WEEI’s Pete Sheppard quits on air

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EntercomWEEI Boston weekend host Pete Sheppard said he could no longer stand working for the company and quit on-air. Sheppard was fired by the station in Jan. 2010 and was rehired in 2012. He cited issues with the WEEI’s parent company, Entercom, as his reason for quitting.


The outspoken sports talker who quit on-air Saturday night, claimed a dispute over management style–not money–drove him to walk.

“I didn’t want this to happen this way,” Sheppard told the Boston Herald. “The writing is on the wall. That place is going down the toilet. Everybody can see it. There’s no loyalty to the people who have worked there.”

“This has been brewing for a while,” Sheppard said. And he insisted he wants to keep working in Boston. “It’s going to help me. Stay tuned. It ain’t over yet. To me, the best is yet to come.”

Sheppard, a “dear friend” of longtime “The Big Show” host Glenn Ordway, who WEEI fired in February citing slipping ratings, said he shot off a scathing email listing his complaints with management to Entercom GM Jeff Brown, who he claimed had ignored his calls and written pleas to meet face to face.

“I just wanted to get to know the man and try to form my own opinion of him — not just rely on what past and present employees said. I had some really good ideas about what to do with my show, on the Web, interacting with people,” Sheppard said. “I was doing a damn good job. I thought I’d be the good soldier. I figured maybe they’d throw me a bone and put me on full-time.”

WEEI said it decided to part ways with Ordway, co-host of the afternoon drive-time ‘‘The Big Show,’’ after 27 years. Shortly thereafter, Mike Salk joined Michael Holley in afternoon drive, weekdays from 2-6 p.m., replacing Ordway.

Brown declined the Herald’s request for an interview, but in a statement said, “Yes, we are making changes, but the WEEI goal remains the same: Producing the best sports talk for the best sports fans in America and delivering top-notch results for our clients. Some take those changes better and more professionally than others. It’s just the nature of the business.”

See The Boston Herald story here