Meghan Ottolini deserved better, and other thoughts from WEEI

A few thoughts on the WEEI lineup shuffle as I wonder how many more messages I’ll get comparing this to the deck chair shuffle on the Titanic. We hit double digits before sunset on Wednesday.

▪ It’s a shame that Meghan Ottolini has been demoted from co-host of Afternoon Drive to a fill-in/writer role.

When she was hired in April 2022 to host the 2-6 p.m. program alongside Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria, she probably would have benefited from gradually easing herself into the sports radio space in a less prominent role than the drive-time host competing against The Sports Hub’s ratings stronghold “Felger and Mazz.”

But she quickly grew into it, developing a sharp sense of humor and clear, authentic opinions on Boston sports. Sports radio desperately needs fresh voices, especially female voices. WEEI had found one.

When WEEI canceled that show in December of that year—not renewing Merloni’s contract and moving Fauria to the middays with Andy Gresh—I thought it was a mistake. The trio of hosts had developed good chemistry, and by their final quarterly show in fall 2022, they were second to Felger and Mazz in the Nielsen audio ratings for that daypart with a 9.2% share. This show had something good going.

WEEI is now yearning for such afternoon ratings. The replacement program “Jones and Mego” with Christian Arcand was ranked 17th with a 2.1 market share last spring, the last full ratings period.

Putting them together with the obviously negative Adam Jones was a foreseeable failure in a direct duel with “Felger and Mazz”, who neither wanted to be challenged nor defeated in their own “why does it stink” game.

As one Twitter/X follower put it: “She accomplished one of the most impressive feats in radio history – making a @JonesWEEI broadcast audible. For that alone, she deserves all the recognition.”

WEEI was smart to hire Ottolini. It’s a shame that she didn’t get more opportunities to develop. Given the right opportunity, she can and will be a shining star in this market again.

▪ The move to midday was probably inevitable, as “Gresh and Fauria” didn’t hold the audience of “The Greg Hill Show” in the morning slot. In the spring, Hill’s show had a 10.3 share. That fell to 2.1, putting “Gresh and Fauria” in 17th place in the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. timeslot.

In a brief conversation on Wednesday, Fauria admitted that he was not surprised.

I must admit, though, that I was surprised that the program had so many problems. Gresh, though often immature, had mellowed out a bit since his days at Sports Hub. And Fauria was about as good-humored and laughing at himself as any anchor on either sports network.

But the audience just wasn’t big enough. In the spring, the Sports Hub’s “Zolak and Betrand” show had almost eight times the market share, namely 16.7, compared to the 2.1 mentioned above.

▪ In January 2023, Jones criticized the friendly sports columnist next door for writing for the second time that his negative approach would not succeed.

A more vindictive and friendly neighborhood sports columnist would be writing this for the third time – after all, there’s no reason to change an opinion if it’s still right.

But I have to be honest. I actually think that Jones and Keefe could work in the midday slot – at least to the extent that it gets better ratings than Gresh and Fauria, which I suppose is a small improvement.

They had previously worked together on the evening show at Sports Hub from January 2013 to December 2016, achieving good ratings, although the Celtics and Bruins broadcasts also had a major impact during that time slot.

They actually have a good rapport as real friends, and Keefe’s wit is a counterbalance to Jones’ pessimistic approach. It could work, and WEEI could use any modest progress during the day.

▪ It was telling that Mike Thomas, Audacy Boston’s vice president and market manager, placed more emphasis on the reunion of Jones and Keefe at midday than on the change in the much more important afternoon time slot.

I enjoy listening to both Andy Hart and Arcand. (To be completely honest, I was on Arcand’s show in New Hampshire many years ago.) Hart, the new addition to the show but well-known to WEEI listeners and visitors to their website, is best known as a Patriots-oriented personality but proved to be one of the more thoughtful voices about the Celtics during their championship run last season.

Your show should be quite pleasant to listen to, and by that I mean a show where the hosts are not trying to provoke you.

But this is also true: Pairing two personalities who are well-known but not necessarily high-profile is a tacit admission that nothing WEEI is doing now will come anywhere close to “Felger and Mazz.”

Considering how often the station has moved the old deck chairs during the afternoon hours, it is fair to ask whether this will ever happen again.