I sort of admire the balls it took for ESPN to launch their Boston radio outpost just to the right of WEEI on the dial. I like seeing someone go for the throat, even if it's doomed for failure. But then again, they are the Worldwide Leader, so they have muscle to make a go of it, and they are not exactly the underdog here.
890's main draw is also its chief liability - syndicated, national broadcasts. Mike and Mike and Dan Patrick (well, at least until August 17th) far outshine their EEI competition during the morning and midday in both the class and content department, though their coverage is necessarily more generalist and national than the hermetically sealed, incestuously provincial homerism of EEI. Both these shows make for better listening, but probably can't pull in the ya-dood yahoos that are sports radio's main bread and butter.
Local programs (or program, really) suffer severely. Mike Felger - a refugee from EEI's carnivalesque afternoon shouting match hosted by the Big O - simply lacks the panache to hold listeners attention, is disagreeable and abrasive without being genuinely hateable, a la JT the Brick. The only ace up his sleeve is a regular spot by Peter Gammons on Thursdays - but why go here when I can see him regularly on ESPN TV.
A negligible one hour Red Sox pregrame show runs between 6-7, and during the football season, Troy Brown hosts a weekly one hour stint which is agreeably listenable, but only because Brown is so agreeable himself.
Though probably not destined to sink into obscurity any time soon, a la the Zone 1510 AM, I can't see ESPN making any real dents as long as they stay in the same neighborhood as their unassailable rival. read more
