WEEI afternoons: Hart and Fitzy gone

BRING BACK PETE SHEPPARD

RobertWeathers said:

BRING BACK PETE SHEPPARD

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I used to listen to The Big Show almost daily while out driving, it was usually a good show.

WhatJustHappened said:

I used to listen to The Big Show almost daily while out driving, it was usually a good show.

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Mid 90s to mid 2000s is was very good. I ran into Pete at a bar near Fenway. Good guy.

Would be nice to have an alternative to Felger on at the same time.

Free_Pacman said:

I met Jerry at the Super Bowl this year. Awesome guy.

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My wife and I were in Ft. Myers a couple years ago to catch a couple Sox spring training games, one afternoon we were at a tiki hut bar next to our hotel, I saw Jerry, so when he got up to leave I waved to him, he walked over and said hi, he was with Pete Sheppard, so he called Pete over and we talked for about 20 minutes, they were really good guys.

I liked that WEEI finally changed it up and brought in a homer to counter the contrarians of Felger and Mazz rather than more clones of Felger and Mazz like they did prior, but Fitzy was just the wrong guy. Fitzy just isn’t a compelling enough radio. Most homers are only good in smaller doses - see Fred Smerlas.

Boston sports radio sucks now, but WEEI has put on a master class of sports radio suckitude over the last decade or so. They just have no clue how to counter program the Sports Hub. It shouldn’t be that hard since Felger and Mazz’s act has gotten stale and morning and midday shows aren’t exactly power houses. And WEEI still has some of the better media guests under contract.

Speaking of the latter, I think where WEEI drops the ball is having their media guests do short segments. Most of them aren’t on the air more than 5-10 minutes at a time. Meanwhile the Sports Hub have their media guests like Albert Breer or Greg Bedard on for entire hours or more. Even if you don’t like these media guests, it at least keeps the shows fresher by giving different perspectives and bring new information to the discussions rather than three hours every day rehashing the same discussions and callers. The way WEEI has guests, it can feel canned and forced because it is clear they have a script of questions.

I didn’t hate Fitzy and Hart, I do subscribe to their show as a podcast, but I rarely listen to their show. I only do it if they have a topic I want to listen to or I have nothing else I want to listen to.

I thought they both sucked on that show. But yeah, EEI just can’t figure it out. Felger/Mazz isn’t that good of a show that it can’t be beat. They’re stale. And they all just slurp whatever Felger says most of the time. And the made up drama turns me off. Plus the fact that Felger is not a fan. It sure seems like someone could compete with them.

Fitzy was bearable, he didn’t hide his fandom… it still didn’t keep me tuned in.

I can’t remember the last time I put either sport’s talk radio station on in my car. It’s all a bunch of nonsensical blathering, rage bait and gossip mongering.

Dam shame. These guys bleed N.E. Sports especially patriots football postgame. I'm really bumming.

RobertWeathers said:

BRING BACK PETE SHEPPARD

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Up next, Smirlas and Sheppard discussing Diana Russini's cans!

Wozzy said:

Fitzy was bearable, he didn’t hide his fandom… it still didn’t keep me tuned in.

I can’t remember the last time I put either sport’s talk radio station on in my car. It’s all a bunch of nonsensical blathering, rage bait and gossip mongering.

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Agree. Used to listen to sports radio every time I popped into the car. Now I just get some cool jazz on WICN.

Boomer B said:

I used to listen online or on YouTube. Enjoyed WEEI when they had Kirk and Callahan in the mornings, and Fauria in the afternoon. My Patriots news now comes from the Zo show, Bedard, and Curran/Perry.

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I listen to the curran/perry pods. Not extra curricular BS that sport radio has become.

h0c2000 said:

Fitzy was so bad and unfunny he made Jerry Thornton appear competent.

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Yea, I never got the appeal. Weird dude.

I remember when WEEI in the morning had Imus on... time flies.

sb1 said:

I remember when WEEI in the morning had Imus on... time flies.

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I remember when WNBC AM 660 in NYC hired Imus, then when it shifted to sports talk and became WFAN.

Despite being a fan of Boston teams, I listed to what has turned out to be what some think of as the "classic era" of sports talk.

Actually there were better sports talk shows before that, but they were more serious, like Arnold Dean on WTIC out of Hartford.

Stuff like "Mike and the Maddog" on WFAN were the signs of things to come.

Eddie Andelman was a treasure.

Him and Tom Menino. They dont make em like that no more.

Triumph said:

Eddie Andelman was a treasure.

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Jambalaya!

sb1 said:

Jambalaya!

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Kowloon

I think WEEI needs to find someone completely new for the afternoon slot. They seem to just promote the night time or weekend talent to that position. It ends in disaster. Afternoon drive is a marquee time slot and they constantly fill them with back benchers and declining assets.

Rob0729 said:

I think WEEI needs to find someone completely new for the afternoon slot. They seem to just promote the night time or weekend talent to that position. It ends in disaster. Afternoon drive is a marquee time slot and they constantly fill them with back benchers and declining assets.

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Feels like they moved Jones & Keefe to the noontime slot hoping they could at least make up ground on Zo and Bertrand while essentially conceding the drive time slot. Whoever they replace those guys with will tell you how serious they are about competing along with maybe shedding some additional context on this.

Chad Finn just posted this on BlueSky:


If the above is true, then letting Andy and Fitzy go tells you they're still conceding that slot, and it was just a move to shed salary.