As WEEI’s proprietor emerges from chapter, the main voice for the dominant rival on the town says he hopes the sports activities discuss competitor will “make it.”
98.5 The Sports Hub’s Mike Felger addressed Audacy’s chapter and WEEI this week, saying he’s “rooting for them big time.”
Felger on Wednesday throughout the “Off Air Show” requested ex-WEEI host Mark Dondero about his former employer’s scenario. Dondero is the latest member of the 98.5 on-air crew.
“So what’s the word over there?” Felger requested Dondero. “Are they going to make it?… I hate the bankruptcy (expletive). I hope they make it. I’m rooting for them big time.”
Dondero — who joined 98.5 as a part-time, on-air host, primarily on weekends — stated he imagines that WEEI will live on, however he stated a number of occasions about WEEI’s future, “I don’t know.”
“You should be able to have two stations in Boston,” Dondero stated. “It’s ridiculous with the quantity of ardour that’s within the space for the groups.
“I don’t see them going down,” he added. “I hope they’re fine, but I don’t know. They didn’t talk to me all that much with certain things, so I don’t know.”
Felger in contrast the Boston sports activities discuss competitors to the soda rivalry between Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
“I’m sure Coke wants to beat Pepsi, but if Pepsi went out of business and that meant that fewer people were drinking cola… you want the space to be healthy,” Felger stated. “You need the enterprise, the house, the product itself, whether or not it’s your model or not, to be broadly consumed and wholesome.
“And I would be worried that if EEI didn’t make it, it’s like sports talk was declining, not an EEI thing, it’s a sports talk thing,” he added. “So I (expletive) hope they make it. They should be able to.”
Felger later went again to the soda analogy.
“You want as many people drinking as much cola as possible,” Felger stated.
“So you just want them to exist, but you just continue to dominate,” Dondero added.
Felger emphatically responded, “Absolutely.”
“We would want sports talk to be a really healthy space, a really healthy business in general, and then through competition we win,” Felger stated. “That’s what I might need.
“Part of it’s selfish. If my contract’s ever up, like it’s been in the past and the other station bids for you, like that’s healthy for people who work at the stations, but that’s obvious,” he added. “But beyond that, I think it’s healthy just that sports talk be vibrant, and important and widely consumed.”
Audacy had filed for prepackaged Chapter 11 chapter firstly of the 12 months following a drop of a number of billion {dollars} in radio advert spending.
Then final week, the proprietor of WEEI and different Boston radio stations obtained courtroom approval to emerge from chapter, with George Soros’ agency set to turn out to be the most important shareholder of the radio and podcast firm.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”