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Callahan gone from EEI

Hill is to start on July 29 at WEEI but I wonder if they will simulcast his WAAF show next week to get people used to him? Or will he do that one final week on WAAF, or be on vacation. Substitutes on WEEI if not so?

Saw a Fybush column from 2008...a rumored deal between Entercom and Nassau could have given Ent. a share of WCRB 99.5 and WEEI programming would have wound up there and on some NH stations, etc. (one of them, at 101.5, wound
up running WEEI later anyway)

https://www.fybush.com/NERW/2008/080107/nerw.html

>>while Entercom had locked up a long-term Red Sox contract, at no small expense, its morning stars John Dennis and Gerry Callahan were flirting with other suitors - not just the long-rumored Greater Media dream of flipping WBOS (92.9) to an all-sports format, but also a possible Nassau flip of WCRB to sports. Allying Nassau with WEEI took away that option for Dennis and Callahan, and it's no coincidence that the pair re-signed with Entercom soon after the Nassau deal was announced.
With Dennis and Callahan safely under contract, and the Sox not only safely under contract but celebrating their second World Series in four years, the threats to WEEI are significantly blunted today as compared to last summer.

Oh, and a year later CBS brought sports to FM with Sports Hub, the B's and Pats (and later the Celts) as a part of it, and EEI had competition. It took 2 years for WEEI to migrate to FM.
 
raccoonradio said:
People already speculating Ent could make AAF country or pop soon enough.
(Just came from Pitt. where Entercom does sports on a 93.7 and country on a 107.9)
Click to expand...

One person who probably doesn’t have a clue about what formats we have and who owns what replies to a Facebook post about Callahan getting fired, and that automatically means that “people are speculating that they may go country or pop”?? You’ve posted some crazy stuff over the years, this definitely ranks up there with the craziest.
 
More than me.Donald White on FB:"WAAF will probably go pop or country."

Gary Frascarell:"I smell a format change coming."

Kevin Vahey:"For WAAF."
 
raccoonradio said:
More than me.Donald White on FB:"WAAF will probably go pop or country."

Gary Frascarell:"I smell a format change coming."

Kevin Vahey:"For WAAF."
Click to expand...

So that means “Donald White” is now the go to person for format change speculation? That looks like just one person to me.
 
QED said:
For all the carrying on about activists and El Globo neither had any effect on me not listening. I just didn't like the radio. Simple: surprised it took this long after T&R took the lead.
Click to expand...

The "activists and El Globo" didn't affect anybody listening; they pestered advertisers and management. I haven't listened as much since Dennis left and the program started being mostly a self-referential circus with the occasional sports talk segment.
 
raccoonradio said:
Just saying several of us,in and out of the business (me: since '81) are speculating.Gary Francis and K Vahey are in the biz too.
Click to expand...

So you think that with 3 other “pop” stations in the cluster (103.3, 104.1, and 106.7) that they’re going to add a 4th? As for country, the 2nd country station in the market, 101.7 doesn’t appear to be lighting the ratings on fire. Donald White seemed to be the only one who indicated that those are 2 logical formats for 107.3. Is Donald aware of 103.3 (etc) and how 101.7 is doing? Are you saying that you, Kevin, and Gary agree with that assessment?
 
But the activist and his "global" acolytes may have had some impact on the on-air content by knocking out Minihane and that likely did affect the ratings.
 
WAAF's ratings stink, do they not? Would not shock me to see a format change.

For mornings, I suspect they'll go the cheap / syndie route within the next 90 days. BJ Shea from KISW in Seattle is probably the most likely possibility.
 
iHeart running promos on WRKO for its Kuhner morning drive show, geared to "Callahan fans" upset with the actions of former sister station WEEI-FM
 
Howie mentioned tonight it's the 10th anniversary of the announcement of the Sports Hub..
And at the time Entercom's Julie Kahn said, "There will be no need for WEEI to move to FM.We'll handle the competition."

Two years later, on 9-12-11, WEEI Sports Radio had no choice but to go to FM.
 
raccoonradio said:
Howie mentioned tonight it's the 10th anniversary of the announcement of the Sports Hub..
And at the time Entercom's Julie Kahn said, "There will be no need for WEEI to move to FM.We'll handle the competition."
Two years later, on 9-12-11, WEEI Sports Radio had no choice but to go to FM.
Click to expand...

There were a couple of mistakes that WEEI made in response to the arrival of The Sports Hub.

One of them was to wait much too long to move to FM. They gave the Sports Hub a 2 year run to accumulate audience.
 
"to move to FM.We'll handle the competition."
--------------------
The talent complained--no FM--almost immediately. They knew better.

One of them was to wait much too long to move to FM. They gave the Sports Hub a 2 year run to accumulate audience.
It would be close competition but who wanted to listen to angry old guys at 6am? Hub has been winning drive-time(s), case closed. EEI never had any real competition when they were billing champs.
 
The joke I made awhile back was WBZ-FM was 30 yr olds still living in Mom's basement while WEEI-FM was 50 yr olds still living in Mom's basement.
We know sports fans go beyond just listening to games or watching them. They like sports talk shows and eventually stations like The Fan in NYC came along.

WEEI was done well and had success.CBS figured we had the B's on one station and the Pats on another...why not take both and add talk shows (C's also added) and do an FM sports talker? (Greater had an FM talker with 96.9 and lasted several years.)

So indeed, too long to wait to go to FM.
Did Entercom figure CBS' ratings and billing would be similar to those at WWZN 1510 or "ESPN 890"? Local talent--well prepared-- and sports play by play on a powerful FM signal.
As for a morning show of "angry white guys", WEEI at first appealed to add non sports fans by doing Imus in AMD.
Later they plugged in Dennis and Callahan, same idea. And now we will have Hill, who's done well at WAAF...and some feel this will weaken 107.3. Some wondered about a possible format change for AAF--Fybush thought maybe (not likely but possible) they could try to go after 105.7 with classic hits. That was in his subscription column yesterday.

It's mentioned in Finn's Globe article that Minihane arrived in 2013 amid rumors 93.7 could gave gone country...

>>Save for the Kirk Minihane meteor — he arrived on the morning show in February 2013 amid rumors the station was headed for a country music format and departed contentiously after five-plus years, a couple of high-profile controversies, and a stretch of generally excellent ratings as those rumors percolated again — WEEI was pretty much the same as it ever was.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/...ei-facelift/agsD0QWofeHpxFqCXMpRsJ/story.html
(The following year--June of 2014--iHeart took 101.7 country, going after the slowly building CW audience WKLB had and was growing with.)
Yeah 107.3 to CW could seem far fetched but if it happened iHeart could then switch the Bull to something else...Or does AAF keep doing active rock? BOS and ZLX doing classic rock. ROR does well with classic hits.
 
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In a bit of inside-baseball chatter with Bruce Mittman yesterday, Howie Carr said "I hear the Sox games at night are drawing a 2 share.Who's listening at night? Why listen when you can watch them on TV?"
He had joked about "being in prison" when he was tied up with his Entercom contract and said he got a kick out of the 2009 "why go to FM?" statement.
A chance to watch EEI slowly go down in ratings due to the new competitor.

(Sox recent hardships resulting in less interest for the games.Am reminded of how despite having a great stadium, the Pittsburgh Pirates have been having trouble drawing fans due to lack of success on the field.I went to a game vs Chi Cubs a few weeks back--ticket prices rolled back yet only 14k showed up at PNC, including Cubs fans traveling...and quite a few left rather than wait out a 2 hr rain delay.Pirates flagship os an all sports 93.7 owned by Entercom..)
 
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raccoonradio said:
Howie mentioned tonight it's the 10th anniversary of the announcement of the Sports Hub..
And at the time Entercom's Julie Kahn said, "There will be no need for WEEI to move to FM.We'll handle the competition."

Two years later, on 9-12-11, WEEI Sports Radio had no choice but to go to FM.
Click to expand...

I shouldn't presume to speak for Ms Kahn, but her reasoning may have been along this line; to wit, our AM talker WRKO is going to outlast 96.9 FM Talk, so our WEEI-AM 850 has no reason to fear an FM sports talker. Where she would have been wrong was in not realizing how an FM sports talker would fare with the resources of CBS Radio backing it.

Sp that leaves me wondering whether WTKK would've fared better had Greater Media put into it what CBS did to WBZ-FM.

And irony of ironies, but now Greater Media's successor, so to speak, Beasley Media owns WBZ-FM.
 
nowradioguy said:
Sp that leaves me wondering whether WTKK would've fared better had Greater Media put into it what CBS did to WBZ-FM.
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Seems to me that news talk is not the same as sports talk. CBS put resources into WBZ-FM because they also owned WFAN, and could see how much money they could make.
 
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