Boston Radio: WEEI, Red Sox Renegotiating Deal

WEEI 93.7 FM, which reportedly has been choking on the whopping $200 million, 10-year deal it has with the Red Sox for the right to broadcast their games, is thisclose to getting rid of that Major League headache, according to the Boston Herald.

Entercom Boston boss Phil Zachary says that the station and the Sox “hope to have a new deal in place by Christmas.”

The new arrangement is huge because the station’s bottom line constantly bottoms out due to the roughly $17 million it currently sends annually to Yawkey Way.

Phil Zachary

Zachary declined to discuss the details of the renegotiated rights, but he shot down rumors that ’EEI would pay the team nothing, and would instead hand over the air time gratis to the Sox and let the team keep whatever ad revenue it could generate.

“Nothing like you’ve described has been discussed,” he said. “That model is in place with some other teams and broadcasters, usually in smaller markets.”

The original deal was made back in ’06, just two years after the Sox broke the 86-year curse and a year before they would win their second World Series title. But times have changed.

The biggest problem with the current broadcast deal has been the abysmal play of the Olde Towne Team, which finished in last place in the AL East in 2012, 2014 and 2015.

Zachary, who came on the scene in 2013 with a mission to right the ’EEI ship after the disastrous reign of his predecessor, has retooled the station’s daytime shows, bringing back longtime yakker Glenn Ordway — who was axed during the previous regime — and stablizing ratings that had been in a free fall.