{"id":624063,"date":"2026-04-23T20:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624063\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:43:09","slug":"weei-again-shaking-up-afternoon-drive-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624063\/","title":{"rendered":"WEEI again shaking up afternoon-drive lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\">Hart and Stevens had been with WEEI since 2019, and joined the afternoon program in one of its many recent iterations in August 2024, with Johnson coming aboard in January 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\">The show had been routed in the Nielsen Audio ratings against rival sports station 98.5 The Sports Hub\u2019s \u201cFelger and Mazz\u201d program. In the fall, \u201cFelger and Mazz\u201d finished in its usual No. 1 spot with a 16.7 share, while \u201cWEEI Afternoons\u201d \u2014 that was the name of Hart, Stevens, and Johnson\u2019s show \u2014 tied for 14th with a 2.0.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\">It didn\u2019t get much better in the winter ratings, which were announced this week. \u201cFelger and Mazz\u201d had a first-place 15.3 share in the period from Jan. 8-April 1, while \u201cWEEI Afternoons\u201d was 14th with a 2.7.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\">Radio station lineup changes often immediately follow ratings-book revelations. According to sources with knowledge of the situation, the shakeup had been in the works for a while.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\">Last week, a clip went viral of Stevens vehemently disagreeing with Johnson about the situation involving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2026\/04\/23\/sports\/mike-vrabel-seeking-counseling-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2026\/04\/23\/sports\/mike-vrabel-seeking-counseling-report\/\">Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and reporter Dianna Russini<\/a>, then of The Athletic. Hart and Stevens had been critical of Vrabel, prompting social-media speculation that the Patriots had some role in getting the two removed from the show. According to one source involved in the process, the speculation \u201cis some Grade A [expletive].\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\">While \u201cFelger and Mazz\u201d has dominated afternoon drive for the better part of two decades, WEEI has cycled through hosts in that daypart. In July 2018, Glenn Ordway \u2014 the longtime host of \u201cThe Big Show\u201d during a previous highly successful stint at WEEI \u2014 moved from middays to afternoon drive, along with Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria. When Ordway retired in August 2021, Merloni and Fauria hosted in tandem, with Meghan Ottolini coming aboard in April 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph | gutter_20_0\">Fauria moved to middays and Merloni\u2019s contract was not renewed in December 2022. A month later, Adam Jones joined Ottolini in afternoons, with Christian Arcand the third voice. That lasted until August 2024, when Jones moved to middays, Ottolini went to a writing and fill-in role, and Hart was paired with Arcand on the afternoon show. That version was revamped in January 2025, when Johnson came aboard, Stevens\u2019s role expanded, and Arcand moved to nights. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagline | font_primary inline_block  margin_top_32\">Chad Finn can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2026\/04\/23\/sports\/weei-afternoon-shakeup\/mailto:chad.finn@globe.com\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"font-size:inherit;letter-spacing:.5px\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">chad.finn@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hart and Stevens had been with WEEI since 2019, and joined the afternoon program in one of its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-624063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}