First ratings month a good one for WFAN's new afternoon pairing of Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber

Craig Carton’s departure from WFAN so far has not significantly altered the station’s afternoon drive time battle with ESPN New York.

Over the first full, non-summer ratings month since Tiki Barber replaced Carton alongside Evan Roberts, WFAN maintained most of its ratings edge.

For the “October” period, which covers Sept. 14 to Oct. 11, Roberts and Barber averaged 6.7% of men ages 25-54 from 3 to 6:30 p.m., when they are head-to-head against ESPN’s “The Michael Kay Show,” which averaged 3.3%.

WFAN’s show ranked second overall in the New York market in the men 25-54 demographic, and Kay 15th.

The data was compiled by Nielsen Audio and released on Monday. Newsday obtained it from a radio industry source.

In Carton’s last full ratings book this past spring, he and Roberts ranked second in the market with 7.0% of the listening audience and Kay 14th at 3.1%.

Carton left WFAN on June 30 to focus on his morning television show on FS1. Barber replaced him on July 24.

Stations traditionally judge themselves on full quarterly books, so the October data is akin to the first intermission of a hockey game.

But it appears the new WFAN lineup will not produce a dramatic change in the ratings dynamic between the stations.

WFAN’s morning show featuring Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti maintained its huge ratings advantage in October and the new midday show with Sal Licata and Brandon Tierney got off to a start strong start compared with ESPN.

All data includes both over-the-air and streaming numbers, but not the shows’ TV simulcasts.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.