HomeBrew1901 said:
This is really where they are starting to lose me more and more, a lot of these guys start off entertaining but their acts wear thin really quickly because they are one trick ponies. Wayne from Grafton was funny at first but we get it he's the dirty old uncle. Mike from Attleboro and Ranting John,every little fucking thing makes you so mad that I can hear the spit hitting the phone?
They all take away from the show and they only saving grace is that they are rarely given more than 2 minutes of air time.
I've been one of Felger's biggest defenders on the site but I can't do it anymore, and this has nothing to do with Salk and Holley because I don't really listen to them anymore either, but his act is wearing thin and to me it's because it's the same shit over and over and over again. I think that Rocco may have a point in that the older I get the less patience I have with these shows because neither show is overly impressive and neither has been able to keep my attention.
I disagree with this. It's not a coincidence that a large majority of people feel the same way you do, and it's not because we're all just getting older. I'll be the first to admit that I don't listen to the show as often as I used to, but there are some serious flaws with this show now.
Bertrand offers nothing anymore. Or, at the very least, significantly less than he did a handful of months ago. When DA was leaving the station, there was a large contingency of people here that wanted him to get his own show. Now he's become a fucking parrot. He agrees with Felger on 90% of his stuff, and the rest of his routine is copying Mazz's schtick (Boston voice, chuckling at callers, etc.) I said this before, but when I heard Gasper call him out over the weekend ("that kind of stuff might fly on the other show you do, but let's not start that crap here"), it was confirmation that it's not just the people on this message board who have seen the change.
Mazz offers nothing. for the most part, that's not a change, but there was at least the facade that he could talk baseball. It's painfully evident that the guy either doesn't (and never did) know as much as we hoped, he's not even remotely prepared, he's just relying on his cushy job and has no interest in pushing his career anymore, or some mash up of all three.
I listened to some of the show yesterday too, and one thing he can still do is set up idiots for his success. When they began to discuss Rondo as a top 5 PG, and Wiggy tried defending him, Mazz offered a super scripted "If you wouldn't trade Steph Curry for Rajon Rondo, then this conversation is going nowhere and not worth having. Would you trade Rondo for Curry?" Now, I probably would trade Rondo for Curry, but there is certainly room for debate. Mazz, of course, knew that Wiggy wouldn't trade Rondo for Curry and when Wiggy responded as such, Mazz responded "Yeah, exactly. This conversation is going nowhere." He blew Wiggy off and weaseled his way out of a response at the expense of Wiggy, and of course, he managed to do it by deflecting with a question that
wasn't even relevant to the topic. What does trading Steph Curry for Rondo have to do with the top 5 PG's in the NBA?
Again, did anyone challenge him? Did Bertrand ask, "Hey Mazz, who are your top 5 PG's? What advanced stats would you look at to figure this out? Rondo was ranked 4th in PER for PG this year. You disagree with that, why?" Nope. Nothing. This example isn't a random occurrence. It's a microcosm of Mazz as a radio host. Brings nothing to the table, deflects/defuses/deflates any real conversation, throws out "witty" one liners and insults.
There's a lot of rabble rousing about people not challenging Felger on his shit, but there's no accountability across the board. Nobody challenges anyone on this show, and the conversation has devolved into sports bar conversation. There's one guy who can speak his mind better than everyone else at the bar, and he leads the round table of drunk and stupid.
Felger is predictable. I originally used the word "boring", but that's not accurate or fair. He's not boring. But he sure as shit is predictable. You don't need to look any further than the callers to see this. there are plenty of callers who make
zero point, zero insight, and zero contribution for the 1-2 minutes they call, but even these dim light bulbs know exactly what to say to get a chuckle and a "You're right. No, you're more than right!" From Felger. When the same degenerates you mock are able to entertain and enlighten you, it might be time to flip the script.
Conversely, there have been quite a few callers that raised interesting questions or points. They get zero talk. They make their point, Felger gives a quick, "Thanks for the call", "Sure, but what about...", etc. This crew has slowly dripped out any real conversation from the callers because it's much more entertaining to get the idiots. There is no reason for anyone with half a brain to call, because they know they'll just get run off the show and mocked if they disagree with any of Felgers points. If the hosts on the show won't challenge him, they sure as shit aren't going to let the callers do it.
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
That's true, I'm not saying that Wiggins all of a sudden went "Flowers for Algernon" here, but he pushes Felger and that's what every good radio show needs. Rocco, I think that you said F&M had the potential to be Boston's "Mike and the Mad Dog" and I think that was true when the show first started and both co-hosts were hungry. But since the show has achieved number one, Maz is just resting on his laurels. Felger isn't because he wants to be a Boston media kingpin, the proverbial big fish in the little pond. I don't think Maz gives a shit about that. I think that he sees his success, sees a couple of extra zeroes on his check and figures he's made it. Which is fine, but it leads to very boring and moronic radio; let Felger and the celebrity callers do the heavy lifting and make wisecracks in the background.
As for Gresh, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. His pompous attitude (When I played football we did it this way. Okay Gresh, URI FOOTBALL RULES!) does more to damage him than his retarded brain ever could. Even though I wasn't much of an Artie fan, comparing him to Gresh is a diservice to Lange. At least under that pizza grease, heroin and Yankees hat; Lange was occasionaly funny and worked hard to get to where he was (longshoreman to comedic actor is a pretty decent bump).
Gresh is still a fucking tool. He takes himself too seriously and clearly was picked on as a child. Anytime someone in the studio chuckles at him, disagrees with him, rolls their eyes at him, you can hear his face getting red over the microphone. He was talking about loose women the other day and used some lame term I've never heard of. Nobody said anything over the mic, but obviously someone chuckled or gave him a look, because he quickly retorted, "What? I guess I'll just say it over the radio. Whores. Happy now? I'm talking about whores." Only he did it in a tone that emphasized his sensitivity. He was talking about a woman from Toronto that they had on the radio, and he immediately went down to the "This broad is clearly a pink hat." Them damn broads...
The guy is tactless, and he's a fucking butcher on the microphone. Gresh has no fresh takes, is oversensitive and overcompensates any challenge with aggression, poorly spoken, and a braggart who exaggerates his accomplishments. He fucking sucks.
