WEEI vs 98.5 - Triumph Of Form Over Content?

[Dave Tomm]

I snipped the rest of your commentary for brevity's sake, but I wanted  
to throw in my two cents....

So far the Sports Hub has had a successful sign-on.  The production is  
far superior to WEEI, and obviously so is the reception and sound  
quality.  They're going right into the Pats & Bruins seasons, so  
they'll be sampled a bunch this fall.  They're doing what they need to  
be right now, sticking strictly to sports outside of T&R.  They're  
attracting disillusioned WEEI listeners like yourself, and it will  
help them build a solid core listening base.  They're doing all the  
right things right now.  I'd like to see them a little more  
promotionally active, but otherwise the format flip has gone well.   
BTW, the Sport Hub has taken digs at WEEI too, like being able to be  
heard under bridges.

You complain about all the non-sports talk on WEEI.  However, just  
about every successful sports station around the country has some non- 
sports topics on from time to time.  WFAN does it.  So does WIP/ 
Philly.  Even ESPN Radio isn't all box scores and trade talk 24/7.   
98.5 has to be hardcore sports right now to build up "cred" in the  
market.  However, eventually they'll have to weave in other topics as  
well.  WEEI has gone way the other way though.  The whole station is a  
series of inside jokes and personal agendas.  The presentation is  
predictable and stale.  It's the same aging personalities with the  
same opinions and jokes day after day.  They got fat and lazy, and now  
they're scrambling to get back on track.  Their ratings have taken a  
dive the last couple of books, and that's before the Sports Hub signed  
on.  The problem is, they sound old.  Considering their hosts are  
primarily in their 50's and have been on the air there since the very  
beginning, it's no wonder.  The Sports Hub sounds younger, the pace is  
faster, and they stay on topic.  My guess is the younger sports radio  
listener will gravitate there, instead of the AM "graveyard" of WEEI.

Don't count WEEI out though.  Heritage goes a long way in this market,  
and they will have a loyal core of listeners who will stay with them  
no matter how successful 98.5 gets.  But, there has been a seismic  
shift in the landscape.  I see this playing out similarly to the WRKO/ 
WTKK battle.  680 has the higher ratings, but they're mostly 55+.   
96.9 has higher 25-54 numbers, and they bill better (and now that the  
Sox are off 680, 96.9 should bill a lot better than WRKO.)  I predict  
the same type of thing happening with WEEI and WBZ-FM.  Still, that  
will eventually take a major chunk out of WEEI's revenues.  They need  
to change things and hope to just minimize the damage.  You knew they  
were worried when they shortened up the stopsets and put all the Sox  
games back on 850.  If they resort to blowing up WAAF or WMKK to put  
WEEI on FM, you'll know they're in panic mode.

-Dave Tomm


On Sep 3, 2009, at 7:17 PM, ljs0610@comcast.net wrote:

> SportsHub really presents a superior product without cowtowing to  
> the prior sports station royalty.  And it is obvious that EEI is  
> looking over its shoulder.  How else to explain the ridiculous promo  
> about EEI doesn't play jingles (probably unable to finance their  
> production) as jingles are lame.  Why call attention to the other  
> guys?  And oh, by the way EEI, one of the first differences we  
> noticed was that very item, and we all agreed we really liked the  
> SportsHub jingle.  The competition between the two will be as  
> interesting a radio story as we've seen in Boston for a while.