For years around these parts WEEI was king of the radio dial. At one point, Glen Ordway’s big show was recognized by ESPN Magazine as the top rated sports show in the nation. ‘EEI’s handout flyers can be seen being displayed in retrospectives of the 2004 Red Sox championship and are immortalized in the NFL Films dealing with the three Patriot Superbowl runs. ‘EEI was invincible, even knocking off an ESPN insurgency in the middle of the last decade.
‘EEI has been beaten like a rented mule for the last two years by the newcomer to Boston’s radio marketplace, the CBS owned 98.5 the Sports Hub, and the results have thus far not been pretty.
I can remember when I first heard of the Sports Hub, and I can remember predicting that it would be off the air within six months. I was a dedicated ‘EEI listener at the time, and it just seemed as if the station’s dominance would continue in perpetuity and it certainly couldn’t be toppled by a lineup like the one the Sports Hub was promising.
Toucher and Rich, the Sports Hub’s promised morning duo, were to me at least, an unfunny duo from the failed rock station WBCN. A few friends had recommended I check them out when they were on ‘BCN and I remembered switching the dial after two minutes. Surely, these two had no future as the face of Boston’s morning drive.
The afternoon lineup looked even worse. Andy Gresh, who I had always found to be just an obnoxious blowhard on the Patriots pre and postgame shows was to be paired with Scott Zolak who had made his name as a backup QB for the Patriots and was currently an occasional boring guest on ‘EEI’s Big Show. It didn’t help that the pairing of Gresh and Zo, as they were known, had failed to even find an audience in Providence.
The kicker however, was the afternoon drive program the Sports Hub intended to compete with the king of Boston Sports Radio, Ordway’s Big Show. Michael Felger, a former contrarian columnist for the Boston Herald and all around DB was to be paired with fellow Herald scribe Tony Maserotti, who was best known for his high pitched voice immortalized on the Big Show with the popular refrain, “But Glen!” This was a joke right? These guys were going to get killed, Felger and Maserotti’s program had failed miserably on the aforementioned ESPN foray into Boston, there was no way it was ever going to make a dent in Ordway’s ratings.
Funny thing is though it did work, it has been competitive and now it threatens to knock ‘EEI off the airwaves all together.
I was a late convert to the Sports Hub. Faced with a daily morning commute I found myself unable to deal with the stylings of Dennis & Callahan. These two are akin to those two grumpy old men from the Muppets. No one enjoys hearing old men bitch and moan, especially at six in the morning. Reluctantly, I switched over to Toucher and Rich and I was hooked almost immediately. This spilled over into Gresh and Zo’s program and now I find myself actually enjoying hearing Gresh rap on the topics of the day. The shocker came when I no longer turned over to Big Show choosing instead to listen to Felger and Mas in the afternoons. For all his pomposity, Felger may be the best sports radio host in Boston. His negativity and cynicism jives with Boston and it actually borders on being entertaining. Hell, he even makes Mas’ entertaining.
This is the problem ‘EEI is faced with. More and more younger listeners in the coveted 18 to 34 are turning away from ‘EEI and turning to the Sports Hub. According to the latest ratings books released by Boston Radio Watch, Felger and Mas’ receive an 11.4 share in this coveted demographic, dominating Ordway, the former king, who receive only a 2.2 share. In the afternoons it’s a similar result as Gresh and Zo put up almost identical numbers, but the exclamation point illustrating the Sports Hub’s dominance is Toucher and Rich’s rating share amongst 18 to 34 year olds, a 20.9 share, nearly ten times Dennis & Callahan’s 2.6 share.
The fallout has been amazing. ‘EEI has reacted badly. In January, 2010 ‘EEI let go of longtime Big Show co-host, Pete Shepphard, claiming it was now faced with a drop in advertising revenues. This was followed a month later by an ‘EEI producer being suspended for sending vulgar text messages to Sports Hub message boards. This past winter, entrenched midday host Dale Arnold had his microphone silenced and ‘EEI has barely limped into this summer as the Bruins, who are broadcast on the Sports Hub, have made a run at the Stanley Cup.
There are a lot of reasons for the Sports Hub newfound dominance, but here are the top five:
1. The Old Men in the Morning – They’re just not entertaining. Worse than that, they’re aggravating and flat out mean spirited. Dennis & Callahan specialize in raising one’s blood pressure. Callahan is the consummate whiner while on air, you can almost see him complaining behind the scenes, “My ass hurts.” “Are we going to get fed?” “Why is that Bill Belichick sooo mean?” Dennis on the other hand plays the part of the arrogant, overfed twit. The last time I caught the show he was screaming at a listener who dared asked him a question. Not even disagreeing with whatever Dennis’ point was mind you, Dennis was just offended that this listener who had been on hold for forty-five minutes had not been hanging on his every word. This was before he and fill-in Dale Arnold then launched into a segment on how they discipline their children with stiff backhands. Riveting radio guys, really. Add in John Meterparel who easily sits down while he pees and despises any sport other than Boston College Football and is it any wonder why Toucher and Rich have stolen these guys’s thunder? The Sports Hub throws the radio equivalent of a kegger in the morning while ‘EEI’s morning program is the equivalent of bingo night at the old folks home.
2. Politics – There’s two things you’re told to avoid with strangers, politics and religion. Keeping with Dennis & Callahan, as they’re the prime culprits in ‘EEI’s demise, ‘EEI radio hosts are always quick to interject their political views into their sports programming. Dennis & Callahan have been known to dedicate whole hour long segments to the political stories of the day. Often these are of a Republican slant. Mind you I’m no liberal or registered Democrat here, but it just seems bad for business. Nobody begrudges these two or Glen Ordway or Dale Arnold their opinion, but in a business where you need to attract thousands of listeners to survive it doesn’t seem smart to alienate half of your prospective audience right off the bat; probably more than half considering we’re in bluer than blue state Massachusetts. These two could get away with espousing their views on the world when there was no viable competitor in the marketplace, but now that there is they’d probably be wise clamping down on the rhetoric and focusing more on sports.
3. FM is King- ‘EEI makes its living in Boston through its AM flagship 850 AM. This was fine when there was no viable alternative. People, myself included, would tolerate the fact that in some parts of the city ‘EEI was difficult to pick up and that if you entered a tunnel, took the subway or God forbid, just stepped indoors in some places, you were just going to pick up nothing bit static. The Sports Hub has the power of FM behind it, there’s few spots you can’t pick it up and even fewer where you deal with any static interference. Its signal allows it to reach the whole of Greater Boston and even encroach into parts of New Hampshire and Rhode Island without necessitating switching channels. ‘EEI just can’t compete with that.
4. Weak Programming - ‘EEI’s daily programming lineup is a smorgasbord of crap. The aforementioned Dennis & Callahan is like listening to a romance novel on tape. It’s even worse seeing them in real time as their program is now inexplicably simulcast on NESN. Its bad enough hearing these two cantankerous blowhards, it’s even more painful watching them. Worse yet, they offer such dynamic guests as unfunny comedian Lenny Clarke (Really, why is he famous?) and mystery novelist Harlan Coben. I’ve got nothing against interviewing a mystery novelist; it just doesn’t belong on a Sports Radio program. People want to hear the previous night’s Red Sox score, not two 50 year old men being titillated by the tales of a former pro basketball star turned Private Investigator. In the Midday slot ‘EEI removed Dale Arnold, Ned Flander’s doppelganger in voice and personality, and replaced him with Mike Muttnanskey and former Sox utility man Loue Merloni. Dale was weak and uncomfortable, but he least he brought something to the table. The Mutt and Merloni show is just bland, vanilla programming. Like they said in Trainspotting, “it’s not bad, it’s not great either and deep in your heart, you know it’s just…shit.” The Big Show has become an unbearable listening experience. The hook was Ordway being visited by a revolving door of local sports reporters. It was a potpourri of often conflicting sports opinions and a lot of times they clashed in heated arguments which made for some pretty entertaining radio. Now however, Ordway’s pool of talent he can select from has dwindled as ‘EEI’ s buying power has plummeted and most local reporters choose to get in on the party that is the Sports Hub. The last time I listened into the Big Show they had a reporter from the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune on and another from the ProJo, needless to say it kept me glued to the airwaves. The present state of the Big Show is like if George, Kramer, Newman, Elaine and Puddy walked out leaving only Seinfeld to carry the show. Have you ever heard Seinfeld’s standup? Yeah, it’s not a goodtime.
5. Sound Like You Want to Be There – One of the Sports Hub’s great strengths is that not only are their primary hosts entertaining, they actually sound like they legitimately enjoy their jobs. These guys get paid pretty good money to sit down for four hours at a shot and just shoot the shit about sports. It’s what every guy does on a barstool at your local dive; these guys just get paid for it. Toucher and Rich actually appear to enjoy interacting with their listeners through their message boards and twitter feeds, it’s probably bullshit, but they’re at least acting like it. John Dennis had a brief little foray into social networking, it went pretty well. After being online for no more than a few days he was confronted with a few mild tweets from Toucher and Rich listeners the behemoth of sports radio responded with amazing vitriol, insulting the culprits perceived lack of wealth and calling attention to how successful he is. “Count your pennies and check your 1040s,” Dennis bellowed. Ouch! Zing! Take that you blue collar ruffians, you ungrateful curs! So according to Dennis, you can only have an opinion if you make $100K and up. Yeah, that’s how to win over all those regular Joes dragging their asses to work in the morning John. Good work. The rest of the lineup sounds as if they’d rather be doing anything else than what they’re actually doing. The feeling of impending doom that undeniably hangs over the halls of ‘EEI like a thick fog is palpable and it comes through the receiver. Worse, these are all established older gentlemen. Not to sound ageist, but it’s pretty hard for a young twenty-something to really identify with someone approaching sixty, much less be interested in what the hell they have to say. ‘EEI needs an infusion of youth, or at the very least just a series of hosts who are actually upbeat and entertaining. Former Patriots tight end Jermaine Wiggins is tearing it up on the Sports Hub every Wednesday with a two hour guest spot on Felger and Mas’. Shouldn’t be that hard to woo him over with the promise of a fulltime gig. It’s not inconceivable that the Globe’s Chris Gasper or the Herald’s Ian Rappoport would probably jump on board if asked. Hell, I know they’re not young, but give Borges a show with Shaughnessy and you’ll get a ratings boost just from the amount of people wanting to call in to tell them they suck. None of this appears likely however, as ‘EEI right now is the sports radio equivalent of the Yankees, burdened by large, long term contracts to past their prime superstars. It’s because of this that ‘EEI probably won’t be able to compete with the Sports Hub for years to come and why we should all get used to the new king of Boston Sports Radio. Long Live the King.
No comments:
Post a Comment