Bottom Line: On the one hand, you have to admire WHB's Chad Boeger for his blind confidence in his sports talk station. On the other hand, you also have to wonder what he is smoking these days when he announces that his station is focusing on knocking off "The Rock" in the ratings. In the latest Winter ratings KQRC was second in Kansas City (the ratings for Urban stations are computed differently and their validity is questionable) and might even be the top-rated station in the market. On the other hand, WHB is mired in 14th place. In fact, KQRC is trending higher over several ratings books while WHB is slumping. Overall, the tone of Christopher's column seems to be taking a direct pot shot at fellow columnist Jeffrey Flanagan, who does a comparison of sports talk stations during every ratings period. 03-16-2008
New worlds to conquer alert Hearne Christopher Jr., Kansas City Star Question: Which sports stories are more boring: WHB 810 AM continuously slaughtering 610 Sports or the Harlem Globetrotters again beating up on the Washington Generals? You make the call… Meanwhile, WHB point man Chad Boeger is setting his sights higher. “Our biggest competition is the Rock,” Boeger says of rock station 98.9 FM. “That’s who we’re up against. I look at it as we’re competing against every station, but over the last couple years our biggest competition has been the Rock.” And how’s that fight going? “We’re very competitive with them in all day parts in men 25 to 54,” Boeger says. “We beat them in some day parts, and they beat us in some day parts.” But can WHB knock off legendary Rock kingpin Johnny Dare? “You know, Johnny’s (doing) a great job,” Boeger says. “He’s extremely popular. On the other hand Steven St. John and Nate Bukaty have done a tremendous job, and they are competing against Johnny for the top spot.” But again, can they beat him? “Yeah, I think they can beat him,” Boeger says. “And if you look at total listenership they are beating him.”
