Update 8/21: As first rumored the day Jason Wolfe was let go, Kevin Graham of Cumulus’ 1320 KFNZ Salt Lake City has been hired as Brand Manager of WEEI.
Graham, who has worked at many Sports stations across the country including WEPN New York, KTAR Phoenix, WBNS Columbus, and WXYT Detroit, will oversee all content on WEEI, its regional network, the Boston Red Sox radio network, and WEEI.com. He will however, have one less asset to work with as Entercom will not renew their contract with the Boston Celtics to remain as the flagship station for the team’s broadcasts.
The full press release announcing Graham’s hiring follows:
Entercom Boston announced today that it has hired Kevin Graham to lead WEEI as their new Brand Manager. Graham comes to WEEI from 1320 KFAN in Salt Lake City, where he served as Program Director and afternoon drive co-host. Graham will begin work at WEEI in early September.
One of the original architects of 1320 KFAN, Kevin Graham went on to a successful programming career assembling and building sports stations in Columbus, Pittsburgh, ESPN Radio New York City, Detroit and Salt Lake City. He returned to KFAN again in 2012 to re-launch the station serving as Program Director and host of the Gunther and Graham afternoon show. Graham also has extensive experience in the digital sports arena assisting in building ArizonaSports.com in Phoenix and as the Founder/Editor of SportsMashup.com.
“WEEI is more than a radio station; it is an entire sports ecosystem. From our on-air talent to Red Sox play-by-play to WEEI.com, where we had 1.4 million unique visitors just last month, WEEI is a more complete sports brand than ever before,” said Entercom General Manager Jeff Brown. “We are thrilled to announce today that Kevin Graham will lead WEEI as our new Brand Manager. His background both in front of and behind the mic, along with his years of digital sports experience made him the best choice to lead WEEI. Kevin will bring a fresh perspective to the entire WEEI team and our complete package of digital sports assets.”
“I am honored and excited to join the WEEI team. WEEI is one of the most recognizable and powerful sports radio brands in the country,” said WEEI Brand Manager Kevin Graham. “With great resources, amazing talent, and one of the best digital brands in sports, the sky is the limit. I can’t wait to get started, especially with the Red Sox in the midst of such a great season.”
Original Report 8/15: Entercom Boston VP/Programming of Sports 93.7 WEEI and Talk 680 WRKO Jason Wolfe has been let go from the company after 22 years.
22 years ago this month I joined WEEI when it launched as a sports radio station. Today is my last day. What a ride.. pic.twitter.com/IVVWLhlGKX
— Jason Wolfe (@jasonlwolfe) August 15, 2013
A new programmer will be named in the coming days. During Wolfe’s tenure WEEI became one of the dominant Sports formatted stations in the company as it moved from 590 to the 50kW 850 and finally to 93.7 FM as well as adding a network of stations simulcasting its programming in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
In recent years the station has been surpassed in most dayparts by CBS’ “98.5 The Sports Hub” WBZ-FM leading to lineup changes after a long run of stability.
Jeff Brown VP/GM of Entercom Boston tells Chad Finn of the Boston Globe that no other imminent changes are planned.
Entercom's Jeff Brown: "If you’re asking me if there’s a change to be made next week, next month, there’s not an imminent shoe to drop."
— Chad Finn (@GlobeChadFinn) August 15, 2013