2011 98.5 - WEEI Love/Hate Sport Talk Radio Opinion Thread

[IcyPatriot]

About time Ordway was held accountable for sucking.
With any kind of luck the Big Blowhard will quit ... could us WEEI listeners be that lucky?

Ordway's salary dips with ratings - Boston.com

A drop in the ratings has led to a drop in salary for Glenn Ordway.

According to industry sources, the longtime WEEI host had his reported $1 million annual salary cut in half by station owner Entercom earlier this month.


The company took advantage of a clause in the contract Ordway signed in January 2009 that gave it an out if his afternoon drive program, “The Big Show,’’ failed to meet a certain standard in the Arbitron ratings.

Sources said Entercom could opt out of the contract if “The Big Show’’ failed to finish among the top three stations in the Boston market for a particular demographic in a specific number of consecutive Arbitron books. “The Big Show’’ finished fifth in the men 25-54 demographic in the spring book with a 5.5 share. In the winter book, it was fourth (6.1).

 

[Jackson 2]

About time Ordway was held accountable for sucking.
With any kind of luck the Big Blowhard will quit ... could us WEEI listeners be that lucky?

Ordway's salary dips with ratings - Boston.com

Hard to imagine that someone as woefully horrible at what he does commanded a $1m annual salary. And now, it's been reduced to a paltry $500,000. What a joke.

 

[BigMike]

Ordway will be gone at the end of the year, after another ****ty ratings book...stick a fork in him, he's done.

The question now is who does EEI pair Holley with; Holley is very good IMO. Those EEI nitwits are now privately searching for the new Ordway, 30 years younger and about 150 pounds lighter...

 

[Rob0729]

Ordway has turned into Eddie Andelman. He is the old guy with the tired format who's act has grown stale and cannot adapt to the change in the medium. I'm surprised that WEEI didn't hold off to the FM simulcast until after they could get out of his contract. Ordway is doomed for a hard fall since he probably doesn't have many supporters in WEEI management from his "aggressive" negotiation tactics in his last contract negotiation.

The question is who can they get to pair with Holley to compete with Felger and Mazz. Hopefully, when they do dump Ordway, they don't screw this up like they did the midday show.

I know Dakota from Braintree must be scared right now because what other host will take his call and listen to his BS? Personally, I always thought he was an Ordway plant to say ludicrous things on the radio to get the callers all heated.

 

[Rob0729]

Hard to imagine that someone as woefully horrible at what he does commanded a $1m annual salary. And now, it's been reduced to a paltry $500,000. What a joke.

He benefitted from years of being the only afternoon sports talk show host for over a decade in a big sports town. The introduction of 98.5 (the first real competitor to WEEI with any signal to speak) exposed him as being a guy people listened to because there was no other option rather than people actually liked him.

To be fair, Ordway did help to revolutionize sports talk radio in this town and across the country in the mid-90s. The problem was he got lazy and out of touch with the changes of the industry.

 

[DarrylS]

I am starting to listen to 98.5 more and more, cannot stomach D & C, find Munansky and Merloni insufferable... so now listen to Toucher and Rich in the AM... even though cannot stand Zolak and Gresch, but even they are better.

There needs to be a different way of doing this... Ordway has gotten more and more irrevelant.

 

[Dutchmaster617]

Re: OT: Show host rap battles on 98.5

These guys talk down on the Sox 24/7, I must be the only Boston fan that saw an avg Giants team beat Philly and Texas rather easily too, Sox have a great chance.

But these same guys said that the Bruins were done and couldn't beat Vancouver. I just take it because the music stations are horrible.

 

[BigMike]

somewhere Janet Prensky is chucking at Ordways demise....

 

[PatsFan24]

The only guy I listen to is Scott Ferrell on SiriusXM 101. Weeknights starting at 5pm pacific. The rest of them seem to take themselves too seriously.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

"Movin the Chains" on SIRIUS is great NFL radio

 

[patfanken]

What strikes me the most here is the diversity of opinions. Its unfortunate that sports radio at BOTH stations has been reduced to a mind numbing cacophony of formulated consultant induced blather. My suggestion is to concentrate your listening instead to Patriot.com Radio. It will solve your listening issues at least Tuesdays through Thursdays 12-6pm or any time via podcasts

Good Patriots talk in all three 2 hr shows, though Andy Hart makes me sad to be a Tufts grad when he goes into his bullying, homophobic,, know it all, "I win the argument because I can talk louder and fatser than you can", constant self promotional, shtick. However when he doesn't to that crap, he can be capable of offering good insights.

But for the most part they give you a 6 hour respite from the noise on the public airwaves. The bad news is that the more popular they get, the more formulated they become, where each individual plays a role rather than just talks. John Rook and the old ESPN stat guy segment on Thursdays shouldn't be missed.

When I'm in the car and I HAVE to listen to either station, I tend to listen to 98.5. Toucher and Rich make me cringe sometimes, but they also make me laugh out loud as well. I really like Zoe, and I can tolerate Gresh most of the time. 10 minutes is usually my Felger and Mazz limit, which is 5 minutes longer than anything not an interview on WEEI And the day D&C get kicked to the curb, will immediately become an annual holiday for me. The only things I listen to from WEEI are selected interviews off their web sight.

BTW- I always find the Rich Eisen Podcast very entertaining as well.

The bottom line is that with all the new technologies and NFL podcasts available, one can take a large chunk of what used to be spent listening to sports radio, and access better stuff over the internet and 4G.

 

[PatsDeb]

I listen to 98.5, but at least now I will flip over to WEEI since they recently joined modern times by grabbing an FM handle that can reach 30 miles north of Boston. I am getting tired of all of them, though. I don't want to hear about the Red Sox and their epic collapse (who couldn't see that coming 2 months ago when they all started dropping again like flies due to injury). It's non-stop repetitiveness ALL DAY LONG. When 98.5 first came on, they were the flagship of the Pats and the Bruins, and I thought they devoted a lot more of their programs to them. Now they have reverted to typical sports station form, talking about the most negative story of the day and BEATING IT TO DEATH.

I stopped listening for one second to the morning show on EEI many years ago. Toucher and Rich I can at least tolerate, although they are more frat boy than sports.

I want to hear about football only at this time of year. It should tell these stations something (but it won't) that I find myself flipping back to music about 50% of the time this time of year. Usually I give up music for football season.

 

[DarrylS]

The best I have heard in a long time was when Ordway was on vacation, and Dale Arnold had Troy and Tedy B as co hosts... real intelligent football conversation, that transcended any of the other hysteria...

In much of this, the medium has become the message and overall cannot take as much as I used to be able to..

All I want is intelligent football talk, no agenda's just football talk..

 

[oldskool138]

.

I want to hear about football only at this time of year.

The Sox are in the midst of a historic collapse. The sports talk stations wouldn't be doing their job if they weren't talking about it. Meanwhile, the Pats continue to be awesome...there's not much of a story there from their perspective.

 

[Raymond]

Wow. Ordway makes far more than he is worth IMO, even with the cut in pay.

I'll listen to both stations, and switch to the other when I'm irritated for all the reasons stated in this thread.

But I've found, if you listen to nothing but sports talk radio, it all begins to suck.

 

[Jackson 2]

He benefitted from years of being the only afternoon sports talk show host for over a decade in a big sports town. The introduction of 98.5 (the first real competitor to WEEI with any signal to speak) exposed him as being a guy people listened to because there was no other option rather than people actually liked him.

To be fair, Ordway did help to revolutionize sports talk radio in this town and across the country in the mid-90s. The problem was he got lazy and out of touch with the changes of the industry.

The very fact that for a long, long time he was pulling in monster dough in the absence of any serious competition speaks to WEEI's mismanagement. Where else was he going to go?

 

[Jackson 2]

The best I have heard in a long time was when Ordway was on vacation, and Dale Arnold had Troy and Tedy B as co hosts... real intelligent football conversation, that transcended any of the other hysteria...

In much of this, the medium has become the message and overall cannot take as much as I used to be able to..

All I want is intelligent football talk, no agenda's just football talk..

You're right - that was tremendous radio with Arnold, Troy and Tedy.

 

[JaxPats]

:rockeron't like either anymore. I prefer to get all my FACTOIDS here at Pats.com And the bafoonary is so much better.

 

[jefmblrd]

The Big Show becomes interesting when they have the "Third Man In" days with people like Tedy Bruschi and Tom E. Curran. I still think Dale Arnold brings something to the table and don't understand his dismissal to fill-in.

Over at 98.5, I like listening to Zo and Gresch when they talk about football. That's about it.

 

[farn]

Here in southern Nova Scotia, we can easily get 850 AM from the car, so I listen to a lot of WEEI. I wish we could get 98.5 but even on the computer, it's inaccessible.

Yes, WEEI has its flaws, but they could be quite good with a few minor changes. They got too ****y and that is hurting them.