Now I am certainly not any sort of authority on how things look…but I know when something isn’t working.
You know who should also know what failure looks like? WEEI in Boston. They haven’t won a ratings book since 2018 and have tried everything from picking the Greg Hill Show off the carcass of WAAF and stealing a seemingly good young talent from their biggest competitor 98.5 The Sports Hub. They even tried shuffling and reshuffling their own lineups repeatedly. But, none of this has worked. WEEI continues to be near the bottom in the ratings in every time slot.
So what was their latest move to try and fix things? Well, even knowing their past abysmal attempts, I did not expect this kind of desperate attempt to achieve a sliver of relevancy.
As I learned from Dave Cullinane on Twitter, WEEI is doing another shake up.
So here’s their master plan: Afternoon host (and Michael Felger impersonator) Adam Jones is shifting from his show to the midday show. He will be joined by Rich Keefe, who has been a part of failed WEEI shows at three different time slots. This, in effect, is WEEI trying to take who they perceive as their most talented people and putting them against what they think is the Sports Hub’s weakest spot. Admittedly, over on 98.5 Scott Zolak and Mark Bertrand is not exactly a radio juggernaut, so I get their logic. Unfortunately, the ship has sailed on them.
Speaking of the ships sailing…Let’s talk about what WEEI is doing with their afternoon drive show. I actually laughed out loud when I read it for the first time.
They are moving writer and well known bore Andy Hart to the afternoon. That untalented walking melatonin tablet will join a guy who hasn’t drawn a rating at either station Christian Arcand, who is the sole survivor of the DOA Jones and Mego Show.
That’s it. They’re going to take the worst part of their midday show, and the third host on a show that was drawing sub 2 Nielsen ratings, and put this atrocity against the powerhouse that is Felger and Mazz.
Two good things came out of this shot in the dark. Firstly, and most importantly, Andy Gresh failed again at another station. So we won’t have to hear that blowhard anymore. Secondly, Meghan Ottolini will be moved to a “full time writer” position and will no longer be on the afternoon show.
Well, if you’re even slightly intelligent, you know this is WEEI waving the white flag. They tried to compete against the top show with three people who hardly ever worked together, and a JV version of Felger. Surprisingly, that didn’t work, like most predicted. So now they’re just punting. They’re telling 98.5 “we can’t beat you, so we’re not even going to try.”
Not only do we all know it is destined for failure, the station basically admits it. They didn’t even bother to name it. It will just be called “WEEI Afternoons”. If you’re Hart or Arcand, you have to know your days are numbered. They didn’t even put their names on it. Talk about not having faith in your talent.
This pathetic attempt to grab a few ratings on people’s lunch breaks isn’t going to work. Just like I said about Jones and Mego (which Mego blocked me for saying) it just reeks of desperation. 98.5 should be smelling the blood in the water. If they were smart, they’d go for the throat and just put EEI out of its misery. Not that it matters, the station is heading towards inevitable failure.
So what does this all change? Not a lot. Nobody is going to listen still. The ratings will be horrendous. Only two questions remain, how long until WEEI and Audacy just cut bait and change format? And more interestingly, how low will the afternoon ratings go? I’d bet we see at least a few sub 1 weekly’s and maybe even a sub 1 book.
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