It was an interesting July and August in the local sports talk radio race.

Ratings released this week in the dream demographic -- men 25-54 -- show a close race between Sportsradio KTCK-AM (1310) and KTCK-FM (96.7) The Ticket and rival KRLD-FM (105.3) "The Fan."

If you ask the folks at The Ticket, they'll insist they won the demographic in what is known as the "August book" (July 13 to Aug. 10) by a score of 6.9 to 6.3.

If you ask the Fan folks, they'll call it a tie at 6.3.

Here's why: The Ticket includes those who listen via stream. The Fan, which doesn't have enough stream listeners to make the ratings provided by Nielsen, doesn't believe those listeners should be counted.

Both sides have experts in the field to support their cases.

Bottom line: We're not setting the cost of advertising based on ratings here. We're simply attempting to guide readers in what's happening on the local radio sports talk scene.

We'll leave it to the spin masters at the stations to sell their product. Here we are going to count all listeners.

(And if you must know, KESN-FM (103.3), also known as ESPN Radio, finished at a distant 1.9 with no discernable listeners via internet stream.)

In the end, it was a sensational month for sports talk in the market. The Ticket's 6.9 and the Fans' 6.3 ranked first and second among all stations in the dream demographic. ESPN finished No. 21.

Rounding out the top 5: KZPS-FM (92.5), which features classic rock; KLNO-FM (94.1), a Spanish language music station; and KHKS-FM (106.1), better known as KISS-FM, a top 40 station.

The Ticket's strength remains its Monday-Friday 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. lineup of homegrown, big-dollar hosts. The Fan benefited from broadcasting Rangers games. That's no slight. You think NBC doesn't ballyhoo that its NFL "Sunday Night Football" has been television's No. 1 prime time show four consecutive seasons?

Here's a breakdown:

Men 25-54, weekdays 6 a.m.-7 p.m.:

Ticket - 9.3

Fan - 5.9

ESPN - 2.1

Men 18-34 (presumably the next generation of 25-54), weekdays 6 a.m.-7 p.m.:

Fan - 7.7

Ticket - 4.8

ESPN - 1.0

Monday-Friday 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. breakdown by show for men 25-54

Hot seat

Jon Gruden looks at Dak Prescott and sees a young Donovan McNabb.

Gruden, the ESPN Monday Night Football analyst, eyeballed the Cowboys rookie quarterback in the preseason opener. Before that he hosted Prescott at his made-for-TV "Quarterback Camp."

ESPN hosted a conference call that featured Gruden this week and invited me to ask about Prescott.

Back in his coaching days, Gruden, who won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, worked with McNabb at the 1999 Senior Bowl.

McNabb played 13 NFL seasons, 11 with the Philadelphia Eagles. His best was 2004 when he led the Eagles to Super Bowl XXXIX, where they lost to the New England Patriots. That regular season, McNabb completed 300 of 469 passes (64 percent) for 3,875 yards and 31 touchdowns with only eight interceptions. He also rushed for 220 yards and three touchdowns.

It was McNabb's sixth NFL season. As a rookie, he sat out the Eagles opener behind Doug Pederson and went 2-4 in six starts.

Keep in mind, McNabb was the second player selected in the 1999 draft. Prescott, a fourth-round selection, was the No. 135 overall pick in May.

How did you rate Prescott going into the draft?

He was the one real dual-threat in this year's draft. And what I loved about Prescott is he got progressively better throughout his career at Mississippi State. He improved as a passer dramatically from Year Two to Three, Three to four. I really like the fact that he finished. He's not one of these guys that came out two years early. He finished. He won at Mississippi State, which is really unprecedented. That's a tough league (SEC) to win in, let alone at Mississippi State.

Why the comparison to McNabb?

Similar size, similar option football background. And I think you're seeing a little Donovan McNabb, dual-threat, physical stature-type traits throughout the preseason. I'm not shocked that he's played this well. I am stunned, however, that he looks like the opening day starter for the Dallas Cowboys.

Do you think he'll have problems with NFL defenses early in the regular season?

Well, the thing that he does to NFL defenses, as you know, after watching Cam Newton and some of these dual- threat quarterbacks like Tyrod Taylor is you're just not allowed to do the things you want to do against these running quarterbacks. Trust me. The playbook is going to change in Dallas. You're going to see quarterback-driven runs. You're going to see option football whether you like it or not. And that regulates what a defense can do. One thing the Cowboys are certainly going to do is they're going to run the ball right down your throat, and they're going to command an eight-man front, which is going to give Prescott some of these one-on-one isolations to guys like Dez Bryant and Jason Witten. ... Prescott can be really hard to defend because of his dual-threat abilities and what he does to defenses. He makes you play assignment football.

Talkin' Cowboys

The Cowboys wrapped up their preseason schedule scoring a 13.8 rating on KTVT (Channel 11) for their Thursday night loss to the Houston Texans. That wasn't as impressive as last week's 15.5 for the loss at Seattle, but consider this: No. 2 to the Cowboys-Texans was KDFW's (Channel 4) news at 9 p.m. at 3.1.

With the start of the regular season next week, the Cowboys return to national TV with a 3:25 p.m. Sunday kickoff on Fox against the New York Giants. If you couldn't predict that Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will be on the call, you haven't been paying attention.

Talkin' Rangers

I hate to call out someone for taking time off, but Eric Nadel's absence from Rangers radio makes a significant difference in the broadcast. After all, 22 seasons as the lead "voice of the Rangers" makes Nadel the highest authority.

Nadel reports that he has three off days remaining this season. He already has spent 11 games away. Nadel is scheduled to miss Sept. 17 and Sept. 18 home games against Oakland. He is also planning to take a game off during the final week of the season unless, of course, the Rangers haven't clinched the AL West by then.

Here's the good news for Nadel, 65, and the bad for the rest of us. He reports his contract calls for 16 games off next season, 18 in 2018 and 20 in 2019.

Around the Horn

Verne Lundquist kicks off his 17th and final season as CBS' lead SEC football announcer at 2:30 p.m. Saturday when he calls UCLA at Texas A&M. ... With all the college football games on TV Saturday, SMU-North Texas couldn't find a network or local station interested in the 6 p.m. kickoff. Wonder what the Big 12 decision-makers think about that. ... We all knew former Rangers TV voice Josh Lewin as a high-energy frenetic type. Lewis currently works radio for the New York Mets, San Diego Chargers and UCLA Bruins. Here, according to Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News, was Lewin's schedule for this weekend: Thursday -- 6 a.m. flight from New York to San Diego for Chargers 7 p.m. exhibition; Friday -- 6 a.m. flight from Los Angeles to New York for 7:10 p.m. Mets game; Saturday -- 5 a.m. flight from New York to Houston for 2:30 p.m. kickoff of UCLA-Texas A&M in College Station; Sunday -- 7 a.m. flight to New York for 8 p.m. Mets game. "I always get to airports super early and double-book myself [on the next flight] if it's a tight flight, just in case," Lewin told Hoffarth.