There was a time that sports station WEEI was a lot stronger in the Boston ratings. Along with The Sports Hub, the two stations were battling for the ears of the rabid Boston sports fan. For quite some time now, The Sports Hub has dominated. It’s the job of new PD Jeff Rickard to figure out why and try to return the station to its former glory.
Long-time Boston reporter Chad Finn interviewed Rickard for Boston.com about his new position and how he hopes to turn things around at WEEI. About the ratings, Rickard told Finn you identify the things that you do really well, you identify your weaknesses, you try to fix those weaknesses, and you just put a really compelling show on the air, whether that show is morning, middays, or afternoons. “I think there’s a lot of talent here and we’ll try to get them to do the things that they do really well even better. Over time, all stations change and evolve. Some of them find their rock-solid lineup and they go with that. I’m excited to see what I can find out about the crew that’s here right now and see where we can go with them. But yeah, I can’t worry about what anybody else does. I can only worry about what this radio station is going to do.”
And here’s what Rickard told Finn about mixing politics and sports on the air. ” Well, first of all, sports is your bread and butter, you’re a sports radio station. You’re marketing yourself as a sports radio station. So I think people want to come today, for example, to hear what [midday host] Andy Gresh has to say about Cam Newton and Mac Jones last night. You know the first preseason game is what people will be talking about, and you have to give them that. But you also think, if I was with my buddies and my family, what would we be talking about today? I’m not a big fan of politics in sports radio because I think it’s divisive and I don’t think that does you any good.
Rickard was hired by Audacy earlier this month to program WEEI after working in Indianapolis where he was PD and morning show host for Emmis’ WFNI.
