Mike Siegel isn't as enantiodromic as Jay Diamond,but he's still very suspect-but changing allegiances seems more commonplace today,so he's not alone(Savage,Henrie) . An opportunist at best. He was a dismal failure as Art Bell's replacement 8 years ago. And above all..A BORE.

Bad Radio and Boston are becoming synonymous. And the 4th and 5th stringers on the air this week make it worse.

Reese is an amateur without any experience discussing major political topics.

His inexperience is going to become so apparent as we enter the election cycle and people will tune him out to hear intelligent analysis.

His ratings will be the worst WRKO has seen in that time slot in ages.

I listened once and could not stand his manic shouting into the mike.

McFee has a voice for newspaper. Yikes.

Now I know why I listen to WBUR so much. The fact is in this town, you either do jock-talk or you head to NPR(just ask David Boeri). WRKO has become a mere satellite of WEEI, in stark contrast to 20 years ago when it had Gerry Williams, Gene Burns, the Governors, etc., and practically ran the state. I don't care about Howie anymore because he's all Mumbles clips and supermarket horror stories. I once gave Michelle McPhee's Saturday show a try, but she started out by saying "in this first hour, we're going to talk about-the Red Sox." That's it, a city of nothing but sports boobs, like Senator John "How Dare You, NFL" Kerry.

It is exactly 12:30 P.M. on Friday December 28th. As bad as Jimmy Meyers was yesterday, I'm listening to, and I'm not making this up, Dan Andelman in for Jim & Margery. He is beating the "Shovel out Parking Spaces" topic to a long and painful death.

To make matters worse, he is attempting to put on a fake "Hi out there, I'm Ron Radio" voice.

I'm going to turn off my radio, turn on my speaker phone and listen to the dial tone. It is a better aduio experience and far more interesting.

Just when you thought morning fill-ins on WRKO couldn't get any worse, I turned on the car radio this morning to hear Craig Mustard and Larry Johnson debating the finer points of campaign finance reform.

So let me get this straight. The most important foreign policy story of the year breaks yesterday with the assassination of Bhutto and Jason Wolfe turns to. . .the WEEI D-Listers. Remarkable.

You know things are getting bad when you hurriedly switch back over to FM so that you can listen to Michele McPhee fill in for Michael Graham.

To quote the late Dapper O'Neil, "Its enough to make you sick."

If I was running CBS Radio in Boston, I'd flip WBZ-AM (1030) to talk and go with a 24 hour all news format on 103.3 (WBZ News Radio 103.3FM, even provides consistency) or vice versa. Rea and LeVeille are good anchors for a successful talk lineup and 'BZ has the cash and the competence to make both formats work. Anything would be better than 'RKO, 'TKK, or WTTT at this point.

off WRKO topic. . . but having Bob Lobel on is like listening to a person suffer from ebola. The guy is so damn depressing, so rude, and so hostile to everyone. . .he makes jokes that aren't funny and come off as some angry old codger told them. I like Steve Burton, but get Bob off the airwaves.

i don't really care about the story because it doesn't make any sense to americans, imo and the news media is doing a lame@$$ job not trying to make any sense. and talk radio here in boston is better off not covering it because it would defeat the "live and local" philosophy. i could really careless about this story, and you are making a huge deal out of it. and on top of slamming tkk, michele, wrko, wbz etc, etc, etc, etc... it appears that nothing pleases you. could you give michele a chance? wrko is dead now, even with howie. wtkk will continue to struggle, but not as bad as rko - i've lost your respect to your blog now. i'm not trying to defend anyone, but this really isn't a big deal.

Siegel was known to fill in for Jerry Williams
this time of year.

WRKO would on occasion
have a recently-fired talk host "try out"
by doing such a fill in. Once some guy named
Tom Leykis did the fill in for Jer', and the next thing you knew he was in their lineup. Same I
believe for Jeff Katz. I know Siegel's name
because I believe he took part in an organization that Jerry helped to found (or at least took part in), the National Association
of Radio Talk Show Hosts.

I actually thought Howie's show suffered the least yesterday, as Avi Nelson knows his stuff, and the talk was pretty informative. I know Avi gets knocked around a lot here, but I think he does a pretty decent job, and this week, he has been better than he has been in a while. He knocked Saddiqui around like a punching dummy when they talked about Kwanzaa the other day. Avi still has some spunk left in him IMHO.

As far as McPhee goes, I don't think she could find Pakistan on a map, never mind conduct an intelligent discussion about yesterday's tragedy. I wonder what 'TKK expects from her as far as her ability to discuss world events? I don't think she can bring much to the table. She CAN talk about favorite Halloween candy, spoiled milk, and the SAWKS, but that's about it.

I just read about the milk story in the local paper.

At it's heart it's the kind of class warfare story that Michelle loves, because only a certain kind of person gets milk delivered in glass bottles from a local dairy. The two deaths from a disease supposedly put to rest by Victorian science is a win-win for those who want to afflict the comfortable: they were victims of the big bad corporations (well, a family business), and they might have deserved it for wearing the high hat.

Of course the big hero is the Mass. Dept of Public Health. Only 2 deaths and 2 other casualties. Imagine how many more would die Mr. Speaker if it hadn't been for our intrepid public employees!

I'm not much for class warfare with one exception: Howie's "Yuppie Christmas Letter" segment. I missed it this year because of the bad reception on WRKO. I get too many of those letters not to savor that segment!

I thought Avi would cover Bhutto a little bit but he was talking about hysterical faux consumer product safety issues in California and other Down Left parts of the country.

He did have Duncan Hunter on who was pretty good with some good Laffer Curve tax talk and some nods to the Pakistani situation. But he also had these crazy people on about plastic bottles and mercury in vaccines. I think in that case it was that Avi spent a lot of time setting up guests he thought would be interesting for a slow Thursday but then got taken over by events.

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy Avi!

Even Bill O'Reilly got in on the phone from vacation with Laura Ingraham subbing for him on his TV show (don't know if he called in on the radio factor.)

Steven; I'm glad you're not in power or running for office, we would be sooooooooooo screwed.

I tuned in to RKO this morning and damn near fell outta my shoes.....I thought Hedlund and O'Brien yesterday were the bottom of the barrel, but, just when you thought it could not get any worse, well, Lordy, Lordy, there it was, two sports guys trying to speak semi-intelligently about politics, it was truly pathetic and from what I heard ladies and gentlemen these two wonderboys will be back on again Monday,,,,,,,,,whoa,,,,,strap yourselves in kids, it's going to be a wild ride......personally, I'd rather listen to snow melt.

WODS won't switch from oldies, not as long as they get ratings and billing. Think how much they just made with the all-Christmas format...

Mustard and Relish were sitting in on WRKO (!?!?)
Just give Yankee fan Frank from Gloucester a show while you're at it. Ciao!

I don't know if Hendrie so much changed allegiances as realized that the Dems went too
far to the left ("I didn't leave the Dem. party. The Dem.
party left me"); much like Dennis Miller or
Ron Silver, once 9/11 happened, everyone on
the left seemed to go even further left
and conservative Dems/independents suddenly
seemed far right by comparison.

The whole point of having live and local programming is to have a local outlet when pressing local news breaks. The snow removal issue, for example, was pressing last week. To belabor the point now, a week after the snowfall when most of the stuff has melted, just points to laziness on the part of the programmer.

The Bhutto story is extremely important because of its far reaching international implications and the potential to bring national security issues back to the forefront of the presidential campaign. Also, Bhutto spent her undergraduate years in Cambridge and had repeatedly said they were the happiest in her life. How can you get more local than that?

David Brudnoy always did a superb job of providing a forum for local concerns, but his show tended to cover what was dominating the national conversation, yet he always tackled the national topics from a Bostonian's perspective.

We hear too little of that combination on Boston talk radio today and I give Michele McPhee (who I have a hard time listening to, hers is not a voice for radio) a lot of credit for emphasizing the Bhutto/Boston connection as well as the inability of the presidential candidates to adequately address the importance of defeating al-Qaeda and finding Bin Laden on today's show.

Don't blame Howie 1 bit, I wouldn't come back. He's been "phoning it in" since he's been back. Seems rko has him not only on a really short lease, but muzzled too. Why would / should he come back? He's made it very clear on his show that he's looking out for himself.

Hell, I might even take a few sick days too. How's that cough Capin'? Sounds too bad to come in to work.

Tom Ashbrook came back from medical leave almost a week early to do an "On Point" first-hour on WBUR dealing with the Benazir Bhutto assassination. What's surprising is the fact that the SECOND hour was a repeat of an interview with bat-guano crazy Ron Paul from 6 months ago...I don't get that at all. As long as Tom was in the building, they should have prepared a Friday news-of-the-week show.

More to the Milk Story...here's something radio can do with it. The Herald Story says that three persons are dead because of the spoiled milk, but out here in NY Times-owned Telegram territory it is only two persons dead because the third person was actually a fetus.

I don't think it's a boring or non-serious topic, it just could be more seriously handled.

What's going on here? Ads for Todd F are showing on the RKO site (like on the Howie poll page)
even though he's gone. Of course at least one "old" page of the WRKO site was still up via a link
to one of Todd's sites, but this is showing through on the 'current' pages...

http://c6.edgesuite.net/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/Entercom/WRKO_Promo_ToddFeinburg/ToddFeinburg_300x250.gif

Anybody else find the no punctuation, run-on sentence "text style" posts difficult to read?

Steven's frightening first sentence is unfortunately closer to what the masses "think". THAT'S ENTERCOM'S TARGET AUDIENCE! When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan 28 years ago this week,it's the blinders on crowd like Steven who said "who cares". They only get worked up over the major issues..like the Patriots or shoveling.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS!! I'm still scared shiqless over WMD.

Didn't Mike Siegel host a dating show (Hotline?) on RKO or 850 WHDH back in the 70's?

WRKO has sunk to a new low. First they got rid of Johnny D then Todd. Anyone know what happened to Todd? He was funny, I really enjoyed listening to him most of the time. When I turned in and I heard Reese I thought J. Wolf had lost all common sense. Reese's voice and how he screams and what he talks about is crap! Now Avi Nelson filling in for Howie has been nice but now I'm looking for a new station.

Judy, rumor has it that Todd would not accept another assignment. He did do his weekend show last Sunday - aired on RKO and a local listener asked him what happened here, he told her to e-mail him...toddtalk.com and he would fill her in...as for Reese, damn, just damn, the first day I heard him I liked him because he was all over mennino and deval...since then, well, since then I don't even bother, he's clueless as to what's going on here, I don't like it when someone from out of town tries to do local stuff, he keeps beating a dead horse, like the snow thing, it's over yet he keeps bringing it up.....yesterday he was pissing off the Southie people......where oh where has DECENT talkradio gone? Jerry Williams must be rolling over in his grave.

One good thing about this week. With no Finneran, I'm not forced to turn the dial in the morning. The fill-ins have been much better all around.

I work up this morning and thought I had lost my mind when I heard Mustard and Johnson, but they did a fine job. it wasn't the most compelling show I've ever heard but they had a reasonable grasp of the issues and did a good job keeping my interest. Given that I find their sports talk impossible to listen to, this was a pleasant surprise. They could have easily stuck to the fluff topics but hit the important issues of the day much more than most hosts have done this week.

It is a sad state of affairs but I believe a lot of listeners are like Steve, they just wouldn't get the importance of the assassination. The fact that Pakistan is the new feeding ground for the major terrorist groups and that Bhutto came back at great personal peril to stand up to fight it are lost on them.

I believe Avi would have done a good job with this subject but was programmed away from it due to the dumbing down of the audience. He covered it for a bit and I suspect the phone lights went out and crickets started chirping.

It is a sad commentary on us, not radio.

Ummmm....why does anyone expect to get real news or insight from WRKO? Once again people, it is news as "entertainment". Now, the quality of that entertainment is very dubious to the least, however, it always has been (see Scotto and Depetro). Howie is probably the example of it at its best, yet now we can see how tired it gets after awhile. If you want to learn about the situation in Pakistan, go internet surfing because there are some great websites pertaining to foreign affairs. Hell, hold your nose and read the New York Times or Washington Post. To even discuss WRKO's viability as a place to get real news is rather silly.

On December 28, 2007 06:10 PM, Erik wrote:

“Didn't Mike Siegel host a dating show (Hotline?) on RKO or 850 WHDH back in the 70's?”

I think that show, at least the one I recall, titled (?) “Singles Hotline” was on in the 80's on Saturday mornings and Mike Siegel was not the host; I think he was (?) Dick Hyatt, or something like it. (I tried to call Vincent's nightclub where he used to host singles' dances to confirm the name, but no one answered.) As previously mentioned in a post, Mike Siegel used to host Coast-to Coast AM on WRKO when they were searching for a new host to replace Art Bell.

Might I add that it seems there has been a recent spate of discussions to this blog by usual and some apparently new posters who are really familiar with the past and present Boston Talk Show scene. Those I have enjoyed particularly include but are not limited to: Practical Progressive, Chris, Rocky, Joe, Barbara, AW, Lisa, eriemike, Andrea and raccoonradio. I was LOL at Barbara’s comments of 12/28 about Mustard and Johnson. Just yesterday, I found out that a long-term acquaintance is a talk show aficionado and I introduced her to this blog. I hope she comments and I wonder if I would be able to recognize her style.

Finally, I am currently listening to “Bill Kelly's Senior Safe Money Strategies” on WRKO, Saturday 9:00 to 10:00 AM. He is a real gem. (This comment is neither a solicitation nor an endorsement of his program, but you might really want to check out his style.)

I have been told that Dick Syatt used to have a producer or call screener named Nancy Shack...
better known as Howie's producer Sandy.

Mark Schnyder of Boston Radio Watch says in his latest column that it's quite possible Feinburg
will re-emerge on 'RKO as co-host with Finneran
after all ("Feinburg’s nationally syndicated show aired on WRKO AM 680 over the weekend and all signs point to him resurfacing with Tom Finneran next week in the post-holiday daze as part of the retooled “Tom and Todd” act live on location in Des Moines.") We'll see if that comes to pass.

Jim, not sure what Bill Kelly you were listening to but the one I heard is a snooze fest and he's on for two hours not one....RKO cut out the health program that was on for an hour and replaced it with another hour of the snooze fest.......

Hi Barbara,

That’s the Bill Kelly of whom I wrote. This morning is the first time he was on for two hours. I wrote my note before 10:00 AM and much to my surprise he continued on. Even the current WRKO lineup on the website lists him as 9-10 AM. I am usually doing other things while I listen, so I am not particularly bored by the content, but I do focus on the style, and his is particularly unique (a non-committal term).

BTW, Thanks to racoonradio for his comments about Dick Syatt and Sandy and his reference to Boston Radio Watch. I just checked it out and put it on my Favorites list:

http://www.bostonradiowatch.com/

Todd said they offered him to co-host with Finneran but then they got cold feet so it is still up in the air. They let him keep his Sunday show for now. Gee..how generous of them! Even if they have him co-host it wouldn't be the same. They want a bland, baby food show. Wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings now. And they think Reese is a better choice over Todd??? Yuck..

Since WRKO went down the crapper I am so very glad to find WTTT at 1130 am. They have a GREAT lineup for peeps who like not only the real news, but intelligent hosts who actually know how to debate. Listen to Mike Gallagher (prolly the weakest intellectually, but he's so funny!), DENNIS PRAGER, Hugh Hewitt and Michael Medved. These blokes are awesome. Give Prager a go...he'll change your life for the better. I can't wait 'til Finneran tanks...I like Todd Feinburg, pitty they have to stick him with the Felon and since I found WTTT (and I have satellites) I'd rather listen to Sean Hannity than Howie Carr and I used to listen to Howie Carr everyday. I hate that WRKO fired DePetro, Scotto and Spencer Hughes. They should have given Spencer Hughes a prime post. I'm so not a fan of Michele McFee and will NOT listen to her at WTKK (I'll be listening to Hugh Hewitt!) but the girl doesn't know how to debate and is awkward with callers who disagree. She ought to listen to Michael Medved to hone her debating skills. He's the best at it.

I started listening to talk radio with Jerry Williams and Gene Burns and Moe. [can still listen to Gene on the web] Howie used to be great but all I can say now is thank God for Sirius satellite radio!

I’d like to mention a pretty good and really intelligent alternative to talk radio, if you can utilize it. On weekends on the cable channel C-SPAN 2, for 24 hours a day, the programming is entirely devoted to books and authors of political and historic non-fiction. On their website you can get the schedule for the weekend at:

http://www.booktv.org/schedule.aspx

I review it and often record on the VCR the talks I'm interested in. I can then listen to them at my convenience. Obviously the video component doesn't require any attention. Of course it is somewhat cumbersome to have a VCR available, for example at work though I can manage it, and I’m looking into DVD recorders. So this has become for me an equivalent of a podcast.

For example on Saturday at 10:00 PM was "Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror By Breaking Free of Oil" by Robert Zubrin. I had heard him speak on Coast-to Coast AM (as one of their more sane guests) and he is brilliant.

CSPAN-2 used to be on Comcast Channel 21 in Boston, but has moved to 247.

1150 is the freq for WTTT; 1130 is business
radio from NYC. Hughes is working for Fox
NewsTalk Radio on satellite (XM has it; he was on
while I was flying on Jet Blue, which offers XM,
last June)

No prob on the reference to BostonRadioWatch,
a good resource

Jim from Boston - You have made a noble effort at suggesting intelligent alternatives to local talk radio. Still, I don't think you are talking to the right crowd. After all, there are a few around here who thought John Depetro and Scotto represented funny and interesting radio.

Jim,,,,Last week was the first week Bill Kelly was on for two hours, meaning yesterday was his second time with the extended time frame. I usually turn the radio off after Moe on Saturday because everything after that is boring! I don't tune back in until around 7 when Glenn Beck comes on........

skunky, I agree with you on the Spencer Hughes point, he deserved a prime spot, he's awesome, I loved it when he used to wrangle with that idiot SADicki....what a hoot! Depetro had his own style, told it like he saw it, I didn't always agree with him and I don't agree with RKO and why they fired him....people need to grow a freakin' spine and stop being "offended", he told the truth about grace ross, she herself made it perfectly clear she is a lesbian and any fool could she is fat.......I like Scotto, I sometimes listen to him on line at his Albany station....this Reese guy is a flop.......

Thanks for the correction on the Radio station...I meant to type 1150...sorry for any confusion. Yes, I found Spencer Hughes on both my Satellites (XM and Sirius) but he's on during Dennis Prager's time slot...and I try never to miss Prager as he has given me some invaluable insight.

ALSO, I'm confused about Todd Feinburg...did he NOT sign the deal to co-host with Tommy Taxes (The Felon!)? I know his Sunday show is on...but if he is gone from WRKO I can see why so many are angered. I like his style and find him funny. What a shame...he seemed to be the fill-in for all time slots! He's smart and knows how to debate.

Can I meantion that WRKO cuts into AM Coast To Coast on Friday and Saturday Nights with bloody INFOMERCIALS?? What about that paid for financial show that cuts into Moe's Saturday show? The guy prolly knows his stuff but his monotone needs more work than Michele McPhee's voice. I love finance radio, but I don't listen due to that droning monotone.

Lastly, I really liked Michael Graham's AM show on WTKK. It was the best show I found since Howard Stern flew the coop from terrestrial. It was passionate, funny and VERY ballsy. I liked that he took limited calls too...I didn't mind listening to him monolog OR interview others. I dislike Imus so now I listen to Stern again on Sirius OR the repeat of AM Coast To Coast on XM. Jay Severin...blah...I don't like his show at ALL and find him phoney (however, I do agree with him on many things).

Now I have heard it all! Mustard and Johnson on WRKO? WTF? Poor Larry Johnson must have had to listen to Howie and the Felon for a few weeks to get enough material to recycle.

Now that McPhee is (somewhat) gone, Johnson is clearly the worst host on Boston area radio!

NHMan,,,,,the felon is the worst host on Boston area radio tied with ellen o'brien and maryellen burns, Johnson probably runs a close second.

staffer,

So Scotto and DePetro were not interesting. My guess is thats why you signed felon and crossover dolt. Lets crank up the "interesting and entertaining" part of talk radio.

I'll say it again, if this is what is believed to be "interesting, entertaining, and quality radio" every one in management at RKO had better put your resume in order and begin looking for a new careerer. If I were you, I'd stay away from programing because you have absolutely no skill or talent for it. He's a tip, try listening to these dopes. Maybe then you'll understand this blog a little bit more.

Hi WRKO Staffer,

On 12/30 you wrote:

“Jim from Boston - You have made a noble effort at suggesting intelligent alternatives to local talk radio. Still, I don't think you are talking to the right crowd. After all, there are a few around here who thought John Depetro and Scotto represented funny and interesting radio.”

Thanks for your comments about my suggestions. I think this blog represents a pretty wide range of people with different attitudes and styles and in my opinion, there are enough of the “right crowd” here to keep on corresponding. This blog is as enjoyable to me as one I subscribe to composed of learned professionals, ranging from some as sober as a judge, to some true whack jobs.

Speaking of intelligent alternatives to talk radio, I would like to recommend another program, on WZLX called Common Ground at 7:00 AM on Sunday mornings (groan). This is not a problem for me since I am up anyways, having already listened to “Talking Religion” on WRKO at 5:00 AM. The show is an interview format with about four topics covered, usually with authors, and it focuses on various lifestyle issues. The schedule of topics with corresponding topic-related websites is available on the WZLX website:

http://www.wzlx.com/pages/35664.php

Unfortunately, the schedule is usually posted after the show is aired, so you can’t always make plans to listen. I myself will write to the station management after the new year to: mikethomas@wzlx.com
requesting that they make the archive broadcasts available on line. If you visit the website and like what you see I would urge that you do likewise. I mean, even “Talking Religion” is available as podcasts!

PS to Barbara (December 30, 2007 02:48 PM): I was out of town on 12/22 when Bill Kelly expanded his show to two hours( damn ;-) )

bjd...

The Felon, Scotto and Depetro represent the worst of radio. Oh yeah, so doesn't that Michelle McPhee gal. Howie continually phones it in as well. Savage is a fraud. What else???Joy is nuts but she has a lot of fans here because she seems to think that taking on Entercom is akin to American Revolution. Yikes. Happy New Year!

staffer,

In contrast felon and crossover dolt are the best radio has to offer? You are proving my point. Maybe you guys should try LISTENING to these fools. The listening audience has and HAVE YOU NOTICED felons RATINGS? (Get a clue staffer, if you aren't going to take anything here seriously, LOOK AT THE NUMBERS>

If you really think they are better than what you had, heed my words, PUT YOUR RESUME TOGETHER NOW!

bjd...

Taking the internet a bit seriously I see.

staffer,

internet <> ratings

(For the unwashed, non techie type, <> means is not equal to.)

Are you seriously going to try and spin ratings? Yes, I did like the old RKO a lot more than the crap that's being broadcast now. If you are a staffer and you do have some leverage at the station I'd think you might be smart enough to look at some of this and use it to help build a better RKO. Your inability to understand this makes me think you are upper management. Are you jason or julie?

Scotto was highly interesting and very much more intelligent the so called management (professional jealousy).........that why the walking papers...........

bjd...take a deep breath. You are wasting a lot of anger at a radio station. Take a trip, go outside and get some
air...anything.

staffer (julie / jason)
Not angry, annoyed when I try to listen, but not at all angry.

In many ways, I think it's comical. As I mentioned before, the entertainment that RKO now provides are things like: stolen pictures, clueless fools on the air trying to be local, and this blog. It's very funny if you read some of the witty comments left by former listeners.

What will sure be even funnier is when I ask you "So with all those examples of the worst radio has to offer you listed, does that mean felon and hopkins are the best radio have to offer?" How do you figure?

If staffer is a staffer then he clearly has an axe to grind with wrko. If you saw this public display of your company in the toilet, you'd be jaded as well. I don't read any insight into his comments whatsoever. I've been posting stupid comments on here for a month or so and all I've seen from staffer is that depetro is bad, scotto is bad and for everyone else to stop whining. clever person. My guess intends no disrespect to staffer but perhaps..the lunch staff? Scotto & JD blow you in for not wearing a hairnet or something? Ok maybe a little disrespect, but you really come across as someone who knows nothing about a company you say employs you. A prime example: you trash bjd for being passionate about talk-radio and in particular a company you work for? I don't get it. Put up or shut up.

Anti-Braude, keep it coming you exurban redneck.