Four hours of sports talk every Sunday Night became a staple inside many southern New England homes during the 1970s.
It was also a novel concept for its time. And during what became a 42-year career in such a sports-crazed region, Eddie Andelman earned the nickname “the godfather of sports talk radio.” He has died at 89, his family announced.
“He is one of the sole reasons the sports talk format, especially in Boston, is as powerful as it is today,” Massachusetts Broadcasters Association Executive Director Jordan Walton told us.
In 1969, Andelman launched the “Sports Huddle” on WUNR(AM) with Mark Witkin and Jim McCarthy.
A Time Magazine profile in 1973, “The Boston Badmouths,” described the show’s origins.
“They were ‘discovered’ four years ago when an executive from station WUNR overheard their loud banter in a Boston bar and invited them to sound off at a microphone,” Time explained.
The show became such a success that the powerful signal of WBZ picked it up six months afterward.
After pressure from the Boston Bruins in 1971, according to Time, WBZ dropped the sometimes irreverent show. But 2,000 devoted fans staged a demonstration in the station’s parking lot in support of the hosts.
WEEI picked up the show afterward and CBS would syndicate the show to approximately 50 U.S. stations.
Andelman later became a fixture on WHDH(AM) during the 1980s, moved back to WEEI(AM) and then went to WWZN(AM) before the “Sports Huddle” was revived on WTKK(FM) until 2010.
He was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2011.
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