNSA was still around, they'd likely beat the current lineup. E9 is right, though. 590 is a Toronto station, and their moves to add expertise about Buffalo teams won't appreciably affect Buffalo ratings. It's just too bad that WGR doesn't value expertise as much as they do.

[Yeziknoradio]

So then, WGR is comparable to AM 640 in Toronto.

WGR=Live and die by the Sabres

AM 640 Toronto = Live and die by the Leafs (in other words, dead forever, lol)

At least the Sabres can make it to the play offs!!