Sports Radio News
WFAN Staff Celebrates Return Of Craig Carton
“Carton’s homecoming might be met with more controversy from the outside, but it seems to be more unanimously accepted with people inside the station.”

Published
3 years agoon

Like the Knicks welcoming back Phil Jackson or Chris Mullin’s comeback with St. John’s, WFAN and its staff rolled out the red carpet for an icon of their own with Craig Carton’s return Thursday. Hopefully, Carton’s return is deemed a better success by New York sports fans.
It’s the second time in recent years WFAN brought back an iconic radio host from hiatus. Carton’s homecoming might be met with more controversy from the outside, but it seems to be more unanimously accepted with people inside the station.
Paired with Joe Beningo’s decision to retire from doing full-time shows at 67-years old, Carton’s return to WFAN comes without disrupting the rest of the weekday lineup. Evan Roberts stays in afternoon drive, while the morning and midday shows remain unchanged, allowing for everyone to enjoy Carton’s arrival. And on Thursday, the station was openly celebrating the fanfare and buzz as Carton got back behind the mic.
Yooo @craigcartonlive
— Evan Roberts (@EvanRobertsWFAN) October 29, 2020
Congratulations to @EvanRobertsWFAN and @craigcartonlive on the new afternoon drive show. Welcome back Craig! Like old times hearing you on the radio today.
— Moose™ (@MarcMalusis) October 30, 2020
Two super talented radio hosts, and they already sound great. Congrats @craigcartonlive and @EvanRobertsWFAN
— Maggie Gray (@MaggieGray) October 29, 2020
Craig Carton will be the new afternoon host with Evan Roberts. Carton & Roberts debuts on Monday, November 9th. Show will be on from 2-7pm, Monday-Friday. Craig will be on by himself, later today from 5-6pm. Tell ya friends…and giddy up
— Al Hughes Dukes (@Alsboringtweets) October 29, 2020
Heeeeeeeeeeee is back. Should be a fun day today at our NYC studios. https://t.co/RmeLVkpoaR
— Zach Gelb (@ZachGelb) October 29, 2020
Ok I’m listening to my former partner @craigcartonlive. That’s the guy I know. He and @EvanRobertsWFAN will be great. I think I’ll buy Craig a pony so he can have something to talk too. After all these years he’s the one who needs the pony! @WFAN660
— Boomer Esiason (@7BOOMERESIASON) October 29, 2020
Esiason offered to “buy Craig a pony” because during his hour show on Thursday, Carton explained having a breakthrough during equine therapy, where he was sent to a farm and talked to horses. It helped him realize his gambling addiction was a way of coping with the sexual abuse he suffered at summer camp as a child.
“They have these horses, and horses are apparently very smart,” Carton said. “I’m trying to come to terms with why I’m using gambling as a crutch, and I’m going to tell that to a horse? But I bleep you not, I’m having a one-on-one with this horse, and they wanted me to talk to the horse like he’s the person who did this to me; I had this crazy breakthrough, tears streaming down my face as I’m yelling at this horse. It was an amazing moment in my life where I realized I needed help.”
Thank you for all of the amazing feedback It felt great to be back in the building. Today was monumental for me and I can’t wait till November 9 to start with @EvanRobertsWFAN Plus @7BOOMERESIASON is now buying me a pony and I’m getting my shortstop spot back. What a perfect day
— Craig Carton (@craigcartonlive) October 30, 2020
Using horses for therapeutic purposes came full circle for Boomer and Carton. Carton used to tease Boomer for having a pony as a child, which Esiason’s father bought for him shortly after his mother passed away.

Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
Sports Radio News
Chase McCabe Named Director of Operations & Sports Programming at Cromwell
“Our owner, Bud Walters, opened the door for me almost 12 years ago as an intern and I’m honored to continue to be a key member of the Nashville leadership team.”

Published
2 days agoon
June 2, 2023By
BSM Staff
Congratulations are in order for Chase McCabe. He is adding a new title to his already full plate at Cromwell Media in Nashville. He has been promoted to Director of Operations & Sports Programming at the company.
“I’m very fortunate to have been to be able to grow into this opportunity under one roof,” McCabe said in a press release. “Our owner, Bud Walters, opened the door for me almost 12 years ago as an intern and I’m honored to continue to be a key member of the Nashville leadership team. I am forever grateful, but none of this could have happened without the great group of people we have here at Cromwell Media.”
McCabe has spent his whole career with 102.5 The Game and its sister station, now called 94.9 The Fan. He was named Program Director and Brand Manager of the stations in January of last year. He has maintained an on-air presence as well. He hosts Chase & Michelle weekdays at 9 AM on The Game.
In his new role, Chase McCabe becomes the number two man in Cromwell’s Nashville building. Shawn Fort was recently named the cluster’s general manager.
“Chase and I have developed a great working relationship in the two and half years since I’ve joined Cromwell Media,” Fort said. “We share similar visions on how to create compelling sports programming all while driving revenue growth. I’m excited to have Chase as my right-hand man as we move forward together with this new chapter of leadership at Cromwell Media Nashville.”
Sports Radio News
Mark Schlereth: People Outside of Denver Aren’t Paying Attention to NBA Finals
“There was not one group of people – they’re all in there together – that was paying attention to the NBA Finals.”

Published
2 days agoon
June 2, 2023By
BSM Staff
The Denver Nuggets took to the National Basketball Association’s largest stage on Thursday night as they defeated the Miami Heat for the organization’s first-ever NBA Finals victory. Early reports reveal that the game had a 2.21 demographic rating between people ages 18-49, attracting a total of 7.62 million viewers on ABC. The figure is considerably lower than the audience for Game 1 between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors last year – which averaged 11.9 million figures across ABC and ESPN2. Ratings for the alternate NBA in Stephen A’s World broadcast Thursday night on ESPN2 have not yet been released by Nielsen Media Research.
Sports fans in the Denver market have felt as if the play of the Nuggets was largely being neglected by the national media throughout these playoffs. Now that the team is the last one standing in the Western Conference, there is no one else to focus on and their play is beginning to be realized by basketball fans throughout the country. It is a narrative that Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan’s Mark Schlereth and Mike Evans felt was especially obvious by watching the press conferences after the game. The duo was able to deduce as such through the questions posed to Nuggets players and head coach Michael Malone by members of the media cohort.
“The national media – it’s like, ‘Oh, wow. We’re just kind of becoming aware of how these guys play,’ and they keep asking the Nuggets about their unselfishness and how everybody is willing to share the ball,” Evans said. “Nikola Jokić [is] being asked about not taking a lot of shots, and they’re all just kind of shrugging their shoulders like, ‘Yeah, this is who we are. We’ve been doing this for a long time.’
Schlereth was curious to find out the ratings from the game last night because he watched the game from a sports bar in Chicago. He is away from Denver, Colo. to help his son’s family move there for the summer and surmises there were about 50 people in the bar with him. What he noticed was that their interest was fixated elsewhere.
“I’m the only person that was watching the Nuggets,” Schlereth said. “There was not one group of people – they’re all in there together – that was paying attention to the NBA Finals.”
“Their loss,” Evans pithily replied.
Denver ranks 19th on Nielsen Media Research’s metropolitan market size list, but the Nuggets have been a contending team for the last five seasons. Most media analysts expect diminished ratings for the NBA Finals this year because of the lack of a storied franchise, even with the Miami Heat as the team’s opponent.
Sports Radio News
Nielsen Releases List of Markets Where Most People Use AM Radio
“In a recent survey, Nielsen Media Research found that AM radio still reaches over 82.3 million Americans on a monthly basis”

Published
2 days agoon
June 2, 2023By
BSM Staff
Amid concerns regarding the future of AM radio, Nielsen Media Research has unveiled a list of 141 markets where at least 20% of consumers regularly listen to programming on the medium. The list is reflective of the percentage of monthly total radio listening being funneled to AM as opposed to total radio listening as a whole. The top three markets are all in the Great Lakes region, and Westwood One has found large proportions of these listeners are derived from the upper Midwest.
Buffalo-Niagara Falls leads the list with 56% of its audience tuning into AM radio in a month. It is a figure that makes sense based on the variety of AM stations, including leading news talk outlet WBEN and leading sports outlet WGR. The city of Chicago is ranked second, complete with 670 The Score, WGN and WLS. Nearby Milwaukee, Wis. ranks third on the list, another city with various AM stations such as WTMJ and WISN.
In a recent survey, Nielsen Media Research found that AM radio still reaches over 82.3 million Americans on a monthly basis – a measurement that equates to one-third of AM/FM radio listeners as a whole. Fifty-seven percent of the audience listens to stations in the news and/or talk format, utilizing the public service the outlets provide to learn of breaking news and other concerns.
There is a wide variety in market size represented throughout the list, but a trend of markets with undulating topographies tends to have larger shares of AM listeners because of the challenges the landscape presents to FM signals.
The full list compiled by Nielsen Media Research can be found below:
Metro market rank | Market name | Percentage of radio audience that listens to AM radio |
---|---|---|
59 | Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY | 56% |
3 | Chicago, IL [PPM] | 48% |
43 | Milwaukee-Racine, WI [PPM] | 48% |
245 | Sheboygan, WI | 45% |
253 | Grand Forks, ND-MN | 45% |
241 | Bismarck, ND | 44% |
39 | San Jose, CA [PPM] | 43% |
33 | Cincinnati, OH [PPM] | 42% |
11 | Seattle-Tacoma, WA [PPM] | 42% |
192 | Fargo-Moorhead, ND-MN | 41% |
187 | St. Cloud, MN | 41% |
160 | Lincoln, NE | 40% |
130 | Macon, GA | 40% |
196 | Danbury, CT | 39% |
75 | Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA | 39% |
4 | San Francisco, CA [PPM] | 39% |
137 | Youngstown-Warren, OH | 38% |
244 | Sioux City, IA | 38% |
83 | Boise, ID | 38% |
25 | San Antonio, TX [PPM] | 38% |
7 | Atlanta, GA [PPM] | 38% |
60 | Rochester, NY | 37% |
186 | Columbus, GA | 36% |
65 | Dayton, OH | 36% |
176 | Wausau-Stevens Pt (Centrl WI), WI | 36% |
114 | Johnson City-Kingspt-Brstl, TN-VA | 36% |
62 | Tucson, AZ | 36% |
159 | Rockford, IL | 36% |
55 | Louisville, KY | 36% |
27 | Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo [PPM] | 36% |
202 | Cedar Rapids, IA | 35% |
34 | Kansas City, KS-MO [PPM] | 35% |
70 | Albuquerque, NM | 35% |
88 | Spokane, WA | 35% |
16 | Puerto Rico | 35% |
67 | Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY | 34% |
124 | Morristown, NJ | 34% |
204 | Duluth-Superior, MN-WI | 34% |
71 | Des Moines, IA | 34% |
53 | Richmond, VA | 33% |
145 | Eugene-Springfield, OR | 33% |
252 | Jackson, TN | 33% |
149 | Shreveport, LA | 33% |
52 | Monmouth-Ocean, NJ | 33% |
73 | Metro Fairfield County, CT | 33% |
231 | Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA | 32% |
13 | Phoenix, AZ [PPM] | 32% |
12 | Miami-Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood [PPM] | 32% |
9 | Philadelphia, PA [PPM] | 32% |
96 | Reno, NV | 32% |
28 | Sacramento, CA [PPM] | 32% |
209 | Rochester, MN | 32% |
15 | Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN [PPM] | 31% |
178 | Anchorage, AK | 31% |
199 | Salina-Manhattan, KS | 31% |
2 | Los Angeles, CA [PPM] | 31% |
89 | Madison, WI | 31% |
5 | Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX [PPM] | 31% |
68 | Grand Rapids, MI | 31% |
223 | Eau Claire, WI | 30% |
74 | Allentown-Bethlehem, PA | 30% |
86 | Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, PA | 30% |
20 | Nassau-Suffolk (Long Island) [PPM] | 30% |
249 | Brunswick, GA | 30% |
139 | Appleton-Oshkosh, WI | 29% |
14 | Detroit, MI [PPM] | 29% |
239 | Harrisonburg, VA | 29% |
30 | Orlando, FL [PPM] | 29% |
10 | Boston, MA [PPM] | 29% |
189 | Bryan-College Station, TX | 29% |
106 | Lexington-Fayette, KY | 28% |
154 | Montgomery, AL | 28% |
136 | Reading, PA | 28% |
18 | Denver-Boulder, CO [PPM] | 28% |
188 | Kalamazoo, MI | 28% |
41 | Hudson Valley, NY | 28% |
17 | Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater [PPM] | 28% |
228 | Pueblo, CO | 27% |
230 | Monroe, LA | 27% |
116 | Ft. Wayne, IN | 27% |
35 | Cleveland, OH [PPM] | 27% |
22 | Portland, OR [PPM] | 27% |
183 | Green Bay, WI | 27% |
227 | Bloomington, IL | 26% |
190 | Waco, TX | 26% |
6 | Houston-Galveston, TX [PPM] | 26% |
193 | Binghamton, NY | 26% |
201 | Topeka, KS | 26% |
81 | Stockton, CA | 26% |
54 | Hartford-New Britain-Middletown [PPM] | 26% |
200 | Tuscaloosa, AL | 26% |
175 | Sioux Falls, SD | 25% |
100 | Syracuse, NY | 25% |
44 | Providence-Warwick-Pawtucket [PPM] | 25% |
195 | Manchester, NH | 25% |
180 | Lima-Van Wert, OH | 25% |
1 | New York, NY [PPM] | 25% |
119 | Corpus Christi, TX | 25% |
237 | Grand Island-Kearney-Hastngs, NE | 25% |
51 | Memphis, TN [PPM] | 25% |
142 | Canton, OH | 25% |
151 | Ann Arbor, MI | 24% |
90 | Columbia, SC | 24% |
208 | Las Cruces-Deming, NM | 24% |
178 | Traverse City-Petoskey, MI | 24% |
111 | York, PA | 24% |
87 | Colorado Springs, CO | 24% |
218 | Columbia, MO | 24% |
140 | Savannah, GA | 23% |
163 | Evansville, IN | 23% |
121 | Portsmouth-Dover-Rochester, NH | 23% |
247 | Williamsport, PA | 23% |
221 | Joplin, MO | 22% |
197 | Charleston, WV | 22% |
126 | New Haven, CT | 22% |
120 | Modesto, CA | 22% |
234 | Sussex, NJ | 22% |
69 | Sarasota-Bradenton, FL | 22% |
79 | Wilkes Barre-Scranton, PA | 22% |
29 | Austin, TX [PPM] | 22% |
24 | St. Louis, MO [PPM] | 22% |
23 | Baltimore, MD [PPM] | 22% |
127 | Jackson, MS | 22% |
77 | Baton Rouge, LA | 21% |
66 | Fresno, CA | 21% |
206 | Chico, CA | 21% |
104 | Huntsville, AL | 21% |
205 | Santa Barbara, CA | 21% |
166 | Poughkeepsie, NY | 21% |
157 | Peoria, IL | 21% |
224 | Muskegon, MI | 20% |
63 | Honolulu, HI | 20% |
50 | New Orleans, LA | 20% |
19 | San Diego, CA [PPM] | 20% |
236 | Parkersburg-Marietta, WV-OH | 20% |
32 | Las Vegas, NV [PPM] | 20% |
37 | Raleigh-Durham, NC [PPM] | 20% |
115 | Worcester, MA | 20% |
207 | Laurel-Hattiesburg, MS | 20% |
95 | Akron, OH | 20% |
117 | Lancaster, PA | 20% |