This afternoon Glenn Ordway was touting a “major announcement” to be made at 5:20. Most of these “major announcements” are little more than announcing a new weekly guest to the program, or something along those lines.

Today’s announcement however, is legitimately big news. After years of having the format of Glenn Ordway and two rotating co-hosts, Ordway announced that starting February 28th, the Big Show will add Michael Holley as a permanent co-host alongside Ordway. The name of the show will remain the same, and there will still be a whiner line. It is unclear whether there will be a third rotating co-host each day, as Ordway simply said that others “will be in and out of here all the time.”

The question was left then – what will become of the Dale and Holley show? This was not announced on the show, but The Inside Track at the Boston Herald reports that the duo will be replaced by former Red Sox infielder Lou Merloni and weekend WEEI (and WGAM AM)  host Mike Mutnansky.

The track reports that Dale Arnold will be relegated to “fill in duty.”

These moves are clearly in reaction to the ratings gains made by 98.5 The SportsHub in the last year. The odd thing is, the Dale and Holley show was the only one that was still consistently beating their 98.5 competition.

WEEI was hamstrung however, by the salaries of their talent. They couldn’t make a move in the morning, with John Dennis and Gerry Callahan making big bucks, and Ordway is a fixture in the afternoons. I believe Holley’s contract was due sometime this year, so this move seems to be a promotion of sorts for him.

These are some big moves. I can’t wait to read all of your reactions to them.

WEEI Announces New Drive-Time ‘Dream Team’ (weei.com)

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

144 thoughts on “Desperate WEEI Shakes Up Lineup”

  1. In many respects, I think the callers help to ruin the hosts. Look at ESPN's 'Mike & Mike.' I listen to that podcast daily, and I like it because it comprises insightful talk and no callers. Would something like that work in Boston? Have we somehow decided that phone-in callers are a GOOD thing for sports radio?

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    2. Couldn't agree more. I've found myself listening to podcasts far more than the radio over the past year or so. The main reason is that I listen for the on-air personalities, not John in a Car. Dan Lebatard does a great show down in Miami and I listen to the podcasts almost daily and they do a 4 hour hour radio (2 1/2 hours of content without commercials) and will go days at a time without taking calls.

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  2. Ordway is unlistenable (is that a word?). I like Holley, and this is a demotion for him, although will probably get a raise. I usually listen to the other station, but bop back and forth when in the car. Gresh is god awful, if they put anyone else with him they probably beat weei in all three slots. As for Arnold, that milquetoast personality doesn't get you very far, all his co-hosts have carried him his whole career, so if they keep him they need a dynamic personality to go with him.
    Perhaps with the changes in the big show there will be less shouting, less talking over the callers, less bullying, (DeOssie) less olde time baseball stories. But this does seem to be a change motivated by competition.

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  4. It's surprising they would break up the only show beating the SH.

    Somewhat off the post topic, but what has made Toucher & Rich successful is that you could call them "Deadspin" radio — sensationalized, pop-cultured sports. Not everyone wants to hear an hour-long discussion on whether to bat Crawford leadoff or 3rd (and you wouldn't hear it on D&C anyway because it isn't a right wing issue). In case you haven't noticed, Deadspin has turned sports journalism on its ear. Say what you will, they've been a game changer. Commenters talk about how shows/programs need the 18-49 demographic, but fail to realize that 18-year-olds were born in 1993 — quite a leap from whoever 'EEI is speaking to.

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    1. EXACTLY. The only show on 'EEI that is beating the Sports Hub, and they're going to replace it with a weekend fill-in Flash Guy (Mutt) and a perpetual radio wingman (Merloni)? Now they could seriously go 0-fer in morning, weekday and drive time. Better keep tabulating those ratings in Providence and Bangor!

      Why not just pair Ordway up with Borges? One guy is a total blowhard and the other is a plagiarizing contrarian? I would LOVE to hear those Patriots Monday interviews.

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  5. I think the ratings numbers tell us that Boston could sustain 3 local sports radio stations. EEi’s numbers really haven’t changed, and the Hub’s getting good numbers despite their “talent.” I think there’s finally enough talent out there to get a third station launched. It should be an FM station, and they could roll out a great line up of local sports people. I would go Neumie and Bob Ryan in the Morning, Dale and Pete afternoons and Jackie Mac and Sean McAdam drive time. I think that’s a strong line up that would probably kill both stations.

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    1. You're probably right, but two problems, 1. would any of those commit to a five day work week, and 2, could a new station afford to pay them?

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      1. Yeah, I think people grossly overestimate writers desire and/or ability to do radio full time. Callahan can do it because he never travels, but the others mention travel in the course of their writing.

        Also, getting another good signal would be a problem from what I gather from radio-info discussion boards. It's pretty crowded and if somebody were to get a signal they would be chopping up the pie more and it would be difficult to pay a lot for talent.

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  6. One good thing about these new moves is that Holley will mostly be hosting on his own since Ordway is on vacation all summer long. I wonder how the Patriots players who are used to being interviewed by Dale & Holley will adjust to Merloni/ Mutnansky. I like Merloni but Doc Michaels is spot n about Mutnansky.

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  7. The frustrating thing with blowing up the afternoon show, is that was the one show that appealed to a demographic other than the coveted 19-25 year olds. It seems like now we're going to be out in the cold. The only EEI show I listen to is Dale and Holley, because I can't stand the buffoonery of Gresh and Zo.

    I understand that the goal is to take the top demographic, but that leaves a lot of us listeners without an option as the two stations converge on the same kind of brainless ranting.

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  8. I love how most of the people here leaving comments keep saying they never listen to talk radio and hate all of the personalities, yet have so much to say about this big news and seem to be pretty plugged in as to what's been happening currently with the different shows. this has been very entertaining.

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  9. It's like shuffling deck chairs on the titanic. Jason Wolfe and Julie Kahn are the ones who need to be fired. Ordway has lost his audience to 98.5 so this WEEI's way of trying to salvage that big fat contract they gave that big fat loud-mouth Ordway. I did listen to Dale and Holley but now I won't listen to any EEI shows.

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  10. The irony of this is that Dale Arnold spent all his time trying to be non-controversial and doing whatever he could to kiss up to his bosses, and they did exactly what they should have done with a talk show host like that. They dumped the guy that most listeners realized was a phony and thus didn't take seriously. People saw right through Dale and the fact that at some point in his career he has backstabbed everyone he has ever worked with in an effort to please his bosses. Sorry, but WEEI just got a little better today. And that's not saying much.

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    1. You're right Jack, the show sucked that's why D&H were consistently beating the competition. No one like them. Now please go back and tell us about the Red Coats invading our land or something like that.

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  13. I think that dumping the Dale and Holley Show only continues to show how clueless the suits at EEI have become. They rode the gravy train for so long they lost track of what was successful or appealing to their base. When 98.5 came along it was a breath of fresh air to listen to talk radio that looked with a critical eye towards the hometown teams.

    Dale and Holley had become the only show on EEI that was worth listening to. Now Holley will have a tough time trying to conform to the Big O's format-what they should do is overhaul the entire show-dump the whiner line, get rid of most of the co-hosts for good and let Holley put his stamp on the show. None of which are likely to happen.

    98.5 wins again without making one move.

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    1. dude – you DID just write a chapter on every aspect of sports radio. While I agree that it is fun to watch eei drown in its hubris i also wonder how somebody so inside that he can recall and recognize the circumstances and politics behind the last midday shift can also think that sports knowledge and accuracy have any real part in ratings success. You wanna impart sports knowledge to win a trivia contest – sports talk for the last 15 years has been about entertainment – ordo didnt get holley to fact check him – he got holley b/c the emcee 3 ring circus format got stale.

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  15. Does this mean Dale is no longer pledging at the Boston Sports Lodge?

    Let's hope the Red Sox have a decent season so Lou won't have to apologize and come up with excuses for their poor performance all summer long.

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    1. Isn't it possible they're all former listeners? I know I am. I don't have to ever listen to D&C or Ordway again to know exactly what it sounds like.

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  17. I stopped listening to EEI when D&C became Hannity and Beck…years ago. First-rate assholes, to boot. D&H are boring. The Big Show is self-congratulatory. Felger is a total asshole and Mazz sounds like the kid who follows around the big kids, begging to play right field. Mike Adams? Who's he? His claim to fame was taking over the studio – Mike, no one cares how much you hate Manny….I listen to T&R daily, G&Z sometimes, F&M occasionally, more during baseball. EEI is a dinosaur. I am 63, not in the key demographic so no one probably cares what I think, but Old Bastard radio is officially dead. Thank God!

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  18. I stopped listening to EEI when D&C became Hannity and Beck…years ago. First-rate jerks, to boot. D&H are boring. The Big Show is self-congratulatory. Felger is too arrogant and hates the players, and Mazz sounds like the kid who follows around the big kids, begging to play right field. Mike Adams? Who's he? His claim to fame was taking over the studio – Mike, no one cares how much you hate Manny….I listen to T&R daily, G&Z sometimes, F&M occasionally, more during baseball. EEI is a dinosaur. I am 63, not in the key demographic so no one probably cares what I think, but Old Boy radio is officially dead. Thank God!

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  19. I was listening yesterday and thought sure they would announce a jump to FM.

    That’s what they really need to regain/maintain share whatever.

    Living in Marlborough I cannot get a decent reception of the station at night. Hard to

    believe that living just 25 miles from Boston, the Red Sox cannot be heard. Where else in the US could that be happening?

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    1. As I neighbor in Hudson, I'm with you. Most of the time I couldn't listen to EEI if I wanted to because the reception in the hudson/marlborough area just isn't there. The only option is to pay for the MLB broadcasts over the internet, or XM radio. UGH!

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      1. Hi Ann, good to hear from you, in 2009 WCRN Worcester had them and it was great.
        But they dropped them last year and that was it, Couldn't listen to night games.

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  20. Desperate, sure, but I think this is a good move for the Big Show as Dale and Holley was arguably WEEI's strongest program. I think Dale is getting hosed in this deal, but this isn't the first time WEEI screwed with their talent (I miss Pete Sheppard too). I'm not sure why they're ceding the 10-2 time slot to the sports hub, especially since Gresh and Zo is probably their weakest program. But if it comes down to it, I might have to take the new Big Show over Felgy's latest insane tirade about the Pats/Matt Cooke/Kevin Garnett/Randy Moss… etc.
    Of course, the Whiner Line still sucks. But I seem to be alone in that opinion…

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    1. After hearing that Dale will now become Dave O'Brien's backup doing Red Sox games on Wednesdays, it sounds like another loser in all this is Jon Rish, who will now be reduced to pre- and postgame along with rain-delayed editions of 'Sox Talk'. As down as Dale feels today, Rish probably isn't dancing in the streets, either.

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      1. Dale used to do the Sox fill-in games a couple of years ago before Rish did. I also felt Rish wasn't cut out for play-by-play. His voice doesn't have enough range, and he has no personality on top of it. A guy who looks like he's forever going to be a "flash guy" type.

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      2. Jon Rish seems to get dumped on, in a mean way, more than anyone else by those on WEEI (D&C, Meter in particular). Never thought it was justified. He's a bit of a stiff, but seems like a nice enough guy.

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  21. While some of the criticism is justified, count me in as part of the apparent minority that likes what Dale Arnold brings to the table. I was disappointed to hear that Dale & Holley will no longer occupy the 10-2 slot , and it appears all but a certainty that Dale will be leaving the station completely. I felt Dale & Holley offered the most reasoned & intelligent approach to sports talk that the market offers. D & H were the absolute antithisis of their 98.5 midday couterparts Gresh and Zo.

    It will be interesting to see not only what form the new EEI midday show takes, but what countermove is made by the Hub. The Hub now has a tremendous opportunity to gain listeners by jettisoning Gresh and revamping their midday show to appeal to a wider audience. I have long felt that Gresh & Zo's core audience is comprised largely of those who will tune in regardless of the on air talent level and quality of the broadcast. If a better midday product is offered they can build upon this core audience by attracting more discerning listers as well, many of whom have been driven away by the poor quality of the Hub's current midday offering.

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  22. This move is proof that Jason Woolf has been, for the better part of his career at WEEI, the luckiest man in broadcasting.

    I mean, how talented did Woolf have to be to "build" WEEI into a ratings power in Boston? Not very. In fact, not all. It stood to reason that an all-sports format radio station would do well in a market as sports-obsessed as Greater Boston is. Further, fueled by the enormous competitive success that Boston's pro teams have had over the better part of the past decade, said obsession grew even more pronounced. WEEI was first to the sports-talk trough in Greater Boston, which carried the station through its infancy. Subsequently, it has benefitted greatly from having 3 Patriots Super Bowl-winning teams, 2 Red Sox World Series squads, a Celtics NBA Championship outfit, and a newly-competitive Boston Bruins regime to cover since the initial honeymoon period ended. An on-air line-up comprised of my two spinster aunts in morning-drive, my stuttering uncle and Tourette's-suffering cousin in the midday slot, and my alcoholic step-mother and her incontinent bichon-frise in afternoon-drive would have pulled-in phenomenal ratings while talking sports over the past 10 to 15 years.

    Lo and behold, a legitimate competitor crops-up on the Boston broadcast scene and WEEI begins to show real signs of vulnerability. Woolfie's no longer a broadcasting "wunderkind" when he actually has to start worrying about his on-air talent – or, in point of fact, lack thereof – bringing some level of competence to the airwaves. It isn't enough to throw a couple of bargain-basement Howie Carr-wannabes on in morning-drive, pair a Downeast version of Garrison Keillor (wait… that's an insult to Keillor's ability to sustain compelling energy) with a kinder-gentler Stephen A. Smith middays, and unleash a bloat of anthropomorphised hippos in afternoon-drive. It turns out that you actually have to worry about talent and content and pacing and – are you ready for this? – some sort of broadcasting standards.

    Instead of a true depth and breadth of knowledge, well-developed sense of humor and ability to engage their listeners, the vast majority of WEEI's on-air personalities during the Woolf era have been nothing more than venom-spewers or platitude-peddlers. Under Woolf's leadership, both the show-hosts and the "flash-boys" – sorry, but despite the fact that so many wax eloquent over his tenure at the station, Pete Shepard's act would have been tired in vaudeville – brought little in the way of talent to the airwaves. It has all made for a miasma of "white noise" on WEEI.

    And now, the chickens have come home to roost at WEEI. The clock is ticking… and one would suspect that it is ticking loudest for Ordway, Dennis, Callahan and Woolf.

    Ordway has to know that the younger, more intelligent, more talented – and, sorry to be so blunt, African-American – Holley is being positioned to take over the lead role in the afternoon-drive slot. Holley represents the younger, smarter, more articulate, more diverse audience that exists even amongst sports-radio listeners. Ordway is a dinosaur who thinks that regurgitating the content of the day's newspapers – often, close to verbatim – makes for cogent analysis and that "The Whiner Line" passes for cutting-edge humor. Ordway's current contract runs until January of 2014 and you have to believe that Entercom management can't wait to get out from under it. Look for them to start positioning "the Big O" for "the Big GO"… as in away.

    As for Dennis and Callahan, their current contracts run until September of 2012. Unless WEEI's numbers begin to turn around significantly, one has to believe that Entercom management will be looking to unload compensation that reportedly is in the eight-figure range. Barring huge ratings from the duo, they're likely to suffer as a result of being the first large contracts to come-up for renegotiation in the wake of WEEI's shaky battle with 98.5.

    And then there's Woolf. The boy-Emperor suddenly has no clothes. WEEI is losing ground – and ad revenue – to 98.5, all while being held hostage by the onerous contracts that Woolf gave to Dennis, Callahan and Ordway. Merloni and Mutnansky project to be a band-aid applied to a gaping arterial hemorrhage. When push comes to shove, the Entercom brass in Pennsylvania are going to sacrifice someone to the radio gods over the the clusterf**k that has gone down at their once-proud Boston "sports radio leader". Woolf has been dodging bullets since 2003 when Dennis and Callahan became embroiled in the infamous "METCO gorilla" controversy. Then-WEEI general manager Tom Baker took the flack for that matter, but it would appear that Woolf's luck may have finally run out. After all, if you're going to accept the bouquets when all is going well, you have to be willing to bear the brunt of the brickbats when the fecal matter hits the oscillating-rotary cooling device.

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    1. Love the intentional misspelling of 'Woolf' through your rant.

      On the bright side for Ordway, at least it's Holley pushing him out the door now as opposed to Janet Prensky two decades earlier. Not sure that Glenn's big giant head ego (or his bank balance) could've lived with that ignominy.

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    3. "It isn't enough to throw a couple of bargain-basement Howie Carr-wannabes on in morning-drive, pair a Downeast version of Garrison Keillor (wait… that's an insult to Keillor's ability to sustain compelling energy) with a kinder-gentler Stephen A. Smith middays, and unleash a bloat of anthropomorphised hippos in afternoon-drive."

      This may be the greatest thing I've ever read on this site…..

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  24. Condolences to talkster Dale Arnold, first King Larry loses his show, then good pal Mubarak, now Dale, bad news comes in threes…Speaking of threes congrats to Raymond Allen on setting the three pointer record, 9 in a game against the Bulls, you still got it kid…Unstoppable is the must see movie of the year, you will believe a runaway train can hit like a speeding bullet…Sad news from Broadway, another tragedy on the stage of Spider Man, there hasn't been a production this cursed since Yvonne DeCarlo skipped out on South Pacific…Combos are a great new snack food combining pretzels and pizza flavored cheese, I eat them by the peach basket full…Funnyman Kelsey Grammar best known from his hit Down Periscope is tying the knot for the 4th time, nice try kid but you aren't catching King Larry…How about Eminem and Chrysler teaming up to save Detroit, start with the Pistons guys…King Larry out!

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  25. Corbin hit it out of the park. It seemed that WEEI could not believe that it would get serious competition from the Sports Hub. In that regard, their arrogance was matched only by their ignorance (a deadly combination).

    What will be fascinating is how Ordway (who is set in his ways, and has been the "star" of WEEI) reacts to this role with Holley.

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    1. Already interesting that they've deciding to keep the 'Big Show' name along with the Whiner Line. It's as if the only change will be Holley's presence five days a week. Wonder if this will signal the end of the line for James Brown's 'Living in America' intro?

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      1. Calluh, i know a little something about sports radio.

        Jason Wolfe used to pick the beaks out of my peking duck back in the old days.

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  26. Why are people acting like WEEI is tanking? I'm not completely sure, but haven't their ratings pretty much stayed the same? Obviously, 98.5 picked up an audience that EEI never had, but WEEI still has way more listeners when you factor in Providence, Springfield, Cape Cod, Maine… all with the same content.

    I know that a lot of the people who come here are media "snobs", who love to trash everybody, but the exaggerations I'm reading here are puzzling. I'm not a huge fan of the WEEI guys, but to say that the Sports Hub is anything different? I don't get that. D&C vs. T&R, equally obnoxious. Gresh/Zo and the Big Show are annoying and often boring. D&H and F&M are the two best shows, and all four of those hosts have aggravating tendencies. All that being said, I have listened and enjoyed all of those shows in the past. I like both stations. If I had to choose just one, I couldn't

    In my opinion, the biggest reason 98.5 found the audience they did is because of the crystal clear signal. I'm not from Boston, but when I'm up there, I'm amazed that people actually listen to the cruddy AM signal of 850am. The fact that they still compete against the powerful 98.5fm signal is impressive to me. If you look at the Providence numbers, where both stations come in perfectly, WEEI dominates.

    Anyway, Wolfe is just wasting his time with these moves because the signal is what's keeping them from 98.5's audience in Boston Metro. Also, I expect this post to get a lot of "thumbs down", so don't be shy w/ that mouse.

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    1. You're not totally wrong, JSR. I don't think it's a complete coincidence that 98.5 is the first true rival and broadcasts in FM in Boston. Also like you said, the format of two hosts with guests and phone callers sprinkled in can hardly be called groundbreaking.

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  27. People see m to miss the point.This sounds like a money save by eei.
    EEI spent way too much on Ordway's JD Drew like contract.Thats why sheppard was let go.
    The money is in the afternoon shows and people are sick of ordway and his rotating head ache inducing co hosts.Now the big show will probably just be glenn and holley and no 3rd guy so they save money.
    Mutt will work for chump change and merloni couldnt be too expensive
    EEI learned finally people are sick of smerlas type fill ins who yell and interrupt.
    Dale got a 20 year run at eei and eei messed up big by letting felgy go to sports hub.Felgy is great and is killing eei

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  28. Seeing that the Merloni-Mutt pairing has been almost universally panned thus far, it's starting looking more and more like a straightup cost-cutting measure. Perhaps I'm giving them too much credit, but Entercom must know that Merloni & Mutt won't generate the same ratings. True, D&H are currently leading in the mid-day slot, but that's the equivalent of winning the NIT tournament. Nice? Yeah, but morning/afternoon drive is the D1 March Madness tourney. It's what you really want to win–far more listeners, therefore far more $$$ to be made. WEEI's willing to concede ground in the mid-day in order to gain ground in the afternoon.

    Listeners = ad revenue, and I don't see WEEI increasing listenership from 10 – 2 as a result of this move. So net-net they probably break even on middays (lost ad revenue = money saved on Dale & Holley's salaries) and gain in afternoons ( [increased ad revenue + money saved on co-hosts] > extension to Holley's contract). This of course assumes that the Big Show does in fact receive a ratings boost. They're trying to get the most bang for their buck and being a business, you can't really blame them for it.

    Entercom looks to be taking more of a bottom-line over top-line growth strategy with all the recent lay-offs/demotions. This never works over the long term. The Holley move's a good start, but at some point EEI's going to have to spend the money and reel in a big fish–I'm talking a Michael Smith, Ryen "Ruttillo", Bill Simmons (more of a stretch) type national-level talent–to regain the market dominance they once had. Just my little financial take on the situation.

    Nice to see competition finally making an impact on Boston Sports radio.

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  29. The one who should have gotten the axe was Fat John Dennis. KKKallahan was actually decent when paired with Chris Mannix on Monday when they talked hoops and not Obama.

    The Big Show premise is good but when all you get are the Fred and DeOssies the show starts to suck. Ordway had plently of good guests over the years but only seemed to last a few shows.

    10-2 is over at EEI. Dale was vanilla but knew what he was talking about and decent to listen to. Mut is nothing but a stat memorizing jock sniffer who thinks that since he's on the radio he's smarter than everyone else.

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  31. This all goes back to WEEI ignoring the listener for years. They used to have 15/20 minutes of commercials during any given hour. An issue that caused enormous frustration, but with no competition, they could do as they pleased.
    Shortly after 98.5 debuted, they changed that policy.
    They had a decade or more long p#ssing match with Globe reporters, and lost out on some great analysis.
    Shortly after 98.5 debuted, they welcomed back writers like Bob Ryan.
    Almost anyone that listens to Boston sports radio gets frustrated by the constant yelling and chaos, with no organization that took place on the Big Show…
    Well, they've decided to change that…
    As someone who is 32, and grew up most of my like listening to WEEI. I'm so sorry, to little, to late. I'm a Sports Hubber now.

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  32. I listened to Dale this morning. Dale felt disappointed, angry and betrayed and I don't blame him. Here is a good analogy on what happened to Dale. Larry works for company X. He is one of the first ones in and last ones out. Customers rave about how good he is with them. His reviews are terrific and he goes out of his way to help out others. Moe, who is next to Larry tools around with his Iphone and surfs the net. He tells customers he'll get back to them when he gets a chance and is an all around slacker. Larry's boss calls him into the office and says, "Larry you have done a great job but we have decided to replace you with Moe because it may help motivate him." In summary, because of Glenn Ordway's ineptitude, Dale Arnold lost his job. Dale mentioned his regret about not doing the Bruins full-time. I think play-by-play is truly Dale's love but he felt a sense of loyalty with WEEI. Dale made the mistake of forgetting that he should be loyal to one person, himself.

    Bruce, do you have any idea whether Ordway had a buyout clause in his contract? If he did not then you can chalk that up to another bad mistake by EEI management.

    One of the commenters brought up a good point. He/she said that one of the positives that would come about due to arrival was 98.5 was that it would force both stations to have to continually get better. I thought this would be the case too. Unfortunately, it has not. WEEI has rid themselves of the best show they have in order to help one of the worst. You would think that hiring Holley for afternoon drive time would change Ordway somewhat, but I don't think it will. Think about it. Ordway has had many months to change his format but his ego got in the way and he continually gets beat by F&M. I have a hard time believing that this zebra will change its stripes. My guess is that he will unfortunately rub off more on Holley then Holley will rub off on him.

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    1. Your last paragraph sums it up pretty well, mandb. Both sports radio stations pretty much copy each other instead of trying to find their own niche. When 98.5 debuted eighteen months ago, many of us hoped they would be markedly different from EEI, but their only contrasts were broadcasting in FM in Boston and having a morning show based more on humor and less on politics. Now that the SportsHub has edged ahead in the ratings, it is EEI essentially copying nearly all of 98.5's schtick. Why not? If both stations are scoring with listeners, no need to try anything different.

      The fact that the Big Show is keeping its title and Whiner Line closing should be seen as a strong indicator that Holley's presence will be more like window dressing rather than the foundation of something new and original.

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      1. You're nailed it Jason. Felger and Maz have nothing to worry about because I do not see much difference. Unless Ordway is removed WEEI will continue to stay second. If you can read Chad Finn's story on how Jason Wolfe is spinning the story. I would link it but Boston.com wants me to sign up for an account. Wolfe must be made of 50% smarm and 50% slime.

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  33. On a sidenote, Pete Sheppard says he's been quiet too long and will post something of a bombshell involving WEEI on Monday. This is from his Facebook page — sounds like there might be something juicy in there…

    "I have been silent long enough…There have been several issues that have come up over the last several days..One thing is certain…"Bleep Me.."…Fine..Then I will "Bleep you"…That is all I can say for now…I will update again on Monday around 5pm…It is time it all came out…..I owe nothing to anyone…I have given everyone everything I can….Sorry for the bad pub that is about to come down on some of you in the Boston market, but you leave me no choice and I want the public to know….They deserve it..They are the listeners who are the demo's paying some of these ridiculous salaries"

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  34. and wouldn't it be fantastic if Holley outshines Glen, and they can then call the show "Holley"luah, Big O is Gone!"

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  35. Dale was a gentleman who could could criticize without being mean spirited and was never a homer. He lost two partners to contract disputes….each time he came out of it making the show even better. He wasbest at putting things in perspective. Uunlike other shows he didnt resort to gimmicks like liberal baiting or creating soap opera like characters to entertain.

    I only heard his statement yesterday and not the rest of the show but it was clear he felt betratyed by WEEI, given his "professional responsibilty comment" I think he deserved better and hope it improves his career long term.

    For a jock, Lou Merloni has been a natural as a talk show personality and I think he does a good job. It will remain to be seen whether he can run a show on his own..but anything is better than listening to the obnoxious Gresh.

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  36. Holley's contract was set to expire next month. Maybe moving him to PM drive was the only way of keeping him. If WEEI let him walk away, he would have most likely walked over to the Sports Hub, and that would have killed off 850 the rest of the way.

    Between the Red Sox rights and what they're paying Ordway, they simply don't have the resources to put a top notch show in middays. Mutnansky and Merloni are a salary dump. Dale solves the play-by-play, swing talent costs for the next year until his deal is up, then he's gone. They had to do something to counter the Sports Hub, but didn't have the cash to do it right.

    A lot of posters have commented on WEEI's numbers "not changing much" since the Sports Hub signed on. The truth is the last several years D&C have injected more politics into their show, which has attracted an audience that would normally be listening to sister station WRKO. D&C would be a much better fit on 680, but if Entercom moved them, WEEI would be lagging far behind The Sports Hub in the ratings, which also translates to revenue, something Entercom needs desparately.

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  38. Now it's time for 98.5 to shake things up. Get new hosts for the 10 to 2 slot. Find a new co-host for Felger. How about Bill Abbate, Pete Brock, Gary Tanguay, Bob Neumeier ?

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