{"id":7651,"date":"2015-05-12T13:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T18:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=7651"},"modified":"2015-05-12T15:23:43","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T20:23:43","slug":"the-drive-gets-up-to-speed-in-mornings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2015\/05\/12\/the-drive-gets-up-to-speed-in-mornings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Drive gets up to speed in mornings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pete<\/a>

<\/a> Pete McMurray and Dan McNeil<\/p><\/div>\n

No one was sure what would happen when Hubbard Radio teamed up<\/a> Pete McMurray and Dan McNeil to host mornings on classic hits\u00a0WDRV FM 97.1.<\/a><\/p>\n

After all, the two Chicago radio veterans had never worked together before, and one of them \u2014 McNeil \u2014 had earned a reputation over the years as rather mercurial,<\/a> <\/em>to put it mildly. In addition, the two professional talkers were replacing Steve Downes, a popular but low-key personality who\u2019d hosted the music-intensive morning show for 14 years.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s too early to render a final verdict, all signs look promising: Nielsen Audio ratings released Monday showed The Drive in sixth place in mornings with a 3.9 percent share and cumulative weekly audience of 390,000. The duo debuted March 30; the survey period ran from March 26 to April 22.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what really counts: Among men between 25 and 54 \u2014 the station\u2019s target audience \u2014 McMurray & McNeil tied for third with a 5.5 share and 150,800 cume. That\u2019s up fractionally from Downes\u2019 final month in time period. (Also third in the demo was McNeil\u2019s former station, CBS Radio sports\/talk WSCR AM 670, <\/a>hosted by Mike Mulligan and Brian Hanley.)<\/p>\n

Insiders at The Drive say they\u2019re pleased so far with the chemistry that\u2019s developed among McMurray, McNeil, news anchor Kathy Voltmer and producer Scott Miller. But no one\u2019s ready to comment on the ratings yet \u2014 perhaps because those are known to be pretty mercurial, too.<\/p>\n

\"Erich<\/a>

Erich Mancow Muller<\/p><\/div>\n

Among Chicago radio\u2019s other morning drive newcomers, <\/a>The Drive\u2019s main competitor at this point is Erich Mancow Muller, who returned to the air March 30 at Cumulus Media classic rock WLUP FM 97.9.<\/a> Ratings are looking a bit better there, too.<\/p>\n

In the figures released Monday, The Loop tied for 20th in mornings overall with a 1.7 share and 278,000 cume. Among men between 25 and 54, it ranked eighth with a 4.1 share and 143,900 cume.<\/p>\n

Bosses at The Loop say they haven't begun promoting the morning show yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No one was sure what would happen when Hubbard Radio teamed up Pete McMurray and Dan McNeil to host mornings on classic hits\u00a0WDRV FM 97.1. After all, the two Chicago radio veterans had never worked together before, and one of them \u2014 McNeil \u2014 had earned a reputation over the years as rather mercurial, to... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7651"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7656,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7651\/revisions\/7656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}