Courtesy Media Week

(March 10, 2010) Chicago Bears football games on CBS Radio's WBBM-AM in Chicago, had the highest in-average game audience during the football season with 626,000 listeners, according to a new Pro Football report from Arbitron.

The new report details play-by-play estimates for 25 teams in 23 portable people meter markets during the 2009-10 professional football season.

Each of the 25 teams included in the report, drew more than 100,000 listeners for radio broadcasts.

Following Chicago Bears games, the New York Giants games on CBS Radio's WFAN-AM had the second largest average audience with 457,000. Philadelphia Eagles games on CBS Radio's WIP-AM and WYSP-FM had the third largest average audience with 422,400 listeners. New York Jets Games on ABC Disney's owned-and-operated ESPN station, WEPN-AM was No. 4 with 350,000 listeners. The Detroit Lions on CBS Radio's WXYT-AM was fifth with 331,900 listeners.

"What you see is ratings that closely resemble those in broadcast television for sporting events," said Chris Meinhardt, sports manager for Arbitron. "Often regardless of a seasonal record, fans follow their team and radio provides opportunities for fans on the go."

The radio broadcasts of games often pulls large shares of Men 25-54 in the market. The Pittsburgh Steelers games on Clear Channel's WBGG-AM and WDVE-FM pull a 68.4 average game share in the target demo. Other game broadcasts pulling more than half of the Men 25-54 demo include the Cincinnati Bengals on Clear Channel's WCKY-AM, WLW-AM and WEBN-FM (55.6 share); and the Kansas City Chiefs games on Cumulus Media's KCFX-FM (50.9 share).

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