Chad Finn of The Boston Globe's take on local sports-radio competition

[Kevin Vahey]

I think for the most part he was dead on.

WWZN certainly tried with Eddie and Sean McDonough and had excellent
promotion in the Globe. The signal had limitations especially in the
495 corridor but they couldn't attract ANY listeners where there were
books that WJIB placed higher. It certainly wasn't for lack of trying
but I think the biggest problem was that sales and most-management
were handled out of Chicago.

WAMG DOES have signal problems especially at night. In Cambridge it is
impossible to hear inside an apartment building. In a car at night it
is fighting with WLS. Simple truth is the ESPN lineup of games and yap
at night sound better on WEPN New York or WMVP Chicago than on WAMG.

ESPN never promoted the station like they do with other affiliates on
ESPN-ESPN2. They only broke one national story when Manny of all
people contacted 890.

Mike and Mike SHOULD do better over D&C because most people I know
will not listen to their rantings about politics. In fact M&M do
better in Chicago than WSCR in the morning.

WEEI has been top dog now for almost 20 years. Ordway struck gold wih
The Big Show and that station does revolve around him. Dale had been
the voice of hockey there but he is still bitter over NESN going with
Jack Edwards fulltime (which honestly was the right move for NESN just
having one full time announcer) Dale was offered the job but couldn't
because of WEEI. He could have four-wired it in from the road but he
didn't want to travel. Fine..but don't blame the Bruins Dale.

Holley I have grown used to. I miss Newmie but that is another story.

Mikey is Mikey.

The future?

I think the idea of a station on FM has sunk at the dock as both CBS
and Greater Media had a window and both walked away. Greater Media
almost secured the rights to the Sox but luckily for them ran the
numbers and knew it would not work. The Red Sox contract is killing
Entercom and because of it they have cut expenses at WRKO and WEEI to
the bone. WEEI is the only major sports station in the US that doesn't
set up shop at the Super Bowl unless the Pats are in it. WRKO
eliminated the news department. Lovely.

The future of ESPN in Boston? I cannot see them at 890 much longer so
I could see Disney flipping 1260 to ESPN and maybe Radio Disney could
live on 890. 1260 at least would give a decent signal inside 128 day
and night.

Nobody knows what Clear Channel is going to do with 1200. ESPN could
wind up there. You would need a strong afternoon drive program such as
Felger but I am afraid Ordway is to powerful to knock off.