98.5 The Sports Hub Beat WEEI This Summer, and It Wasn’t Close

Photo by Jesse Burke for “Revolution Radio“

Once again, CBS Radio’s 98.5 The Sports Hub is the reigning champion of the Nielsen Audio Ratings in the Boston market, reports Chad Finn of Boston.com, notching an 11.3 share in the sought-after men 25-54 demographic over the summer.

The Sports Hub’s competitor WEEI, which owns the Red Sox radio broadcast rights, tied for a distance fourth with WAAF, another Entercom station, capturing a 6.2 share. Classic hits station WROR came in second with a 6.9 shares. WZLX, also owned by CBS, ranked third with a 6.3 share.

The Sports Hub has dominated the ratings for all but one of the last 12 three-month ratings periods—last summer, 98.5 placed third, while WEEI placed fifth. Between June 18 and September 9, the Sports Hub steamrolled WEEI head-to-head in all but one time slot:

Morning Drive (6-10 a.m.)

1. “Toucher & Rich,” The Sports Hub, 14.7 share

3. “Dennis & Callahan,” WEEI, 8.1 share

Midday (10 a.m. – 2 p.m.)

1. “Zolak & Bertrand,” The Sports Hub, 11.2 share

T-7. “Middays with MFB,” WEEI, 4.2 share

Afternoon Drive (2-6 p.m.)

1. “Felger & Massarotti,” The Sports Hub, 14.4 share

4. “Dale & Holley,” WEEI, 6.0 share

Red Sox Pregame (6-7 p.m.)

1. “The Baseball Reporters,” The Sports Hub, 13.4 share

T-6. Red Sox pregame show, WEEI, 4.9 share

Nights (7 p.m. – Midnight)

1. Red Sox broadcasts/”Planet Mikey,” WEEI, 8.7 share

2. “The Adam Jones Show,” The Sports Hub, 8.0 share

“Once again, thanks for making Toucher & Rich #1 & giving us the biggest distance ever between us & our competition!” Rich Shertenlieb tweeted Thursday morning.

This ratings period includes the climax of the Deflategate saga (Judge Berman handed down his verdict on September 3), a boon for sports talk radio: hometown heroes, omnimalevolent villains, countless twists and turns, an easily and endlessly exploitable “us versus them” dynamic, and at the heart of it all, something as ridiculous as negligibly under-inflated footballs. Deflategate had it all, and The Sports Hub had nearly all the listeners.