Is local sports talk radio becoming irrelevant????

[PatsSox363804]

A better question would be, has sports talk radio ever been relevant?

I guess it depends on how you define "relevant." Do they have any effect on the outcomes of the games in which they speak? likely not, although there is a small possibility that one of them can get under the skin of some player(s) and cause them to commit a stupid play/penalty. Do they have a large draw with the public that many of us use to make work go by faster? Absolutely. Boston has 2 sports radio stations, which frankly seems absurd given that it's all opinions and callers yelling at the hosts but they get a ton of listeners, myself included.

And, not necessarily talking to you here, but people need to stop complaining about the Red Sox coverage. Theo going to the Cubs is big news, sorry it is. I'm a huge Sox fan and I'd rather be listening to Pats and Bruins coverage right now too but I know that this is a big deal and they are going to cover it. Bad things are more interesting on the news, regular news, sports news, etc. They arent going to spend 4 hours breaking down Pats vs Steelers as much as we'd love that they would lose the casual fans.

 

[stcjones]

Would not surprise me if Lou Merloni is Boston's #1 radio sports personality within 3 years.
Honesty and smarts combine with insights from his professional playing career.

You're kidding......right?

 

[PatsDeb]

One of the reasons I was so happy to switch to 98.5 (other than reception in southern NH) was that they talked Pats a lot. This morning I tuned in on my way to work, and even though Gresh and Zo are broadcasting from Gillette it's all about John Lackey, Theo Epstein and Ben Cherrington in that order. One is leaving town for more than a year, one has left town and one just got his job yesterday.

The biggest laugher was them discussing how Red Sox Nation was thrilled that John Lackey was going away for 12-18 months and no one would have to talk about him any more. They then proceeded to talk about him for the next 15 minutes, with no hint of stopping, until I changed the channel. To music. During football season. With a big game on the line this weekend.

Big disappointment that 98.5 is becoming WEEI redux. They were different when they started, which is why I switched, and I think a lot of other people did too. Too bad they have reverted to tired Boston area sports station form.

 

[yukon cornelius]

BECOMING irrelevant?

WEEI has been formulaic for years; even the big show isn't as entertaining as it used to be

i have never heard anything really worth listening to on 98.5, but i only listen when i travel south - the sample is small, but....


boston sports media are the most parasitic lot i've ever seen - the good & true journalists in the crowd are few and far between; in such a sports rich market they could do some real solid work (a la Sirrius NFL, which i think does solid work); instead they follow the howie carr model of talking out of their arse, tearing into to everyone, and generating controversy

pretty useless, the whole lot of them - and print media is marginally better

 

[E Belichick Unum]

Would not surprise me if Lou Merloni is Boston's #1 radio sports personality within 3 years.
Honesty and smarts combine with insights from his professional playing career.

Just ask him, he will agree with you.

:singing:

 

[E Belichick Unum]

Leigh Bodden is on 98.5 right now.

I spend 2 1/2 hours a day commuting to and from work. Yeah, Bodden will be on, and then Felger will go back to the Bruins and Maz will fixate on baseball; did you know that Maz was a member of the BBWA?

I have talked to Orway on occasion and complained that they were talking baseball nonstop during football seasn and he insists that he only talks what the callers want to talk, then the other day he opens his show with the question "Why isn't anybody upset about Theo leaving?" and then talked about boring baseball for an entire Patriots Monday. The only break was when a player showed up, then right after it was back to baseball.

This is the problem, baseball is a 7 month sport, 5 of them are exclusively baseball. By the end of july, I am sick of baseball, I can't listen to it anymore, and I really don't give a flying fu@k who threw what kind of pitch and who ate chicken in the clubhouse. Baseball is the most boring of all 4 major sports, a game made to be broadcast on radio and used as a distraction from life. They could lop 50 games off of the schedule and they would still be playing too many games. Today they are talking about money and the Red Sox, Lacky and the Red Sox, Cherington and the Red Sox.

I found a college radio station that plays music, that is what I listen to most of the time, Howie Carr sometimes, but the minute I hear anything about the Red Sox I have put on something else. I reached the saturation point months ago and detox may take years.

 

[IllegalContact]

my biggest problem is that all of them are so damned predictable......

their opinions are stupid.....only football players have any meaningful insight because they are completely familiar with the daily grind, but the rest of them, felger above all, are a joke

 

[Don_the_patfan]

It's pathetic that they dont talk football. Hit them in their pockets just DONT LISTEN period.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I spend 2 1/2 hours a day commuting to and from work. Yeah, Bodden will be on, and then Felger will go back to the Bruins and Maz will fixate on baseball; did you know that Maz was a member of the BBWA?

I have talked to Orway on occasion and complained that they were talking baseball nonstop during football seasn and he insists that he only talks what the callers want to talk, then the other day he opens his show with the question "Why isn't anybody upset about Theo leaving?" and then talked about boring baseball for an entire Patriots Monday. The only break was when a player showed up, then right after it was back to baseball.

I tried to avoid this thread but I flipped to EEI on Patriots (sic) Monday hoping to hear Troy Brown and I heard Ordway as they were going to ads etc. on the hour break say something like, "We've just GOT to spend the next hour discussing all the big breaking Red Sox stories". They drive the Sox talk. Click!

 

[Deus Irae]

It's pathetic that they dont talk football. Hit them in their pockets just DONT LISTEN period.

I tried to avoid this thread but I flipped to EEI on Patriots (sic) Monday hoping to hear Troy Brown and I heard Ordway as they were going to ads etc. on the hour break say something like, "We've just GOT to spend the next hour discussing all the big breaking Red Sox stories". They drive the Sox talk. Click!

1.) They talk plenty of football

2.) The need to spend the time getting the Sox stories because that's what on people's minds. Well, that and Gronkowski getting his picture taken with a porn star. Sorry, but I'll take the Red Sox talk over a bunch of idiots calling out someone for getting a picture taken.

3.) The comment made by Ordway, if I recall correctly, was basically setting up how they were going to run the show. The next hour was going to be baseball, and that was going to be followed by football. It's not uncommon for shows to do that.

3.) Football topics on the radio already today:

Gronk & Slut

Brady's P.C.

Belichick's P.C.

Generalized discussion about Patriots/Steelers


I'm not sure what more you all think they should be talking about off the bye week.

 

[Don_the_patfan]

1.) They talk plenty of football

2.) The need to spend the time getting the Sox stories because that's what on people's minds. Well, that and Gronkowski getting his picture taken with a porn star. Sorry, but I'll take the Red Sox talk over a bunch of idiots calling out someone for getting a picture taken.

3.) The comment made by Ordway, if I recall correctly, was basically setting up how they were going to run the show. The next hour was going to be baseball, and that was going to be followed by football. It's not uncommon for shows to do that.

3.) Football topics on the radio already today:

Gronk & Slut

Brady's P.C.

Belichick's P.C.

Generalized discussion about Patriots/Steelers


I'm not sure what more you all think they should be talking about off the bye week.

Deus been listening for a while now it's red sox talk central. Lets not give them an out and say there is only the Gronk story to talk about as that is not true. It's Pats-Steelers week I think there is more then enough to talk about if you actually wanted to have some football talk. Lazy way out is TMZ stuff and sox soap opera.

Why name it "patriot's monday' when it's Wilfork interview, BB interview and as soon as those are done it's back to baseball?

 

[Joker]

here's a pic of my cat, Ordway...

and here's the demographic of EEI stating the prevailing opinion shared by the radio audience........

 

[Rob0729]

Deus been listening for a while now it's red sox talk central. Lets not give them an out and say there is only the Gronk story to talk about as that is not true. It's Pats-Steelers week I think there is more then enough to talk about if you actually wanted to have some football talk. Lazy way out is TMZ stuff and sox soap opera.

Why name it "patriot's monday' when it's Wilfork interview, BB interview and as soon as those are done it's back to baseball?

They call it Patriot Monday because they pay the Patriots for that right and the interviews they get. They are obliged to do that even if they ignore the Patriots for the rest of the day other than the interviews.

 

[Deus Irae]

Deus been listening for a while now it's red sox talk central. Lets not give them an out and say there is only the Gronk story to talk about as that is not true. It's Pats-Steelers week I think there is more then enough to talk about if you actually wanted to have some football talk. Lazy way out is TMZ stuff and sox soap opera.

Why name it "patriot's monday' when it's Wilfork interview, BB interview and as soon as those are done it's back to baseball?

You're not being honest about what you're hearing on the radio and why, that's the reason. They're talking football as well as baseball.

 

[Uncle Rico]

Wow, 8 pages. Didn't expect that. S I guess the answer to the OP's title guestion is "yes."

 

[Deus Irae]

Wow, 8 pages. Didn't expect that. S I guess the answer to the OP's title guestion is "yes."

Indeed.... The local sports talk radio is so irrelevant that we get thread after thread complaining about the topics and quality on the local sports talk radio.

 

[PATSNUTme]

You're not being honest about what you're hearing on the radio and why, that's the reason. They're talking football as well as baseball.

I guess I have to believe you instead of my lying ears?

It got so bad with the Desparate Housewives talk, every time I turned on WEEI (WPEI up here), that I started to scan and found a new very good music station.

Every time there was patriots/football talk it lasted a couple of minutes and they, not the callers, would go right back to the Pink Hats. The only time it's been worse is when they :spygate: about steroid in baseball, and went on for months.

 

[Deus Irae]

I guess I have to believe you instead of my lying ears?

It got so bad with the Desparate Housewives talk, every time I turned on WEEI (WPEI up here), that I started to scan and found a new very good music station.

Every time there was patriots/football talk it lasted a couple of minutes and they, not the callers, would go right back to the Pink Hats. The only time it's been worse is when they :spygate: about steroid in baseball, and went on for months.

They just talked Flacco, Gronk, and Faulk, including a discussion of 2-back sets with Faulk back. It's not that they don't talk football, it's that people hear what they want to hear.

 

[PatsGuy]

I guess for me, the irrelevancy of local sports talk is whenever im driving home from work, and can get the signal, more times than not i have on WFAN. Even at work on my PC it usually is FAN rather than EEI of 98.5. Francesa generally goes through callers quickly and given the shear numbers, you generally get, but not always, quality and varied talk.

 

[everlong]

77 replies and 1800+ views as of this time.......it's not irrelevant.

I understand they're going to talk Red Soxs. It's just the timing that kills me. Monday after the Cowboys win I get in the car after the gym and both stations talked Soxs and more specifically Theo and Beer-Gate the entire way to work minus the Esiason interview on EEI.

So I get in the car to go home and once again the entire way home it's Theo and Beer-Gate.

The day after an actual sporting event they would rather do the TMZ thing and talk about the off field drama issues.

That in it's essence is what's wrong with sports radio and the sports media in general for me. It's not about the games. It's about the drama.

Felger and Maz had Neely on and 75% of their questions were about Jacobs pocketing money vs spending to the cap. I understand the question and why it needs to be asked but that should be a 10% at best. The rest of the time they spent trying to bait Neely into saying Kaberle was the worst trade deadline acquisition ever (DUH!).

This entire week it's not the Steelers it's Porn-Gate with Gronk. Talk about the biggest non-story ever that they just want to play for forever.

It's not about sports. It's about the low hanging fruit and what sells for a large segment of the public. I would rather they have guest on all day who can actually talk strategy and about the games but it isn't happening.

So it is what it is. I still listen for that 10% of the time they do what I want. I end up flipping on to music and coming back to see if they're doing anything worth while after they've pissed me off.