Globe: Met Opera out at WBOQ

[Sean Smyth]

On Thu, 01 Jan 2004 21:45:57, Mark Laurence wrote:
> Gee, I wouldn't write off Boston as a great local market.  There are at 
> least a half dozen strong local morning shows, and fierce local talk 
> competition in the afternoon.  WBZ programs news and talk locally 24 
> hours a day, and WEEI has little use for syndicated sports talk.  The 
> big music stations are almost 100% locally hosted and programmed, with 
> very little voicetracking.  I could probably name 50 broadcasters who 
> have been solid Boston personalities for a decade, and many of those 
> have been going strong for 20 years.   Aside from Rush and Howard, even 
> the biggest national names have less impact in Boston than you'll find 
> in other cities.  I'm glad to hear Chicago's doing well, but it's not 
> the last bastion of local radio.

Yes, but have you ever heard the quality of much of WEEI's programming? Hosts
talking over one another, callers droning on and on about irrelevant stuff,
people on-air seeming clueless. Pete Sheppard wouldn't even make the cut at the
Penn State student-run radio station, never mind in another big market. He
overdramaticizes every little comment and every syllable; the guy's a nuisance
to listen to. Guys like Neumeier and Arnold haven't a clue what they're talking
about on their shows half the time when it comes to stuff they should be
reading in the papers every day (i.e. the progress of the A-Rod trade...half
the time I heard Arnold fumbling around while clearly not having up-to-date, as
in having-read-the-papers-that-morning, news). Honestly I'd rather have a Tony
Kornheiser on the air, who is sometimes clueless but a natural entertainer,
than half-witted local hosts.

Granted this stuff is just picked up from observations I gleaned from listening
to 850 during my two-plus weeks here back in town, but in general I've never
been a big WEEI fan. 

It's a shame WWZN's afternoon-drive show isn't getting more pub. Ryan Rusillo
has a good set of pipes, very Sean McDonough-like, and he seems to know what
he's talking about. He's done OK in his appearances on CN8. My afternoon sports
radio choice for the time I've been back here has been 1510, especially when
Ordway is on vacation.