The Fanatic's Mike Missanelli tops WIP's Josh Innes for third straight month

Philadelphia sports talk radio might have hated Chip Kelly, but his firing turned out to be the best gift both stations could have hoped for.

Both 94.1 WIP and 97.5 The Fanatic benefited greatly from the uptick in interest after Kelly was booted out of town. WIP ended the January ratings period (Dec. 31 - Jan. 27) with a 7.9 share and second place in the key men's 25-54 demographic from 6 a.m - 6 p.m., while The Fanatic finished just behind in third place with a 7.8 share. Both trailed first-place WMMR's 10.2 share.

It's Mike Missanelli who has the best reason to be happy. The Fanatic's afternoon host saw his ratings climb to an 8.9 share, enough to top both WIP's Innes and WMMR for first in his time slot. It's the third straight month (including the unimportant holiday period) Missanelli has bested Innes, who ended the period in third place with a 7.6 share.

"The numbers indicate that Philly fans know what they want: good sports talk radio," Missanelli said about the ratings win.

During his first year as WIP's afternoon host, Innes has been forced to deal with a constantly rotating cast of co-hosts. The latest shift had Marc Farzetta moving to the afternoon as former co-host Spike Eskin gave up his on-air role to take over the duties of former operations manager Andy Bloom.

Gargano keeps it close with Cataldi

WIP's Angelo Cataldi remained in the lead in the morning with an impressive 9.6 share, but The Fanatic's Anthony Gargano posted an equally impressive 8.7 share, keeping things close with the reigning ratings champ. Gargano's ratings are impressive, considering his show has been on air less than a year. Interestingly, his ratings gains aren't coming at Cataldi's expense - both seem to be benefiting from the increased morning competition.

Mike & Ike top Ellis and Mayes

Things stayed steady ratings-wise in the mid-day. WIP's duo of Michael Barkann and Ike Reese remained in the lead with a 6.6 share, but The Fanatic's Rob Ellis and Harry Mayes kept it relatively close with a 5.6 share.

The Fanatic loses edge on digital

For months, The Fanatic has been posting impressive ratings among digital listeners, but those numbers came back to earth a bit in the January ratings period.

Ellis and Mayes continue to benefit the most from digital listeners, posting a 0.7 share, but that's down more than a full point from last month's impressive 2.0 share. Missanelli and Gargano also dropped among digital listeners, each posting a 0.3 share.

Over at WIP, Barkann and Reese gained slightly on last month's digital numbers with a 0.6 share, while Cataldi stayed fairly even with a 0.3 share. Innes posted a 0.5 share, and while not impressive on its own, it's notably the first month he's managed to top Missanelli among digital listeners.