Ryan Hadfield will be by in a bit with some musings, but here are a couple links from this morning:
WEEI simulcast on NESN giving odd vibe – Chad Finn has a sports media “thoughts” column which looks at a number of topics including the increasingly bizarre happenings on the WEEI morning show, with John Dennis attempting every bully power play he’s learned over the years (“Minifield, Mini-me, whatever your name is…“) in a desperate attempt to keep power.
He also notes the departure of longtime D&C producer Steve Ciaccio, who said on his Facebook page that he is leaving the station as of April 2nd.
We’ve been saying this for weeks, but this HAS to come to a head soon.
NCAA tournament bracket forever a superstar – Bill Doyle talks to Steve Kerr and Clark Kellogg about March Madness.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
Can anyone fill me in on the Jerry Remy call-in that Chad said he could “spill another thousand words about” in his column?
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Something is definitely going on. There is clear tension, and I don’t get the sense Callahan has any problem with Minihane. It’s all Dennis — is he why the name of the show STILL has yet to change, too?
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My take is that Dennis and Callahan are EEI’s equivalent of Jason Giambi and A-Rod for the Yankees–contracts too onerous to write off. Between the two of them, Dennis is the real cause of listener disaffection, since he really detests most sports (I heard him say “Baseball sucks” a few years ago–the last time I willingly listened to his voice) and he’s generally so insufferable. Callahan frequently talks about his teenage aspiration to play in the NBA, and he’s written sports for years at the Herald–he’s a legitimate sports guy, knows and likes them, while Dennis is simply an on-air personality (and a spiteful, vicious, and insecure personality at that). I don’t know if EEI is simply trying to smoke him out and get him to quit, or just tinkering with the format and waiting for D&C to flunk their next contract benchmark so they can fire Dennis and have the replacement show ready to go. Who knows, maybe Wolfe didn’t even want Dennis to come back to the show from his ad-hoc vacation.
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I don’t know if anyone else noticed today, but it seems John Dennis was able to successfully lobby someone in management as Kirk has been taken out of the studio and stuffed back into the flash booth. I remember the announcement of Kirk joining D&C was first made, there was a big deal made about him being an “equal voice”, specifically meaning that he’d be in the main studio and not the flash booth. Well apparently Dennis has someone’s ear because that’s obviously no longer true. I’m not in the radio biz, but does that give him some control over Kirk’s mic (I remember Ordway “shutting off” Pete’s mic once or twice during the Big Show)? Kirk was pretty quiet the times I was listening this morning.
Either way, Dennis being back has made for absolutely awful radio all week, especially contrasted against the refreshing Callahan, Arnold & Minihane pairing. It’s like Dennis is looking for anything but sports to talk about each day. Some of this past week’s debate topics have been whether video games should be banned due to the Sandy Hook shooting, the size of Tiger’s yacht compared to Elin’s ne boyfriend’s yacht, should Kate Upton go to the high school prom with some dweeb (who Dennis interviewed), and my personal favorite, “what’s the worst show in the history of WEEI”, which I wonder if John in all his infinite wisdom realized the irony of.
Like Bruce says, this cannot go on like this. Entercom needs to bite the bullet and swallow Dennis’ contract befire the whole station turns into the radio version of the Red Sox’ 2012 season.
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Hah, guess I should have read Finn’s piece first. But yeah, I echo his thoughts on the situation.
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Was it here or elsewhere that someone started the #freeminihane hashtag trending and were engineering some plot to deliver him food and water in-studio w/o being undetected?
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The problem with Jonny Dennis is that he’s got no skills to do anything else in life; he NEEDS this gig. But he’s doing everything in his power to lose it. Which is fine, because one less sports media hack helps the cause: Addition by subtraction.
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If I’m Entercom, I’m scared what Dennis is going to do when they let him go. Ordway’s exit was fairly graceful. My guess is that Dennis tries to burn the place down on the way out. Maybe it’s legal wrangling keeping Dennis in the chair for now.
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I’m grateful John Dennis toolness is showing. I’ve had a difficult time shaking the EEI habit in the morning. I’d skip over there if T&R went to commercial break. No more, however. I’m cured. I can’t even push the damn button on the radio because I know hearing Dennis’ voice will only bring pain and anger.
I’m saying no to Painger.
Free Minihane!!
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I find if amazing that Minnihane has a huge set of balls when he’s going after others, yet when he’s got someone like John Dennis denigrating him on the air, you don’t hear boo from him. He just sits back and takes it. It’s really easy to puff out your chest and smash people when you know there’s no repercussions and much more difficult when you have someone who might actually push back. But the good radio will come when he decides to tell Dennis off on air. It won’t happen, he knows Dennis is a better bully than he is, but it’d be great radio.
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