Glenn Ordway launches new web site & show

mabrowndog

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Chad Finn (who else?) has the scoop.
 

Ordway, aka the Big O, who was fired by WEEI’s parent company Entercom in February 2013, is launching his own online radio venture, which will debut March 17.
 
The website will be named sportstalkboston.com, and it will serve as the host for Ordway’s three-hour daily online radio show, titled Big Show Unfiltered. It will air from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and feature some familiar personalities and segments from his former afternoon drive program on WEEI, including a version of the popular “Whiner Line.” The site will have a smartphone app and be optimized for mobile usage.
 

 
Ordway said he’s on the constant quest for new ideas and talent, with the idea of expanding sportstalkboston.com’s lineup to more shows within the calendar year and perhaps as soon as the next 3-4 months.
 
“The idea is that we’re going to use this company as a farm league,’’ said Ordway during a wide-ranging interview Wednesday. “We’re going to go out and seek other people. Some of old people, old characters who were involved in show, we expect are going to come a back and want to do it.
 
“We’re going to be able to experiment with it. We’re going to take the old concept of 2, 3, 4 people sitting around talking about sports, sitting around the bar, and be able to inject new ideas and people and personalities that were part of the old show.”
 

This part sounds interesting:

One of those new ideas involves the way advertising will be prevented. Rather than having the conventional prolonged commercial breaks a few times per hour, the longest break will run four minutes, with brief commercials embedded into the program.
 
“We might mention three sponsors in that half-hour, but you know we’re not going anywhere,’’ Ordway said. “We’re going to reach out and try to grab 12 partners. These are the places you go and do business with because they’re our partners, and we will mention them within in the flow of the program.”
 

Ordway knows he faces a daunting task, and acknowledges with a laugh that his holdover core of listeners from WEEI might need some coaching to fully understand the new format.
 
“The biggest problem I’m going to have is that my listeners – my older listeners – who are still fiddling around with their smart phone and can’t figure out how to do this stuff,’’ he said.
 
 

 
 
 

mabrowndog

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I'm not sure why he said all this:
 
 
“The idea is that we’re going to use this company as a farm league,’’ said Ordway during a wide-ranging interview Wednesday. “We’re going to go out and seek other people. Some of old people, old characters who were involved in show, we expect are going to come a back and want to do it.
 
“We’re going to be able to experiment with it. We’re going to take the old concept of 2, 3, 4 people sitting around talking about sports, sitting around the bar, and be able to inject new ideas and people and personalities that were part of the old show.”
 
when he could have just cut to the chase and said "Smerlas, DeOssie & Sheppard".
 

Corsi

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mabrowndog said:
I'm not sure why he said all this:
 
 
when he could have just cut to the chase and said "Smerlas, DeOssie & Sheppard".
 
Don't forget about me!
 
 

Steve Dillard

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mabrowndog said:
Chad Finn (who else?) has the scoop.
 
 
 

 

This part sounds interesting:
 
 

One of those new ideas involves the way advertising will be prevented. Rather than having the conventional prolonged commercial breaks a few times per hour, the longest break will run four minutes, with brief commercials embedded into the program.
 
 

 
 
 
 
Well, if he brings in the old crew, including Fred and Steve, Larry Johnson, etc., that part will take care of itself.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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So I'm going to now go out of my way to find Steve DeOssie, Fred Smerlas, Larry Johnson and Pete Sheppard? Sure. While I'm at, maybe I'll see if Nick Cafardo and Peter King want to carpool so that we can all join in the fun.
 
I admire his enthusiasm, I really do. But man, he is really, really overestimating his worth in the Boston market.
 

RG33

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Andrew said:
Does he think he just invented podcasts?
Seriously. I thought this was a joke. This might be a "new format" for Tony in Chelsea, but acting like this is a "daunting task" is kind of ridiculous.
 

scottyno

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RedSoxFan said:
Aren't Big Show and Whiner Line intellectual property of Entercom?
whiner line has been taken by multiple other radio shows around the country without even changing the name, including smerlas when he did his show in buffalo, so I doubt that is
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Rather than having the conventional prolonged commercial breaks a few times per hour, the longest break will run four minutes
Four minutes isn't a "prolonged commercial break"?
 
I bet you can be a guest host on the show, for a low low price.
 
 
 
Edit:  Some one call up Jimmy Myers and see if he wants in!
 

soxfan121

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John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
I admire his enthusiasm, I really do. But man, he is really, really overestimating his worth in the Boston market.
 
I love that the excuse for why this thing is going to fail came right out Glenn's mouth...
 

“The biggest problem I’m going to have is that my listeners – my older listeners – who are still fiddling around with their smart phone and can’t figure out how to do this stuff,’’ he said.
 
 
There is, probably, an audience that wants Glenn Ordway. But they are all going to annoy their offspring with questions about "the app", get frustrated that "the app" doesn't come through the car speakers and give up on "the app" before switching back to WO(L)DS.
 

berniecarbo1

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.....is this what Sheppard has been hanging around Boston for?  That whole thing is so over.  I keep maintaining that Boston is a great (Top 3) sports town, but it is only a 1 major sports radio station town. Once it was EEI and a bunch of small time players. Today it is TSH and a bunch of second level stations, including EEI. Ordway should live off his investments, do his weekend show on Mad Dog radio and thank God he doesn't have to dig a ditch for a living.
 

doldmoose34

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berniecarbo1 said:
.....is this what Sheppard has been hanging around Boston for?  That whole thing is so over.  I keep maintaining that Boston is a great (Top 3) sports town, but it is only a 1 major sports radio station town. Once it was EEI and a bunch of small time players. Today it is TSH and a bunch of second level stations, including EEI. Ordway should live off his investments, do his weekend show on Mad Dog radio and thank God he doesn't have to dig a ditch for a living.
i know he made a ton of money but I believe he is on family #2 (remember a baby had some serious medical issues a couple years ago) and I heard that he moved from Hanover to the "J" road in Cohasset  which is serious coinage
 
not that there is anything wrong with that
 

Andy Merchant

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Ordway's audience is too old for him to get a bunch of listeners for an online-only broadcast. I sure hope his backers have deep pockets.

It reminds me of every conversation I've had with my parents about using new technology.

Me: Why don't you get high speed internet? I try to call you for hours and your phone is busy because Dad is online. For that matter, if you had a cellphone I could just call you on that too.
Mom: Oh, we don't need anything fancy like that.

Me: Why don't you get a TiVo? That way you can record your PBS show while Dad is watching the basketball game.
Mom: Oh, we don't need anything fancy like that.

Me: Why don't you get an iPad? You'll have instant portable access to email and the internet that you can take with you when you travel.
Mom: Oh, we don't need anything fancy like that.
 

bohous

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I've never been an Ordway fan but this "let's get the band back together" act is straight up pathetic. Listening to 4 blowhards play "whoever is loudest is rightest" was never good radio.
If he's going to go all 2002 he should call Ted Sarandis to be his whipping boy and promise him a new audience for Ted Nation.
 
"Hey mister! I don't mean to be tellin' tales out of school, but there's a feller in there that'll pay you ten dollars if you sing into his can."
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
soxfan121 said:
There is, probably, an audience that wants Glenn Ordway. But they are all going to annoy their offspring with questions about "the app", get frustrated that "the app" doesn't come through the car speakers and give up on "the app" before switching back to WO(L)DS.

 
As my MiL used to say:  we're just going to stay in tonight and rent a VCR.
 

NickEsasky

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Andy Merchant said:
Ordway's audience is too old for him to get a bunch of listeners for an online-only broadcast. I sure hope his backers have deep pockets.

It reminds me of every conversation I've had with my parents about using new technology.

Me: Why don't you get high speed internet? I try to call you for hours and your phone is busy because Dad is online. For that matter, if you had a cellphone I could just call you on that too.
Mom: Oh, we don't need anything fancy like that.

Me: Why don't you get a TiVo? That way you can record your PBS show while Dad is watching the basketball game.
Mom: Oh, we don't need anything fancy like that.

Me: Why don't you get an iPad? You'll have instant portable access to email and the internet that you can take with you when you travel.
Mom: Oh, we don't need anything fancy like that.
Maybe they just hope you'll stop being such a tightwad son and buy some of this stuff for them. I mean they only raised you. 
 

Andy Merchant

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NickEsasky said:
Maybe they just hope you'll stop being such a tightwad son and buy some of this stuff for them. I mean they only raised you.
Ironically, I am not the tightwad in this situation. I ended up getting them all of those things except for the HSI, although I provided and set up all of their LAN infrastructure. They can pretty much afford anything they want (both retired in their 50's with a healthy investment portfolio), but they're just incredibly cheap and anything that came out after the 1980's is "too fancy".
 

PeaceSignMoose

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I'm going to be out of the country for that week.  I'm half expecting the whole thing to be dismantled by the time I get back.
 

brettzky99

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Yeah they spent more time griping out weei, 98.5 and barstool than talking contracts...which says a lot.
 

Patriot_Reign

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it was kind of interesting to listen to
ordway went way out of his way to say he doesn't hate weei, just that one douchebag general manager who got fired in the fall (jeff brown?)
they did make fun of felger and mazz and said they're allowed to talk about anybody they want and without gloves
 

brettzky99

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The clean audio feed is really hurting Craig Murphy's impresssions. His "Robert Kraft" sounded A LOT more like the patriots owner when Murphy recorded it via cellphone over an AM feed
 

Rusty13

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Well I guess Greg Dickerson is "making the rounds today"!  I heard him on D&C with Dennis earlier.  And now he's on with Ordway.  And he's spent a chunk of time on both shows just absolutely BURYING Gary Tanguay.  Not that I blame him!
 

LMontro

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Rusty13 said:
Well I guess Greg Dickerson is "making the rounds today"!  I heard him on D&C with Dennis earlier.  And now he's on with Ordway.  And he's spent a chunk of time on both shows just absolutely BURYING Gary Tanguay.  Not that I blame him!
 
I missed it, what did he say?
 

Rusty13

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LMontro said:
 
I missed it, what did he say?
 
Basically that it was amazing that Gary still has a job with Comcast, and he doesn't, essentially implying that he has no talent.  And that the only reason Gary still is employed there is because he is legitimately "crazy", and Comcast is afraid to do anything. 
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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They're really taking the "getting the band back together" thing serious.

https://twitter.com/GlennDOrdway/status/446992142221975552
 

TheoShmeo

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Does anyone know if Ordway is in fact on Sirius 108 and, if so, what hours and days he's on?
 
TheoShmeo said:
Does anyone know if Ordway is in fact on Sirius 108 and, if so, what hours and days he's on?
 
I can tell you this, Sirius 108 is the "Cosmopolitan Channel".  According to their website, this channel normally features various guest hosts like Naomi Campbell, Giada DeLaurentis, and Martha Stewart to discuss fashion, food, celebrity, etc.  
 
However, I've tuned in the past couple days just to check and now it's all sports highlights, sports updates, and pre-recorded sports interviews. So....
 

soxfan121

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ifmanis5 said:
From Naomi Campbell to Glenn Ordway is quite a demographic shift.
 
Yep. Naomi is a colossal bitch whereas Glenn is just a tiny one.
 

Patriot_Reign

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Until Friday I had checked out the show from work via earbuds...audio didn't seem to be a big deal other than I had to do some minor adjusting with the volume.
Friday afternoon in the car however, holy shit.  Completely unlistenable audio as Glenn, Fred, Pete, et al go from bellowing out a point and as their point continues their voices dropping down to almost a whisper which translated as such to my car.  I spent about 20 miles with my hand on the volume turning it up and down with the broadcast until I just said fuck it.  My wife thanked me for turning off the headache.
Glenn & company if you're reading this...please get your audio in order, it's gonna be a hard(er) fail if you don't.
 

Haunted

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People - even radio people - often forget that their voices are compressed like crazy before it goes over the air.  Bill Burr's podcast is great but he suffers from the same thing - wild volume fluctuations.  It's annoying.
 

JohnnyTheBone

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Anybody listening to this show?
 
http://tunein.com/radio/Sports-Talk-Boston-s220637/
 
I'm listening to the Big Show Unfiltered encore right now while playing online Scrabble.  It's actually pretty decent, with Meat Sheppard and some comedian named Craig Murphy sitting with Glen.  Ordway just said "shitfaced" while discussing the McNabb arrest, so it's apparently uncensored and they can let it all roll.  I'm finding it more enjoyable than either of the current terrestrial radio sports options in Boston.
 

brettzky99

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It's half decent as long as Jerry Thornton isn't a guest. Would be better if they could book some phone interviews with players or beat writers.