St L Cardinals and KTRS v KMOX
Mike Anderson’s St. Louis Media Info & News
05-12-06 John Molina sends along … the results of an STLToday poll:
A month into the season, what’s your opinion of the Cards on KTRS?
19% I’m satisfied with the broadcasts.
70% They never should have left KMOX.
11% It’s too early to tell.
Votes: 2,408; Polls are unscientific, reflecting only the views of those who choose to participate.
Well, ya know, the Phillies did move back to WPHT after a year or two on WPEN..
Hmmm Interesting survey. I’m with the 70%
And from the St. Louis Post Dispatch
MEDIA VIEWS: Even though it holds Cards, KTRS falls in ratingsBy Dan CaesarST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH05/15/2006The Cardinals are at the top of the NL Central standings, but they are way back in the rankings in their controversial venture into the radio business.
The team bought controlling interest in KTRS and sent its play-by-play coverage there this season. That move has angered thousands of fans who have been shut out from free access to coverage they had become accustomed to over the 51 seasons the games aired on KMOX. Continuing the turmoil, the station fired most of its on-air personnel shortly before Christmas as it went to a format that a station executive called "lively, a lot faster-paced radio, energetic."
But KTRS (550 AM) is wallowing in 18th place in the rankings of stations in the St. Louis market in the recently completed winter ratings period. It is down from the No. 12 ranking it had last year in the winter book – which covers January-March. . . KTRS has just 2.5 percent of the St. Louis audience – down 22 percent from the 3.2 figure last winter. Meanwhile, KMOX (1120 AM) remains No. 1 with nearly the same market share it had last winter – 8.4 compared to 8.5 in 2005. . . . .
Cards officials obviously misread the market, as all but two of the on-air newcomers already have been fired, left or have been reassigned – less than four months after the massive makeover. Even a replacement for one of the new crew has been booted, and one of the people dumped in December, McGraw Milhaven, was rehired. . . .The Cardinals turned KTRS’ management over to Bobby Lawrence and Al Brady Law, two highly experienced radio executives. However, both are from out of town and seem to fail to take into account the quirky nature of St. Louis. The station now is in a more conservative mode, at least part of the time – exactly what it moved away from in January. Station manager Craig Unger said KTRS is a work in progress. . . .KTRS’ ranking figures to rise when the spring book comes out in July, because by then it will have had three months of regular-season baseball on the air. And Absher [Frank Absher, a St. Louis radio historian and journalism instructor at St. Louis University] says that will be a major barometer of where the power lies in St. Louis radio."It will be interesting to see if KMOX is still No. 1, and (if it is) you’d have to conclude essentially that the Cardinals aren’t what made KMOX No. 1, and they aren’t enough to make KTRS No. 1. In other words, they’re not the catalyst everybody thinks, that it takes much more to make a station the top one." . .
The Cardinals thought they could make more money by jilting KMOX and buying into KTRS at a bargain-basement price. And maybe they will. However, in turn, a lot of observers consider them a laughingstock with all the KTRS chaos. But, unfortunately, the biggest joke is on the Cards’ many loyal fans who live outside the reach of the radio network or the signal of KTRS at night, when most of the games are played. And they aren’t laughing.
Julia
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