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BOSTON —
The New England Patriots have not played a game in two months. The Boston Red Sox are locked out of spring training. The Celtics are in season, but 10 NBA teams have better records.
On the most popular show on the most popular sports radio station in America, there is plenty to talk about. It is cold and gray in Boston on this first Monday in March, but there is fire and fury on the air.
It is the day after Kyrie Irving, who defected from the Celtics in free agency three years ago after suggesting he wanted to stay, compared the relentlessly jeering Boston fans to a “scorned girlfriend.” The booing had been so harsh that Celtics star Jayson Tatum tried to hush the fans.
The Celtics won the game, mind you, but the afternoon hosts on WBZ-FM had Irving on their minds.
“How badly do you hate him out there — you, listening to me?” co-host Mike Felger asked. “And your best player loves him, defends him, likes him better than you.”
No city loves its sports talk like Boston, and no city tunes it out like Los Angeles, at least according to Nielsen ratings.
In May, for instance, WBZ was the top-ranked radio station in Boston, with sports-talk rival WEEI ranking 11th.
“When it comes to their teams, people here are insatiable,” said Felger’s co-host, Tony Massarotti.
In Los Angeles, KLAC ranked 23rd, tied with the classical music on KUSC. KSPN ranked 37th, just behind the Christian music on KFSH.
In each of the four quarters of 2021, the sports talk ratings were lower in Los Angeles than in any other top 10 market in the United States, according to research Nielsen compiled for The Times.
In the fall quarter of 2021, with the Dodgers in the playoffs and the Rams and Chargers heading there, L.A. sports talk stations combined to attract 3% of the total radio audience in the demographic most coveted by their potential advertisers: men aged 25-54.
In San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington, that figure was at least 7%. In Atlanta, Dallas and Philadelphia, at least 10%. In Boston, 28%.
“How passionate are you?” asked WBZ program director Rick Radzik. “I think it’s the approach...