Mike Adams out at WEEI

Red(s)HawksFan

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Given WEEI's pattern of ousting guys who've been around for a while, I wager he'll be back within 18 months or so.

Frankly, my money would be on Mutnansky. He's not great by any stretch, but since he's already doing the Red Sox pre and post, he's probably the guy who will be on air in that spot for the next few months anyway. They'll probably quietly make it permanent in September or something.
 

Traut

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Please let them give Christian Arcand this opportunity. EEI needs to get younger.
 

Red Right Ankle

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This is the best thing I've read all day. That guy sucked. Unfunny, uninteresting, obnoxious old hack. Plus he treated his female interns really creepily.
 

GregHarris

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He'll always have the Mike Adams and Candy show over at 1510 The Zone.
 

soxfan121

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Please let them give Christian Arcand this opportunity. EEI needs to get younger.
You said it. Arcand is the only blue-chip prospect in their system. They should give him the chance to build an audience at night. He knows a metricfuckton more about Boston sports than does Adam Jones.
 

pedro1918

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I have tuned into Mike Adams about 5-10 times over the last 11 years. Each time I tuned in I basically had no other option and I had forgotten just how awful he was. I listened for a few minutes and I remembered. I have never understood the appeal of this show. Not funny, not smart. I'm not saying I'll be a regular listener to whoever takes over, but there is chance I will tune in. For a few minutes anyway.
 

Kliq

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I always liked Mikey. I get that he is never going to blow anyone away with hard-hitting analysis of any kind, but that was never the point of his show. He kept everything light, he made jokes, referenced songs from decades ago, he had different types of guests on, I thought it was good for what it was. I feel like hard-hitting, critical radio has been mostly usurped by podcasts anyway; I always appreciated putting on some easy-listening radio while driving at night.
 

Patriot_Reign

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I agree with this, he could be sort of toolish with his weird female relations, but he was also easy listening night time. I would often put the radio on to hear him (and Lenny Mags) as I was winding down my day. Just a sort of jovial seeming guy.
 

lars10

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I always liked Mikey. I get that he is never going to blow anyone away with hard-hitting analysis of any kind, but that was never the point of his show. He kept everything light, he made jokes, referenced songs from decades ago, he had different types of guests on, I thought it was good for what it was. I feel like hard-hitting, critical radio has been mostly usurped by podcasts anyway; I always appreciated putting on some easy-listening radio while driving at night.
Mikey is similar to Steve Somers here in NYC... an old-timey guy with a schtick who gets people to call in until two in the morning or so. I have to imagine that shift has to be super difficult to generate a fanbase.
 

Traut

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I'm sad for Adams. He seemed like a nice guy. A guy who understood his role. And was good at generating calls and light banter during the evening shift. It's either schtick or milktoast on sports radio. There's room for a Minihane and an Adams in the sports radio world. Sports is entertainment. It's okay to have fun. I hope they give Arcand a shot but after a long work day driving home and listening to Adams was like pounding a bud light after mowing the lawn in the summer.
 

Mooch

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It's amazing that he lasted that long on WEEI. His schtick was lame back when he was on NECN.
 

rmurph3

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Mikey is similar to Steve Somers here in NYC... an old-timey guy with a schtick who gets people to call in until two in the morning or so. I have to imagine that shift has to be super difficult to generate a fanbase.
Perhaps they're cut from the same cloth, but to equate them is a huge disservice to Somers. To use a Bill Simmons reference, Mike Adams is the homeless man's Steve Somers.
 

Red Right Ankle

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I'm sad for Adams. He seemed like a nice guy. A guy who understood his role. And was good at generating calls and light banter during the evening shift. It's either schtick or milktoast on sports radio. There's room for a Minihane and an Adams in the sports radio world. Sports is entertainment. It's okay to have fun. I hope they give Arcand a shot but after a long work day driving home and listening to Adams was like pounding a bud light after mowing the lawn in the summer.
No, listening to Mike Adams was like listening to someone who had just pounded a case of Bud Lights after mowing his lawn. Mostly unintelligible and what you can understand was horrifically boring.

I don't mind light fun banter at all, but it has to be done well. And Mike Adams sucked.
 

yep

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It's amazing that he lasted that long on WEEI. His schtick was lame back when he was on NECN.
Yeah, I never understood how he had that job.

Hosting a radio show is much more difficult than most people realize. Try taping yourself talking for three hours, about anything, and then try to listen to it all the way through-- chances are it will be completely unlistenable, even if you are naturally a funny and insightful person. There is a whole art and science to speaking on-air, and especially to pacing and stretching out the good material, planning your segments, etc. It's not enough to be witty, you also have to be a good speaker and have a head for managing a show. Dealing with callers is a whole other thing.

That said, some baseline ability to be funny, insightful, and/or provocative ought to be a necessary, if not sufficient, requirement for hosting talk radio. If the art and science of broadcast host is about making one's personality appear to "work" in the unnatural context of a one-way everyday interaction with the public for several hours per day, then one ought to at least have those personality elements on which to build a show.

Mike Adams is good in terms of the broadcast stuff: his voice, his speaking, his ability to manage the flow of a conversation,etc. As a game show host or news announcer, or possibly even as a roundtable moderator, he could work just fine. But his personality, his perspective, his sense of humor are all on the spectrum from bland to bad.
 

moondog80

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Didn't care for him on the radio but I thought his NECN show was great, goofy humor.
 

gryoung

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Sorry to see him go. He was a bit strange, but also something different and less sports-is-the-most-important-thing-in-life. One of the best radio shows in the past decade or so (imho) was Mike and The Monster - Mike Adams and the late Dick Radatz. Was always on the radio/headphones when I was cutting the lawn. Back when I actually cut the lawn.