Mike Francesa and Michael Kay are both winning this ratings war

While WFAN and ESPN New York will continue to dispute how exactly to look at the Nielsen Audio results, the one overriding fact is that sports talk radio is thriving this spring.

For the second consecutive month, WFAN’s Mike Francesa and ESPN New York’s Michael Kay finished first and second overall in the ratings. Who finished on top for this month comes down to one of the important questions of our time: How to count Francesa’s stream?

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Using the traditional standard of what stations sell radio advertising against, Kay beat Francesa by a 6.9-6.7 share. But if you add in Francesa’s .5 stream, he then shoots ahead 7.2-6.9.

Overall, after two months — what is akin to six of nine innings of a baseball game being completed — what can’t be disputed is that Francesa is in front. Without his stream, Francesa is up, 6.8-6.5. With the stream, his lead is 7.3 to 6.5 as we go to the seventh inning.

While the focus between Francesa and Kay’s show is always the top story, there is a lot more than just Francesa at FAN. For May, all of FAN’s programs — from Boomer & Gio to Joe & Evan and Carlin, Maggie and Bart — were at the top of their time periods.

Francesa is greatly aided by CMB’s lead in. With the streaming, CMB had a 7.1 compared to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith’s 3.7. The whole station gets a lift from having the Yankees. At night, FAN had a 5.3 share compared to ESPN’s 3.5.

In the winter book, the two stations disputed the results. ESPN sent out a press release touting Kay’s victory over Francesa in the traditional 25-54 male demographic that both stations sell advertising against.

Those numbers failed to include Francesa’s streaming numbers. In its initial numbers, Nielsen does not report the stream, because FAN sells separate advertising against it. It goes to market with separate sales for its stream.

When the stream is added, Francesa pulled ahead in the winter. Francesa fought back against ESPN’s stance online and on-air. While it may seem fair to add Francesa’s stream on the surface, it opens up if other aspects, such as FAN having an AM and FM signal, Kay being on YES or Francesa’s paid app, that should possibly be weighted in if the goal is to see who is more popular. The two sides disagree on how to look at it all, which has caused the disputes and caused for one of the great debates.