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Ordway Confirms Exit On The Air Today

February 13, 2013 By

Following the report by Chad Finn on Boston.com, Glenn Ordway did come on the air today and he confirmed that he is out at WEEI after 27 years.

He made no attempt to spin the initial news and say that it was a mutual parting, or anything like that, he said that the company made this decision because the ratings of his show where not what they needed to be.

He started by talking about about his annoyance, not at Finn, but at the fact that this was leaked to Finn by someone involved with the station. He was not happy with how the Kevin Winter situation earlier this week was handled,  confirming that Winter was fired, and didn’t like the leaks involved with that situation, saying he felt bad for Winter.

Some other items from the first 90 minutes of the show:

  • He is not retiring. He’s got some projects he’s been working on, which he feels are the future of the industry and he will be seen and heard in the future.
  • His plan is to stay through the end of the week.
  • There was a lot of talk about what they’ve accomplished at WEEI, the record ratings they got, and how so many of the competition (Felger and Mazz in particular) got their on-air start with Glenn on the Big Show.
  • Ordway was overall extremely positive about his time at the station, and the people he worked with. (Except for the moles.)
  • Talked about Eddie Andelman, actually said his name on the air, and told some stories about how much Eddie hated Fred Smerlas, and that Glenn had fired Eddie’s son from a weekend show.
  • He was pissed off at the reports that Pete Sheppard had been fired for doing something or that he and others at the station got Sheppard fired.
  • Shocker: They play characters on the radio. It’s fake, goof.

It should be an interesting rest of the week, provided he actually does come back the next three days.

Filed Under: Morning Links
  • Frank

    First time I’ve said this in 6 years, I actually wonder what Felger’s take on this is.

    • TheHey

      Felger will probably be told by CBS not to say anything on air about it.

      • http://twitter.com/theaisleseatcom Andy Dursin

        Apparently they opened up the show talking about Ordway and said, especially for them, some gracious words.

      • dan

        If anyone here remembers the old Stern shows from the 80′s and 90′s then you know where I’m going with this.
        Felger should have an on air funeral for Ordway.

        Hire a fat midget to lay in a coffin for the duration of the show and just hammer away at the dude for the duration of the show. Invite fans of the show to sit in and just have a good time in reveling in the ultimate slaying of a radio icon for the last 3 decades.

  • TheHey

    If Ordway was making $100K instead of $500K he’d still be on the air. his huge salary is too big a load to bare for another year.

    I’m glad he said that Winter was fired but should have went all the way and said that D&C didn’t want Winter around anymore (They were barely talking to him the last 2 weeks he was on).

    Speaking of D&C, when is their contract up? John Dennis must have guaranteed money because he should have been gone before Ordway was?

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

      In fall of 07 D&C were re-upped for 5 years. Here on BSMW it was said that the contract was renewed when they got the NESN simulcast; not sure for how long

  • http://twitter.com/DryHeave1 DryHeave

    What if WEEI hosts were reporting on current situation at WEEI?…..”It’s complete CHAOS over there!”….”how Embarrasing!”

  • jstone

    I was listening briefly, and I thought I heard Ordway say that Felger didn’t like talking hockey as a guest on the Big Show. Did I hear this right or was he referring to Mazz?

    • http://twitter.com/theaisleseatcom Andy Dursin

      You heard right. He said Felger’s entire “love affair with hockey” is completely fabricated, which I would not be surprised with either.

      • dan

        I could believe that because any of you who listen to Felger knows that complains that there’s not enough offense in hockey and that he wants gimmicks to end games that go to long. Does that sound like a real hockey fan or one of the dreaded pink hats?

        Would you think someone was a real baseball fan if they suggested that MLB have a homerun contest to decide games that go longer than 10 innings? No of course not.
        He’s a fraud but I still enjoy his show. You just have to take it for what it is. And every now and then he will talk real sports but what he’s doing right now is making him bank and destroying WEEI so what do we know?

        • JonFrum

          As much as I dislike Felger, he talked hockey, and took hockey calls. Unlike Ordway. I don’t care what a guy thinks deep down in his soul – it’s talk radio, not religion.

        • bosox3054

          Felger’s knowledge of hockey is not good. He may enjoy the game, he may root for Team USA as he claims, but he knows next to nothing about the NHL and makes mistakes about out of market teams all the time on the show. Far below his knowledge of the NFL.

          So its definitely possible that Ordway is right on this.

      • JonFrum

        This (Ordway) is the same guy who openly mocked ‘Hockey talk!’ for a few years. Until the Bruins started winning consistently, and then he suddenly loved to hear hockey calls. Ordway has absolutely nothing to say about hockey.

  • Winning_Again

    I haven’t listened to the Big Show for years, sick and tired of the constant shouting over one another. Then WEEI made a change, breaking up my favorite show, and modifying the old Big Show format. Not much changed for me with the new format. I feel it is time to move on from Ordway however I feel WEEI is still making the wrong moves at the wrong times. They didn’t need to break up D&H, they did. The countered that move by adding M&M, another bust. Then they mixed in Mike Adams with Holley and Ordway. Whiff. Now, instead of replacing the horrible morning show, they what will likely end up being another lateral move.

    Honestly, I can’t stand Minihane, but I’ll listen to him. Much like Felger, he can be entertaining at times. Minihane seems to blend well with Holley, however he may be slated for a morning or midday gig down the road. I think LTD hit it on the head saying the larger problems reside in management, where they cant seem to make well timed decisions.

  • Scott

    Bruce,

    As someone who finds this kind of stuff fascinating but has no access to radio between 2 and 6 any further recaps of this weeks Big Show or other radio reactions would be great.

  • Marcellius

    WEEI let its success go to its head and became arrogant and crappy to the audience. I’m glad they are clearing house over there…arrogant hateful jerks. I can hear the Spors Hub going the same way now. Most of them are becoming arrogant and crappy to the audience. Next up will be loooooong monologues from the hosts on all things NON-sports related. The Sports Hub will eventually fall as WEEI rises….this cycle will go on and on. Personally I float between both stations and when either station goes off the sports theme I just switch to the other. No tears from here for Ordway the most unathletic person on radio is walking away with a very fat.wallet!

    • Brianwaterslocker

      Reminds me of the WCW/WWE war years ago.
      WWE talent goes to WCW and WCW takes off.
      Now eei needs to find it’s Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and DX.

  • JonFrum

    I don’t comment on this site often, but just a couple of days ago I said that I didn’t understand what kept Ordway’s tired act on the air. If you listened to him five years ago, you know exactly what you’ll get out of him today. He seems like a guy who follows sports just enough to get by, but doesn’t really like watching games. I’ve been listening to Scott Van Pelt on ESPN streaming radio in the afternoon for years now – the guy actually cares about sports.

  • JonB

    Not surprised by the Ordway firing — was just a matter of time before he was put out to pasture, although I was expecting more of the Dale Arnold treatment where he’d be forced to take another big pay cut and be relegated to weekends/fill-in duties.

    The shocking part of the story is the Salk hiring, which may be the dumbest move WEEI has made thus far, and that’s saying something. Mix the blandness of Muttnansky, the faux-contrarianism of Felger, the elitism of John Dennis, and the smugness of Craig Mustard together and you have Mike Salk, I was stuck listening to his national broadcast several months ago when he spent an hour plus droning on in his haughty nasal tone about how Brady will never win another Super Bowl because he no longer has the “drive” to earn the first parking space at training camp, is too distracted by his Hollywood lifestyle, super model wife, blah blah blah. There’s a reason Salk’s career in Boston never moved beyond broadcasting from a phone booth with Bob Halloran the first time around.

    I’m calling it right now… this move will be another huge bust and the new show ill have lower ratings at this time next year than Ordway & Holley. I was not a huge fan of the new Big Show, but I’d listen to any day over a show featuring either Felger or Salk. EEI seriously has to be the worst managed major market sports station. I’ve been a loyal listener for years, but barring a major programming change in the morning I’ll be streaming Dan Patrick and WFAN from now on.

    If I were Jason Wolfe/Julie Kahn/Jeff Brown, this is the reasonably revamped lineup I would go with:

    6 AM – 10 AM: Callahan & Minihane with Pete Sheppard on the sports flash
    10 AM – 2 PM: Dale Arnold & Lou Merloni
    2 PM – 6 PM: Michael Holley & Chris Mannix
    6 PM – 12 AM: John Ryder & rotating guest co-host (e.g. Lenny Megliola, Rob Bradford, Alex Speier, Christopher Price, DJ Bean, Mike Petraglia, other EEI staff writers)

    Buy John Dennis out of his contract, fire Ordway, and make Muttnansky take a pay cut then move him bacak to weekends. Make Mannix your big acquisition — local guy with national connections and recognition that will appeal to younger demos. Of course this will never happen since it requires Jason Wolfe & co. to admit they’ve totally f—ed up the station over the past four years.

    • Rick Mc

      It’s called negotiation

  • Pingback: Was Ordway firing more about ratings — or money? « Media Nation

  • Patrick Pass

    Ordway is a douche. The lack of tributes for him are striking, actually. Yes, everyone who is on air at ‘EEI went thru the motions of tribute….Pete Shepherd called in, Holley sitting next to him, D&C this morning. The only other person I heard call in was Jackie MacMullen. The guy didn’t revolutinize anything. He was a huckster, low-class, no morals (amazing he complains about moles now), jerk who rode a literally unprecedented wave of Boston sports team success, never before seen in any other city, and no competition for him to high ratings. As soon as the teams dipped a bit and he got some competition it crashed amazingly rapidly to the point he was shown the door. He wasn’t a legend. He’s a no talent hack with no journalistic ethics who was just canned for poor performance. The silence of tributes is actually deafening.

  • LaurenceGlavin

    A side issue: can even Boston support FOUR all-sports stations? There may be enough for an ESPN affilaite (WEEI-AM 850) but that may be the end of the line. WUFC-AM 1510 (which the Globe persists as indentifying as WWZN, call letters they abandoned months ago) could be broadcasting to exactly zero listeners and surviving (if they are; their electrical bill for a 50,000-watt transmitter must be humongous) on sponsorshop if BU sports and any revenue from Yahoo! Sports and NBC Sports simply because some national advertisers like Geico, AutoZone, Home Depot and Wal*Mart seem willing to buy spots on ANY radio station broadcasting the all-sports format.

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