Connect with us
Jim Cutler Demos

Sports Radio News

WEEI Relives Most Memorable Lou Merloni Rants

Merloni isn’t leaving WEEI completely. He will be heard on the airwaves during the 2023 Red Sox season, where he’s expected to be a bigger contributor to the team’s radio broadcasts.

Jordan Bondurant

Published

on

Tuesday marked the end of Merloni, Fauria & Mego on WEEI in Boston, and while Christian Fauria and Meghan Ottolini will continue hosting full-time at WEEI working with different co-hosts, Lou Merloni will not.

The show celebrated the run Merloni has had on the air over the last 15 years, reliving some of the best moments of Lou.

“This isn’t a funeral,” Merloni said. “It’s a celebration of life.”

One bit reflected on was a mash-up of angry Lou moments that they dubbed the Lou Merloni Foundation for Anger Management. They were playing off of Greg Hill going to Ireland for a week with his foundation and thought it would be funny to come up with their own foundation to get a week’s vacation to the Caribbean.

“I wanted to build our own foundation, so we thought anger management is a good foundation, right?” Merloni said. “It worked out well. It was good therapy, though. Rants are good therapy I’ll say that much.”

Another bit included COVID for Kids. That stemmed from Fauria’s daughter trying to prank call Merloni during the early stages of the COVID-19 lockdowns that swept over the country and the world in spring 2020. The ensuing bit was a play on the annoying but catchy 1-877-Kars4Kids jingle.

Merloni said he had a revelation at that stage in lockdown about his drinking habits.

“After like the first month of being locked in your house, I think I had that moment looking in the mirror like I can’t keep drinking this much beer,” he joked. “Alcohol. Period.”

The trio looked back on a memorable debate they had over dynastic franchises versus storied franchises, and Merloni caught heat for saying he thought the New England Patriots were not considered a storied franchise yet.

“The Patriots are a unicorn because they went at it for 20 years,” he said. “You’re already telling stories about them. So I think that’s the thing with me.”

But one of the more memorable Merloni rants included him recapping having a bad day where he ended up sitting and waiting at a local gas station, having to take a three-hour class to coach his kid’s Cal Ripken League baseball team and Red Sox pitcher David Price talking about playing Fortnite. In the rant he referred to the residents of nearby Duxbury, Massachusetts as “pukes.”

“I really feel bad about the Duxbury comment,” Merloni said. “There’s good people down there.”

Merloni isn’t leaving WEEI completely. He will be heard on the airwaves during the 2023 Red Sox season, where he’s expected to be a bigger contributor to the team’s radio broadcasts.

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Sports Radio News

Mike Mulligan: Sports Radio is More Difficult Than Other Formats Think

He shared that he has worked with people on morning shows that he has seen come to a station fully hungover who play music and proceed to sit on the couch.

Published

on

Mike Mulligan
Courtesy: Illinois Entertainer

On Friday morning’s edition of Mully & Haugh on 670 The Score in Chicago, co-host Mike Mulligan outlined the difference with music radio that hosts are not continuously talking to the audience, instead taking mic breaks and then interspersing commentary with different songs.

Filling in for David Haugh on Friday’s edition of the program was Gabe Ramirez, who used to work in the format with B96 as the host of its morning show. Mulligan’s assertion about the differences between the two formats resulted in a conversation about the differences between the grenres, with Ramirez explaining the difficulties that music radio hosts face on the air.

“The music station’s still creating content,” Ramirez said. “You get to have a guest – since I am going to defend my music stations – you get to have a guest and toss them a softball question and listen to them rant for five minutes.”

Mulligan disagreed with this perspective, conveying that he does not feel their program provides guests with easy questions. Additionally, he shared that he has worked with people on morning shows that he has seen come to a station fully hungover who play music and proceed to sit on the couch.

“As a former sportswriter, we sit around and we talk about sports,” Mulligan said. “We talk about the sports we cover and we talk about other sports.”

“You have to talk about Justin Fields seven days in a row,” Ramirez replied. “As a morning show for music, you have to come up with new content every day.”

Rather than taking umbrage towards the response, Mike Mulligan explained that the key to effectively performing his job is being able to discuss important stories of the day even when they are not the headlines. Furthermore, he expounded on the commitment that it takes to watch the amount of sporting events and to be properly informed on the action so he is able to take the air.

“That I will agree with,” Ramirez said. “I’ve told people this – they ask me, ‘What’s the biggest difference?’ The prep, without question, is way more difficult in sports radio because everyone that’s listening to you already knows the answers and you have to be equally if not more informed in all of those things.”

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports Radio News

Minnesota Twins Set to Tab Cory Provus as New TV Voice, Kris Atteberry as Lead Radio Announcer

Provus has been the radio voice of the Minnesota Twins since 2012.

Published

on

Minnesota Twins

After Dick Bremer exited the Minnesota Twins TV booth in October, the search began for his replacement. The MLB franchise didn’t have to look far, though.

Twins radio voice Cory Provus is reportedly set to become the new TV play-by-play broadcaster for the club, according to a report from Dan Hayes of The Athletic.

Provus has been the radio voice of the Minnesota Twins since 2012. Many immediately tabbed him as the club’s replacement for Bremer, who retired after 40 seasons as the lead television voice of the American League club. Before joining the team in 2012, Provus worked for the Milwaukee Brewers as the number two broadcaster after spending two seasons as the radio pregame host for the Chicago Cubs.

Meanwhile, Kris Atteberry has been signaled as the person set to replace Provus inside the franchise’s radio booth. He has served as the pregame and postgame host for the Minnesota Twins Radio Network since 2007. Atteberry joined the club after spending five years calling games for the then-Independent St. Paul Saints from 2002-2006.

While the television and radio broadcast crews appear set, questions remain about where the team will televise its games in 2024. The club’s contract with Bally Sports North has reportedly expired, and it has yet to sign an agreement with the bankruptcy-laden RSN, or with a local over-the-air television station.

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports Radio News

Joe Giglio: Bonta Hill, Joe Shasky Need to Stop Trashing 94WIP Listeners

“We gotta stop the ‘lowlife’, ‘scumbag’, thing about Philadelphia fans. We haven’t crushed your fans once.”

Published

on

A photo of Joe Giglio
(Photo: Audacy)

In one of the biggest games of the NFL season, the Philadelphia Eagles are set to host the San Francisco 49ers. A war of words has ensued between 95.7 The Game and 94WIP hosts, but Joe Giglio believes there is one area and trope that needs to end.

On Friday, 95.7 The Game’s morning show — hosted by Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky — joined 94WIP’s midday show hosted by Joe Giglio and Hugh Douglas.

The two shows traded barbs with one another before Giglio called out Hill and Shasky for their comments about Philadelphia locals and 94WIP listeners. Last season, the pair ventured to Philadelphia for the NFC Championship Game, and have repeatedly spoken poorly about the city and the Eagles’ fanbase.

After Shasky mentioned the show’s parody song “Cry Eagles Cry” — a play on the franchise’s famous song and chant “Fly Eagles Fly” — Joe Giglio shared his displeasure with the pair.

“That song was one of the dopiest things I’ve ever heard on the radio,” Giglio said. “It was so dopey, the Cry Eagles Cry thing.”

“It was one of our highest-rated shows ever, I’m not gonna lie,” Hill responded. “So, thank you, Philadelphia.”

“That’s good. You take that and run with it. But guys? We gotta stop the ‘lowlife’, ‘scumbag’, thing about Philadelphia fans. We haven’t crushed your fans once. You guys were crushed. And maybe one of your dummy callers that called into us, but you gotta stop. The way you’ve painted everyone for the past year, it’s just wrong. Whatever your experience was, that’s not everyone here, guys.”

Earlier this week, Hill and Shasky described Eagles fans with the words Giglio described. 94WIP host Jon Marks didn’t take kindly to the remarks, either, which led 95.7 The Game to publish videos of the treatment the morning duo received when they visited Philadelphia as proof that the pair received harsh treatment.

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Advertisement

Barrett Media Writers

Copyright © 2023 Barrett Media.