Another reason why Sportstalk Radio has descended to the cesspool...

[aluminum seats]

You’re joking, right? I admit that Boston sports radio has its problems, but it’s nothing like the cesspool that is WFAN in NY. Your local god, Mike Francesca, is a doddering old fool who doesn’t have the first clue what he is talking about.

As for professionalism..... well, get back to me when a Boston sports radio personality faces potentially 40 years in jail for running a Ponzi scheme.

Here’s another great example of NY sports radio “professionalism”:

Joe Benigno’s threesome come-ons in middle of WFAN’s frat-house lawsuit

https://nypost.com/2018/07/18/wfan-host-joe-benigno-accused-of-sexual-harassment/

Just talking about what I hear on the air, not any behind-the-scenes stuff. And like I said, plenty of idiots on the airwaves anywhere. It's just the last time I visited Massachusetts I really noticed how lame it sounded, and the Felger/Maz stuff people here post is really cringe worthy.

Just what I've noticed, I don't have a dog in the fight. Maybe Boston sports talk isn't as bad as it seemed to me.

 

[maineman209]

Politics is no different, and all of that is leading us to ****.

"WINNER"!!

 

[cmasspatsfan]

Agreed. Zolak seems intimidated by Bertrand.

I dont think hes intimidated I think the higher ups dont want positive talk, negative talk riles up the listeners and they call into the station and voila, ratings. Theres a reason why they're number one and it's not because their knowledge of sports.

 

[borg]

Another reason why the conspiracy driven local sportstalk radio sucks, I find myself over time listening less and less.. from the rantings early in the morning, to Bertram spouting conspiracy theories while Zolak seldom interjects to the afternoon shows.. all are shadows of what they once were... very seldom informing, but always inflaming..

This segment may take the prize...


Tony Masserotti on Kyle Van Noy: “Oh, God. Last year he SUCKED. Please! And the year before he sucked even worse. It’s Two Degrees of Suck.”

Mike Felger on Kyle Van Noy: “I don’t like him. … To me, it’s personal. I’ve never met him, but every time he opens his mouth I’m like ‘You are a tool!’ You are an ASS. Every time I hear him talk I’m like ‘Where did that attitude come from? You SUCK. And if it wasn’t for this team you’d be covering punts in Detroit. You SUCK! Where do you get that attitude from?'”

Bizarre hobby....monitoring and transcribing verbatim a media form you claim to despise.

When I despise an entree included on a vast menu with scores of choices, I don't order what I dislike and then tell fellow diners how much I hated it.
But that's me.

 

[borg]

Felger's a whiny douchebag of a human being, and you've just given him more publicity, over a non-issue that happened to stick in your craw.

I'm not sure you thought your plan out very well.

Actually...Darryl's plan was to borrow Jerry Thornton/Barstool's hot take on this non-event, posted on 9/13, and pawn it off as another scintillating Darryl original.
Barstool Sports

 

[anditsgood]

Listening to Mazz and Felger is your first mistake , next is Tomase

 

[CheekyDave]

That was Eil Schleifer, on WUNR maybe? Small station, great sports talk, he always hung out at the bar at Daisys

 

[CheekyDave]

Bob Ryans article about Sportscope.


They're all gone now. I hope Eli, Teddy, and George are watching all this Sox action from That Great Sports Bar In The Sky.

George Bent was the oldest, but he was the last to go, passing on last week at the age of 86. He was a Triple Eagle (Boston College High, Boston College, and Boston College Law, for you outsiders) and a lawyer, but he also made a mark as a talk show host. For Eli Schleifer, Teddy Sullivan, and George Bent formed what many of us believe was the best sports talk panel Boston radio has ever known. Well, the best since the legendary WHDH "Voice of Sports," anyway.

But that WHDH show was strictly a discussion show. No callers. "Sportscope" was a talk show, and no talk show in Boston radio show history was any better. With all due respect to Guy, Lobie, Uppie, Eddie, Mark, Jim, The Big O, Dale, Michael, Mikey, Michael, John, Gerry, and anyone else who has ever put on a sports talk show in this town, no show ever attracted the consistent high caliber callers that the unpretentious, modest, no budget "Sportscope" did on those long ago Sunday nights from 10 'till 12.

They came to us from WUNR, at the extreme right side of the dial. I mean, 1600 is as far as you can go. There wasn't much of a signal, so the audience was small. But as Spencer Tracy said (more or less) of Katherine Hepburn in, I believe, "Adam's Rib," "There's not much meat, but what's there is cherce."

George, as I said, was a lawyer. Teddy was a schoolteacher who wrote a novel about school teaching entitled "Good Morning, Please." And Eli, well I don't know how to describe Eli.

Eli said he was a reformed gambler, and really don't know how he supported himself. It certainly wasn't from "Sportscope." He was a smart man and an educated man and he was a faithful patron of Daisy Buchanan's.

He was a huge football fan and a huge Pats fan, and it was simply not fair that he died in December of 1991, pre-Tuna, pre-Drew, pre-Belichick, pre-Brady, pre-Super Bowls and pre all the great stuff that's been going on down there in Foxborough of late.

Their own on-air discussions were spirited, lively and never mean-spirited. There would be, in other words, practically no place for what they did today. And what they did best was inspire clever, witty, fascinating people to call. There has never been anything like it, before or since.

They treated sports with intelligence and humor. They had fun adopting the New Orleans Jazz when that team came into being, and they once sponsored a bus trip to see the Celtics play the Jazz in Springfield against the Celtics, back in the day when the Celts did not play all 41 home games in the Garden. I wrote a column about that trip, because if a bomb had gone off on that bus, a hugely disproportionate percentage of Boston's most knowledgeable sports fans would have been blown out of existence. it was a rolling Phi Beta Kappa chapter of Boston sports fans.

George Bent's chosen role in the trio was the Designated Curmudgeon. And, God, did he look the part, with that weather-beaten face, that steely grey hair and those wild, untamed, John L. Lewis eyebrows. George was a born contrarian, but a mischievous one, not a nasty one.

He did not care for the Red Sox. He had been a Braves fan, and when they left town he stuck with them, even as they perambulated to Milwaukee and Atlanta. But that was nothing compared to this: he preferred Wilt Chamberlain to Bill Russell. You can imagine the discussions that sentiment provoked.

The great sporting love of George's life, however, was high school sports. If you are 40 or over, and played high school football in the Greater Boston area, the odds are very good you had George Bent as a referee at least once. The last time I saw George Bent, in fact, was a Thanksgiving Day several years ago, when I walked into the White Stadium press box, and guess who was operating the clock? Yup, George Bent.

Here's a "Tip Of The Hat" to the memory of "Sportscope." Around here, it has never gotten any better than that.

 

[dafoe2016]

I never listened to those clowns. Have tuned into WEEI once or twice since Holley left. Don't miss it and don't like what it has turned into. Not just the local scene but the national talking heads. They are even more ridiculous.

 

[Gronkowski123]

Callahan rules! Don't like Kirk though....Or Tomase and Alex Reimer. Yikes!

 

[captain stone]

...Malcolm Butler had a dustup with Stephen Belichick before the SB that is why he was benched...

That's actually the most plausible reason I've heard so far.

After reading this thread I'm starting to believe that it's worth it to pay for Sirius radio.

I think it is. I love it.

No question.

Moving the Chains from 3-7pm Eastern on Sirius NFL radio is the best block of football talk anywhere in the world.

 

[DarrylS]

I was waiting for Dale Arnold to come on the air when WEEI turned on the station all those years ago, and I listened for many years between 10 & 6 (as I never liked the morning shows and had a hard time listening to Ted Sarandis). I would never say Boston sports radio was great, but it was certainly a great deal better than it is now, as I can't even listen to it for more than a couple of minutes. You'd think either one of the stations could put together a decent drive-time show at least, but between Merloni, Fauria, Felger and Massarotti it's just painful.

When I lived in Maine at the beginning of this great run, could never get WEEI so when I came back to RI could not wait until I got to Southern Me. to start to pick up a very staticy WEEI... even though they often spoke over each other and had contests about who can yell the most.. I thought Ordway, Smerlas and DeOssie at least tried to inform the listener, but at that time there was one sportstalk station..

Since then it has pretty much hit the crapper.. I enjoyed Dale Arnold, not only because of his tendency to be civil, but he partnered with Michael Holley for quite a while who I thought was the most knowledgeable guy about the Patriots for quite a while.. now do not know what to make of Keefe..

They partner with angry dudes like Shaughnessy who spends his life trying to trip up BB with the claim that the fans want to know, this fan does not need to know all as I for the most part trust the judgement of the HC of the NEP...

Sportstalk used to inform and help me understand some things I never understood, now it is much less so.. the same for many other sources of media, all I want is good info so I can process and understand things better.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

I'm a bit of a youngster here (26), honestly curious, was radio ever good?

It was funnier. And, it was more fun, because the hosts did not take themselves seriously, mostly put sports in the proper perspective, admitted when they were wrong more, and rarely stood on a mountaintop defending their opinions to the death at all costs. Upton Bell & Bob Lobel were good. Upton is a really personable guy and a nationally recognized, accomplished radio host. Bob's loved around here, for his common sense takes which gave the "regular guy" public a voice. I ran into him a couple times and he was extremely friendly, even recently while he struggles with his health.

My dad was pissed once when Lobel was doing TV play-by-play for a Pats preseason game, and he kept screwing everything up. But to me, Bob never purported to be a good announcer. Same way Brett Favre never promoted himself to be a genius.

Um, but Bob's not that popular with players...just ask Bill Buckner...
Sports final: Legendary Lobel signs off - The Boston Globe

Notable New Englanders: Sportscaster Bob Lobel

But to answer your question, it's yes a million times. Radio, especially from the 20's to the 50's, was the means of information and entertainment in the U.S. Even through today, it's how most non-rich, working class, ordinary folks stay in touch even while they're working or driving. We got spoiled in Boston, with Bob Wilson, Gil Santos, Ned Martin, Ken Coleman and a bunch of others not only doing play-by-play, but interviews and hosting as well. Johnny Most was mandatory listening. Even if you weren't interested in sports.

Here's a little sample for you, chock full of no-so-subtle insults and put downs, racy double entendres and slapstick:

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

They partner with angry dudes like Shaughnessy who spends his life trying to trip up BB with the claim that the fans want to know, this fan does not need to know all as I for the most part trust the judgement of the HC of the NEP...

Like the army of "Patriots fans" who insist to this day that Bledsoe should have been put back in, just like Berry did for Eason in the 80's.

For all the good he did here, Raymond Berry set the franchise back to the Stone Age and caused the on field collapse in the 90's by starting Eason every time, and benching and then dumping Flutie.

 

[Jackson 2]

That's actually the most plausible reason I've heard so far.






Moving the Chains from 3-7pm Eastern on Sirius NFL radio is the best block of football talk anywhere in the world.

It's excellent.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

He was a huge football fan and a huge Pats fan, and it was simply not fair that he died in December of 1991, pre-Tuna, pre-Drew, pre-Belichick, pre-Brady, pre-Super Bowls and pre all the great stuff that's been going on down there in Foxborough of late.

Yes but Eli was spared the ignominy, humiliation, embarrassment and indignity of seeing our logo and uniforms destroyed and replaced by the very unholy abomination we booed into orbit from our stadium, perpetrated by evil, malevolent rich Patriots-haters.

 

[DarrylS]

Like the army of "Patriots fans" who insist to this day that Bledsoe should have been put back in, just like Berry did for Eason in the 80's.

For all the good he did here, Raymond Berry set the franchise back to the Stone Age and caused the on field collapse in the 90's by starting Eason every time, and benching and then dumping Flutie.

And then there is sore ass Borges who believes he was somehow betrayed by BB after Bledsoe went down and Brady became the QB...

My theory is and has been that for so many years most sports teams in this area languished in mediocrity and the scribes rose to the top of the hierarchy of sports knowledge (Gammons, McDonough et al) and when BB, Doc, Stevens, Francona and others who led their organizations to championships and excellence the scribes were knocked off their lofty perch. Because they lost their status they have had sore assess ever since..

Nothing more they would like than for BB to somehow fail... then they could all sing in unison, "We Told You So"...

 

[Family]

My theory is and has been that for so many years most sports teams in this area languished in mediocrity and the scribes rose to the top of the hierarchy of sports knowledge (Gammons, McDonough et al) and when BB, Doc, Stevens, Francona and others who led their organizations to championships and excellence the scribes were knocked off their lofty perch. Because they lost their status they have had sore assess ever since..

I disagree. What is going on with sports reporting/talk is not different than all journalism. I can't even read established media sources because when reporting news, everything is spin and agenda.

The stronger the opinion; the more clicks, higher ratings blah blah blah. Mainstream media is a circus, sports and otherwise.

 

[captain stone]

...Nothing more they would like than for BB to somehow fail... then they could all sing in unison, "We Told You So"...

He has, and they will.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Felger is screwing with the audience. He making excuses for the Patriots.