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Friday, September 20, 2013

Will Shank Be His First Guest?

Look who might be getting a slot on afternoon radio in Boston:
WEEI’s interest in making Curt Schilling a more prominent part of its programming is at least as real as one of his legendary bloody socks from the 2004 postseason.

The station’s management has spoken to the former Red Sox pitcher about taking on a significant role at the station, possibly as a drive-time co-host. The strong belief here after talking to a number of industry sources is that Schilling can have the job if he wants it.

The 2-6 p.m. program is currently hosted by Mike Salk and Michael Holley, with the former having taken over for Glenn Ordway in March.
I don't listen to sports talk radio all that much aside from the occasional Felger & Mazz blast, but a review of the comments on the Schilling article reminded me of something - WEEI's been changing their lineups with great enough frequency, it's like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. As a result, listeners are continuing to bail on WEEI for 98.5 The Sports Hub. I guess the next (obvious) question is - when does WEEI go the way of WBCN, WODS & WFNX?

2 comments:

Monkeesfan said...

WEEI's problem has been management ineptitude at Entercom. I listen to both stations and by far the strongest WBZ-FM show is Gresh and Zolak; the rest of the station's lineup is radically mixed - Toucher & Rich know little of substance about sports outside of Jon Wallach; Felger and Mazz are unlistenable because they insist on being wrong (Gresh for one is constantly correcting dishonesty by Felger on football issues); it is revealing that Damon Amendolara was banished to night-owl timeslots given his complete and absolute inability to provide anything of substance. Ryan Johnston and Mike Flynn are good, and Jerry Trupiano is good; Sean McAdam also adds greatly to the station.

WEEI's lineup, though, is generally better even with Entercom foolishness. Toucher & Rich like mocking Dennis & Callahan because they can't argue credibily against Dennis & Callahan; Mike Adams remains a hoot; increasing Butch Stearns' weekend role has been a good idea; Tom E. Curran remains engaging; the revelation on WEEI lately has been John Saucier, who is funny as heck.

The biggest weaknesses on 'EEI are Muttnansky and Merloni, neither of whom offer much that's worth taking seriously, and the insufferable Michael Holley, the biggest egotist on the station; he has never been a worthwhile analyst in any media form yet when he should have been eased off the air long ago he's still there. Firing Glenn Ordway instead of Holley made no sense then and they can't justify it now.

Roger Bournival said...

MF - I don't know all the players, but I do know these things: John Dennis is the smartest guy in the room, just ask him! I've always hated Mike Adams (just rubs me the wrong way) and I shed no tears for Glen Ordway getting canned - I loved him when he was doing Celtics games but I simply could not listen to him on the Big Show. I tuned in about 5 times; every single time he'd be yelling over the other person, usually a caller, within two minutes.

I do like Felger & Mazz - Felger's a different kind of asshole then Shank, but he's my kind of asshole.