As expected, Kirk Minihane, the former WEEI morning drive host, is going to work for Barstool Sports as a daily podcaster. Minihane made the announcement today on Periscope while doing “a little bit of espionage,” which was an unauthorized farewell tour of the Entercom-owned WEEI studios in Boston. Minihane will launch his new platform in Boston and is not relocating to the now-NYC-based Barstool Sports, apart from occasional appearances there.
[See Updates below]
Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy kind of gave a way the non-surprise via Twitter yesterday, which prompted a Minihane follow-up tweet.
Minihane says his podcast will commence on June 15 (or at least that’s his first day on the job, which is odd since June 15 is a Saturday, so stay tuned for a clarification) at a studio to be determined. He parted ways with Entercom on May 22 when it became clear that the corporation was apparently permanently stalling the debut of his live show on the clunky Radio.com app. Evidently Entercom suits were okay with paying Kirk his big salary while sidelining him indefinitely.
Howe Carr’s studio, which Entercom considered before for Minihane’s Radio.com venture, could be a location for the Kirk Minihane Barstool Sports podcast
In the Periscope clip below, Minihane said the Barstool negotiations went very smoothly and that he will have complete control over the content, presumably most of which will have little to do with sports.
“I had a call with them last week that you want to have once in your life if you’re trying to get a job somewhere…when they said, ‘we value you, we want you, we like your talents. We don’t care about people trying to get you in trouble. We believe in you; we want you to be you.'”
The mercurial and contrarian broadcaster also quipped that his relationship with Barstool will probably go south within nine months:
“I am going to go at them for being homers, I’m going to go at them for being shells of what they once were…we’re in the honeymoon stage; it’s going to end really poorly…”
During Kirk Minihane’s tenure as co-host of the 6 .m.-10 a.m. WEEI Kirk and Callahan program, the station came under pressure from a local activist, the Boston Red Sox, and the Boston Globe, among others, for various Minihane on-the-air comments. (Google it.) Several advertisers fled.
Since Minihane’s exit from Kirk and Callahan (now Mut and Callahan), the morning show ratings have cratered, however, with massive collateral damage across the radio station’s entire daypart. Indeed, crosstown rival 98.5, the Sports Hub, is crushing WEEI since Kirk left.
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Listeners, what’s left of them, to Mut and Callahan the last two mornings must have found it kind of suspicious that the show starting throwing shade at Barstool.
This did not escape the notice of The Minifan Show co-host “Real MHB.”
Frat-boy-demographic-targeting Barstool, which has lots of loyal fans known as “stoolies” but also many detractors particularly among the blue-check brigade, has gotten itself into a few controversies (Google it) here and there.
Currently, an inconsequential dustup involves a Barstool Sports towel giveaway at a Boston Bruins game. The WEEI morning crew heretofore generally maintained, however, a friendly and supportive rapport with Portnoy.
Check back for updates.
Update: From the Boston-Globe-owned Boston.com:
“Minihane, who brought high ratings and frequent controversy to WEEI’s morning show before leaving in November, announced May 22 he no longer worked for Entercom,Minihane had been in limbo since departing the “Kirk and Callahan” program, where he was a co-host since 2013. He was supposed to host his own show on the Entercom-owned Radio.com app, and was still producing his popular podcast, “Enough About Me.” But the Radio.com role did not materialize. Minihane and the company split after his mid-May ultimatum in which he demanded his own channel on Radio.com and did not want to be involved with their sports-only programming. Minihane, like Portnoy, built popularity with a no-holds-barred style that was sometimes humorous and often crude and personal. Minihane has appeared on Barstool programming in the past, including during before the Super Bowl in February.”
Update2: Reacting to the new Kirk Minihane Barstool Sports contract on The Minifan Show podcast, Real MHB opined that Kirk should steer clear of Barstool’s SiriusXM channel. Instead, the live version of Kirk’s new show would be a good fit behind the Barstool Gold premium service and then released later each day for free on ITunes, he insisted.
Real MHB also revealed that several Barstool staffers want to move back to Boston where it all started, suggesting that Barstool is likely to open (or reopen) a Boston office.
Real MHB and co-host “D.E.C.” also claimed that the ratings-failing Mut and Callahan show has embarked on a management-inspired campaign to discredit Minihane, Barstool Sports, and its Twitter critics, including parody accounts.
Update3: Kirk Minihane took to Periscope today (June 10 — see below) to announce that he hired Howie Carr’s producer Steve Robinson as the producer of his new, daily Barstool Sports podcast. Further, Minifan podcast co-host MHB and former Barstool employee “Blind Mike” will help manage The Kirk Minihane Show Twitter feed.
The Boston-based podcast in the Barstool network will debut Monday, June 17, and is expected to drop at about 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, although live broadcasts may be part of the equation moving forward. “It’s going to be a show like you’ve never heard in your f****ing life,” Kirk Minihane claimed.
