Been thinking about what WEEI could do recently, after having enough of the afternoon Sports Hub show. I think my biggest issue with local sports radio is listening to the same two guys talking(yelling?) at each other for 20 hours every week, wash, rinse and repeat.
If I were running WEEI, I think I'd switch from three 4 hour shows daily to four 3 hour shows. Also, as someone brought up in another thread, I don't think the Big Show format was the problem, I think the guests they chose to ride with were the problem.
I'd get rid of D & C, but since WEEI seems committed to them it's unreasonable to leave them out of my theoretical lineup.
Mine would look like this
6-9 Dennis and Callahan(sigh)
9-12 Kirk Minihane (possibly have him sit in with D&C 8-9 as well since he's made that show better)
12-3 Lou Merloni (not sold on him, I'd just give him first shot since he's under contract)
3-6 Michael Holley
then I'd add guests to each show daily. I would also keep this very flexible. Some days I put two guests with Holley. Maybe Michael Smith is available for a day, so I just add him as the only guest. If it's NFL draft week, I load up on guests with a football emphasis. Another day I have a guest do the first two hours with Kirk, Mutt do the last hour with Kirk then the first hour with Lou, then another guest do the last two hours. I would switch things up as much as possible to keep these shows fresh.
I think they have enough good people in house at WEEI, or people who are regular guests, to make this a viable option.
Just in 2014 alone, these local people(some national with local ties) have appeared on WEEI as guests or hosts
from baseball Alex Speier, Rob Bradford, Scott Lauber, Dave O'Brien, Tim Britton, Curt Schilling(get well soon sir)
from hockey Jack Edwards, Andy Brickley, DJ Bean, Joe MacDonald, Steve Conroy, Fluto Shinzawa
from basketball Jackie MacMullan, Chris Forsberg, Chris Mannix, Paul Flannery, Jessica Cammerato, A Sherrod Blakely
from football Chris Price, Matt Chatham, Mike Reiss, Field Yates, Andy Hart, Tom Curran, Greg Bedard, Troy Brown, Christian Fauria
hosts/columnists Dale Arnold, Mike Mutnansky, Bob Ryan, Mike Salk
weekend guys who could get a shot Mike Petraglia, John Ryder, Chris Villani, Danny Picard
I'd also pull in national guys like Buster Olney, Adam Schefter, Michael Smith, Pierre McGuire for an hour or two they're in town covering something. Or current athletes like Shawn Thornton and Vince Wilfork if they have a day off. And maybe some new people like Jessica Moran, Abby Chin, Leah Hextall and Jamie Erdahl to break up the mostly dude radio monotony(Mary Paoletti would've been perfect for this)
That's a lot of people I'd like to hear from maybe 2-3 hours a week as opposed to 15 minutes a week while the hosts get 20 hours.
Maybe it's a terrible idea, maybe it's not even viable contractually but if it is, it's one I'd try if I were in WEEIs spot.