Media

Andelman’s effect on the sports talk radio genre is pioneering and unassailable.

By Chad Finn, The Boston Globe

June 16, 2026 | 8:57 AM

4 minutes to read

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Save for perhaps an award named in the person’s honor, this might be the surest confirmation of a sports radio personality’s legacy: When you hear the person’s name for the first time in a while — perhaps even for the first time in years — a veritable pu pu platter of their catchphrases, favorites, and antics come racing from the back of your memory to the front.

Eddie Andelman, known as “the godfather of sports radio” in Boston for a career that spanned from the late 1960s through the early part of this century, has died at age 89. His sons, Dave, Dan, and Mike, announced the news Monday in an Instagram post on their Phantom Gourmet account.

Andelman’s effect on the genre is pioneering and unassailable. He did not create sports radio — credit for that belongs to Bill Mazer at WNBC in New York in the mid-‘60s — but he was at the forefront of bringing it to the Boston market, and did he ever master it.

Andelman, along with co-hosts Jim McCarthy and Mark Witkin, moved the irreverent “The Sports Huddle” to WBZ-AM in the summer of 1969, starting on Sunday nights while Guy Mainella’s good-natured “Calling All Sports” was on Tuesday through Saturday.

The shows, different as they were, each struck a chord with Boston sports fans. They knew their audience, and their audience knew them.

“I remember Eddie and his group being very entertaining,” said Scott Mainella, the late Mainella’s son, on Monday, “and with a huge Bostonian slant.”

Bob Lobel remembers it the same way, in his usual wry way that was his trademark during his long career as the Channel 4 sports anchor.

“Eddie and those guys with ‘The Sports Huddle’ and Guy were the two starters that created this whole mess,” said Lobel, who took over “Calling All Sports” with Upton Bell in the late ’70s after Mainella was moved to news. “I was so sad to hear about Eddie. He really was part of the fabric of Boston sports for a long time. We all have our time and you never know when it’s going to end. But thinking about him has brought back so many memories.”

Andelman’s familiar catchphrases, favorites, and antics, of course, accompany memories’ return. Anyone old enough to remember the Patriots’ run to the Super Bowl during the 1996 season — a matchup with the Packers played in New Orleans — almost certainly remembers Andelman’s declaration of “Jambalaya!” whenever a caller on his WEEI program would mention the team.

He loved Chinese food, particularly the Kowloon, and it’s a safe bet he had many meals comped at various establishments he would tout over the years. His wife, Judith, was always referred to with sincere warmth as “the fabulous Judi.” In 1989, he launched the Hot Dog Safari, which raised millions for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Joey Fund.

What else returns immediately to mind? Let’s see … he did not like the Bruins’ ownership and avoided talking about the team. So when a caller would begin opining on the team or sport, listeners could hear “tick-tick-tick” in the background before the caller was inevitably “blown up.”

His “Sports Huddle” shows — particularly at WEEI-AM and then WHDH-AM in the ‘70s — were known for comedic bits, often involving a prank phone call, or a song about the shortcomings of one Boston team or another. After the Red Sox lost Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, Andelman stayed on the air all night.

(Some of these audio clips can be found on YouTube on a channel maintained by former Globe sports copy editor Pete Goodwin.)

Andelman could be cantankerous, and some would say cantankerous is a gentle way of putting it. He returned to WEEI in 1991, and in the middle of the decade was paired in middays with Dale Arnold. The show, called “The A-Team,” was a big hit during the station’s glory days.

But Andelman was open about his anger at how then-program director Glenn Ordway set the daily lineup, including canceling son Mike Andelman’s weekend program and bumping Eddie out of afternoon drive so he could take it over himself with “The Big Show.”

“I know that it wasn’t his idea to be paired with me, and I’m not sure he thought much of it,” said Arnold on Monday, “but it worked. And I think he came to maybe grudgingly realize after a few years that it was working.”

Ordway did not respond to requests for comment Monday, but posted his condolences to the Andelman family on X.

Andelman’s time at WEEI ended in December 2001, when he abruptly left with a couple of months left on his contract. He soon landed at 1510 The Zone, which was built around Sean McDonough in afternoon drive and carried the slogan “raise the bar.” Andelman frequently took shots at Ordway and his former employer, and the venom was mutual. No bars were raised.

That was Andelman’s last prominent gig. His career pinnacle occurred decades ago. Younger generations of Boston sports fans may know him in an ancillary way, if at all. That’s a shame. But he will not be forgotten by those who remember the fun he brought to the new medium of sports radio in the days of yore and the days of Orr.

“The stuff he did on ‘The Sports Huddle’ was groundbreaking,” said Arnold. “It really was. Everyone was listening to their radios to hear what Eddie and those guys would say next.”