Boston Sports Media Watch

The Godfather of Sports Talk Radio may be in semi(mostly)-retirement, but he still deserves a day on the approval ratings!

Eddie Andelman is a pioneer in the sports talk radio arena. The original Sports Huddle show back in the 1970’s was one of the first of its kind on the airwaves.

Andelman was a fixture on WHDH radio during the 80’s, and moved over the WEEI in the 90’s. He was best remembered on the station for his show with Dale Arnold, dubbed “The A Team.” Andelman left the station in December, 2001 right in the middle of the Patriots push to their first Super Bowl title.

He reappeared on sports radio 1510 The Zone, where he opened his show blasting his former employer and partner. He took many more shots over the years at the station, and WEEI to this day continues to blast right back at him with whiner line callers and various skits.  

He’s had an intense rivalry with Glenn Ordway over the years, angry that Ordway had taken his time slot on WEEI and also canceled his son Michael’s weekend show on the station. With Ordway’s recent family crisis, it is thought that Andelman might’ve been one of the one’s Ordway referred to when he expressed gratitude for support from people he never thought he’d ever hear from.

Andelman currently hosts a show on Sunday nights from 7:00 to 10:00pm on talk radio WTKK, named the New Sports Huddle. These days however, Andelman is chiefly known for his annual Hot Dog Safari to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis/The Joey Fund.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Since the 1970’s Glenn Ordway has been stirring things up on the Boston Radio airwaves.

After a short stint as a General Hospital actor, Ordway turned his attention to radio as the Sports Director and talk show host of WMEX/WIS. In 1981 he moved on to WRKO, hosting the popular “SportsCall” radio show and serving as sports director. It was during this time that he also joined Johnny Most in the Celtics radio booth, where he remained for 13 years.

When the Celtics moved to WEEI (Then AM 590) in 1987, Ordway followed, and has been at the station since. The Big Show began in 1995, and has become a staple on the Boston airwaves.

Earlier this year, Ordway had a scare in his personal life during the birth of his daughter Mia. Both his daughter and wife suffered severe complications during delivery, which took Ordway off the air for a couple of weeks. Both mother and daughter are doing better, and Ordway is back in his familiar spot on the afternoon drive.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

It’s not football season, so we haven’t seen or heard a whole lot of Smerlas recently.

Fred Smerlas is a former Pro Bowl Nose Tackle for Boston College, the Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers and Patriots. He currently is a TV and Radio commentator for WEEI and other outlets. On WEEI, he is mostly teamed with Steve DeOssie, who is also his business partner in their Rhode Island steakhouse.

During football season he also serves as a a contributor to western New York radio stations WGR in Buffalo and WHAM in Rochester.

He is known for picking the Patriots in every single game, something that almost worked last season…

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Sean Grande is in his seventh season as the radio play-by-play voice of the Boston Celtics.

When Grande took the Celtics job alongside Cedric Maxwell in 2001, he was mostly known among New England sports fans for his role as Pete Sheppard’s predecessor in the “Flashboy” role on WEEI’s Big Show. He was also known for his work on Hockey East TV telecasts, and as the Boston College Football announcer from 1996-1999. He was also the program director at WEEI for three years.

In 1998, he took the job calling Minnesota Timberwolves television games, becoming the youngest announcer in the NBA, at the age of 28. He has done some national work calling college football for ESPN. When he came back to Boston to cover the Celtics, he also became a programming consultant for sports radio 1510 The Zone.

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Popularity: 18% [?]

You either love him or you hate him.

These days Gerry Callahan is perhaps best known for his biting political commentary on the Dennis and Callahan morning show on WEEI, but it’s easy to forget that at one time, he was perhaps one of the best sports writers in the country.

Callahan grew up in Massachusetts, graduating from Chelmsford High School and UMass Amherst. He started his career with the Lowell Sun in 1983 and then moved on to the Boston Herald five years later. In 1994, he moved on to Sports Illustrated, where was a senior writer for the publication.  

He was a frequent Big Show co-host in the early days of the program, before getting his own show with John Dennis starting in 1997. After leaving SI, he rejoined the Herald as a columnist.

The D&C program has garnered its share of attention, and not all of it positive. In 2007, Callahan missed several months of work on the show with a throat ailment. By the time he was healthy enough to return, his contract as well as that of co-host Dennis was up for renewal, which resulted in a brief lockout for the pair which had them returning in time for the first “Patriots Monday” of the 2007 season on September 10th.

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Popularity: 24% [?]

With TomaseGate slowing down, (though I still plan on a wrap-up post) its time to get back to the approval ratings.

Today we’re looking at WEEI Big Show Football co-host Steve DeOssie.

DeOssie played for Don Bosco Technical High School and then Boston College for playing 12 years in the NFL for the Cowboys, Giants and Patriots, winning a championship with the Giants in Super Bowl XXV.

Year-round (but especially during the football season) DeOssie is a presence on WEEI as well as various television outlets around New England, such as WBZ-TV. He plays up the touch-guy persona, but can also bring strong analysis of the game to his appearances on the various shows. He also co-hosts The Real Postgame show with Pete Sheppard and Fred Smerlas.

During the week of Super Bowl XLII DeOssie did a creditable job of balancing his Patriots analysis with the fact that his son Zak was playing for the opponent.

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Popularity: 42% [?]

Meterparel is the morning flash guy for the Dennis and Callahan program on WEEI.

He is known for taking purposefully obtuse stances against the local teams for the sake of controversy. He went on a ridiculous run during last year’s Red Sox postseason, picking against the Red Sox for a number of inane reasons on a daily basis, only to come back the next day with a new one.

Boston College is exempt from his antics, as he serves as the play-by-play man for the football team of the school. Last season he infamously missed an important play during a game because he was in the bathroom. In the past he served as the voice of the New England Revolution, and the Triple A Charlotte Knights while working down in Charlotte.

He joined the Dennis and Callahan show in 2000.

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Popularity: 33% [?]

We’re starting the week out with WEEI afternoon flash guy Pete Sheppard.

Sheppard has been with WEEI since 1994, making him one of the longest tenured on-air personalities at the station. He’s been working on The Big Show since 1999, where he is the flash guy and primary fill-in for Glenn Ordway when the latter takes one of his many vacations throughout the course of the year.

Sheppard also hosts The Real Postgame Show following Patriots games alongside Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie.

Unlike many of his colleagues at WEEI, Sheppard appears to enjoy and actually follow sports, and is an unabashed fan of the local teams, and his passion often comes through in exchanges with callers or co-hosts.

Sheppard is also known for his hatred of the internet and blogs, but there is a Myspace page dedicated to him.

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Popularity: 29% [?]

WEEI’s John Dennis is today’s feature.

Dennis has a long history in the Boston sports media market, having joined WHDH-TV in 1977 and remaining there until 1997, where he went from weekend sports anchor to sports director during his tenure.

Dennis left WHDH in 1997 and began hosting the Dennis and Callahan show on WEEI alongside Gerry Callahan. The show was originally a two hour program starting at 10:00am, but in 1999, the show moved to 6:00 to 10:00am and became a morning drive fixture on the Boston radio airwaves.

Dennis is very good at keeping the program moving, and guiding it in and out of the many commercial breaks. However, his voicemail run-in with Ryen Russillo, and participation in the infamous Metco incident are not among his high points at the station.

Thanks to the Farrelly brothers, Dennis and Callahan have made cameos in a number of movies as well.

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Popularity: 30% [?]

Today we’ll get a chance to opine on someone who isn’t actually a sports media member, but who has a huge influence on the sports media scene here in Boston.

We’re talking about the VP of Programming & Operations for Entercom Boston, Jason Wolfe. He also serves as Vice President AM Programming at SportsRadio 850 WEEI. (That’s all according to his LinkedIn profile.)

As I mentioned, Wolfe isn’t on the air on WEEI, but he determines who is. He took over programming duties of WEEI from Glenn Ordway a few years back. His goals for the WEEI programming as stated to Boston Magazine are as follows:

“Our goal across the board is to push the envelope,” he says. “If we didn’t do it that way, we would be going back to what we used to be, which was reading the box scores.” The station is long past needing the credibility that came with having reporters from New England’s most prestigious newspaper take part in its shows. “We’re much more successful than we were when we had them on,” Wolfe says. It’s also long past needing to say it’s sorry; being number one means not having to even care who you offend.

Wolfe now oversees talk station WRKO as well, which hasn’t yet enjoyed the phenomenal ratings success that sister station WEEI has seen.

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Popularity: 25% [?]