BSM Writers
One Year Complete At WEEI and Greg Hill’s Focused On Getting Better
“How do you try to keep some listeners from your old show and make listeners happy on the new station?”
Greg Hill was a Boston radio legend long before he stepped foot inside the WEEI studio. After spending 28 years leading the Hill Man Morning Show on WAAF though, Hill was presented with the chance to try something new. Just over a year later, he is firmly entrenched as part of the city’s sports radio landscape.
“I worked at a station for 28 years that I loved, but I also think that the older you get, the rarer it is to get an opportunity for a new challenge. Initially, when I was thinking about it, my thought was we all want to find things that challenge us and need to find things that challenge us,” Hill told me by phone. “To me, that was the most interesting part about it. How do you try to keep some listeners from your old show and make listeners happy on the new station?”
WEEI’s morning show has always created a lot of noise in the market. John Dennis and Gerry Callahan established the timeslot as one that delivered strong ratings, but trafficked in controversy. Kirk Minihane added confrontation to the formula. Both Dennis and Minihane were long gone by the time Hill showed up. Hill replaced Gerry Callahan and Mike Mutnansky. Callahan is no longer with the station, Mutnansky now hosts during the evening hours.
The reputation of past morning shows, and the status WEEI has enjoyed as the heritage sports radio brand in the market, as well as the bitter ratings battle with crosstown rival, 98.5 the Sports Hub, meant nothing would come easy for Hill. Entering the sports landscape in Boston means everything you do is picked over with a fine-toothed comb.
“There’s actually media members who only interview other media members,” Hill says of the attention paid to sports radio in Boston. “I would bet that doesn’t go on much in other markets.”
Hill first cracked the mic in morning drive on WEEI on July 29, 2019. There was no fear, and why should there have been? Sure, there were a few new cast members around him, but Hill had his long-time co-host Danielle Murr by his side. He also had plenty of history behind him to assure himself or anyone else that he knew what he was doing regardless of what station or format he was a part of.
Over time he would develop chemistry and trust with the newest people in his orbit. Names like Jermaine Wiggins, Ken Laird, and Chris Curtis were all familiar to WEEI listeners. Hill knew them too, but knowing someone and working with them every morning are two very different things.
“I didn’t know anything about those guys prior to this other than seeing them around the hallways and talking to them about the stuff that didn’t relate to doing a morning show,” he says of producers Laird and Curtis.
Program director Joe Zarbano says he actually watched the new team build a relationship very quickly. That is why listeners have responded.
“They trust one another and enjoy working together,” said Zarbano. “There’s a genuine camaraderie within this group and it’s been rewarding to see it grow over the past year.”
Chemistry comes with reps of course. Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady didn’t have the same bond the first day Gronkowski showed up to Foxboro that they have now in Tampa. Hill knew how to entertain an audience though. He knew that meant the show could be successful.
“I did a talk show on a rock station for 28 years. To me, it is all about content. It is always about the person in the morning hoping when they tune into your show that you’re going to make them laugh or get them fired up about something that’s happening in sports, politics or down the street from them.”
That rock station Hill mentioned was WAAF. It was a legendary brand in Boston. Despite ownership changes and lineup changes, WAAF remained a constant for rock music fans in Boston for 50 years. That all changed in February of this year though when the Educational Media Foundation closed on a sale of the 107.3 FM frequency and WAAF went away in favor of the nationally syndicated Christian music network K-Love.
Hill was focused on the sports news of the day and finding his groove with his new crew on WEEI. But come on! Greg Hill was part of WAAF for 28 years! Of course he had strong feelings about the station’s demise.
“It was sad to me because I grew up being a listener to that station and to BCN, one of the most legendary rock stations ever,” Hill said. “It made me sad for rock n’ roll in general. Cyclically the different genre of music have up periods and down periods. To have a station that was on the air for 50 years in the same format in one city? It’s depressing to lose that.”
Understanding rock radio listeners helped Hill understand sports radio listeners. It’s Boston. Passion is one of the city’s hallmark traits, and Hill says that whether his listeners have passion for Godsmack, a band WAAF broke 20 years ago, or the Red Sox, a team that has called WEEI its flagship broadcast partner since 1995, it’s his job to capitalize on that passion.
“From my perspective, whatever that person that is listening to the show in the morning, whatever is on their mind, that’s what I want to be talking about,” he said.
One thing that may feel familiar at WEEI from his days at WAAF is Toucher & Rich. Hill competed with the duo when they were the morning show at rock station WBCN. When it transitioned to the Sports Hub, they were kept on as the morning show.
A year ago, Hill came back into their lives as competition. It’s not something he focuses on, but Hill says the common rock-to-sports path won’t be ignored by some.
The real testament to Toucher & Rich, according to Hill, is their staying power in the market. They arrived from Atlanta in 2006. A fourteen year career in Boston isn’t something outsiders typically enjoy.
“There’s no denying that those guys do a great show. They’ve been here for a long time now. Sometimes it takes Boston a while to accept people, whether it’s in media or your neighbor, but those guys have an amazing track record and do a great show,” he says.
Right now, WEEI finds itself trailing the Sports Hub in Boston’s radio ratings by a wide margin among Men 25-54. The good news is that Hill’s show delivered an impressive 7.3 share in the spring book. That was the best performance of WEEI’s weekday shows for the quarter. The bad news, the show still trails Toucher & Rich by 5 share points.
Listeners and industry publications have noticed the divide, but Hill isn’t hitting the panic button.
“My answer might not be what others would say, but I think if a ratings book ends on a Friday and it is a really good ratings book, then the next month ends and the ratings are totally different, I don’t think you did that much different on the following Wednesday than you did on that Friday,” Hill says. “So, I think in a ratings period where 40% of the audience isn’t undertaking their daily routine of the morning commute and turning their radio on, I don’t think you would want to tweak. I personally just want to try and do a better radio show everyday.”
In fact, he says Joe Zarbano took a similar approach when Hill’s new show launched on WEEI. That is how the two developed a relationship.
“He’s the kind of program director that kind of leaves you alone and lets you do your show and basically says ‘hey, how can I help?’. From my perspective he’s been a guy that has been like ‘let’s figure out how to do a great show and then you guys go do it.'”
What does the future hold for The Greg Hill Show? When I asked him what he hopes we’d be talking about if we had this chat again next year, he doesn’t talk about growing the number in a ratings book. He talks about listeners being more invested in the show and understanding the relationships and lives of the personalities involved.
He jokingly adds that he’d love to have Tom Brady back every Monday. The only man that means more to New England than John Adams has migrated South and will be making radio appearances on Tampa Bay-area stations in 2020.
Being a North Carolinian, I told Hill about the fun that he and his listeners could be in for should Cam Newton win the Patriots’ starting job. He agrees. He also acknowledges that Brady is a huge name and his celebrity may be hard to replicate, but Patriots fans are more interested in the team than one former player.
“There’s a considerable amount of us that have bid Tom Brady adeiu and we want the Patriots to win,” he says. “Whoever the starter is, I think there will be as much interest in hearing from whoever the starter is as there was in Tom Brady.”
Zarbano is excited for where the show is after one year on WEEI. As for the future, he has high hopes but admits that future goals are a little hard to set right now.
“Just one year in, we’re thrilled to be up over 30% in mornings year-over-year,” he said. “It’s so hard to predict the future in the middle of a pandemic, but we’re focused on continuing to build on the momentum and positive progress to date.”
Hill says one year from now will be whatever it will be. His only focus will be on the people that rely on his voice every morning to accompany them on their commute or in their homes as they work.
Demetri Ravanos is the Assistant Content Director for Barrett Sports Media. He hosts the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas. Previous stops include WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC. You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos and reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
BSM Writers
Is There Still a Place for Baseball Talk on National Sports Shows?
“Its struggle has been the same since the beginning of television. There is too much baseball for any regular season baseball game or story to have national significance.”
Demetri Ravanos is the Assistant Content Director for Barrett Sports Media. He hosts the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas. Previous stops include WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC. You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos and reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
BSM Writers
Who Can Sports Fans Trust Once Twitter Ditches Legacy Verified Blue Checks?
The potential for Twitter chaos after April 1 is looming.
As of April 1, Twitter will finally make a dreaded change that many will view as an April Fools’ prank. Unfortunately, it won’t be a joke to any user who cares about legitimacy and truth.
Last week, Twitter officially announced that verified blue checkmarks will be removed from accounts that have not signed up for a Twitter Blue subscription. Previously, accounts whose identity had been verified were allowed to keep their blue checks when Twitter Blue was implemented.
But shortly after Elon Musk purchased Twitter and became the social media company’s CEO, he stated his intention to use verification as a revenue source. Users would have to pay $8 per month (or $84 annually) for a Twitter Blue subscription and blue checkmark verification. Paying for blue checks immediately set off red flags among users who learned to depend on verified accounts for accredited identities and trusted information.
The entire concept of verification and blue checks was simple and effective. Users and accounts bearing the blue checkmark were legitimate. These people and organizations were who they said they were.
As an example, ESPN’s Adam Schefter has faced criticism for how he framed domestic violence and sexual misconduct involving star NFL players, and deservedly so. But fans and media know Schefter’s tweets are really coming from him because his account is verified.
Furthermore, Twitter took the additional step of clarifying that accounts such as Schefter’s were verified before Twitter Blue was implemented. He didn’t pay eight dollars for that blue checkmark.
The need for verification is never more vital than when fake accounts are created to deceive users. Such accounts will put “Adam Schefter” as their Twitter name, even if their handle is something like “@TuaNeedsHelp.” Or worse, some fake accounts will create a handle with letters that look similar. So “@AdarnSchefter” with an “rn” in place of the “m,” fools some people, especially at a quick glance when people are trying to push news out as fast as possible.
Plenty of baseball fans have been duped over the years by fake accounts using a zero instead of an “o” or a capital “I” instead of a lowercase “l” to resemble Fox Sports and The Athletic reporter Ken Rosenthal. That trick didn’t get me. But when I covered Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report 10 years ago, I did fall for a fake Jim Salisbury account that reported the Philadelphia Phillies traded Hunter Pence to the San Francisco Giants. Capital “I,” not lowercase “l” in “Salisbury.” Pence was, in fact, traded to the Giants two days later, but that didn’t make my goof any less embarrassing. I should’ve looked for the blue checkmark!
But after April 1, that signifier won’t matter. Legacy blue checkmarks will be removed from accounts that haven’t paid for Twitter Blue. Some accounts that were previously verified might purchase a subscription to maintain that blue check. But those that were deemed legitimate prior to Musk taking over Twitter likely won’t. (There are also rumors that Twitter is considering a feature that would allow Twitter Blue subscribers to hide their blue check and avoid revealing that purchase.)
That could be even more true for media organizations, which are being told to pay $1000 per month for verification. Do you think ESPN, the New York Times, or the Washington Post will pay $12,000 for a blue check?
We’ve already seen the problems that paying for verification can cause. Shortly after Twitter Blue launched, accounts pretending to be legacy verified users could be created. A fake Adam Schefter account tweeted that the Las Vegas Raiders had fired head coach Josh McDaniels. Users who saw the “Adam Schefter” Twitter name went with the news without looking more closely at the “@AdamSchefterNOT” handle. But there was a blue checkmark next to the name this time!
The same thing occurred with a fake LeBron James account tweeting that the NBA superstar had requested a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers. There was a “@KINGJamez” handle, but a “LeBron James” Twitter name with a blue check next to it.
Whether it’s because fans and media have become more discerning or Twitter has done good work cracking down on such fake accounts, there haven’t been many outrageous examples of deliberate deception since last November. But the potential for Twitter chaos after April 1 is looming.
If that seems like an overstatement, it’s a very real possibility that there will be an erosion of trust among Twitter users. Media and fans may have to take a breath before quickly tweeting and retweeting news from accounts that may or may not be credible. False news and phony statements could spread quickly and go viral across social media.
Even worse, Musk has announced that only verified Twitter Blue accounts will be seen in your “For You” timeline as of April 15. (He can’t claim it’s an April Fools’ Day joke on that date.)
Obviously, that carries far more serious real-world implications beyond sports. Forget about a fake Shams Charania account tweeting that Luka Dončić wants to be traded to the Lakers. It’s not difficult to imagine a fake Joe Biden account declaring war on Russia and some people believing it’s true because of the blue checkmark.
We may be nearing the end of Twitter being a reliable news-gathering tool. If the accounts tweeting out news can’t be trusted, where’s the value? Reporters and newsmakers may end up going to other social media platforms to break stories and carry the viability of verification.
When Fox Sports’ website infamously pivoted to video in 2017, Ken Rosenthal posted his MLB reporting on Facebook prior to joining The Athletic. Hello, Instagram. Will someone take their following and reputation to a fledgling platform like Mastodon, Post, Spoutible, or BlueSky, even if it means a lesser outlet?
If and when that happens, Twitter could still be a community but not nearly as much fun. Not when it becomes a matter of trust that breaks up the party.
Ian Casselberry is a sports media columnist for BSM. He has previously written and edited for Awful Announcing, The Comeback, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation. You can find him on Twitter @iancass or reach him by email at iancass@gmail.com.
BSM Writers
There’s a Lesson For Us All in Florida Atlantic’s Elite 8 Broadcast Struggle
“It is a ton of faith our industry has been forced to place in a single mode of delivery.”
Ryan Brown is a columnist for Barrett Sports Media, and a co-host of the popular sports audio/video show ‘The Next Round’ formerly known as JOX Roundtable, which previously aired on WJOX in Birmingham. You can find him on Twitter @RyanBrownLive and follow his show @NextRoundLive.