Not yet settled in, Rich Shertenlieb carries over chaos from short-lived WZLX show to new WEEI afternoon program
"Did he learn anything at all from his short-lived (May-November 2024), chaotic morning show on WZLX?"
Four shows into Rich Shertenlieb’s time helming WEEI’s latest attempt at an afternoon drive program, I have a lot of questions, but two above all else.
First and foremost, there’s this: Did he learn anything at all from his short-lived (May-November 2024), chaotic morning show on WZLX?
I’ve learned in 18 or so years of pecking out these sports media columns that it’s wise to give a new show time to settle. Chemistry sometimes develops further among the hosts, roles become more defined, and the overall show can improve with repetitions.
Shertenlieb was once a part of a show that got better over the years — The Sports Hub version of the “Toucher & Rich” show, after Shertenlieb and co-host-turned-current-mortal-enemy Fred Toucher figured out the right balance between sports and myriad other topics they liked to discuss.
The inclination is to give Shertenlieb’s new show — titled, not particularly creatively, “Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson” — the benefit of the doubt, or at least more time.
But then, this isn’t really a new show, is it? Shertenlieb and Johnson worked together on the WZLX show, with Michael Hurley as the sidekick. Other than the station and the timeslot, the only major roster difference between the WZLX show and this new one is that Ken Laird, rather than Hurley, is the other prominent voice.
Shertenlieb initially had free reign from parent company iHeartRadio to build the WZLX show in his own vision, from choosing the co-hosts to the structure of the program.
That objectively did not work. Ratings were poor, and it was not long before management insisted upon tweaks to the show, including playing more music, which Shertenlieb balked at doing.
I’m curious whether Shertenlieb has learned the necessary lessons from that show’s obvious shortcomings.
It’s been just a week and there’s that whole diplomatic benefit of the doubt thing. But the very early returns suggest that he doesn’t intend to change a whole lot.
As the show’s de facto point guard in the No. 1 chair, he has a shoot first and then shoot again approach. That often leaves his co-hosts standing on the sideline while Shertenlieb dominates the show with a hyper-caffeinated style. The chemistry and timing and all of that is understandably a work in progress, but I’d like to hear more from Laird, who somehow survived all those years working with Chris Curtis with his sense of humor intact.
Shertenlieb, who is not a sports fan in the way a typical sports radio host usually would be and sometimes doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, should make a point to lean on more analysts and beat writers as guests, such as NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran.
What else should change? He needs to eliminate the AI voice nonsense that he liked to use on WZLX. It’s utterly unentertaining trash. A little more topic-to-topic focus than he had at WZLX would serve the new show well, too.
In the weeks after iHeartRadio, as part of nationwide budget cuts, deep-sixed the WZLX show in November 2024, Shertenlieb remained certain that it would have worked. On Christmas night, Shertenlieb e-mailed me to point out that the show had finished in the top five Boston morning drive programs in the Nielsen Audio ratings during the third week of November, the show’s final week on the air, with a 5.1 share among men ages 25-54.
Perhaps the show was about to hit its stride. But any belief that it was should not preclude Shertenlieb from recognizing its flaws, and making sure he doesn’t carry them to this new opportunity.
As for that other aforementioned question, it’s a broader one: What does management at WEEI and its parent company Audacy consider a success?
There has been about as much job security in afternoon drive at the station over the years as there has been for Red Sox front-office executives.
The most recent program, featuring Johnson, Andy Hart, and Nick “Fitzy” Stevens, had just a 2.7 share in the latest three-months ratings period. Hart and Stevens were fired after that book came out in April.
WEEI has pieced together the new show with Shertenlieb and two holdovers already on the payroll, and saving as much money as possible in that spot surely counts as a victory within Audacy headquarters. But do they have any intention of trying to challenge Michael Felger, Tony Massarotti, and the Sports Hub’s nearly two decades of dominance in afternoon drive? Or are they just content to get decent bang for their buck, and slightly better ratings than they’ve had recently?
Surely Shertenlieb believes the show will be a heavyweight contender. He always does with his projects. Reality doesn’t always agree with an optimist.
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