Mike Francesa, Michael Kay destined for a messy ratings controversy

And down the stretch they come — and they are running for different finish lines.

In the way sports radio has traditionally graded itself, the men 25-54 demographic that it sells advertising against, ESPN’s “Michael Kay Show” beat WFAN’s Mike Francesa, 5.8 to 5.6 for the month of February.

Kay’s initial Nielsen audio ratings includes its streaming number, while WFAN’s does not because it sells different advertising against it.

If you include the FAN stream, then Francesa would have a 6.4-5.8 advantage in the month.

What is certain, after six innings of a nine-inning game for the winter book, the final month will determine if Kay and company can finally dethrone Francesa atop of afternoon sports radio ratings.

ESPN looks at the first two months as if Kay won January, 5.8 to 5.0, while his program took February, 5.8 to 5.6. On the other hand, when including Francesa’s stream FAN admits Kay won January, 5.8-5.7, while Francesa took February, 6.4-5.8, in its eyes.

Bottom line: Kay and Francesa are neck-and-neck. Whatever happens, it will likely be disputed by the losing side because FAN and ESPN think the final score should be calculated differently.

The reason Nielsen does not include Francesa’s number in its ratings is because FAN chooses to sell different advertising online than on radio.

If you have ever listened to the FAN stream — somewhat ironically — there are incessant commercials about the summer camp ESPN’s Karl Ravech attended as a kid and how Ravech hopes you will go there, too. ESPN uses the same advertising for both radio and digital. Thus, Nielsen just includes it in their numbers.

Since the idea of these articles is to determine, which show is more listened to, it may be more fair to use all the measuring devices available. The Kay show can be seen on YES and heard on SiriusXM. Francesa has boasted in the past he may have a thousand subscribers to his $8.99 per month app that offers daily video program. Should these numbers be part of the evaluation?

FAN also has the advantage of two radio signals (660 AM and 101.9 FM) compared to ESPN’s 98.7 FM, which further tilts the scorecard.

In the end, whichever way you look at it, Kay is closing in on Francesa, but Francesa can still hold onto his crown with strong final month. And the Supreme Court may have to determine the winner.

March Madness Matchup: On Sunday night, ESPN’s Selection Show felt like its group of Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Jay Williams and Seth Greenberg lived college hoops, while CBS’ Greg Gumbel, Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis were renting it for the hour.

There was just more energy and genuine conversation on ESPN, which did have the advantage of an extra hour.

On CBS, it felt like Davis was picking upset after upset to draw attention to himself rather than really giving insight. Kellogg seemed slightly bemused.

CBS did do a good job of releasing the matchups quickly, which was a Business 101 decision of giving the customer what he or she wants after TBS’ debacle last March.

In the end, with the Big 10 championship lead in, CBS had its best ratings in five years, while ESPN had the superior show.

On the way up: What sells now more than ever is passion and authenticity. That is why CBS/SI’s/WFAN’s/Compass Media’s Jon Rothstein is on the way up. Rothstein, 35, is becoming a huge part of March Madness. Though he only played through high school, Rothstein is like a college basketball savant.

His somewhat corny college hoop sayings that he tweets out like, “This is March” are oddly endearing. He is becoming a bigger player every year. He even received the seal of approval from the most popular sports podcast, Barstool’s Pardon My Take, as he was a guest on the program this week.

In adding Robin Roberts to ABC’s coverage of the first round of the NFL Draft, ESPN/ABC is bringing in some star power. The ABC coverage, which will also feature the GameDay crew and will have live music, is designed to bring in more of a broader audience than ESPN’s more meat-and-potatoes production.

As ideas go, Roberts is a pretty good one, because she is a sports person, having played college hoops and her stardom was founded in Bristol.

This is part of ESPN’s ever strengthening relationship with the NFL under its president, Jimmy Pitaro. ABC/ESPN has plans on potentially adding more football when the TV contracts are up next decade, as we have reported that ABC could be players for one of the network conference packages and Super Bowls.

Pitaro was able to first re-claim ESPN’s wild-card playoff matchup that Fox had designs on and now has boxed Fox out of the draft. The NFL Network will still have competing coverage.

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