Last week Glenn Ordway (the Big O) the mastermind behind the Big Show, sent shock waves through the air when he announced that he had been released by WEEI Sports Radio. Fans, owners of teams, coaches, players and the media swarmed the WEEI phone lines and showered Glenn with praise, appreciation and even heartbreak.
Glenn is without question King of Boston sports market. Glenn has been a major sports icon for so long that he covered the Celtics games with Johnny Most long before some current members of the Boston sports media were even born.
I give Big O a standing O for his outrageously positive attitude, grace and humility with how he publicly handled what must have been devastating news. Next time I get some bad news, I will reflect back on how Glenn took the high road and hopefully I will follow his lead.
As a lifelong Boston’s sports fan, I had become a regular listener to the Big Show. I was driving in my car when I first heard the news. I was taken by such surprise and was so upset that I rolled down my window and yelled out to the traffic, No, this can’t be true!
You could always count on the Big Show to hold your attention. It was always informative, entertaining and downright captivating. And there were hundreds and hundreds of times … it made me laugh out loud.
Glenn Ordway defined sports talk in Boston over the last 18 1/2 years. And you have to give Glenn a lot of credit for playing such a large role in such a tough industry for 27 years.
Ordway fed the insane sports appetite of listeners in a market that is obsessed with sports and whose professional teams have had an incredible run of success over the last decade. There is no better sports radio town in the country, and Glenn had much to do with that. There are those out there who think Glenn was smug and arrogant, but if you listened to him, it was all part of the Bit O’s act.
The Big Show was the best show on radio for a very long time. Glenn was a masterful facilitator of great sports talk and brought the best out in his featured guest and co host. He is known for his amazing ability to generate riveting discussions. He was brilliant at it, and the ratings reflected that, until not that long ago.
Glenn said recently “I apparently didn’t do a good enough job in the past couple of years, so I paid the price. The company decided to make a change and to go into a different direction. I’m not going to play that game where everybody says, ‘It was a mutual parting. We both agreed to go on our ways or he was too busy and he needed to do other,’ no. … They made that decision and they have a right to make that decision. They made that call.”
On why he wasn’t expressing more of his disappointment publicly, Ordway said, “I was there on Day One. I was a big part of starting all this, so I’m really fond of it.” He continued by admitting that he wants to continue working. Of his own future, Ordway said, “I think there might be a radio station in the market that might be looking to get a mature 35-to-64-year-old radio audience.”
Today is a day to give a thumb’s up to Glenn Ordway, how he helped revolutionize Sports Radio. I will miss the Big O, Big Time!
Until next time, Chrissy Carew
Founder of Insightful Player, LLC