John Ryder, who provided a nice dose of sanity and reason to the insane-ness that is the Mikey Adams Project tweeted the above this afternoon.

I would imagine that this could be tangentially related to the weekend news of the midday show ( the details of which Mike Mutnansky confirmed on the air) in that I can see WEEI moving Mutnansky into the roles that Ryder filled, specifically on Red Sox pregame duties. Whether he works with Adams at all remains to be seen.

Ryder was one of the solid personalities at the station, not prone to the hotsportztakes and adept at wielding off the drunken callers.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

26 thoughts on “John Ryder Latest To Exit WEEI”

  1. Mut replacing Ryder, bad news for the quality of WEEI, hopefully good news for Ryder’s career.

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  2. “Whether he works with Adams at all remains to be seen.”

    Perhaps not. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve already heard a lot of the Adams / Villani pairing.

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    1. I listened to Villani when he was at the ESPN station in Burlington, VT. He carried the show with a partner who was an older, goofy, somewhat-addled guy who brought very little sports knowledge to the table. So he would mesh perfectly with Adams (who has even less sports knowledge than his former partner).

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      1. Well, I wouldn’t say Mikey has no sports knowledge. He can discuss 60’s-era Sox teams like nobody’s business.

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  3. Ryder has always been one of the few guys at EEI that has never grated on me even once.

    Bummed to see he’s leaving, but hopefully it means a bigger/more prominent role someplace else.

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  4. Wow – talk about a lack of loyalty. Ryder was the hardest working man on Boston radio, and seemed to always be there when ‘EEI needed a host in a tight spot – overnights, rain delays, national holidays, snow storms. Carried Mike Adams on his back on a nightly basis and was the only thing that made Planet Mikey tolerable. Ryder was always a pro, respectful to callers, knowledgable on all Boston teams (Celtics in particular), and didn’t pretend to have all the answers. I’m sure some people thought he was too bland, but I enjoyed his dry humor.

    Assuming WEEI is in fact intending to hand Ryder’s hosting duties over to Muttnansky, what a stupid move. Muttnansky isn’t half the host Ryder is, but he fits the homogenized ESPN “embrace debate” mold–with his annoying fake laugh and scripted, nonsensical, faux-outrage filled “hot sportz takes”–that seems to give the Entercom brass a woody.

    Best of luck to John Ryder and hope he lands on his feet somewhere in the Boston market soon. Ordway ought to consider replacing Graig (sp?) Murphy–who adds nothing as regular cohost–with Ryder (assuming he doesn’t already have another opportunity lined up). Maybe he can at least get him on as a guest – guessing Ryder has some dirt on what the hell’s going on behind-the-scenes over at ‘EEI.

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    2. Ryder absolutely is the James Brown of Boston radio.

      He’s a little shaky working alone – he tends to race from thought to thought at the speed of light – and tries to say all of them, but as a co-host, was the voice of sanity, dry humor and intelligence on Planet Mikey. As someone else said, Ryder was never grating. Mut is the opposite of all these things. Villani has potential.

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  5. Ryder was “buttoned down” in the best possible way. Knowledgeable about the game, a straight shooter without the “sass” of the ESPN clones. I’m very surprised and disheartened by his dismissal — especially on the day when they did something right by dumping Mutt & Lou. But as it turns out, they couldn’t even do that right — keeping Lou and apparently reassigning Mutt elsewhere. No wonder why they are clueless.

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  6. Bruce…any chance we are looking at this wrong. Perhaps Ryder is leaving because he did not get Muttansky’s spot after doing the fill in/night thing for 14 years. Maybe he wanted something more stable. He would have been a good choice for a mid day long form style show.

    Anyway, I wish he well and I hope he stays in market. 98.5 could use an upgrade at nights…they could also use his voice midday if they were looking to add a little reason/baseball to that show.

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  7. I can only hope that this means Ryder will soon be a rising star at ESPN Radio like the last quality guy who got axed for no good reason….

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    1. Per Herald Inside Track:

      “Ryder is moving over to the Total Traffic & Weather Network and will provide updates for stations all over New England.”
      (http://bostonherald.com/inside_track/the_inside_track/2014/05/we_hear_maria_menounos_marty_walsh_mike_mutnansky)

      Sounds like he’ll be working alongside John “Saceman” Saucier. Hard to view this as anything other than a huge career step backward.

      Hope it’s only a temporary gig for him and he’s back working in the local sports media soon – traffic and weather updates are a total waste of Ryder’s knowledge and talents.

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  9. What made Ryder so good was you could have a have conversation with him. Whatever the topic, agreed or disagree, you could talk and debate it without him cutting you off or hanging up on you. Weei just doesn’t get it. Best of luck to you John.

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  10. Interesting story on Orway/Wolfe’s business plan for sportstalkboston.com. I was never a huge fan of Ordway and haven’t listened to the new show, so I can’t comment on the product. I did think this line was funny: “To date, their effort has been self funded and is likely to remain so for the near term.”

    Does that mean they are plugging quarters into the internet machine, a la all of the pay-for-play C-teamers they used to make fun of during the Big Show’s salad days?

    http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass_roundup/2014/05/glenn-the-big-o-ordway-plots-a-comeback-amid.html?ana=fbk&page=all

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  11. Ryder was the best. Ditto to all the good things posted about him. Always looked forward to his post game shows. I listened because of him. Now I tune into other stations. Dumb move EEI. I hope John goes on to bigger and better things.

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  12. John Ryder was one of the great things about WEEI post game and late night shows after Mikey went home. Sometimes I think WEEI is prone to making changes thinking they’re looking for a big bump only to fall on their faces over and over again. Mutt will be fine but this is change that isn’t an improvement. There are a few programs on WEEI that should end. John Ryder isn’t one of them. I never tired of hearing his steady shows and wit. He’s a lot brighter than many of their hosts. I swear the managers look at ratings and never listen to the shows. About the only good thing they tried was getting Gerry and John to stop talking politics. That’s now ended. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said enough and changed the channel. I choose sports because I’ve had it with the political scabs on the radio. Fortunately their sister station in Portland Maine is a quick button away.

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  13. Amazing, just amazing. I used to enjoy listening to most all the EEI shows, but, sadly, they’ve lost my listenership pretty much completely now. I’ve never seen a radio station fall so far, so fast, in my life. Ryder was perhaps the only remaining host at the station who was consistently enjoyable to listen to, and certainly a refreshing offset to the perpetual clown his former partner Mike Adams is.
    Ryder was the perfect mix between say, Ted Sarandis, who took sports, and HIMSELF… FAR too seriously, and Mike Adams, who spends more time trying to be funny than talking sports.
    Ryder, was, what Mikey Adams ONCE was, way back when he first came to the station, and was fighting for a job. Adams was a knowledgeable sports guy, who kept the job simple. Adams passed along his sports knowledge in an interesting way without taking it too seriously, but without being a clown. For some odd reason, once he got the job wrapped up, he morphed solely into being a laugh seeking buffoon. Once that happened, thankfully Ryder jumped on board save Mikey from himself.
    That said, I had hopes a day would come when Ryder would take over the show from Adams, since he was obviously more entertaining, and oddly on the air far more than the guy the show was named after. Nonetheless, sadly the reverse has happened, as Mikey stays and RYDER goes. Thus, the nitwits running the station will inevitably bump into ANOTHER problem they themselves have created, which is allowing Mikey to fly on his own, which I predict wont work. So get ready for the next departure to be Mike Adams.
    None of this makes any difference to me though since I’m done with the station now anyway. Good luck to the brain dead folks running EEI, and for my fellow Ryder fans, I’ll close with this positive thought, and prediction. You will not be without hearing John Ryder very long, as I predict the folks at 98.5 will pick him up in some capacity, as they seem to be far more competent and savvy at judging talent than the once mighty WEEI guys.

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