We’ll call it “Return of the Meat,” a sequel that took, oh, six days to produce.

On Saturday, a disgruntled Pete Sheppard was airing out Entercom’s dirty laundry on WEEI’s airwaves, offering a poignant resignation to his audience. The following Thursday, Sheppard took to Twitter to announce he is set to join NBC Sports Radio Boston 1510 AM, hosting an afternoon drive show from 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. on weekdays.

Sheppard’s debut at his new home talking sports earlier today included veiled shots at his former employer:

“You walk into [1510’s studio] and it is a complete antithesis of what I had to go through very recently. It’s too bad. It’s sad to see what happened over there. I feel bad for my friends, who are still over there, that have to go through this.”

Sheppard’s exodus Saturday continued a trend of startling roster changes to WEEI’s lineup in recent months including the departures of Jon Rish, Glenn Ordway, Kevin Winter, and Jon Meterparel. Save for Ordway, who was fired in February, four out of the five moves were “resignations.” At least that’s what The Suits on Guest Street would have you think.

Meanwhile, NBC Sports Radio 1510, who added Danny Picard‘s popular webcast, “I’m Just Sayin'”, to its lineup just a few months ago, will give a WEEI refugee a chance at his own afternoon drive show.

Thoughts on the move for Sheppard? For NBC 1510? Leave it in the comments section.

@Hadfield__.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

31 thoughts on “Sports Media Musings: Pete Sheppard to Join NBC Sports Radio Boston 1510”

  2. untalented. needs coat tails to hang onto. does not know much about sports, unless he is prepped.

    Like

    1. knows as much as any “host” in the market. Certainly more then both morning shows and probably both afternoon ones as well

      Like

  4. From last night:

    ‏@stevelepore Boston drew a 7.8 for Sabres/Bruins last
    night. Third-highest rated NBCSN game ever in the market. NBCSN was #1 in Boston during the game.

    (NBCSN game or NBC game? I was wondering how it did against the 2011 SCF.)

    Like

    1. I seem to remember game seven in the boston generated 43.3 and 64 share.The boston area delivers big numbers for NBCSN.

      Like

      1. Yeah, someone clarified it was the highest REGULAR SEASON game. I figured there was no way you could beat a SCF, let alone a Game 7 of one.

        Like

  7. I like Pete but he needs a co-pilot. He’s a little too disorganized and unprepared; he’s best when he can just play off a straight man and shoot from the hip and not worry about segues, intros, timing, etc. It is funny though that a guy with a two hour a week shift gets headlines for quitting. Speaks to the popularity of sports radio I guess.

    Like

  8. While it may feel “#refreshing” for Sheppard to walk through a different door at a different address, the pressure is on HIM to make sure that he doesn’t go through this again. He had the opportunity this time to wag his finger at an employer and say, “SEE??!!! IT’S THEM!!!” If Sheppard doesn’t have a long tenure at NBC Radio, we’ll be able to say, “SEE??!!! IT’S YOU!!!!”

    Like

  11. I’ve never been much of a Sheppard fan, but a few weeks ago he co-hosted with Craig Mustard, and it somehow seemed to bring out the best in Pete–the idiocy was toned down and his happy/excited fan side came out…it was actually refreshing and kept me listening. Not sure if it was the pairing with Mustard or just a good day…unfortunately most of the time Pete’s unlistenable

    Like

  12. Pete the Meat will be my new afternoon show of choice. TSH has been unlistenable from 2-6 for a while now and Salk & Holley does absolutely nothing for me. There’s something about Salk’s tone and tenor that just drives me up the wall. His prep school elitism and smartest man in the room act has worn thin already. Pete may occasionally be over the top, but I have no doubt he’s genuine in his enthusiasm and opinions. Salk is not IMO.

    Like

  13. Ryan, I enjoy reading your work even if I don’t always agree with your opinions. 1. What exactly is Sheppard’s deal at 1510? Don’t most of the show hosts there pay for their own airtime? Is Pete responsible for selling his own ads or does he have some other kind of arrangement? 2. If WEEI is looking to shed payroll, why wouldn’t they jettison Mike Adams? They already have John Ryder more than capable of doing the same job for only a fraction of the cost. 3. Have any thoughts on who should replace Jon Rish on the Red Sox broadcasts? Any possibility Meterparel is begging for the job? Haven’t heard hide nor hair of him since he left D&C.

    Like

    1. He was doing the Celts radio broadcasts with Maxwell this past weekend. So, make of that what you will.

      Like

    2. 1510 is now backed by NBC and Yahoo. Time buy is and has been over for some time now. They actually have a solid lineup of local shows. 6AM morning show (the sports stamp) then “i’m just saying (Danny Picard from CSNNE), then Bob Ryan, followed by the Diehards and finally the Pete Sheppard show. If you can get the signal you will be pleasantly surprised

      Like

  15. I’m sure everyone got a dose of what transpired last night from about 10:50PM on till.. well it’s still ongoing

    Let us not forget ESPN’s contribution to all of this:

    Yup.

    Thanks, ESPN!

    Like

  16. I bet Pete will do well at 1510. His show will be Pete…mostly sports, a little bombast, but it will move at a good pace and cover the relevant topics. It will actually be an interesting alternative to WEEI and 98.5’s afternoon offerings as it will be more fan centric. How they structure the show will be important…especially if they can get him a good number two that can at times give greater context to Pete’s points. The real issue…as already mentioned will be signal strength or lack there of. If you can’t be north of Andover, south of Braintree, west of 495 or east of Hingham you aren’t a serious player in the market.

    Having said that…give NBCsports radio credit for going local in the afternoon…something ESPN won’t do. I wonder if they give this a year long test and the numbers come back stronger than expected if they don’t start looking for a stronger signal. There is probably room for 3 sports talkers in Boston. If there are three successful ones…then the pro and college teams can get a bidding war for rights fees…

    Like

  17. Pete Sheppard is a talentless hack who shouldn’t be granted access to a local cable-access show, let alone a regular hosting slot on an over-the-air radio station. “Meat” hit the “peak” of his talents when he was recording himself doing play-by-play in his bedroom back in Rhode Island. Frankly, he’s proof positive that so-called “broadcast schools” like CSB are little more than diploma mills willing to hand out certificates-of-completion to any rubes capable of ponying-up the entry fee and gullible enough to believe they’re getting first-rate instruction. He’s a buffoon whose good fortune at ‘EEI was due to the fact that he was willing to play stooge/second-banana to Ordway and possessed a braying voice that could be heard above the likes of Smerlas’s foghorn.

    This experiment at 1510 is destined for the scrap-heap of Boston broadcast history.

    Like

  18. If folks are still monitoring this thread…I was listening to the EEI broadcast of the game today, and it seemed to me that when Neil Diamond (*gag*) came out to sing Sweet Caroline (*hurl*), I heard the words twice…did they not even play a karaoke-style wordless version, but leave him singing up against his own recorded voice? If so, that’s a pretty big F-up.

    Like

    1. It was reported many times that he just hopped on a flight and came here, unannounced. Maybe they don’t have a karoke-style version there? We don’t know. I thought we should just leave it with “its the thought that counted”.

      Like

      1. Yeah, so I’ve heard since, about Diamond. Since I don’t like the Sweet Caroline nonsense to start with, I thought of it more as just a foolish “Here I am, look at me!” from him, but maybe I’m just being too curmudgeonly. (Though the Fenway crowd didn’t seem to be reacting too strongly to him one way or the other.) And I guess I haven’t seen or heard yet what Edwards said about Cooke…I’ll look it up.

        Like

  20. Hey Pete I was wondering where you went, and I’m glad you sent out a tweet, and I will make sure I tell all my buddies. I cannot beleive WEEI got rid of everyone on the Big Show? I looked forward hearing all of the shows class of the unknown because for 4 hours a day the laughter never ended. They brought on the new guy to work with Holly, and if I were him I would not sell my home in Seattle, because that show will not last. When do you think you will have Freddie and DeOssie on so we can get Dakota to start calling in again? Nice to hear you again Pete and good luck?

    Like

Comments are closed.