They got the dreaded “late Friday afternoon press release” but Mike Mutnansky and Lou Merloni were officially named as WEEI’s new mid-day show, replacing the Dale and Holley show.
Rising Stars To Take Over Middays on WEEI
(Boston, February 25, 2011) – The WEEI Sports Radio Network today announced their next step in a bold new programming lineup. WEEI is pairing two of Boston’s rising stars Lou Merloni and Mike Mutnansky to form the “Mut and Merloni,” show which will debut Monday, March 7.
“Mut and Merloni,” will air weekdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The new show will precede “The Big Show with Glenn Ordway and Michael Holley” which starts on Monday.
“Our mission at WEEI is to continue to provide the most informative and entertaining sports radio experience for the best sports fans in the country,” said Julie Kahn, Vice President and Market Manager at Entercom New England. “Lou Merloni and Mike Mutnansky are breakout talents. These new lineups make us stronger than ever throughout the broadcast day and position us to be dominant for years to come.”
Mutnansky and Merloni have established themselves in supporting roles on WEEI and are poised to step into the spotlight that comes with having their own show.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
Wake me up when they hire a real local talent like Ryen Rusillo.
LikeLike
If EEI wants to win the ratings battle forever, create the Rusillo and Dennis show.
LikeLike
“Lou Merloni and Mike Mutnansky are breakout talents"……….really?…..I'm glad Julie Kahn said that or I would have never known.
LikeLike
Lou Merloni is like voting for a Kennedy. We do 'cause he one of us….though he sux!
LikeLike
Wow! Mut is a rising star?! I dont understand what they are listening too. EEI just lost a listener from 10-2. I don’t want to listen fill in radio everyday.
LikeLike
Really? If I wanted to listen to somebody berate callers who disagree with them I could turn on the Big Show with Fred and Steve, but Lou Merloni? Really? Mutnansky is an empty suit they hired because he was young and cheap I understand that, but to hand the keys to Merloni disgusts me. I can't listen to him whenever anybody disagrees with his views it is because "us" fans don't know anything. i grant you a lot of Boston Sports fans are ignorant, but this guy talks down to the callers. It is send a message that these clowns at WEEI "dumped this news" during the friday afternoon where all bad news is dumped. We got rid of our only show beating the competition and now we will name their replacements ON Friday afternoon when nobody hears anything. Two words that describe the job of Julie Kahn EPIC FAILIURE.
LikeLike
Here's hoping Lou corrected his speech impediment while down in Ft. Myers. I think ex-jocks like Lou and Zolak are a waste of time putting on the radio year round. Listening to either one of these boobs talk about anything but their chosen sport is brutal. Kahn and Mike Thomas should both realize that you might be impressed if you ran into an ex Boston jock bench warmer at a bar, but listening to them talk about hockey or basketball for four hours is an impossible task. Looks like a simpleton with a good podcast would be a viable challenge to the 10-2 shift at both Boston sports radio outlets….Paging Dakota and Anthony Pepe!!!
LikeLike
Why would I want to listen to this show? An ex-jock and a 31 year old kid who is younger than me (34). If you're trying to attract the coveted 25-54, this is an epic failure. It doesn't make me want to choose these 2 uninspiring hosts over Gresh and Zo.
I'm sure many people disagree, but I've always used WFAN as the measuring stick for a great sports radio station. Great SPORTStalk, without the sophomoric humor. Dale and Holley was the ONLY show that I liked on WEEI. I almost always preferred listening to them over Gresh and Zo. Dale has always conducted himself with a great sense of integrity, and wasn't into a) celebrity callers, b) low brow humor, and c) politics.
Pretty embarrassing WEEI… The first time you get real competition, and they are smoking you in less than 2 years. As for mid-days, although I'm a Boston sports fan, I'm done with WEEI and listening to Benigno and Roberts through WFAN's live stream.
LikeLike
A stat memorizing condecending josck sniffer and a proverbial bench warmer are breakout talents! You got to be kidding me. These are the type of moves you make when there is no competition, not when the other station is breathing down your neck.
How Kahn and Wolfe still have jobs is beyond me.
LikeLike
So we all come back after the March book is posted and see if Mut N Lou has run the ship aground right? From this wall it sounds like they'll be lucky to be within hailing distance of GnZ.
LikeLike
Gresh and Zo are so bad that I might still prefer WEEI middays. I just don't get why it's Mut. Dale/Merloni would have been much better.
LikeLike
Never mind the late friday afternoon announcement…WEEI has known for 9 days that they were doing new and different programming starting Feb 28 in the midday and they have done no promotion of the new show. They announce it the last business day before the new show is going to begin. No marketing, no cross reference and no buzz. They have to know the show is dead on arrival. They are making no effort to support the show. So I ask…what is the real plan?
LikeLike
Bruce, the Friday press release is all you needed to say. As I wrote when the Dale news broke, I agree this pairing is absolutely DOA. "Mutt" brings zero, absolutely nothing to the table and Merloni is the ex-jock who's been to broadcasting refinement school and back and only when paired with the right person does he ever say anything enlightening…and that's not often. What kind of weight does the opinion of either of them, especially Mutantsky, carry and why should anyone care? Love or hate Dale, I respected the guy even though I disagreed with some of his opinions. These clowns I could care less about, and while I'm no Gresh & Zo fan either, they will absolutely smoke EEI, especially once football season rolls around.
I just wonder what kind of leash this show has and how long EEI is going to stick with it before they bring Pete Sheppard back, which I'm becoming increasingly convinced might be their fallback plan should this program bomb — and it will.
LikeLike
The part where WEEI has done no on-air promotion of the new show has baffled me as well.
I mean, I'm not really all that /interested/ in them, as hosts, but I /am/ interested in WEEI not shooting themselves in the foot, and on-air promotion is kind of useful for that. A tad.
LikeLike
so when dale fills in for john dennis in a few weeks is he going to do the crossover with mut and merloni? that might be interesting.
lou simply cannot carry a show. he gets nervous and talks too fast. count the # of times he uses the phrase "sitting there saying".
tony kornheiser out of DC 10-12 is where it's at folks.
LikeLike
The new show doesn't debut for a week and a half still, not this Monday. I'm sure they'll be plenty of promotion coming shortly. Having said that, how Wolfe/ Kahn continue to be employed is a great mystery. WRKO <– almost invisible WEEI <– still treading water but seems to be a matter of time before 98.5 cements itself as the local sports leader.
LikeLike
Lou Merloni is a Nomar kiss up and wouldn't be where he is without that connection. Merloni will be the ultimate failure for WEEI. I like Mutnansky, but WEEI really screwed up breaking up Dale and Holley. Big, big, big mistake!!
LikeLike
Is this the best that they could come up with? Merloni is terrible. Bring back Neumy, or Bob Ryan, Ryan Russillo anyone please.
LikeLike
Great, Merloni now has a guaranteed 4 hour block each day to show his lack of knowledge on anything other than late 90's Red Sox talk. Yep, I know you're from Framingham, Lou…
LikeLike
WTF !!! I always thought Lou would make a good partner for Dale rather than that ego maniac Holley. Nothing against the Mut man, but come on, he can't carry Dale's jock. Dale Arnold is far and away the best talent you had at WEEI If you can't be loyal to him I have to wonder why I should be loyal to EEI maybe 98.5 is looking better
LikeLike
Mut and Merloni is sure to fail. I listened to Dale and Holley and then switched to 98.5 when Ordway came on but I won't listen to Holley now that he's teamed with Ordway. How Wolfe and Kahn stay employed is beyond me. WEEI is in need of new management.
LikeLike
Looks like Matt Perrault has officially been hired as the 'new Mutnansky', hosting weekends on EEI and co-hosting weekday afternoons on WGAM in NH. I heard a few minutes of him earlier today and he actually came off sounding more polished than Mutnansky (and he's also two years older). Perrault seems just as qualified as MM to be the new midday co-host, but I guess the latter being an EEI part-timer was enough of a difference.
LikeLike
I can't wait for the Celtics/Bruins playoff breakdowns this spring from Mut and Merloni!!!
Uggh.
Of course, they can't be worse than T&R were this morning. When crying about the Perkins trade, one of them said, '…Not just how they replace Perkins, but I want to know who is going to back up Pierce now that Daniels is hurt!!!' Wow. They host a sports in Boston, a huge sports town, and A.) they don't know Daniels was traded. & B.) that it was the point of the trade. To get Jeff Green. A small forward. To back up Pierce.
Good grief.
LikeLike
At minimum, the ship is taking on water. 10 years ago, could you imagine WEEI taking out full page adds + flood the internet & radio waves promoting anything other than their fundraisers?? Michael Holley "The Hottest Media Personality….in America" WEEI's clearly desperate. I''ve been loyal to the Big Show since it's inception – no longer. Sorry, I can't stomach the change & will not contribute to the new format.
LikeLike
Comment after comment absolutely ripping this move. There has to be some intern keeping an eye on the feedback for the big wigs and the funny thing is the big wigs know the majority of callers don't represent the intelligent sport fan, but this isn't a few people calling in or leaving comments, every single comment on every single article is just ripping this decision and its humorous to me Julie Kahn and Jason Wolfe are probably sitting back saying "the people leaving comments dont represent the majority, we're going to be fine." And the truth is, this move is so bad its motivating those of us who laugh at the majority of the callers to respond, to wonder how you could actually call them rising stars. Jason wolfe called mut Dustin Pedroia? Are you kidding me? pulling Dale for Mut would be like Tito benching Pedroia for Merloni. It truly is just ridiculous!
LikeLike
Mutnansky sounds like a 12-year old girl. He's in the fine tradition of WEEI sports fanboys who sound like women(Arnold, Holley, Neumeier, et. al.).
LikeLike
So the new show has been on for over a month now. I don't like it. I used to complain about Dale..
'Jim Ed' posted earlier; "Dale has always conducted himself with a great sense of integrity, and wasn't into a) celebrity callers, b) low brow humor, and c) politics."
I totally agree. As annoying as Dale can be you still have to respect his professionalism, knowledge and the general unpolluted format of the show. A format that he was essential to.
Considering this I can still understand the station's motivation to mix up the show or to even get rid of Dale (annoying,stale). The problem is If you're going break up a good established show which is also your most successful show, and end Dale's Legacy, you have to come up with a better replacement than Mut and Merloni.
I don't have any problem with Mut but he seems more suited to a fill-in role at this point in his career. He isn't especially entertaining and I dont think his inclusion to the show is adding any listeners.
As for Lou I'm sure he has his fans, just like the old big show had its fans. But certainly not enough to carry the show. Lou was OK when he first started appearing on the big show, in small doses. Now as a midday co-host he's revealed as an uninformed, condescending jock. He doesn't even sound like he wants to be there. The few times I tried to listen to the show he was the reason I turned it off.
I found this board looking for the ratings of the new show. I can't find them. I'm betting when they come out they're going to be bad. Bad enough to cancel the show.
LikeLike