Re: WBCN axes rock format - going to all sports (on 98.5 as WBZ-FM) to compete with W
First, to be more knowledgeable than most of guys on WEEI, you have to know the difference between the 3-4 and the 4-3. Very few of the guys on WEEI know a lot about football. Holley knows the most with the regulars. Sometimes I wonder if D&C know anything at all. I'm unsure about Pete Sheppard because the next time he says something intelligent, it will be his first. Big O knows a decent amount and so does Dale. As for the guests hosts, all the non-football guys are painful to listen to about football.
As for his contrarian alter ego, it can be contained since he was one of the biggest Patriots cheerleaders prior to 2006. You are wrong when he started to become a contrarian. It started when Borges started to come on his 890 show and the phone calls exploded every time he was one and then he disapeared from the show when he got in trouble for his plagiarism article. That is when Borges Jr. really came in. Felger realized that people loved to hate Borges and Borges was more successful because of it.
As for Felger bombing, it wasn't exactly all his fault. If you lived outside of Boston, you couldn't get his show after 4:30 in winter because the signal was so weak that it wouldn't go far after dark. Kinda hard to be successful when your audience can't get the radio station. I doubt he will have to worry for a while because even if he isn't successful, WBZ has the money to keep him around in the role he served at WEEI.
Felger morphed into an unhappy prick the day Holley's book came out. That was right after the 2003 season ended and we won XXXVIII. He has never gotten over that. While he was dutifully penning Tales From the Sidelines or whatever it was that never sold, Holley landed a bestseller that landed him the prime gig as Dale's sidekick on the #1 rated sports station in the country...
That was when Felger perceived the handwriting on the wall. He needed to get into a new line of work before his old line closed down under him. So he began appearing on WEEI not as a football guest analyst but as a fill in and weekend co host. Until the weekend when while co hosting with Pete he went off on Pedro (who as it turnes out was missing a start against the Yankees because he'd been hospitalized all day) and the Sox that got him temporarily placed in time out. But it was worth it because that noteriety alone landed him a gig on FSNE and eventually the ESPN radio gig. Which he began blowing even at the outset because in attempting to become a multi-mediot to rival Big O he was spread so thin he lost contact with the team. He had no time to be at Gillette so he relied on Herald eyes and ears or ESPN's or his contrarian buddies at PFW or just created his own uninformed insight off the cuff. Couldn't even finish his own radio show most days because he was racing to the FSNE studio. He left his frat boys to cover that last hour.
He also began alienating players by baiting them into saying things he could twist on air. Got the punter in enough trouble he stopped showing up. When Kraft did the deal with ESPN to allow for Patriots Friday, BB countered by sending Felger the kind of guys who couldn't be baited. Towards the end they nearly came to blows. Nobody trusts him nowadays because they can smell his desperation to succeed. They don't begrudge him, but they aren't gonna let him screw them in his quest. In 2002-2003 he and Brady were friendly enough to share rides. After he repeated something Brady told him off the record on WEEI (where he was increasingly feeling the pressure to prove he knew things to seperate himself from their other mediocre talents) Brady stopped talking to him too. Ditto BB who back in the day treated him as he does Reiss these days. Bill is always willing to talk football with those who are genuinely interested and aren't looking to stab him in the back to get ahead. Which is also why Holley remains an insider. Holley is able to convince people he knows things without violating trusts. Felger lacks that self confidence.
Sports radio is never going to be all about football. If you believe that is what WBZ has in store for you just because Felger is coming aboard then you apparently missed much of his former and present gigs. Felger will talk whatever sells, including smack. He's not in this to be perceived as intelligent or worthwhile, he's in it to get ahead any way he can. He lacks Holley's temperment and polish and timing, so he resorts to frat boy humor and smash mouth analysis to cover for his shortcomings and fill airtime. If I thought he had the capacity to take a step back and work on his new craft I'd welcome a more well developed version of the 2001 Felger to radio. But he has shown no such inclination. If anything nowadays when reigned in, say by pairing him with Holley, he projects as dour and constrained. When left to his own devices he reverts to juvennile or hypercritical form.
Lately WEEI has made a move away from all but a handful of the better known mediots. Guys like LJ or Burt barely get any airtime. Guys like Dauber and Lou were brought aboard to talk baseball and they've reduced the number of Buckley stolls down your grandfather's memory lane or McAdam monotones fans have to endure. Merloni in particular, can more than hold there own talking football. Max is both hillarious and insightful on Celtics talk. The new entity should take that page out of WEEI's playbook. Even DeOssie, if seperated from Fred and steered clear of politics, could be a very legit, insightful and well connected football oriented co host. The day of the reporter turned insightful analyst is waning. The new generation of players in all sports is ripe to be mined. It's a little early for the Patriots since former players of value are still either employed or lack the necessary polish or temperement. Tedy would be a hoot. Troy would still need a strong supporting cast. Zolak has his moments but it's like he's been overcoached to be an entertainer. Burton and Roach are gonna struggle with All Access because they're conditioned to either anchor or break news. And for all his pedigree, Burton is a far better anchor than analyst.
Sports talk radio can be funny and insightful. Sometimes WEEI is. Nothing is ever going to be perfect. WBZ doesn't sound like they're positioning themselves to remotely raise the bar. It can be done, just not with the kind of tight assed and equaly annoying attitude McDonough's egocentric son brought to the mix. Remy saved his ass on Sox broadcasts. Absent that he was borderline insufferable on 1510. The bar can also be lowered, and that is what Felger ultimately did the last time someone gave him the keys to a radio studio.
In the present economy, given the dearth of advertising dollars, I just don't see another sports radio station as being a sound long term investment, let alone when you're stocking it with a bunch of failed retreads.
