Sports News

Rich Shertenlieb is focused on his new show, not any perceived ‘Toucher vs. Rich’

Shertenlieb is grateful that iHeart Media has encouraged him to build the show he wants and hire the people he wants.

Come Monday at 6 a.m., Rich Shertenlieb’s new program on classic-rock station WZLX debuts.

May 18, 2024

4 minutes to read

From their arrival in Boston at the late, lamented WBCN in 2006 through their wildly successful decade-and-a-half run as the table-setting morning drive program on 98.5 The Sports Hub, Rich Shertenlieb and Fred Toucher complemented each other in a way that is as coveted as it is scarce in radio.

Their split last November after several well-documented contentious months marked the end of “Toucher and Rich,” with Toucher signing a new contract to remain at The Sports Hub and Shertenlieb setting out for something new.

Come Monday at 6 a.m., Shertenlieb’s something new — his eponymous program on classic-rock station WZLX, in which he was given carte blanche by parent company iHeart Media to select his supporting cast — debuts.

And while he swears his singular focus is making the fledgling program the best it can be, it will be impossible for the rest of us to avoid thinking of this new phase in Boston radio as Toucher vs. Rich.

“Eh, I can’t even concentrate on that,” said Shertenlieb. “I know that sounds lame and I know that’s probably not what people want to hear, but I’ve got so much on my plate right now. I haven’t been able to think about anything else other than building this new show from the ground up. Right now my concentration is, I want next month to be better than this month and then a month after that to be better than the one before it. I am in no place right now to be thinking about anything other than that.”

Toucher, whose show with co-host Rob “Hardy” Poole draws easily the top ratings in morning drive among men 25-54, has taken various digs at his longtime co-host. Shertenlieb never responded, keeping a low profile in recent months, and insists he has no hard feelings.

“It’s funny there’s this perception that you have to hate the place that you used to work. That’s just not true,” he said. “I love a lot of the people over there. You can just find a better opportunity.

“It’s kind of like an actor who finishes a movie and then goes to the next one, like, for lack of a better example, like Ben Affleck finishing ‘Good Will Hunting.’ He probably didn’t go to the set of ‘Armageddon’ and was like, ‘You know, this Matt Damon’s a real [expletive]. I want to crush him in my next box-office total. Sometimes just a better opportunity presents itself and you’d be an idiot not to take it.”

Shertenlieb didn’t reveal specifics about when WZLX and iHeart approached him about the show but noted that he habitually considered his options before signing new contracts over the years with The Sports Hub, and reiterated a couple of times that he’s grateful that iHeart has encouraged him to build the show he wants and hire the people he wants.

They include Michael Hurley, a relative radio novice formerly of CBS Boston, who will be a daily co-host. “Hurley’s got a wicked sense of humor and is probably the smartest person I’ve ever met in my life,” said Shertenlieb.

The show’s rotating third chair includes former Patriot Ted Johnson, Mike Giardi, and Charlotte Wilder, who will continue her work for Dan LeBatard’s Meadowlark Media.

“All of these are people that at some point I’ve worked with before and I was just like, ‘I’m going to keep them in the back of my head,’ ” said Shertenlieb. “They’re obviously good at talking sports, but there are other reasons that I love them. They can talk about life, they can b.s. with me.”

The show will not play music, even though it is on a classic rock station.

“Right now, obviously, with the playoffs and everything, it’s going to be a lot of sports, probably 60 percent or 70 percent of it,” said Shertenlieb. “But the rest of it is going to be [complaining] about the new ‘Roadhouse’ movie and how they should have never ruined a classic and all the other crap that’s going on right now. Anything that we want talk about we’re going to talk about.”

There was speculation, believed to be accurate from my reporting, that WEEI wanted Shertenlieb for afternoon drive. Shertenlieb neither confirmed nor denied specific rumors, saying, “There were other opportunities. Some were kind of funny that maybe later on down the road I’ll talk about.”

Shertenlieb, who somehow never lacks for energy despite years of insanely early wakeup times, acknowledged that he is extra inspired by building something new.

“It’s fun as hell. It’s a lot of work because you’re truly building this thing from the ground up,” he said. “At the other place [The Sports Hub], I’d have a decade and a half of sound clips all ready to go, the listener base that we built up. Now it’s almost like when we first got here again. You are fighting and starting over and creating this thing from scratch. I feel like it’s back when The Hub launched again and I love that.

“It’s kind of a let’s-prove-it, us-against-the-world mentality. It really has put a fire under [me]. I always like to think that I have had one, but now it’s bonfire size.”

Chad Finn

Sports columnist

Chad Finn is a sports columnist for Boston.com. He has been voted Favorite Sports Writer in Boston in the annual Channel Media Market and Research Poll for the past four years. He also writes a weekly sports media column for the Globe and contributes to Globe Magazine.