Mike Missanelli tops Josh Innes as The Fanatic gains ground on WIP

The Fanatic's Mike Missanelli was just handed an early Christmas gift.

According to numbers obtained by Philly.com, Missanelli was narrowly able to reclaim his ratings lead over WIP's Josh Innes during the December period of Nov. 5 through Dec. 2 with a 8.1 share. Innes ended the month with an 8.0 share. All numbers are in the coveted men 25-54 demographic.

Not only is it Missanelli's first ratings win since Innes took over WIP's afternoon slot back in February, it came during a month where WIP received a one-day ratings boost for airing an Eagles game in the afternoon on Thanksgiving.

Despite eking out the ratings win, Innes edged Missanelli in the Fall Ratings Book, one of four quarterly measurements of a show's popularity that usually determines a host's bonus. Innes earned an 8.3 share, while Missanelli fell just behind him with an 8.1 share.

The win is bittersweet for Innes. On Friday, WIP's operations manager Andy Bloom was let go by the station, a casualty of restructuring at CBS Radio.

"Andy Bloom deserves the credit for hiring me here and putting me on in the afternoon," Innes said on Twitter. "I'm disheartened by the developments of last week."

Gargano holds strong against Cataldi

WIP morning host Angelo Cataldi saw his ratings lead drop against The Fanatic's Anthony Gargano during the December period. Cataldi earned an 8.5 share, down almost a full point from his impressive 9.2 share in November. Gargano remained steady with a 7.4 share.

Big jump for Ellis and Mayes

For the first time since taking over the midday time slot, The Fanatic's Rob Ellis and Harry Mays have closed the ratings gap between WIP's combo of Michael Barkann and Ike Reese. The WIP duo still top the Fanatic with a 6.5 share, but that's down over a point from the 7.7 share they posted last month. Ellis and Mays posted a 5.5 share, up 1.5 points from last month and their highest ratings share to date.

Digital drop-off

Digital listeners had been a strong point for The Fanatic, but ratings are slightly down across all the station's timeslots. Ellis and Mayes saw the sharpest decline, posting a 1.0 digital share in December, down from a 2.2 digital share last month. Missanelli dropped 0.6 points to a 0.8 digital share, and Gargano slid down to a 0.5 digital share.

Over at WIP, Barkann and Reese posted a 0.4 digital share, while both Innes and Cataldi earned 0.3 digital shares.

Traditionally, radio stations count only the terrestrial ratings numbers to determine things such as advertising rates and bonus offers. Unlike terrestrial listeners, radio stations have the analytics to measure the exact number of people who download and listen to streaming services, although the industry hasn't developed a way to report that data fairly, thanks to the multitude of services available to listeners.