BRW: Sarandis to leave WEEI

[John J. Francini]

I was indeed endeavoring to be polite. I have absolutely nothing 
against Ted, and I think the word fits him well. I actually remember 
the evening he took calls all bloody night about his retractable roof 
proposal for a new Fenway Park, after one rainstorm too many for his 
liking in late April a few years ago.  He was earnest and passionate 
about it being The Solution to the rain-out problem.

This was probably the beginning of the on-air joking and ribbing that 
developed about him during the daytime shows.

Nevertheless, Dan's description does fit better for some of the 
evenings I've listened to him.  When he got that way, a quote from 
the play/movie 1776 is an apt description: "That man could depress an 
hyena."


Ted did far better in the rain-delay Sox Talk format than in his own 
show -- I guess because the callers tended to be more varied (as they 
were from the entire Red Sox Radio Network listener base), and he 
actually would let them talk and interact with them in an intelligent 
way. One call that remains memorable to me was from a gent in Sydney, 
Austrailia who listened to the games over the Internet.

As for the politics -- what is it about sports-radio types that tends 
to lean to the right?  Especially with the ex-football jocks Fred 
Smyerlas and Steve DiOssie that guest on the Big Show.  Of course, 
Fred was recently revealed to be, shall we say, a bit disingenuous 
when, after ranting about France this and France that in 2003, he 
went off to -- where else -- France for a vacation?  And came back 
with a completely different opinion about the place.

Generally, though, I tune into WEEI because it's live, local, funny, 
and largely talks about SPORTS.  I love it when both D & C are on 
vacation (or at least when Callahan is gone) -- because then the 
morning show stays 'on point' and doesn't wander off into the 
tiresome weeds of Boston or national politics.

John Francini




At 18:17 -0400 10/1/05, Dan Strassberg wrote:
>Earnest; I guess that's a polite way of describing Sarandis's manner. At
>first, I described it as an uncanny ability to find the dark cloud wrapped
>around any silver lining. And then, for me, at least, his manner turned
>into obvious disdain for the listeners and apparent total boredom with what
>he was doing on the air. As Entercom restructures WRKO, they should consider
>Ted for issue-oriented talk. His ultra-right, neo-con views fit perfectly
>with those that prevail at THE talk station. And sometimes, his anger
>matches Michael Savage's polemics. I hardly listen to WRKO anymore and if
>Ted were there, I'd listen even less (if that were possible). That wouldn't
>bother Entercom; though; they aren't interested in my demo.
>
>--
>Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
>eFax 707-215-6367
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "John J. Francini" <francini@mac.com>
>To: <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
>Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2005 6:00 PM
>Subject: Re: BRW: Sarandis to leave WEEI

-- 
----
John Francini <mailto:francini@mac.com>
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