Dave Hatfield writes: >On sports radio WEEI in Boston, host-extrodinaire Eddie Andleman regularly >promotes & encourages listeners to attend local college sporting events. It is true that Eddie has run a feature during his show where he runs down a list of local college sporting events that people can take their families to. This is certainly good, as is the Boston Globe's listing of collegiate sporting events. The problem with this is that Eddie seems to only tell you about the events he wants you to know about - i.e. events involving his alma maters (BU and NU) and a few other area schools. I say this because even though he repeatedly says he should be receiving more event info from college SIDs, and that he will use whatever is sent, the truth is that he doesn't. At Merrimack, I asked why the school doesn't have its sports schedule read on Eddie's show and have been told that last year, Merrimack tried faxing him its weekend sports schedule, including hockey, for weeks on end until they finally gave up - why waste the phone call when they won't use it. Apparently this has been the case with other SIDs from schools outside of Boston, too. I believe the explanation they were given was that no one cares about Merrimack/ Lowell/etc. In fact, it seems like the only schools that get included (for the most part) are the ones inside Route 128 - or within about 15 minutes of Boston. Yet the station's signal reaches WELL beyond that area (50,000 watts), usually by perhaps 75 miles or more. And Eddie still complains that he doesn't receive enough info, and then he rips into the SIDs for not taking advantage of his free publicity. You just can't win. Similarly, Eddie's well-known (in Boston) dislike of hockey...he will spend hours and hours blasting hockey fans - sometimes it is quite funny - but only if he is really pressed on the issue, will he admit that he supports and enjoys college hockey. He doesn't qualify his criticism of hockey by saying "I really mean pro hockey; college hockey is okay," because his criticism gets hockey fans upset (imagine the most popular sports talk show host in *Boston* ripping hockey at every chance he gets), increases listenership and phone calls, and generally makes for an entertaining show. And after all, that is the business he is in - entertainment. Nothing wrong with that, but it helps to remember it up front when tuning him in, which I do probably every night on the way home. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93