1000 > 670

Ted Cox does a superb job of culling all the Arbitron radio data out there on the ESPN vs. WSCR war. Like dissecting a presidential poll, the only way to truly understand the numberes is to look at the internals.

And looking at those, WSCR is getting roasted alive by ESPN. For the first time, Murph and Fred were beaten by Mike & Mike / Jay Mariotti, both over all and by demographic breakdown. Hot Dog Boy got pummeled by McNeil/Jurko/Harry, losing 3.2 to 2.2 in the "all male 12 and over" demo.

Cox suggests that Hot Dog Boy was moved to the AM to kill off any possible audience build for Mariotti. Pardon me, but isn’t that just putting rats in your kitchen to keep away cockroaches? The way to kill off Mariotti is not to drag a tired old act into a new slot and give him new material. The way to kill off competition is to reinvent your self. Go a new way. Hot Dog Boy is old and tired. What was needed was Roe Conn & Garry Meier. Or, say, Garry & Bruce Wolf.

At least Boers and Burnsy are still kicking ass. While they get overly condescending at times, they are still the best sports show on the air. If these guys would take a few extra seconds and assume that their callers have a point when the call starts (too often they assume “dumbass” from the second they click on the phone), the show would be much less haughty than it comes off now.