WBZ's Steve LeVeille

[buick59]

Does anyone else think that Steve LeVeille's treatment of some of his callers is downright rude and boorish ? In the last week I have heard several callers get lambasted by this guy for no good reason.
One caller just wanted to give LeVeille some info about cat allergies, something that LeVeille was discussing. He was repeatedly admonished not to read or quote an article he had read because it was not "GOOD RADIO".
His continued use of "aren't you listening" or "weren't you paying attention" and several other phrases that he uses to try and belittle the caller is getting really tired.
I used to enjoy listening to him but I find myself turning him off when he starts this nonsense. He actually sounds like he is out of control.
Stevie boy you need to lighten up, it's only a radio show - I'm sorry "BROADCAST"
and while you are a talented host you ain't no Larry Glick or Jess Cain.

 

[GovtMule1979]

Steve has always been like that. I used to listen to WBZ every night, now I'll only put it on if I know Jordan Rich or another fill in is hosting.

 

[LouBertoni]

Does anyone else think that Steve LeVeille's treatment of some of his callers is downright rude and boorish ? In the last week I have heard several callers get lambasted by this guy for no good reason.

I get the impression Steve is pretty frustrated by the level of caller he gets to the show. And he shows it. And let's face it, he doesn't get great knowledagble and articulate callers on WBZ at that hour.

Steve is a bright guy, and I think it frustrates him. I also think the 5 hours shift is very fatiguing.

In days past when Glick, Raleigh, Brudnoy, Finnegan, etc....were at WBZ, there were more young people still twirling the AM dial. Now there are not so many.

In any event, when Glick or Norm Nathan would get a dud...or a dopey caller they would have fun with them. But I recall Norm Nathan getting frustrated with some of the callers from time to time.

 

[Mickey37]

Re: WBZ's Steve LeVeille

Steve's seems to do pretty well, from what I've heard of him. I think it's part of his schtick, the "Are you listening?" comments.

 

[Blackroc]

He's a very easy-going guy (and he'll tell you that), but his anger is explosive. In fact, he was saying it can cause him to cry.

I've never heard a host more concerned with the non-mentioning of products or personalities. He's a stickler for that. He's also very sensitive to being accused of unfairness, particularly by republicans. Democrats he could care less about.

 

[katzradio]

This is a good thread, I hope Steve reads this one, or hopefully Peter Casey. I used to be a regular caller, but I have long since gave up on calling him. Not to toot my own horn, but I was one of his favorites. I have been a listener from the beginning in 1999, started calling in around 2002. I have noticed the show going steadily downhill, especially the past 2 years or so. Maybe anger management classes would be a good start...

We got along great, always had great calls, he never mistreated me, but it is how he treats many of the other callers that has turned me off. He is so stuck on himself that it is overbearing anymore. Nowadays, I tune in just to see if Morgan White Jr. is filling in - if not, I go to WGN for the rest of the night.

Steve used to have a good thing going, but he has lost it. If you are a regular listener of the show, have you noticed that many of the regular callers do not call in anymore? Not hard to figure out why. I personally cannot take any more of his rudeness, brash attitude. That, along with the direction that he has decided to take the show in. The heavy topics bring out the worst in him, for sure.

In the early days, he was very enjoyable, nothing like a 5 hr. show about Peanut Butter, or Collections, or your favorite season, etc. But now, political blah blah blah, boring night after boring night. His "one of a kind" unique show has taken on the same old faceless garbage that I can get anywhere on the dial these days. The only thing worse would be George Noory... :-\ ( I think)

Oh & have you caught onto his new thing that he does? Cute little trick, clever, but we're onto it, Steve... :

He will say something like... "You can call in on Presidential politics, or something on the lighter side, baseball, football, foliage, cats, your fav. comfort food..."

then, after "pretending" to allow callers to call with light topics, he will immediately follow that with "Congress voted on the bailout bill today, blah blah blah blah blah, mindless dribble, etc..." which will end up being a 10 minute "Steve only" monologue.

See what he just did? Did you catch that? He pretended to allow light topic calls, & then blabbered on for 10 minutes about the political hoo-hah. By inciting callers for 10 minutes non-stop, do you seriously think that you're going to get a "favorite comfort food" call?!?

The original poster has it quite correct;

Stevie boy you need to lighten up, it's only a radio show - I'm sorry "BROADCAST"
and while you are a talented host you ain't no Larry Glick or Jess Cain.

I would also add Norm to that list. Kinda funny; Steve mentions frequently that Norm is is mentor, that he patterns his show after him... guess Steve forgets what type of show Norm used to do.

In closing, I would like to say to Steve personally;

Guy, I really miss calling you; The rapport that you & I had was unparalleled. We had a lot of fun with the calls, always a light topic caller, I was. I do appreciate the time that you gave me, I never felt rushed, you gave me plenty of airtime. I would like to talk with you in a candid manner off the air, just to share feelings & find out why the change, as it definantly has not been for the better.

Bet you'd like to know who I am!

One small hint - I am from state to the South of you. You figure it out.

Sorry I got so long winded, & maybe a bit personal, but this has been a long time coming for me. I am very upset with the new direction of the show, as I mentioned earlier.


Maybe this thread will serve as "food for thought." I would sure like to hear Steve comment on it, preferably after the 3:00 hour. (another hint)

What used to be "UNIQUE" has now turned into "STATUS QUO"



Oh, and one more thing - Congrats on Max, I am very happy for you. (I am serious about that)

 

[SonicOverload]

umm... we ARE in the midst of an intense political season, with an election generating more interest than any I recall in my lifetime (let's just say over 40 years). So if he talks politics, I don't have a problem with it. And he does get some incredible knuckleheads calling in.

 

[neialive]

The show has been all politics because we are in the midst of an incredibly intense presidential campaign. Really, are you going to complain that he's not doing shows on "peanut butter" or "your favorite season" when we're trying to decide on the president? I have worked with Steve on his show on an number of occasions in the past year and when you hear him do a 10 minute monologue it's because it's 3:15 and no one is calling in.

Oh yeah, and reading quotes from articles IS bad radio. Especially when a caller does it. It's one thing if Steve or any other hosts paraphrases or even quotes an article that they are very familiar with as part of a segment but it gets really tedious when a caller just starts reading off a few paragraphs from some article.

 

[LouBertoni]

I was a regular listener for a year or so.....but there was one period of time when they had Sooooooo Many commercials I couldn't tolerate it anymore.

There was a period where after the news there was a 10 minute monologue and a caller or two....and then for the rest of the hour there were 5 minutes of talk....followed by 5 minutes of commercials.

:20 :30 40: 50: and a stop set going to the news at :56-ish.

Five minutes of spots leaves only 5 minutes of talk before the next break!

It was unbearable. I know there is a thinking among the sales/traffic and promo depts to "dump the spots in overnight"..but it made the show un-tolerable and un-listenable.

Overnight listening should be for long spans of time and long TSL.

It appears that that spot load has decreased again, but, man.....I can only imagine what it must've been like tryint to do a show in 5 minute intervals.

See what he just did? Did you catch that? He pretended to allow light topic calls, & then blabbered on for 10 minutes about the political hoo-hah. By inciting callers for 10 minutes non-stop, do you seriously think that you're going to get a "favorite comfort food" call?!?

You make it sound like he's doing something sinister. It's leading up to an election. He's on a "news station". People WANT to talk about it. What's more frustrating than on a day when McCain picks a VP....you tune into the news station and find them talking about peanut butter sandwiches.

Leveille is not Glick...he doesn't have Glicks off-beat humor and personality. He's not witty like Norm Nathan. His strength seems to be that he's a news junkie.

(News junk wasn't Norm Nathan or Glick's forte'.)

Bet you'd like to know who I am!
One small hint - I am from state to the South of you. You figure it out.

Ummmm...How are things at WBT?

 

[katzradio]

Leveille is not Glick...he doesn't have Glicks off-beat humor and personality. He's not witty like Norm Nathan. His strength seems to be that he's a news junkie.

When he first started on the overnights, it was very much that way. Oh course, I do understand he is not Larry or Norm, BUT he did used to run the show in a lighter, more present manner. As I mentioned earlier, the heavy format brings out an ugly side in Steve, as the first poster eluded to.

The show has been all politics because we are in the midst of an incredibly intense presidential campaign. Really, are you going to complain that he's not doing shows on "peanut butter" or "your favorite season" when we're trying to decide on the president?

Yes, I am going to complain because of that; Again, he has changed the format of the show from the early days to what it is now - same old garbage that I can get on every other dial position.

I mentioned WGN in an earlier post; THEY, for the most part are not discussing the political nonsense, but are keeping with the original format of their show, which is music, light topics, and such.

The reason I am so upset is because I really liked Steve - I liked him a lot. When he was doing humor, he was "spot-on", & the show really clicked with all the listeners. Now it basically sounds like his version of a Michael Savage show, where he basically yells at listeners when they have a different point of view than his - or to quote his favorite word as of late... Anything that he considers derogatory against his pick (Barack) is BALONEY

Yes Steve, we get it - BALONEY :

Nothing like keeping an open mind.

My contention is that on a dial cluttered with UFO syndication talk, ESPN radio on a half dozen different dial positions, and the political shows from one end of the band to the other, Steve USED TO BE the one safe haven in the night where one could go to get away from all the other stuff.

Bet you'd like to know who I am!
One small hint - I am from state to the South of you. You figure it out.

Ummmm...How are things at WBT?

Ha-Ha --- Wrong! I am not an employee of any radio station, just a listener that is stuck out here all night in a boring job, that used to enjoy BZ.

I must apologize to buick59; It would seem that I turned his original post in a slightly different direction. I did not really mean for that to happen. I guess maybe I should start my own thread about Steve; actually, I did do that several months ago.

However, I did feel compelled to post in this one, since I did hear that particular call that buick referred to, and I too thought that Steve went over the top in reprimanding him. You can bet that if one of Steve's "pet listeners" would have done that, he would have let them pass on it. Just because that listener had his own style in relating what was on his mind was no reason to berate him for doing it.

 

[Blackroc]

but I was one of his favorites.

I have noticed a few guys missing, though I have no idea who you are. There were some regulars (the ethnic names?) whom I'm glad exited. For all I know they could be dead? The nature of "regular" callers is to be extremely self-involved. Many try to call off-air. Those types are better off gone from any show. But I liked "Michael" from Boston, who's been absent.

For those unfamiliar, Steve isn't a hard guy (like this thread suggests). He's easy to talk to --I don't call talk radio-- and patient until you pop his cork (which isn't easy to do). I think he's caught up in not being a conservative in a medium that almost demands that affiliation. Callers these days automatically think that's the way things supposed to be on radio and are kind of stunned when it's not the case. Steve is sensitive to that.

 

[katzradio]

Oh, this is funny. I was looking at Ben Goodman's website this morning after hearing a reference to him on the show earlier, and I found a silly post in the comments! I did hear a couple of agitated callers last night, especially about the healthcare/Obamacare discussion, so it could be some backlash from that, I don't know.

This whole thing is retarded. All the insiders in the industry know that the MAIN reason Steve was reinstated was because of the overnight advertisers/sponsors threatening to pull out, not because of some silly listener outcry.

Bring back JON, I say... He's definantly not a pompous jerk windbag like the current seat warmer!

http://www.bengoodman.us/blog/2009/...e-broadcast.html?lastPage=true#comment6188262

FWIW, I still haven't broken my silence with a call to the show, & most likely will not. Oops, actually I did call a few weeks ago, but the line quality was so horrible when on hold with the fact that you can't hear anything at all except the commercials, that I just hung up.

What is up at 'BZ with not fixing that phone line situation?!?!?! Everyone complains about that constantly, even on Dan Rea's show.

 

[ChrisNH]

Does anyone else think that Steve LeVeille's treatment of some of his callers is downright rude and boorish ? In the last week I have heard several callers get lambasted by this guy for no good reason.

Most local media people are seen as 'lower forms of life' and they hate to be seen in that light (as would anyone). Whether you're talking about TV news people, radio people, even newspaper people, they get the same slings & arrows. They make for convenient targets, and what you're seeing is one guy striking back. On top of this, there's an underlying anger and frustration that local media people feel with respect to the health of their industry. Not knowing whether they'll have a job tomorrow. You see this 'anger' come through in columns that columnists write; in radio talk, in TV news. Media people have a much higher opinion of themselves than their 'customers' do, and that creates anger that manifests itself any number of ways. They figure, "If they have disdain for me, I'll have disdain for them."

 

[Blackroc]

I still haven't broken my silence with a call to the show, & most likely will not.

So you bring a year-old thread back to say what, you don't want to call him? Who cares, call somebody else.

Steve used to have four chronic callers that I remember. Angelo from Everett (who may have died) some heavily accented guy from nyc (who may have been banned), Bobby from Boston who always talked about dining out(may have been banned) and Michael the electronics guy from Boston who I haven't heard in many months. He's the only one who I actually missed hearing. As far as the Todays-OP goes, I don't remember him. It shouldn't be so upsetting to talk to a non-conservative, as infrequent as that is in contemporary radio.

 

[Don Juan]

Does anyone else think that Steve LeVeille's treatment of some of his callers is downright rude and boorish ? In the last week I have heard several callers get lambasted by this guy for no good reason.

Most local media people are seen as 'lower forms of life' and they hate to be seen in that light (as would anyone). Whether you're talking about TV news people, radio people, even newspaper people, they get the same slings & arrows. They make for convenient targets, and what you're seeing is one guy striking back. On top of this, there's an underlying anger and frustration that local media people feel with respect to the health of their industry. Not knowing whether they'll have a job tomorrow. You see this 'anger' come through in columns that columnists write; in radio talk, in TV news. Media people have a much higher opinion of themselves than their 'customers' do, and that creates anger that manifests itself any number of ways. They figure, "If they have disdain for me, I'll have disdain for them."

This is the most preposterous analysis I have ever seen.

 

[katzradio]

Does anyone else think that Steve LeVeille's treatment of some of his callers is downright rude and boorish ? In the last week I have heard several callers get lambasted by this guy for no good reason.

Most local media people are seen as 'lower forms of life' and they hate to be seen in that light (as would anyone). Whether you're talking about TV news people, radio people, even newspaper people, they get the same slings & arrows. They make for convenient targets, and what you're seeing is one guy striking back. On top of this, there's an underlying anger and frustration that local media people feel with respect to the health of their industry. Not knowing whether they'll have a job tomorrow. You see this 'anger' come through in columns that columnists write; in radio talk, in TV news. Media people have a much higher opinion of themselves than their 'customers' do, and that creates anger that manifests itself any number of ways. They figure, "If they have disdain for me, I'll have disdain for them."

I think this argument is a very flimsy one; In this economy/job market, EVERYONE is concerned, not knowing if they will have a job tomorrow. But I know Steve is not alone in his striking out at callers, as pretty much all the conservative talk show hosts do the same thing, even more frequently than Steve does.

Guess it comes w/ the territory. When they can hide behind the mic & the dump button, they all have enormous attitude problems.

I still haven't broken my silence with a call to the show, & most likely will not.

So you bring a year-old thread back to say what, you don't want to call him? Who cares, call somebody else.

Steve used to have four chronic callers that I remember. Angelo from Everett (who may have died) some heavily accented guy from nyc (who may have been banned), Bobby from Boston who always talked about dining out(may have been banned) and Michael the electronics guy from Boston who I haven't heard in many months. He's the only one who I actually missed hearing. As far as the Todays-OP goes, I don't remember him. It shouldn't be so upsetting to talk to a non-conservative, as infrequent as that is in contemporary radio.

You are forgetting Robert from Boston, who has called in frequently about his sausage sandwich that he got from Fenway once upon a time. Steve finally said, no more! He used to call Morgan & Jordan as well, but has been absent for many months.

There was also "Baseball Bill" from Boston that Steve picked on a lot, he has not called. I think he got fed up w/ Steve making an A@@ out of him on every call.