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WEEI’s Glenn Ordway will retire at the end of the summer
Ordway has been a Boston broadcasting fixture for a half century.
Glenn Ordway, who in a near 50-year career broadcasting career established himself as one of the most influential voices in the history of Boston sports radio, announced Tuesday afternoon that he will be retiring from his full-time role at WEEI at the end of the summer.
“I’m going to chill out a bit and enjoy life,’’ said Ordway, 70, at the top of Tuesday’s show.
Ordway, who hosts the afternoon drive “OMF” program with Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria, said he will split his time between Boston and Scottsdale, Arizona after leaving the daily role, but plans to still contribute to the station beyond August.
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He will stay on as the host of “The Real Postgame Show” after Patriots games, and will also develop a podcast.
“We’re talking about stuff right now, but I do want to do ‘The Real Posgame Show.’ I’ve done it for a zillion years with those two guys, Fred and DeOssie.
“I’m planning on doing [‘The Real Postgame Show’]. But there’s a bunch of other stuff,’’ said Ordway, who still has time remaining on his contract beyond this year. “I’m going to be dropping in. I’m going to have a presence on the radio station, which is perfect for me. It will give me an opportunity to stay embedded here and yet have my freedom and spend time with my family.”
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Ordway, who also gained renown as a radio voice of the Celtics from 1982-95, has spent 34 years as a host at WEEI. His greatest success at the station came while helming the highly-rated afternoon drive program “The Big Show” in the ‘90s and early 2000s.
“Glenn has been an ever-present force at WEEI, both on air and off air, for over three decades,” said Mark Hannon, regional president for WEEI’s parent company, Audacy, in a statement. “He was the station’s first program director and oversaw some of the most dominant years in Boston radio.
“He has been an enduring on-air presence and has been side-by-side talking to Boston sports fans through the best and worst times.”
WEEI’s ratings took a hit when 98.5 The Sports Hub launched in August 2008, with the upstart station’s Felger and Massarotti program quickly seizing ratings supremacy in that afternoon drive window.
WEEI fired Ordway in February 2013, replacing him with Mike Salk, perhaps the most disastrous transaction in Boston sports radio lore. A new market manager and old colleague of Ordway’s, Phil Zachary, rehired him as the midday host in August 2015, and along with co-hosts Merloni and Fauria was moved back to afternoon drive in July 2018.
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“To be able to do something I’ve loved doing daily for nearly five decades has been a blessing, but to do it in the best sports city during the best championship run in the history of sports,’’ said Ordway. “What more can you ask for?
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