Sports on the Air: Yanks give boost to local TV ratings
Published: October 23, 2009, 11:07 pm
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• Not surprisingly, Buffalo is reaffirming its reputation as New York Yankees territory during the American League Championship Series with the Los Angeles Angels.
The 9.4 rating on WUTV for the Yankees' 10-1 win over the Angels Tuesday night in Game Four made the Western New York market No. 5 in the country.
The five games in the Yanks-Angels series have averaged an 8.3 rating on WUTV, with a high of 10.4 for Thursday's 7-6 Yankee loss in Game Five. The five-game average is about 40 percent higher than the national average of 6.0.
Channel 29 stands to benefit greatly if the Yankees pull off the expected tonight or Sunday and win the AL to qualify for a World Series match-up with Philadelphia.
"They are like the Buffalo Bills of baseball for us," said Channel 29 General Manager Nick Magnini.
He said the station benefits more when Fox carries the ALCS instead of the NL Championship Series. When the Yankees qualify, Magnini said WUTV doubles its per-game revenue and the figure can be higher if the World Series goes past five games.
The Yankees' popularity is evident by all the regular-season games carried here on their own YES Network, Time Warner 13, ESPN and on WUTV any time Fox has an available Yankees game.
Of course, the Yankees aren't in the World Series yet and crazy things have happened this postseason. Incredibly, the umpires actually proved two wrongs make a right in Game Four when they blew three calls.
That included back-to-back calls involving Yankee base runner Nick Swisher. First, he was picked off second and called safe, then he was called out at third for leaving the base too early on a sacrifice fly when replays showed he left on time.
While Fox play-by-play man Joe Buck and analyst Tim McCarver noted that the umps had erred, neither immediately explained that justice actually prevailed. McCarver did bring it up in Thursday's game and he and Buck had a lengthy conversation on whether all the blown calls will cause baseball to reevaluate the need to expand instant replay.
Blown calls have become so common that after the Yanks' Johnny Damon was called out at first when replays showed that he beat the throw that Buck ended the inning by just saying "chalk up another one."
This year's World Series — which starts Wednesday — will feature earlier start times. The first pitch Wednesday will be at 7:57 p.m., the first time a weekday Series game has started that early in 38 years.
Of course, early starts don't guarantee games will end before 11:30 p.m. or midnight. The Yankee-Angels series proved that. While East Coast fans constantly complain about all the game delays that extend the games to four hours and more, ratings near the end of the game are often as high as any time in the game. On Thursday night, the game hit a high rating of 12.9 here from 11:15 through 11:30 p.m.
Fox has added Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen as a postgame and pregame analyst. McCarver will be working his 20th World Series. Buck will be working his 12th, tying him with Vin Scully and Curt Gowdy for the most in history.
• Buffalo Bills radio play-by-play man John Murphy had a pretty good line at the expense of the team's offense before last Sunday's upset win over the New York Jets. "Someone told me the Bills couldn't score at the Grand Island Holiday Inn this weekend," said Murphy. He was referring to the controversy surrounding the swingers group that booked the hotel.
• Steve Tasker is the analyst alongside Gus Johnson for CBS' coverage of the Bills-Carolina game Sunday. As part of its celebration of its 50th year broadcasting the NFL, CBS is airing footage from historical highlights in each game. During the Bills game, it will highlight Tasker's first touchdown reception as a wide receiver — a 24-yard pass from Jim Kelly in a 45-14 victory over the Cardinals in 1990.
The Bills' win over the Jets had a 34.4 rating on Channel 4. It averaged more than a 40 rating in the final hour. The game hit a 46.6 rating at the end of overtime, which is in Super Bowl territory.
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