Fred Toucher

Over at 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, listeners are still getting used to the morning show’s new era minus Rich Shertenleib.

Monday, remaining host Fred Toucher took listener questions on-air about the breakup and his thoughts on Shertenlieb’s departure.

In particular, Toucher explained the distance between the two hosts and why he believes Shertenlieb will be happier away from sports radio.

“As someone who still does care about him, and I truly like him, I would hope that he just does something where he can just flex that comedic bone and have fun,” Toucher explained.

“He doesn’t like negativity. He doesn’t like being drawn into it with the likes of me. Just go somewhere fun. Go somewhere where it’s more fun, where you don’t have to talk about this crap.”

As for the pair’s relationship, Toucher said he knew about as much about his cohost personally as the audience. And that led to trouble hammering out issues between them.

“When he got mad at you, he didn’t tell you, he did other ways to get the message through,” Toucher said. “I just feel like out of people I’ve known for 20 years, I know every single one of them more than I know Rich. Rich just doesn’t share a lot about his life.”

To close the segment, Toucher explained why he believes Shertenlieb is a great media professional who should just get away from the negativity of sports.

“People have been asking me, my advice to Rich would be like, ‘Dude, you’re great at production, you just want to have fun,” Toucher explained. “Go get a radio job that’s super fun where people aren’t dicks. I don’t know why you want to do sports radio.’”

With Toucher & Rich over, Toucher will continue the show solo after signing an extension with the network.

[98.5 The Sports Hub]

About Brendon Kleen

Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.