If ever you’ve listened to afternoon sports updates at :15 and :45 past the hour on WBZ radio, you’ve heard the voice of Tom Cuddy providing the latest sports news, usually followed by a Paul Harvey-like anecdote somehow tied to the world of sports.
You won’t be hearing those stories any longer, as Cuddy has been laid off by WBZ as part of the latest round of cutbacks at the station.
Cuddy had been with the station since 1985, prior to that, Cuddy worked at WRSV Radio in New Hampshire from 1973 to 1976, WSLE Radio in New Hampshire from 1976 to 1977, and WXKS (Kiss 108) in Boston from 1982 to 1985.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Cuddy attended Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury and went on to Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
He also had a brief stint on WBZ-TV as a weekend sports anchor. He has also formed his own freelance radio service.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Some of the postmortems about Tom, coming from inside WBZ, aren’t too kind. It seems upon reading them that he was a curmudgeon and rather disagreeable to many of those around him. It makes you wonder how someone lasts that long to begin with. I mean, saying that ‘Boston beat St. Louis 3-2′ a few times in a given morning doesn’t require a Mensa candidate.
PRobably a LIEBeral. Desurves to loose his job. If he can’t get work here then he can always move to a place where there is work. BUY A CHEAP TRUCK AND SNOWPLOW and STOP COMPLANEING ABOUT A RECCESHUN!!!
You had me until “RECCESHUN.” That’s trying way too hard.
This lazy nobody mailed in his half-A## reports for far too long. Any semi-literate high-schooler could have done his job and saved us from his grating puns.
Grab a hammer and a toolbox and get a real job in the real world. Many similar fringe media types will soon be hitting the bricks and we are all better off for it.
As a listener, not an employee of WBZ—so I know nothing about him being a curmudgeon—I wish they had laid off semi-senile Gil Santos. During the 2004 Olympics I grew weary of Santos’ abbreviated Olympic reporting, which consisted mainly of saying how the US finished in an event. He often didn’t say who won the event at all. So, I sent him an email asking him to report who won the gold. He wrote back that Americans didn’t care who won if it wasn’t an American. Add to that his mangling of Patriots’ games over the last two years. Cuddy could at least talk coherently.
I have no clue how some of the radio people have careers.
He has been working at WBZ for over 20 years. What expertise does reading the sports reguire at WBZ? It’s tough compiling all those AP, UPI, AND CBS reports.
Do you have a vague understanding of the pronunciations of local players’ names and understand a few concepts of sports? Then you are hired to do 45 seconds of the same shit every thirty minutes.
WBZ should just every year hire some college kid who can speak good to offer up a bunch of scores, then drop him. NEXT!
And this effected your life how?
As a former BZ employee, Tom Cuddy was the one person in the entire building who NEVER introduced himself, never smiled.
He was a miserable individual. And I’m sure there are very few people upset that he’s gone. Harsh, I know…but what goes around comes around I guess.
I worked at WBZ Radio several years ago. Tom Cuddy wasn’t my piece of cake. I certainly am not a fan of the puns.
That said, he is a human being. What has Tom Cuddy ever done to you losers? A man just lost his job. He did the job his employers wanted (puns and all). Otherwise, he would have been canned years ago.
If it’s so easy to be a sportscaster in Boston, send a tape to WBZ. You’d obviously like the job, you jealous jerks.
So if the job is such cake, why aren’t you a sportscaster? Because you weren’t willing to fight like a dog for five or ten years making minimum wage in the boon dox for a shot in one of the most competitive markets in the country. And you didn’t have the talent to make it either.
So shut up. I hope you keep your job through this economic mess. Belated Merry Christmas, jerks.
That needed to be said. Thank you. I don’t get the hate.
They lead pathetic lives so they rip on others. I seriously doubt Gil Santos receives/sends e-mails.
I’ve actually traded emails with Gil for an article in Patriots Football Weekly, so I know he can do it.
Bruce, I would love for you to give the backgrounds of some of the media members in Boston. If they have come up over the last 10 years, they have all had tough roads. Many have worked in measley markets, moving regularly, fighting their way through the labyrinth to get a full-time gig with benefits. Frankly, the most talented people don’t always last because they have other options. No one promises you anything. You have to REALLY love the work to deprive yourself financially and socially (working nights, weekends and double-shifts on holidays) for years. I refused after getting burned out after seven years of 60-plus hour weeks in three markets, making no money.
I know one guy who is still in the business had his car repossessed in a station parking lot several years ago. I understand he had a cushy family business to fall into and decided against it. You see him regularly, but I am sure he still doesn’t have a full-time gig.
Many of the people who complain may work hard, but most never deprived themselves to chase anything that was their dream. They are jealous and probably wouldn’t be if they knew what they would have had to do to make it.
And when they do “make it,” very few make Ordway dollars, or anything close.
Another defender of the LIEING LAZY MEDIA.
I like to point out those that don’t do there JOBS!! I like to ENFORM because the media CAN’t OR WON’T. I’LL never get laid of or have to take a pay cut and if I do it will be someone elses fault. NOT MY FAULT!
THIS IS 1USMULE TIRED OR CARRYING PEOPLE ON MY BACK!
I believe it was WTSV radio in New Hampshire, not WRSV. I grew up in that area and remember him from back then on WTSV. I see the WBZ web site is wrong too, so I don’t blame you. But someone should correct this error. The poor guy won’t even be remembered properly.
With all due respect, I believe that most of you are out of line. It is very hard to hold a job in the shape the economy is in. Add that to an already competitive and strenuous industry. Lay offs happen. Not just in media, they happen everywhere. It doesn’t neccessarily mean you are terrible. But stations are forced to maintain their top-selling talents, and if Cuddy wasn’t a top-seller, that doesn’t make him bad. If you think it’s so easy to get a large-market job in media, be my guest, send in a tape. You’ll be in for a surprise.
Wow, it’s amazing how many people like to comment that someone should lose their job just because you happen to not like the puns or someone says he is not a good guy because he doesn’t talk to you. Up until Veterans Day (laid off)this year, I had been an employee of CBS Radiofor 23 years 14 years with WBZ and worked pretty close with Tom Cuddy for several years. Yeah he is a tough nut and your typical New Englander that rarely talks to anyone. But NO ONE worked harder on getting whatever needed to be gotten for the air product. No he did not suffer fools very easily and he didn’t really want to be your friend. He came in, did his job, added a few puns which sometimes were funny and other times were not (isn’t that what puns are). But let me tell you something, there are a ton of people in that radio station and especially the TV station that wouldn’t say hello to you. While walking along the long atrium, there were many people that would keep their focus to the floor so they would not have to even recognize that someone is actually there. I often would force them to recognize my presence with a nice forceful “hello”. It was painful for them. So don’t judge someone you don’t know because others say something. Judge him on his work and for me, Cuddy was always the true professional on the air. 23 Years on WBZ would tend to speak loudly about that!
Having worked at WBZ many years I can attest to
Cuddy’s sour disposition. I’m sure no one is sorry
to see him go. And by the way, Gil Santos is retiring
at the end of January. My guess is that his position
will not be filled.
I JUST READ ALL THESE COMMENTS ABOUT CUDDY AND I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW ANGRY PEOPLE ARE.YOU SAY HE WAS NOT FRIENDLY, WELL READ YOUR OWN COMMENTS AND HE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ON BZ FOR 23 YEARS IF HE WASN’T GOOD..I’M REALLY DISAPOINTED TO READ THAT GIL SANTOS IS RETIRING. I LOVE HIS PATRIOTS PLAY BY PLAY AND I GUESS THAT MEANS HE’S DONE HIS LAST PATRIOTS GAME , THAT’S TOO BAND . HE’S GREAT AND A NICE GUY TOO. I TAKES A LOT OF TALENT TO BE A GOOD SPORTSCASTER AND I THINK SPORTSCASTERS GET MORE COMPLAINTS THAN OTHERS BECAUSE FOR SOME PEOPLE , SPORTS IS THEIR WHOLE LIFE.. STOP BEING SO ANGRY AT OTHERS, FRED
Let me tell you something as someone that knows this guy ( not as a friend, but a competitor) & this industry pretty well. It’s an industry that full of butt-kissing,lazy,disloyal sycophants. Some of the laziest people I know work in this industry.
Cuddy is perceived as a curmudgeon by some, and to an extent this is true, but not because of a some holier than though attitutde. He is extra-ordinarily well-liked by – and is quite outgoing and friendly with – people that can do him no good whatsoever professionally. Not a wise move professionally, but a testament to his charachter. He has no use for BS in an industry where BS is a pre-requisite to success.
He works very,very hard, knows the game(s) inside and out, and has been around long enough to be able to offer the sometimes goofy anecdotes.
Also, he consistently speaks well of almost everyone he associates with in the industry.
Tell me how any of this merits the kinds of thrashing he’s reciviening on this website?
So what if Tom wasn’t touchy feely and hugged people when he walked into 1170? So what? If you were his friend it was great, if you weren’t, oh well, write something caustic about the man then. Tom had a great job that every bleeping college communications student would give his or her left leg for. Were some of his puns painful? Sure, but he made an effort to be informed and entertaining at 15 and 45. He did a lot of nice things for me, even if I too, felt his wrath more than once.
Tom Cuddy is the best leave him alone just goes to show you 24 years of dedication gets you a boot out the door
How’s those ratings now BZ? Listening to BZ today is like listening to someone reading from the newspaper. I guess maybe Cuddy did a little more “legwork” than some people would like to admit.
Tom Cuddy is back at WBZ in the afternoon – When did this happen and Why?
They wanted him back. Ratings went down.
To those of you who are bashing him, I am his neice.
He is one tough cookie, but he is one of the most hardworking people I have ever met.
As someone said in an earlier post,
he doesn’t need to be all friendly.
wanna know he? He is there to do his job.
Not make friends, or to suck up.
The guy doesn’t need to do that.
The people that worked iwth him and hate him,
you probably only don;t like him because you wanted his job.
He didn’t need to suck up to get where he was, and you probably did. soo screw you.
do that.