We’ll have more analysis of the Glenn Ordway firing as the days go on, but for right now, here are some other stories on the news:
WEEI ousts longtime host Glenn Ordway – Chad Finn’s story in th Globe also has a video with analysis from Finn.
Glenn Ordway gets ax in sports talk battle – Matt Stout in the Boston Herald has money and youth as big factors in the move.
WEEI fires Glenn Ordway as host of ‘The Big Show’ – Bill Doyle says that these are scary times for WEEI.
Ordway will be missed, but game goes on – Steve Buckley weighs in on his friend.
`Big Show’ bombshell: Ordway out at WEEI – Tom Layman in the Herald talks to Gerry Callahan, Jackie MacMullan and others.
Glenn Ordway out at WEEI – NECN had a segment on the story.
Looking to future for next big thing – Gayle Fee has Ordway looking at his future.
Sports radio host Glenn Ordway announces exit from WEEI – Craig Douglas of the Boston Business Journal looks at the impact of the move.
WEEI to Replace Glenn Ordway – Alan Siegal says that this is a step in the right direction for the station.
Was Ordway firing more about ratings — or money? – Dan Kennedy muses on the reasons for the move.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
Thinking about this a bit and not that I have any great sympathy for Ordway but that afternoon drive slot on WEEI is behind the eight ball. In the morning you have Dennis and Callahan which no one with two brain cells to bang together would listen to for more than 60 seconds. Following that is whatever the name of the terrible mid day show is with Nomar’s caddy and some nameless Meterperrell wannabe. Who’s tuning in at 2 after these two shows?
Typically when I hop into my car if whatever is on the dial when I turn the key is interesting I’ll keep it, if not I flip. So when I hop in my car at the end of the day there is no way my dial is on after D%C and the midday show. That’s a negative drain on the afternoon drive slots ratings.
That D%C are still on the radio boggles the minds of everyone in Boston. Everyone. This show has been so awful for so many years and is such a negative on the WEEI brand.
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I don’t want to pile onto Glen by any means. However I remember him saying over and over that his formula worked. People were begging for change and WEEI refused. They stayed on AM way too long. They stayed with tired formats way too long and by the time someone else threw some actual money behind creating a station, WEEI was doomed.
They weren’t doomed because of youth or anything like people are saying, they doomed themselves because of their own pride and arrogance. They thought they knew what the audience wanted, when in reality they were just the only game in town.
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I could take or leave Ordway’s opinions which were often long-winded, but I respect a guy who has been on the air for that many years and worked with that many people. I found him to be honest and not bitter at all — his anger over the “leak” who provides copious info to Finn is justified. I’d feel the same if put in that position. I also felt his comments that Felger is a “character” to be spot on, an attempt at generating conversation and getting people to tune in.
WEEI’s problem, to me, is that when 98.5 started taking listeners away, their response was to push the panic button and make a group of halfhearted moves. I would’ve let the dust settle and seen what happened over time, but axing Dale & Holley, “overhauling” the Big Show were bad moves that only made the situation worse.
As we all know, Mutt & Lou was a huge disaster (still is) that leaves a vacuum in the 10-2 slot. A lot of readers here don’t care for D&C but its ratings are still respectable — the issue to me is what WEEI does the rest of the day. Mutt & Lou created a black hole there at midday and weakened the Big Show, which itself was semi-overhauled and stuck in no man’s land.
Fans of the “old” Big Show who liked listening to Pete, Smerlas, DeOssie, and the “Writers roundtable” were tossed aside. Yet instead of being totally “new’, they kept Ordway and brought in MIKE ADAMS — a confounding move nobody can understand — to go along with Holley. It’s like all the worst parts of the “old” Big Show without components that kept it fresh (like having different guys on the air every day). I think Ordway and Holley have improved of late, but it was too late, apparently, for WEEI’s liking.
(Either that or Ordway’s salary was still too rich).
Going forward WEEI has major issues, obviously (Mutt & Lou have to go, immediately; I’d imagine that’ll be the next shoe to drop), but I still believe they can make it work.
98.5’s “act” is transparent and it’s working right now — but I just can’t see Felger & Mazz being a durable commodity for years on end. Their shtick will eventually grow stale, as it does for most every host. Gresh & Zo are very good during football season but I find them unlistenable for long stretches and especially when football’s in its “off-season”.
The door is wide open for WEEI to pull itself together, but the moves it’s made haven’t helped the situation. They need leadership and some smart personnel moves, and those don’t seem to be in major supply there — at all.
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You could take an Ordway segment from ten years ago and drop it into today’s show and you wouldn’t notice – stale as last month’s bread. The Sheppard/Smerlas ‘regular guy’ shtick works for a fraction of the audience – the knucklehead crowd – but there’s a hug sports audience out there begging for good sports radio and not getting it from WEEI. I switched to Scott Van Pelt on ESPN streaming radio, even though I have to tune out the golf talk when he plays it up. But the ESPN guys in the afternoon obviously like sports – unlike Ordway, who couldn’t talk anything but Red Sox/Patriots. It’s about time the lazy Ordway got the boot.
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It’s a little embarrassing that media professor/blogger Dan Kennedy’s opening lines are:
I have nothing especially profound to say about Ordway’s departure from WEEI Radio (AM 850),
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