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Dale Arnold’s Final Show Bittersweet

February 23, 2011 By

For the first three hours of today’s Dale & Holley show, the hosts attempted to play it straight. Just another show, ho hum. In reality, it was the end of an era.

Earlier in the day, Dale had announced on Twitter that today would be the final edition of The Dale & Holley show:

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Dale Arnold has been with WEEI from the very beginning, and has had a daily show for most, if not all of that time. Today, his role changed, and going forward he will be an intermittent part of the radio station, filling in when other hosts go on vacation. He mentioned that he’ll be filling in for John Dennis the week of March 7, and will be doing multiple Red Sox and Celtics games during the first week of April.

But today very much felt like a “goodbye” to Dale. Co-host Michael Holley, who will be joining Glenn Ordway next week on the all-new “Big Show” paid tribute to Arnold during today’s program.

Then, in the final hour of the show, special guests called in – Terry Francona, Ray Bourque, Rosevelt Colvin – and clips from Dale’s play-by-play career were played, and intros from interviews with Ted Williams, Bill Russell and Larry Bird were teased. Recorded segments from the likes of Dale’s friend and mentor Doc Emrick also were played.

As the time came to sign off, a clearly emotional Arnold struggled to say anything, and there was a long pause before the show ended.

It was a nice tribute today, but only seemed to underscore how poorly Jason Wolfe and company handled this entire situation. Even those who are not fans of Dale seem to recognize that he got a raw deal in this whole episode.

Filed Under: WEEI
  • gerrynutt

    Wolfe hasn't even announced the replacements, talk about poor management descions. Don't you want people to tune in from 10-2 and know who will be on?

    Dennis and Callahan said see you next Monday and Dale and Holly ended today. Wonder if Glenn is also done today for the week? Guess we have fill ins until Monday

    I always liked Dale and it didn't matter the co-host he is a pro with all of them. He got a real raw deal.

    • Tom

      Dale represents everything that is wrong with EEI. His disdain for callers( especially those who disagree with him) is quite apparent and he is thin skinned, arrogant and condescending on a daily basis. It's hard to respect anyone who is such a rump swab, fan boy. His love for Terry Francona & Theo is over the top & he is afraid to criticize anyone in either of the Red Sox or Patriots Organizations.

      In all the years of listening to Dale I can't think of one time he came up with an original idea without recycling it from another host/ media member. He also never said anything that made me laugh, not once.

      Dale should be extremely thankful he lasted this long & should stick to Play by Play which he is actually pretty good at.

      • mandb97

        Bruce, would you like to take this one?

        • http://twitter.com/awesomeneil @awesomeneil

          I'll take it for him.

          It's true. Dale all too often takes the side of the management of the major sports teams. Also true is that he tends to speak with a little condescension in his voice when addressing a caller with a dissenting opinion (of which, I would venture to say at least 60 percent actually ARE complete morons anyway).

          We know these things to be true because Dale allows you to voice your opinion on his show, not talk over you or guffaw with his partners who "actually played the game." You may not always agree with his opinions — if you did, it would NOT make for good radio — but you could always hear calm balanced sports talk on the D&H and before that D&N show. Is he kinda dorky? Yup. But he was a good, patient, versatile talk show host who played well off whoever his partner was (Andleman, Neumeier or Holley).

          And if "Dale represents all that is wrong with WEEI," does that mean Merloni or Mutnanski or John Risch or whoever represents all that is right with WEEI? No way. Just wait. After a couple of weeks of the new brew, you'll miss Dale, whether you actually liked him or not.

        • mandb97

          Well put.

      • Jason_Coyote

        I've been reading many posts like this over the last week about Dale, and there's only one reason I can come up with that there's so much venom and animosity directed at the guy. Today's society has become so cynical and jaded (and for most New Englanders, also swirled in with a healthy dose of sarcasm) that it's hard to believe that someone who possesses goody-goody Ned Flanders-like traits can actually exist in the real world. But if anyone comes close, it's Dale.

        Tom, while I agree with you that Dale's play-by-play skills exceed his ability as a talk show host, I think you and others here don't recognize someone who is a consummate professional broadcaster. Contrast that to the way Pete Sheppard has conducted himself over the past week, it's like night and day.

        • Tom

          Jason

          Being more professional than Pete "The Meat "Sheppard is like being the taller midget. Just because Dale may be professional doesn't make him entertaining or interesting. Sorry but Boston sports listeners deserve better than Dale Arnold.

        • mandb97

          Sorry Tom I'll take a show with well thought out opinions, good give and take with and between the hosts. When you compare D&H with the other shows on WEEI it's no contest. D&H was much better then any of the other shows on WEEI.

        • Tom

          D&H may very well have been the best of the bunch but again that's not saying much. As for "well thought out opinions" from Dale? It's pretty obvious he never had any original ideas or opinions( Dale should have been nicknamed the Recycler instead of Larry Johnson) and was the biggest ball washing ass kisser the Boston Media has ever seen. Whether you like him or not, that is indisputable.

        • mandb97

          Again, well put Jason

        • http://www.facebook.com/anthrocoon Bob Nelson

          Pete's twitter reply to bostonradio's tweets about Pete's all caps rant: Pete0326: @bostonradio Another tweetie tough guy in print but in real life has no balls. Any place anytime jerkweed. D-bags like you r a dime a dozen

          (give him credit.wasn't all caps)

        • guest

          Does anyone else see the irony in a man who ostensibly wants to talk for a living constantly suggesting physicality as a means to settle a difference of opinion?

      • ML

        Well said Tom. I'm sure Dale is a nice guy but on air he was a total fraud and was far too much of a suck up for my taste. You're right, he wasn't funny at all and rarely said anything that made you stop & think.

      • Tom

        I must admit I enjoyed a chuckle listening to the first 20 seconds before I muted it. How old is he? Reminds me of a little boy who didn't get his way on his "last show," as he did it the only way he knows how: boring. Holley gives him this whatever kudos roll call, but you know Dale is thinking: Holley got his job. And that's the way it works in the world of sports media, every man for himself.
        And writers? Well Simmons, King, Ryan, and a few others set the mark. Simmons, even with his faults which ironically work for him, as he is smart enough to laugh at life's folley's. McMullen is nothing flashy, but very solid, as her work with Bird alone deserves credit.
        Sorry Bruce, know you like Dale, and don't mean to rain on your parade.
        That said, and since I am taking time to post on an internet chat page for the first time since basically the C's won in 08', ashame the C's couldn't get Battier, he's the perfect guy for this team, spot up shooter, tough kid, solid D. Just tonight 3-5, 2-3 in 3's and a few of this and a few of that. Perfect player for this team.

        • Jack

          It sounds like Tom was one of the moronic callers with some stupid theory that Dale gave short shrift to. How about it? Were you one of the guys who wanted Youk to play short? Oor maybe you're the guy who thought Rondo should get cut?

      • Tony

        As I've said before, my only critique of Dale's career was his constant apologizing for the extremely cheap way the pre-salary cap era Bruins conducted business. I mean, you had an owner who, back then, openly stated that "winning a Stanley Cup (was) not (his) main goal," and Arnold basically defended him to the ends of the earth. That said, I completely understand why he did it: the B's were essentially signing his paychecks since he was their play-by-play man, and you don't bite the hand that feeds you, at least not publicly.

        Otherwise, I thought Dale was fine. I didn't really find him condescending–certainly not like old Teddy S. was in the evenings anyway.

        My guess is that he'll turn up on radio again somewhere.

      • Jack Edwards

        Other than the fact that you think he's a good play by play guy, which I would disagree with, I couldn't have said it better myself.

  • Joe

    I formerly tuned into WEEI 6-8 hours a day while driving and at my desk while working, but now only tune switch over from 98.5 during the D&H show. I removed WEEI from my presets today after Dale signed off, they've likely only got me during the Sox games when I'm on the road. Great job Entercom.

  • Guest

    It is not the end of an "era". The guy worked the lunch shift for over a decade, which is radio's version of working in the mail room. For 9.5 years he had little serious competition; his ratings began to vaporize as soon as another legitimate sports station arrived in Boston.

    The market will validate whether Dale is legit. For now, he is relegated to an intern role, picking up the odd time slot and PBP here and there. My guess is he will end up calling mitey mite games somewhere up in Maine.

    • http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com Bruce Allen

      Dale and Holley were the only WEEI show still regularly beating their 98.5 competition. Their ratings didn't vaporize at all.

  • Edso

    Dale's gone, and I Mut not listen anymore from 10-2.

  • guest

    There guys my last reason for listening to WEEI…I had to tolerate Dennis and Calla-Klan's hate/bigotry to get their exclusive interviews, but this was just the impetus I needed to discover 98.5

    Big 0 show gets good guests and he may have his tired act saved by Holley

  • profootballwalk

    How is this poorly handled? When you get fired, it's generally not a picnic. He's had a long run, and he's a big fan of Bill cut-veterans-before-they-fade Belichick. In this business, he's been on since God ha pimples.

    For me, Arnold runs the gamut from harmless to petty and annoying. I can't say I've ever listened to him work and thought "Yeah, he's reallly perceptive." He was perfectly fine doing hockey games – you didn't have to get to know him in that role.

    One Dale Arnold Moment I remember: a guy gets on the line, and says "I'll ask my question and hang up and listen." Dale says "I HATE IT when that happens! This is supposed to be a dialogue!" The rant continued for quite a while. Evidently, Arnold doesn't know that we actually listen to him Callers routinely get half a sentence out before Arnold talks over them to make a point that answer what HE THINKS they're going to say. He won't even give them the courtesy to get one complete sentence out before he needs to win the debate. And if they should try to keep talking, he just raises his voice and steps all over them.

    And the guys who say something and then hang up on him? How dare they? Of course, they hang up on guys and then bash them for minutes on end, and that's perfectly all right. Or they blow them up and then laugh at them. But should a caller drop a snarky comment and then hang up suddenly, you'd think the world had ended. I won't miss him at all.

    Bring back Nuemie!

    • mandb97

      Here is how it was poorly handled. Dale was actually doing a good job. Unlike D&C and Ordway, D&H were actually beating their competition. Ask yourself how you would feel if you were doing good at your job while the person next to you was a slacker and you were let go because it may help the slacker? I bet you would a little upset. That is essentially what happened here Dale Arnold lost his job because Glen Ordway was bad at his.

      As far as getting upset when someone says, "I'll hang up and listen." Holley would say he hated it more than Dale.

      Finally, I disagree with you on Dale talking over others. What made Dale and Holley different from D&C, The Big Show and Mikey is that they actually let those callers get in what they want to say. I actually caught about five minutes of the Big Show. Ordway, Smerlas and the caller were all speaking over each other for at least a minute. You had no idea what was being said. Rob Bradford had the sense to step away from the mic.

    • tl;dr

      So, you don't like Bill cut-veterans-before-they-fade Belichick…what players outside of Asante Samuel and perhaps Richard Seymour have come back and hurt the team either on the field or by their absence?

    • http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com Bruce Allen

      First of all, he wasn't fired. It perhaps would've been the better thing for him had he been.

      Second, everything else you say happens on every other sports radio show in the known universe, but it's only Dale that draws the wrath of people?

      • tl;dr

        I've seen a lot of wrath directed towards the Big Show and D&C since the announcement. Usually by Day-al supporters. i think, just like the love for Shepard, people have always felt that way about Day-al but didn't really care enough to voice their opinion until he was (for all intents and purposes) canned.

      • profootballwalk

        I'd be happy to give you more wrath, but this is about Arnold. In fact, Holley generally doesn't jump in and step on callers, though it certainly has happened.

        Actually, it certainly is hard to find good ratio hosts. Personally, I favor Scott Van Pelt on ESPN. I listen to the show on the internet, and the professionalism is so far above any Boston show that there's no comparison. I don't share his love of college basketball, and I can't stand the golf talk, but that's a matter of taste. Van Pelt is a calm, amiable voice of reason, without the pettiness of Arnold.

        I'd be happy to have Neumie back. He could be kind of goofy, but I never had reason to dislike the guy, and sometimes that's good enough. And Ordway and Holley sounds like the trainwreck that Ordway and Neumie is.

  • Bill

    Bruce, great job of summing it up. Yes Dale aggrevated me sometimes, but I don't know where the venom is coming from. Just a thought. When the inevitable last day for the Mutt Man and Meeter comes, does anyone think a similiar all star cast will call in to wish them luck?

  • Angry Old Bastard

    Dale was OK, I'm not going to lie and say I thought he was great or anything, nor did I dislike him. Having said that, I thought Holley was a little over the top in his "farewell"

  • mandb97

    I disagreed with Chad Finn's article "What signal is WEEI sending?" He said, "The 54-year-old Arnold, whose on-air persona is that of a friendly but hardly hip uncle, may have lost some appeal to the younger demographic…" Finn also went on to say that D&H were not really doing all that well ratings wise. He pointed out that G&Z beat D&H 4.5 to 4.4 in August and in some of the narrower demographics G&Z were winning.

    Here is what I do not get with what Finn said. Finn believes that Arnold had become out of touch with the younger audience. The question then why would WEEI match Holley with Ordway, who is older then Arnold, has never been accepting of new media like blogging, and has become a running joke with the way he flip-flops. Finn never shows how badly D&H were being beat in the narrower demographics but made sure he showed the the one month G&Z won overall. Finn does not like the way Dale broadcasts. The problem is Finn seems to assume that the majority agrees with him.

    It was funny how Ordway was willing to talk to Finn about the new partnering with Holley. I remember Ordway spending an entire show bashing Finn for his legendary Lowest Common Denominator piece a couple of years back. Ordway said two things that were actually laughable. He said, "If you don’t change in this business, you’re screwed,’’ Funny it seems like people have been complaining about Ordway well before 98.5 went on the air. The mistake made by Ordway and WEEI is that the ratings were high so the belief was that everything was okay. The reason why the ratings were high was not because of the quality of the broadcast. It was because Ordway talked sports in a sports crazed city. It would take less than one year for F&M to lead the ratings. Finn also had a chat on Boston.com and Ordway told him he flip-flopped to move the argument along the various guests. Ordway said this with a straight face.

  • Jason_Coyote

    To reiterate gerrynutt's thoughts, it's more than a little odd that with a new midday show set to debut in five days, no hosts have been yet named for said show. As the 'Number One Sports Radio Station in America', that's hardly the way you'd expect them to conduct business.

    Is it possible that Lou Lou Lou has Mr. Wolfe over a barrel, or does the former utility guy want to continue in that type of role, making his own hours? Is it also possible that Sheppard refrained from throwing EEI under the bus in his FB rant because he's the fallback option if Merloni's demands are too high?

    • mandb97

      Jason, you're right. I find it funny that there has not been an official announcement yet. Could Sheppard actually be in the mix?

      • http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com Bruce Allen

        It's possible, yes. Likely? Probably not.

  • mandb97

    Jason Wolfe had a chat at the end of last week. Wolfe is either incompetent at his job or not good at telling the truth, probably both. Wolfe said he takes the competition very serious. I don't buy it. I believe he and Khan were popping corks when they first knew Felger was going to leave for 98.5 and take the 2-6 slot. The reason is that Wolfe and Khan truly believed Ordway would bury F&M. Why? because Ordway had already defeated Felger when Felger was at 890am. What Wolfe does not seem to get is that 890 had a signal with the range of a postage stamp. That shows you Wolfe is poor at analysis. He also said that he always listens to what listeners have to say. Well if he did that, then he would have changed Ordway's format immediately. Listeners and critics have long been upset with Ordway's show. Instead Wolfe felt that everything was fine and now Ordway is steadily getting beat. Finally, Wolfe said he and Dale are still great friends. I think that one will go in the lie category.

    • Jason_Coyote

      Wolfe and Kahn were probably also popping corks because they were able to retain Merloni's services. How's that been working out for them this week?

      If Wolfe says he and Dale are friends, he probably believes that. But I'm certain the feelings are hardly reciprocal. Memo to Jason: denial ain't just a river in Egypt. And why is he holding a chat after all the spit hits the spam, yet has nothing to announce about the new midday show?

      Seriously, how many management bungles can this guy endure? Look at everything that has happened under Wolfie's watch at RKO–the Howie Carr contract debacle, losing Rush, not to mention the AM abomination that is the former house speaker.

    • Corbin

      Jason Wolfe is a moron whose "success" at WEEI was directly – and solely – linked to the fact that (A) said station peddles a sports-talk format to a sports-obsessed region, and (B) until the launch of The Sports Hub at 98.5 FM, WEEI's competition in the sports-talk category had been limited to stations with miserable signal-strength. No sooner did The Sports Hub launch with a decent on-air line-up broadcasting over a strong signal and, lo and behold, WEEI's brand of lowest-common-denominator sports-chat suddenly had a fight on its hands.

      Bottom line? Jason Wolfe was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. Nothing more, nothing less. Now that he actually has to try and do some meaningful management of the programming content at WEEI, he's going to be exposed for the overmatched nitwit that he is.

  • Chris

    Dale is one of those hosts who won't be really, truly missed until a period of time goes by. Then, people will lament how there 'Ought to be someone like Dale Arnold on the radio.' As for Nuemie, PLEASE, no. He is irritating beyond all bounds and ought to have all doors slammed in his face.

    • Jason_Coyote

      Speaking of Neumy, he and Felger were having a boffo debate tonight on the CSNNE Baseball Show. Bob kept condescendingly laughing off Michael's claims that the Sox should've brought back V-Mart instead of Ortiz. If that exchange wasn't awkward enough, the segment ended with Neumy shaking hands while Felger didn't even look at him.

  • jamiefolk

    Wolfe just reminds me of every bad manager I have ever had. An inpersonal dick that doesn't care about people and only numbers. He bases his decisions purely on business. Replacing Dale makes sense from a business point of view. Bring in the young guy and send the old one packing. Dale is rock solid. He brings professionalism to the table and he is very easy to listen to. The two guys coming in are unknown. I think it is going to fail, badly. In typical bad management fashion, Wolfe will not be fired. He has run RKO into the ground and is doing the same with EEI. I doubt the owners will wake up until the sports hub beats them up and down the dial. Now is their chance.

  • Chad Finn

    mandb97, i think i can explain a few things from that article a little further.

    – I don't believe Dale is out of touch with any particular audience. I hope it wasn't portrayed that way. I'd go so far as to say Dale probably was as well-liked across various demos as anyone on EEI, Holley included, and the feedback I've received about him has been overwhelmingly in his favor. And personally, I like Dale — I grew up listening to him calling Maine Mariners games in the late '70s, and the man paid his dues. But, midday matters very little in terms of the revenue it generates; morning and afternoon drive are much, much more important/lucrative, which is why the guys like Ordway, Dennis and Callahan make the huge bucks while there's turnover in the midday (at least with Neumy) because the money just wasn't there.

    So in that regard, it made sense to move Holley to afternoon drive for a couple of reasons. What they were doing felt stale (a word Ordway used himself); whether you like Holley or not, he's energetic, prominent and opinionated, and with his contract up in March and considerable leverage in his corner, it made sense for them to move him to a higher-profile spot. Why that came at the expense of Dale, I'm not entirely sure; I like Mutnansky, but Merloni and Arnold would have been a good show, too. Maybe they thought Dale would quit, though the fact that they gave him 25-30 Red Sox games indicates a genuine desire to keep him at least until his contract is up. But there's no doubt that they do need to trend younger — men 25-54 is far and away the most important demo — and maybe that is what they see with Mut and Lou, even with Dale's general appeal. And Glenn? You have to give him credit for being extraordinarily smart, not to mention having a great sense of timing — he signed a five-year deal for over a mil per year in January 2009. He's not going anywhere.

    – As for the notion that Dale and Holley were still winning their timeslot — well, yes, generally. But again, it's midday — if it's not an afterthought compared to drive time on either side, it's close. If breaking them up to give the Big Show a chance to start winning some rating books against Felger and Mazz, it's probably the wise thing to do, even with the backlash from Dale and Holley fans. And beyond that, Dale and Holley killed 98.5 when it was Tanguay and Zo. Since Gresh has taken over, 98.5 has done better. I wish I had all of the numbers in front of my right now, but it's generally been pretty close month-to-month, with D&H winning by a share point or two. The gap had been narrowed, and again, it's probably worth sacrificing Dale and Holley's steadiness to repair what's up with afternoon drive. In regard to the other demos, I won't say they don't matter . . . but they don't matter a whole hell of a lot compared to m25-54. It stinks that the broke up what a lot of listeners, myself included, thought was their most enjoyable show. But business-wise, it makes sense.

    – Yes, everyone from WEEI is being very nice to me these days. I assume there was a memo. Hell, I almost fell out of my chair when Ordway told me I had some things right in that infamous column you mentioned. But I have to appreciate the access, and in occasional cases, the candor.

    – Chad

    • latetodinner

      Thanks for the posting Chad…let's assume for a second that the midday business is irrelevant to the station (a supposition I am not willing to concede in real life but I will for the sake of this discussion), WEEI breaks up the only team they have that is holding its own to make Ordway's show younger and more accessible. As you contend it is all about the numbers. If you are correct that the midday revenue is irrelevant then why not keep Dale and give him a new partner? This is where i think the argument falls apart. It is easy to justify moving Holley to the drive time with Big O. Someone at WEEI sees Holley as a talent…something I completely do not see but I am not the boss. In the mean time over the last 20 years Dale has carried Eddie, Neumy and Holley to remarkably consistent ratings and revenue. It could not have been a coincidence. Yet in its infinite wisdom management is demoting/marginalizing Dale for what is as of yet an unannounced replacement show. You are telling me a Dale Arnold/Bob Ryan show would not have buried Gresh and Zo? Or a Dale Arnold Tom E Curran show? Or a Dale Arnold and Susan Waldman show (assuming they got a little creative)? There were a ton of options. They choose to pull Dale off the air with 2 years remaining on the contract. You are the media reporter ask the harder question…why pay him prime time rates to do weekend fill-ins and a little extra play by play for two years. If the firing of Pete Sheppard was all about saving dollars (something a few of us doubt greatly but which the full story has never been told) then why waste dollars on over paying Dale…especially when they did not have to. Maybe there are other things we do not know about. Maybe he is more political than we know. Or maybe Wolfe and Kahn are clueless. Speaking of which…

      It seems to me they were caught with their pants down, when you leaked (or they trial ballooned) Mutt and Utility Lou. I can't think of another talker in the Boston market who has had the out pouring that Dale generated. Life will go on, but if it is Merloni and Mutansky they will feel like fill-ins until real hosts are eventually hired.

    • mandb97

      Thanks for responding Chad. It's nice to know you can be critical without someone from the media have a conniption fit over it. I'm sure you know a few in your business who can be that way. I grew up with Dale and for that matter Mike Emrick as well. The first thing I will disagree with you on is that your LCD article was not infamous. It was famous. Everything in the article was true. You wrote what the majority was thinking about WEEI. It's just a shame that it was laughed at by the station. I think they are full of regrets now.

      I think Ordway tried to sell you a bill of goods. He told you that the show felt stale. I wonder when that epiphany occurred? I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was when he was starting to get beat on the ratings and Jason Wolfe called him into his office to have a chat. Glen had plenty of time to change his format. In fact, your LCD column, which came out before 98.5, hit home on what a tired format The Big Show had become. Ordway and management ignored what the majority of listeners wanted because they knew better than us. WEEI would tell you the ratings were great. Why Change? They did not get the fact that they were the only game in town in sports crazed market. As far as Ordway being smart, I'll disagree with that, strongly. Ordway was lucky that his contract expired when it did. He is also lucky that Wolfe and Kahn have shown just how incompetent they are as managers. It seems like they were napping when it came to the possibility of a new challenger in the market. I honestly believe that if they knew about 98.5 they might have thought a little more carefully. Jason Coyote, a poster here, pointed out how WRKO has started to collapse under Wolfe's leadership. I said in an earlier post that Kahn and Wolfe thought Ordway would kill Felger. It never occurred to them though that Felger was broadcasting on a signal that went as far as across the street from 890. It amazes me that Kahn and Wolfe still have a job. One more item with regards to Ordway, you should not have been surprised that he was cordial to you. Glen needs all the positive pub he can get and he will say anything to get that. I do not believe for one moment he was truthful with you.

      With regards to Dale and Holley, I honestly think if they moved that show to Ordway's slot they would be number one. I would not call Felger and Maz Mensa radio. Felger was saying today that Shaquille O'Neal was the reason for Kendrick Perkins being traded. Take in that stupidity for just a minute. I get the money they paid for Ordway is a lot, but sometimes you need to actually listen to the customer and admit you made a mistake. EEI could have put Ordway on in midday but at least he would be working five days a week. WEEI could have still given Holley the exposure he needs and has earned and not break up what was a great show. As latetodinner put it, you now have a host who is making a lot of money in Arnold and he is now working part-time. Right now WEEI has guaranteed that they will now lose three out of the four slots.How Mike Adams winning his slot is a mystery we may never be able to answer. Dale and Holley may have not had the big lead they once had against G&Z but unlike their counterpoints D&C and Ordway, they were winning. I disagree with you Chad on Mutnansky. He, unfortunately, has started to take the Dennis/Ordway persona of being a blowhard.

      P.S. 1 Chad, I caught you on WJAB a couple of days ago. You were really good. It is amazing that two local shows out of Portland, Maine are so much better than what is on in Boston.

      P.S. 2 When you see Greg Bedard walking around the office, can you please tell him that whining and moaning about access to the Patriots is pretty unbecoming. He now needs to work. He should have known what it was going to be like to cover the Patriots before he got here. Maybe he should talk to Mike Reiss about what it takes to cover the team.

      P.S. 3 Felger and Maz need to know that even though they have higher ratings, does not mean their show is any good. They will need to change their format of saying the most asinine thing imaginable on a daily basis. Eventually, they will not have Ordway to kick around anymore. I firmly believe Ordway will not make it through this contract. F&M may have to face a show with two good talents instead of one, Holley.

  • Jason_Coyote

    With sports radio conversation dominating the board, I can't help but post this clip from ESPN's Outside the Lines about WEEI's monopolistic days…interesting to watch this now.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAWOLowEU4A

  • tl;dr

    What the heck is that in Day-al's Twitter pic?

    • Tom

      Visions of Tito & Theo dancing in his head.

  • Classless

    I guess to close out this discussion, I'm just puzzled as to why some of the same commenters on this site have done a 180 from disliking Dale to saying "they've always liked him". My stance on Arnold is unpopular, but it's my honest opinion. I've noticed the herd tend to echo the final comment Bruce usually writes on his post (in this case, directing criticism at WEEI managment, which is warranted).

    But one thing I can agree on is the Mutt and Merloni show will be far worse than Dale and Holley.

  • HighWireNickEsasky

    For those who haven't seen Larry Johnson's touching trace…er tribute to Dale: http://www.weei.com/weei/larry-johnson-cartoons

  • docmichaels

    I wonder how many listeners who dont pay much attention to this type of thing will be shocked on Monday when Mutantsky and Meloni come on the air for the first time. I don't think the reaction is going to be too positive either…you wonder if they wont field a few calls with "they replaced Dale with YOU guys?!?!" type sentiments.

    I almost think Wolfe and EEI havent announced anyone because they're afraid of the reaction. Either that, or it's still up in the air…or perhaps whoever goes into the slot is a temporary one for the time being?

    No matter how hard I try, I still cannot wrap my head around a bland, cliched talker like Mutantsky having a weekday show in a market like Boston.

  • EvilStaceyJames

    Why all the free time between 10 and 2 Dale(whistles)?

  • http://twitter.com/talesofgoodell TalesofGoodell

    It doesn’t matter what WEEI does to their line up. Until they have a strong FM signal that reaches more of Massachusetts they don’t have a chance.

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