‘Toucher & Wealthy’ nonetheless owns morning drive, however WEEI’s ‘Greg Hill Present’ is creeping into the rearview mirror

Slicing via some static on the Nielsen Audio spring sports activities radio rankings that have been revealed this previous week…

“Toucher & Wealthy” completed first with relative ease in morning drive with a 21.4 share within the focused males 25-54 demographic, the best of any weekday sports activities present available in the market in the course of the three-month interval.

I don’t wish to overlook that as a formidable feat. It’s straightforward at this level to take these 20 shares without any consideration since they’re nothing new to the Sports activities Hub, nevertheless it wasn’t that way back that such a quantity was unprecedented for a every day sports activities radio program, at the least within the 13 years I’ve been masking sports activities media.

That “Toucher & Wealthy” earned such a big share whereas navigating well-documented stress amongst hosts Fred Toucher and Wealthy Shertenlieb, and Toucher’s absences whereas he handled a vocal twine downside, speaks properly of the loyalty of the present’s listeners.

However there was a compelling shift within the final month of the rankings interval that left one questioning whether or not extra informal listeners drifted over to their competitors in the course of the top of Toucher and Wealthy’s drama. WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Present” completed second within the spring, a long way again with a strong 8.6 share. However the month-to-month developments in the course of the spring rankings interval have been encouraging to say the least for this system.

Within the first month of the guide, which coated March 30 to April 26, “Toucher & Wealthy” crushed Hill’s present by greater than a 20-share distinction, 26.3 to six.2. WEEI’s present chipped away at that large benefit within the second month (April 27-Could 24), placing up a 9.7 share to T&R’s 22.0

The third month of spring rankings is the place it actually will get fascinating. Within the interval of Could 25 to June 25, “Toucher & Wealthy” dipped to a 14.7 share, which was nonetheless good for first place in that stretch. (Toucher returned to the air on June 2.) However Hill’s present was lower than a 5 share behind, ending with a ten.2 for the month.

Mike Thomas, senior vp and market supervisor for WEEI’s mum or dad firm, Audacy Boston, attributed among the progress to the Hill present’s in-person engagement with its listeners.

Throughout the spring, Hill and the present’s co-hosts — which embrace Jermaine Wiggins, Courtney Cox, and Chris Curtis — broadcast from seven totally different places on that it referred to as its “New England Street Present.’’

Hill is an knowledgeable schmoozer, and Thomas mentioned in an e-mail that he thought the street present was “a degree of differentiation for us … Greg is nice at it.

“Generally, if you exit and do occasions and attempt to develop your viewers one handshake at a time, you don’t see the ends in Nielsen. This time we did and the station benefitted.”

It’s going to be fascinating to see whether or not that is sustainable; not a lot in the summertime guide (the least related interval), however within the fall, when the Patriots are in season and sports activities radio tends to thrive.

The entire Sports activities Hub’s daytime packages noticed their share dip within the third week of the guide, however Hill’s present was the one WEEI program to make notable beneficial properties in the identical stretch. The Sports activities Hub is the house for Celtics and Bruins broadcasts, so their departures from the postseason might need been an element within the slip from large rankings to merely glorious ones.

The second-most profitable daypart for WEEI in the course of the interval was evenings (7 p.m.-midnight), which completed second to the Sports activities Hub with a 7.2 share. A few of that’s in all probability on account of carrying Crimson Sox broadcasts in that window, nevertheless it’s satisfying to see nighttime host Wealthy Keefe be related to some robust rankings. He’s WEEI’s most entertaining host and hasn’t had the fairest shake.

Reynolds was one of many greats

One of many perks of being an editor and producing the sports activities part day by day in my first newspaper cease in Harmony, N.H., years in the past was accessing the work of excellent columnists from everywhere in the nation on the Related Press wire service. That’s how I acquired launched to the great Joe Posnanski, then in Cincinnati, and Michael Wilbon on the Washington Submit, and it was additionally how I grew to become a fan of Invoice Reynolds on the Windfall Journal. Reynolds, who handed away Thursday at 78, was an achieved author in a number of kinds (his “Fall River Desires,’’ is a top-10 favourite sports activities guide, and “Large Hoops,’’ on the 1988-89 Large East season, isn’t far exterior of that prime 10). However what I actually regarded ahead to studying was his whimsical Saturday column of one-liners and observations, titled “For What It’s Price.” When you weren’t acquainted with that column, Boston Sports activities Journal’s John Karalis captured the spirit of the factor with an exquisite homage to Reynolds this week.