good read, but he hasn't kept me listening.
Moving away helped somewhat, but I no longer bother to radio.com or online listen at all to Boston sports media. It's just not worth the time with all the contrived nonsense.
Chad Finn: Underrated
- Thread starter gmogmo
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Moving away helped somewhat, but I no longer bother to radio.com or online listen at all to Boston sports media. It's just not worth the time with all the contrived nonsense.
A great piece that really gets to what makes the show tick--and why Felger is so skilled at pissing people off in a way that gets many of them to keep listening.
Maybe Chad can add that while Felger and Mazz are number one in their time slot , they got a zero in the edmunddantes demographic.
Chad is now Properly Rated - at least amongst those that make it to "Our errors are mistakes" and anyone else paying attention.
Also feel like there are more layers of the onion to peel back here. Possibly an "Almost Famous" like undercover expose. Of sorts.
Also feel like there are more layers of the onion to peel back here. Possibly an "Almost Famous" like undercover expose. Of sorts.
Chad, what is the deal with Minihane repeating over the years and insinuating that Fred and Rich don't even like each other and everyone thinks Rich is a dickhead behind the scenes? He was at it again last night on Twitter. Is this just more fake radio WWE shit he's stirring up or is there some truth to it?
I've heard him say that a few times. Not sure where it comes from, but Tanguay would be a guess. From what I know, Rich is really well-liked and he and Fred get along fine.
Thanks for the quick reply. Kirk was talking about retiring a couple weeks ago because he's "accomplished all he can in sports radio" and was the greatest, so he's got nothing left to prove. He also wants to spend more time with his family, hopefully that is true. I'm really hoping once CBS Radio goes under Entercom this doesn't get even worse. Entercom / WEEI management seems to love the fake stuff. It's like the Kardashians of Sports Radio. Such terrible radio.
Rich and Fred talk to each other like a couple that's been married for 35 years: they clearly love each other even when Fred is threatening to "put a shotgun in [Fred's] mouth" because Rich won't let him whine about the listeners voting for Roche's 98 Mile entry to "spite [Fred]".
Tanguay is the mean girl of Boston media, isn't he? He even keeps trying to make fetch happen.
It's funny, because from what I've heard of Tanguay via coworkers, off-camera personal likeability is basically what keeps him perpetually employed beyond his merits. Maybe just a weird personality conflict or discrete incident with him and Rich, because anyone paying attention during the cancer & marathon days shouldn't doubt Rich's standing in the industry or with Fred.
T&R did ride/rip Tanguay pretty hard in the time right before and right after Tanguay lost his gig hosting middays on TSH to Gresh. So, while I totally buy that Tanguay is well-liked by many, I can also see why GT might be salty with T&R almost a decade later.
Tanguay did "50 Shades of Guay" with T&R in 2014. He lost his job to Gresh in 2010. I don't see how Tanguay was salty before 2014 if he was doing bits for T&R. Tanguay had a rough stretch. He's more horrible than ever with all the WEEI Casting Couch nonsense. What a pile of trash that is.
I think basically everything he does is fake WWE shit. I'd love to see a Venn diagram of people who think the WWE is real and Kirk's followers. The people that have been chirping at Chad recently on twitter on Kirk's behalf are almost too stupid to be real.
It is a great piece and it reveals how contrived the show is. It's telling that the piece keeps referring back to Felger's family. Clearly he's doing what he does to be successful for them. As someone who also is in his 40s and has 2 kids, his contrivance is exactly why I stopped listening a few years back. I just don't have time for that nonsense. But he's making a great living, so good for him.
What is that you do that frees you from selling out like the rest of us?
If you had told 20 year old me what 40 year old me would do for the benefit of the family, I'd have punched myself in the face repeatedly while crying "why!?" like Nancy Kerrigan.
ITA--and that's why I decamped for EEI as soon as Keefe was hired and haven't looked back. Felger is great at what he does--I just have no use for it.
Huh? What are you asking? I said that as someone who is deep into the middle age/have kids/must work portion of his life I don't have the energy to listen to fake controversies on a sports radio program. If others want to it's a free country. And if Felger can make some coin doing it good for him.
I think he was more just saying don't throw shade from a glass house, but for the record I read your comment as pretty benign.
Gotcha. I wrote "good for him" so clearly it was a savage, hypocritical hot take.
Apologies, but this isn't the point I took from your OP. The bold isn't really what you said above; at least it's not what I read. It seemed to me that you were invoking the "feed his family" phrase, which is almost always deployed as a criticism. That Felger's "contrived act" was distasteful because of its inherent cynicism. I didn't understand you were making the "I don't listen because..." point, as that was buried on the back end of a clause in the third sentence.
My response was that I've found myself doing lots of "contrived" bullshit as I've gotten older and needed to provide for my family. I also do not begrudge Felger for having figured out what shit sells in the market and then doing that better than everyone else.
Yeah, you misread what I posted. And it's not like I'm the only one on this site who has said something similar. You get to a certain point in your life where listening to people scream hot takes about "controversies" just isn't worth the time. But for the 3rd time: there is a market for it that pays well and Felger is taking advantage. Good for him, and I'm glad he can provide well for a family he clearly adores.
Yeah, I really should look for your point in the fourth sentence, after the comma. I can't even count properly!
But for the second time, I apologize for not grasping your well-written point.
I agree with this point 100% and it's the main reason why I don't listen to as much sports radio as I used to any more.
It's one thing for when a team is bad to be told that the team is bad, that's fair. I've used this example before, two seasons ago, the Patriots were 10-0 and Felger and Mazz were wondering if "they were any good"? It was like they were gas lighting their entire audience because people were lining up to call in and tell them, "The Patriots are good. They're 10-0." F&M just kept saying, "Yeah, but are they really?"
And I get that in the radio game, you need to do that, I really do. But, I'm not going to listen to even 10 minutes of two guys making shit up just to get a rise out of the 5% of their audience who has memorized the Sports Hub's phone number. That's fucking insane. Like 8Slim says, I've got other, real shit to worry about rather than whether if Tony Massarotti thinks that if the Patriots win the Super Bowl will it mean as much as when the Giants won the 1990 Super Bowl*.
* This was a real question this imbecile asked in the weeks leading up to the 2017 Super Bowl. BTW, shockingly, his answer was no because a. the Pats didn't have another team in their division to push them like the 1990 Giants and b. the Pats would have to beat the shitty Atlanta Falcons. So that awesome Super Bowl you watched in February? Not that good, according to Mazz.
My least favorite sports radio tactic is the morning show spending four hours blowing something out of proportion and then the next show comes on and explains for four hours how that it isn't really a big deal and how they don't understand why people are blowing it out of proportion. It's entirely contrived and it happens at least once a week.
With luck and patience, you will arrive at a place where you don't need the excuse of "other real shit to worry about."
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What's awesome is that it appears that Callahan and Minihane have done just this following Chad's profile on Felger. They pretty much turned his balanced piece on one radio host (and a few amusing comments about others) into a wild series of unsubstantiated hottakes about the Globe's bias against WEEI.
A parody Gerry Callahan account even got in on the action.
So meta.
A parody Gerry Callahan account even got in on the action.
So meta.
This is exactly why I don't listen to K&C or Felger and Mazz. It's just not enjoyable radio. I do not think that T&R, Zo & Beetle and Keefe featuring Dale and Holley fall into this bucket a good majority of the time. However, it's clear that people like this nonsense like they like the WWE, "reality TV shows" and other bullshit. It's unfortunate and makes unlistenable radio. I don't understand why people on the way to work or the way home would rather listen to fake negative combative bullshit than normal sports talk with some humor mixed in. Clearly I'm in the minority.
I would listen to F&M back when I was driving a lot for work, simply because 98.5 was on from T&R in the morning. Rule was to turn them off when I started getting annoyed. Some days were good, some I lasted 60 seconds (insert sex joke here) but I found it to be a much more enjoyable consumption of them. Now that I'm all in on podcasts I doubt I would even give them that choice, however.
I mock your value system. You also appear foolish to the eyes of others.
Past instances in which I professed to like you were fraudulent.
I engaged in intercourse with your spouse or significant other.
Dude--How old are you??With luck and patience, you will arrive at a place where you don't need the excuse of "other real shit to worry about."
Like closets and lingerie?With luck and patience, you will arrive at a place where you don't need the excuse of "other real shit to worry about."
Bedard was on 2 1/2 weeks ago introducing BSJ. Felger asked him why he thought BSJ would be successful. Bedard basically said they would try and put forth an honest journalistic approach, i.e. no hot takes or click bait, and he hoped that would separate them from other on-line content.
Felger got super sensitive, insisting emphatically that none of his takes were contrived, that just because he was a contrarian didn't mean he didn't believe everything he said. I listened carefully because I thought he had to be joking, but he continued on in a way that made it clear he was serious. It actually got a little uncomfortable for Bedard, who was momentarily nonplussed.
I listen because I find it amusing how many people take the bait. Felger is, as others have said, good at what he does. But he is a total sellout to the contrived BS that passes for sports talk radio. Don't deny it... embrace the horror.
Felger got super sensitive, insisting emphatically that none of his takes were contrived, that just because he was a contrarian didn't mean he didn't believe everything he said. I listened carefully because I thought he had to be joking, but he continued on in a way that made it clear he was serious. It actually got a little uncomfortable for Bedard, who was momentarily nonplussed.
I listen because I find it amusing how many people take the bait. Felger is, as others have said, good at what he does. But he is a total sellout to the contrived BS that passes for sports talk radio. Don't deny it... embrace the horror.
Podcasts with bluetooth in the car is the way to go. Don't listen to sports talk radio anymore....
i agree 100% i'm in my car for most of the day and just listen to podcasts now
Fortunately for them you are the minority. Ratings and share are higher than a long time. Unfortunately negativity works.
In mobile now but Chad linked on his twitter to a great article from Jason Wolfe of all people. Most interesting thing I found was that Wolfe was after Hardy years ago and said he one of the most talented people in the market. I fully agree with him and I don't want to say he's wasted in middays but he really should be on a drive time show somewhere for his production quality.
He doesn't realize it actually makes him look worse if he believes everything he's saying.
I don't think he's wasted in middays, mostly because Rich is almost as good in the morning and Felger doesn't do production (or guests, etc.) Hardy is a great listen - he's also on Sirius XM Lithium these days - and a terrific producer who really should be working with TSH's "biggest" talent: Zolak. The production pieces he does for Zo are drivetime worthy, but TSHs lineup is remarkably stable and profitable.
I kinda wish that TSH would kick Jones back a half hour and instead do highlight/interview replays from 545-615; baseball or basketball or hockey reporters show year round from 615-7:15 (game time), then Jones at 730. Then Rich and Hardy's production work can get more drivetime exposure without pissing off anyone; Felger gets to bolt for his night job sooner; Mazz gets to do whatever Mazz does; Jones talks at me a little less. Who says no?
Chad, regarding your latest piece on the Sox trying to add a bat, not the best look for the Globe to put the headline "Whiffs a real possibility as Red Sox chase free agent sluggers" on top of a photo of Giancarlo Stanton.
