Brave man, that Chad Finn.
He’s ensured himself weeks of D&C and Big Show ridicule with his Globe OT column this week:
In the piece, Finn outlines the frustrations many fans have with WEEI’s format, all things that have been said plenty of times before, but giving them a much more visible platform. He also offers suggestions on how to make sports radio better here in Boston. Here are a few…and he expands on each point in the column:
- Have a well-considered opinion and the knowledge to defend it in an entertaining manner
- After you’ve beaten a story to death, please resist the temptation to beat on the corpse daily for another several weeks
- No more celebrity callers
- In order to qualify for airtime, a co-host has to be able to put two consecutive syllables together without his tongue tripping over his mustache
- Hosts are not permitted eight-part questions so long and windy that they require a syllabus and stretch from one commercial break to the next
- Enough with the drop-ins from comedians who’d bomb at the Ha-Ha House of Whiskey and Waffles
Finn has plenty of support in the comments of that article, but has also already drawn the ire of many WEEI supporters, who love everything about the station just as it is and cleverly say that Finn is just jealous.
Glenn Ordway will either ignore the column completely, or make vague references to it, trying to put down Finn by referring to him as a BLOGGER and talk about those “media websites” that think they know the business when they’ve never worked in it.
Related Entries at BSMW:
Things that have ruined sports coverage in Boston for me
Boston Sports Media Watch 
“You’re just jealous of our ratings. We are entertainers. Lenny Clahhhhhhk is hilarious, just ask all tv execs who have greenlit his failed projects.”
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Bruce, as much as you dislike Lew & Mike, you’ve just described their show plus they don’t invent stupid scenarios to beat to death and take up air time.
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I don’t believe I’ve ever given an opinion on their show. There was a post by David Scott on here a couple weeks back where he referred to the “dreadful” Lew & Mike show, but that wasn’t me.
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I stand (or sit) corrected.
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Lew and Mike are dreadful. There, now someone else has said it. We have three teams in this town that have won championships in the last ten years, and these guys have nothing better to talk about than the failures of each team’s management and players. Belichick can’t draft (!), the Red Sox won’t pay for free agents (Texiera), and, early this year, the Big Three was now the Big Two because Ray Allen was washed up. These guys are so much smarter than anyone in sports management in this town, you wonder why they’re not sending out Bill Belichick for coffee. And then they make those “the fans are so stupid” comments that just keep listeners coming back for more, right? F you, dude, I can turn the radio off any time I want. I don’t need to hear the penis ads anyway.
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While I only rarely listen to sports talk radio these days, might I suggest that the entertainment marketplace is dictating how these asshats on WEEI behave?
When I was growing up, I enjoyed listening to just pure sports talk (I remember Cliff and Claff on the Red Sox flagship station, and Gil Santos hosted a show called “Calling All Sports on WBZ, if I remember correctly). I still appreciate pure sports talk today. However, our culture has changed significantly over the last 20 years or so….crassness and “in your face” prattling has replaced more dignified forms of entertainment in almost every aspect of our society (think of the reality TV show craze, which is now nearly a decade old and has gotten even sleazier and more outrageous than it was just 2 or 3 years ago–and don’t even get me started on the cesspool that the Internet can be sometimes).
For sports talk radio, and WEEI in particular, to adapt to the societal trends that their market research people see going on all around them in the entertainment industry seems merely like a natural development.
And I have to say one thing about Finn’s piece….Felger’s show on ESPN Radio may have been “classier” than The Big Show, but he was still just another obnoxious jerk with an agenda to push on almost every subject he tackled. Just because the messenger and presentation was different on that show didn’t necessarily make it superior in content.
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Actually, I believe “Calling All Sports” was Bob Lobel and Upton Bell (at least in the 1970s). (I still remember the phone number jingle: “Doubleyou bee zeeeeeeeee. Calling all sports! Two five four, five six seven eight. Doo doo doo doot doo.”)
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I think you’re right.
I know that Lobel was on the radio way back when, and I also remember Upton Bell and Guy Manilla too.
Maybe Santos guest-hosted the show every now and then and that’s why I thought he was the full-time host.
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the chumps on eei as petty sheppard will make fun of andelman ANDELMAN ,as known as eddie mark and jim on sunday nights were the template for sports talk radio it funny listening to glen saying he maid a mistake withjanet prenskey! no glen you made the mistsake fireing eddies son having a stripper in befopre yoy did! cause in thursdays rant you din’t say you fuced up with firing eddies son when stern was cleaning your clock, you guys at weei copied it with d&c to copy imus! i know talk radio ive been listening top it since 1974-78 with eddie mark and jim which you don’t have the bal;ls to calll; thebest sports show ever!!! yes pete shepard im ready to rummble!
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Great points, Tony. The only thing I would say about Felger (and I’m not even a real fan of his) is that what you’re calling his ‘agenda’ is merely the opinion he has on a specific topic. Unlike some of the other sportsradio hosts Felger is a geniune fan of the sports he likes, he actually watches the games and like many of us gets a little set in his way when it comes to his opinions. I think the latest ‘bromance’ craze he’s been on of late is encouraged by the upper muckity-mucks at EEI because it generates interest from both extremes, much like the station’s current format.
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You probably make some good points about Felger there Jason. I’ve just had a hard time getting past his “transformation” from solid, nuts and bolts football writer in the early part of this decade to brash, opinionated, almost “mini-Borges” regarding the Patriots, after he branched out and became a radio/TV personality. His anti-BC rants are pretty petty and immature too (I’m not a BC alumn or anything, but his attitude about that topic still rubs me the wrong way). I also thought his defense of Tomase last May (“he just got the semantics of the story wrong, because Walsh actually MONITORED the Rams’ walkthrough”) was one of the lamest things I’ve ever heard any media personality utter.
Still, given the choice between Felger and 95% of the other sports media types in this town, I’d take him.
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people still listen to eei?
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Bruce,
What is wrong with that Jay guy aka #58 on Finn’s article..he is an a*sclown. Keep doing what you’re doing!
Enjoy my post on Finn’s blog.
I’ll leave w this, Bring back Ben Maller! Best show on EEI, and it wasn’t even EEI, it was Fox Sports Radio.
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I’m just psyched to learn that I have my own crowd.
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Yeah Bruce, good job outta you.
Sincerely,
Bruce’s Crowd Member #7580
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Fox Sports Radio got rid of a lot of good talent recently.
Siciliano, Ben Maller and Chris Myers co-host come to mind.
The replacements for Siciliano are absolutely terrible.
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I didn’t like Mike and Lew at first, but after the nine thousandth mention of how much of a hypocrite Bruce Springsteen is, I could take no more. They’re not bad. They’re not Steve Sommers, but then again, who is already?
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Guys, check out the Globe site….we’re coming up on 400 fricken comments in just a few hours time! Holy Crap!
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Yeah!!!! Sean McDonough Florian Hall Reset by the Weeble.
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Bruce:
Here’s the thing… Chad Finn is another in a long list of people who bring attention to themselves by throwing stones at the big guy on the block. WEEI has been around 15+ years now and Finn takes this week to describe why he has issues with it and what he would do better. As a loyal listen and knowledgeable sports fan I find WEEI entertaining (except Mike Adams who is just a dolt…my bias). The Globe has had two agendas for the past 10 years…they are anti- WEEI for some ridiculous political reason that keeps their people off the show and they are anti-Patriots for a whole slew of reasons (ranging from their ownership of the Sox to rumored anti semitism). Chad Finn was encouraged to write his piece because those at the Globe know a good feud generates commentary and page views. Were WEEI smart they would ignore it completely, giving the Globe no added pub or push, and showing them who in reality dominates the Boston Sports scene.
The Globe has plenty of resources and there are plenty of frequencies on the radio dial for sale. If Chad Finn has all the answers let him and his employer put their money where their mouth is. After all the Globe exclusive content that was on NESN was so wonderfully received and profitable…*eyes rolling*.
Here is an interesting intellectual exercise…if you had to place money on either WEEI or the Globe…which one do you think will be financial viable in 5 years. I know who I would pick.
LTD
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Ummm, Late? Yes, the Globe has an awful anti-Patriots bias as part of their collusion with the Red Sox Empire Juggernaut. HOWEVER, the Herald went out of their way to piss off Patriots fans in the following ways:
1. Bellicheat headline (ripping of the NY Post. How low can you go?)
2. Tomasi’s excercise in yellow journalism.
3. Tony Mazz’s insane rant against Patriots fans
4. Howie the Hostage’s typically useless column gloating over the Brady injury.
Yeah, the Globe sucks. But the Herald didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory either. Ditto WEEI. D & C’s inane comments over the Pats running up the score was the final straw for me – not Callahan’s sub-Hannity level liberal bashing or Dennis’ racist Metco Gorilla comment.
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Jon:
At no point in my post did I advocate the Herald…they suck as much as the Globe. The fact that Tomasse still has a job boggles my mind. My larger point was for 12 (starting in 1996) years the Globe has had 2 irrational behaviors…one is the anti-WEEi crusade and the other is being anti-Patriots. I find it interesting that rather than bury the hatchet and start cross promoting with clearly the largest sports information format in the region the Globe continues to try and fight/dismiss WEEI’s success. Glen and Dale have for years on their respective shows said that they would welcome the opportunity to interject with Globe personalities. This is clearly a one way feud. It just has little common sense behind it and evidently no financial will to challenge it.
One thing the Globe’s actions did do was give Sean McAdam and Tom E. Curran a solid platform to expand their readerships while they were with the Projo. Being a quality WEEI rotation host increases visibility incredibly. Based on that WEEI management realized they could profitable expand the brand to Providence and eventually all over NE…marginalizing the Globe as the regions premier sports source even further.
LTD
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while this is a fun topic, it’s sort of like the “STEROIDS IN BASEBALL!” story. It’s a bunch of noise and fury signifying nothing. Until WEEI’s ratings start to tank nothing will change. Alot of us who visit this site might not listen that much,but somebody out there is listening to them…..I did enjoy Finn’s piece though.
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Bruce
Wrong about Ordway’s repsonse. he devoted a ton of time to it and didn’t play the blogger card at all.
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Actually, Ordway and co. went on a pretty lengthy rant about it at the start of their show today. I couldn’t take it after 10 minutes or so and shut it off, so I’m not sure how long the rant lasted. The funniest part was when Glen, Pete and co. defended the callers Finn termed as the “lowest common denominator.” You know the same ones that call in and get shouted down, ridiculed and humilated by D&C, Ordway, Pete, Smerlas, DeOssie, etc. The ones that WEEI hosts have nothing but contempt for.
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I was curious to see how they would handle Finn’s article so I listen to most of the “Big Show”…..They basicly talked about it for the whole 4 hours, of course alot of it was done with a mocking tone. still, they gave Finn alot of publicity. as they say in the media game there is no such thing as bad pub, so Finn must be pretty happy.
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Wasn’t Calling All Sports started by Guy Manilla way back when??
Good point, Mexicali…How dumb do you have to be to listen to/ call a show the makes you out to be a total buffoon? The answer is ‘EEI listener dumb.
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yes the show at weei was same as it ever was PETE WHO I LVE PROTECTING GLENNIE WHO HAS NO BALLS AND THEY ALL DID THE same thing rip the messenger without having a other view point!! the writer is right weei has no other competeror! also weei has no Blach atheletes other that larry johnson who shovels glnnies driveway! glenn says we kick ratings ass! wow your the red sox and celtics station!~ hard to win when you run title town during the shift!
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*cough* Michael Holley *cough*
And I’d hardly call fatass LJ an “athlete”
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The biggest mistake they made is when they jettisoned Eddie Andleman they kept Glen Ordway.
They then compounded the mistake by re-upping the ass hat this year.
You don’t realize how good midday is until Ordway isn’t on.
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I switched to satellite radio and couldn’t be happier. There is now no reason to EVER turn on WEEI again, save for a Celtics/Red Sox game. I feel like I’ve dumped an abusive girlfriend.
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