Fred Toucher is Determined to Live to Tell His Story

Sustainability was never in the mind of Fred Toucher. When he arrived in Boston. in 2006 to start a new afternoon drive program with his former colleague Rich Shertenlieb, they never envisioned it rising to such monumental heights.

Seventeen years later, the morning show continues to attain double-digit listening shares in the city, but its path to sustained success has been anything but prototypical. Although the show currently airs on 98.5 The Sports Hub and duly focuses its conversation around sports, the origins of the program can be traced back to WBCN, a CBS-owned station that broadcast in the free-form rock format.

There was an ostensible stigma in the Boston metropolitan area about listening to WBCN, especially as people began to move out of adolescence and into full-fledged adulthood. During his three years with the station, Toucher remembers encountering several people in their 30s who divulged that their consumption of the programming was of yore because of their age. Incredulous upon learning of such perspectives, he reflects back on the realization and understands that had the platform the show stayed resolute, there is a strong chance the program would have ended.

“I did not think that I would be in Boston for a very long time because I just didn’t think that radio shows lasted that long, and especially at that time, everyone was getting fired and everyone else,” Toucher said. “I can tell you [that] our longevity [is from] moving to the sports format.”

The most recent ratings book is a testament to why executives Mark Hannon and Mike Thomas decided to retain the program despite the transformed genre in 2009. Once the process of reformatting to sports talk was complete – which included a stunting period filled with Boston sports highlights – Toucher conjectured that listeners would no longer need permission per se to consume the program. Even though Shertenlieb vehemently opposed the move to the sports format, Toucher recognized that it was a prime opportunity to broaden the listening audience.

Yet he was in the minority, even during a time when means of disseminating information were significantly attenuated by circumstances of emergent, novel technologies. With all of the negative publicity and lackluster reviews from listeners amid this transitional phase, Toucher and Shertenlieb remained poised to craft an informative and entertaining on-air product that upheld their collective identity and was pertinent for the outlet.

“We had to meet with Mike Thomas every day after the show and kind of formulate with him what the appropriate mix of sports and non-sports [was] and what was going to be our voice in terms of sports because we were never going to be a show that took a lot of calls or said, ‘These are take-driven shows,’ or things like that,” Toucher explained. “That’s not the way that we learned to do radio, and I don’t think I could do that successfully.”

Toucher is a creative luminary who became infatuated by radio from the time he was in middle school. In considering the reason for his preference, he surmised that the unscripted nature and freedom of expression the medium garnered would render it the most enjoyable. Despite being a history major at Rollins College – a liberal arts school – he made it a point to work at the college radio station and try to make a name for himself. Yet the station incorporated various community elements, and those on the staff did not take a liking to Toucher, nor did they encourage him to do anything.

“I realized that when I got out of college,” Toucher said. “I kind of panicked because I couldn’t get a job in radio and I had no idea of how to get a job in radio.”

In an effort to change his scenery, Toucher moved to Atlanta and landed a job at AM 1170, a local country music station where he was able to hone his craft. He hosted an afternoon program and was responsible for signing the station off every night at 7 p.m., doing whatever it took to gain viable experience. The content of these programs were centered on bluegrass, and he would even moderate transactions between listeners swapping their farm animals.

After a year-and-a-half, Toucher was hired by Leslie Fram and Sean Demery to work as a secretary at 99X, a station broadcasting in the alternative rock format. As he paired his receptionist work with fill-in hosting, he brought his unabashed audacity to openly convey his opinions and perspectives, even if they were critical or discerned as presumptuous.

As it stands, Toucher was accustomed to the “shock jock” brand of hosting predicated on candidness and occasional insolence. He blatantly mocked southerners and refused to play specific nu-metal music, stating how he disliked the music on the air. By the time he was promoted to the morning show to work with Jimmy Baron and the aforementioned Fram, he was completely unrestrained and pugnacious when the microphone was live. In fact, Toucher once famously spoiled the ending of a book in the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling.

“They never really committed,” Toucher said of the entity. “It was kind of a hybrid show [where] they never really committed to me, but I was way too out of control at that time; it was for my own good.”

Cumulus Media officially acquired the radio assets of the Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff Company in a transaction worth a reported $1.2 billion in early 2006, leading to widespread change at 99X. Toucher met with John Dickey, who was the co-founder and chief operating officer of Cumulus, and states that he was subject to impudent, rude behavior that ultimately led to the end of his time with the station.

“He was an asshole,” Toucher avowed. “He said, ‘Everyone hates you. We’re going to put you in a stocking at the mall and do some charity thing. You [have] all these stupid ideas,’ so I wanted to leave. I asked permission if I could leave, and they didn’t care so they bought me out of my contract.”

While he was in Atlanta, Toucher had befriended Shertenlieb and kept in touch once they went their separate ways. Two years later, they auditioned to land a show on CBS Radio and garnered a coveted afternoon drive slot on CBS Radio-owned WBCN. When the station stopped syndicating another national program in the second half of 2008, the duo moved to morning drive and have remained a fixture of the time slot ever since. Over the years, there has been occasional friction and tension between the two co-hosts, but no incident has ever genuinely affected them on the air, nor threatened the fiber of their relationship.

“There’s been times that we’ve butted heads, but nothing that’s made working uncomfortable,” Toucher said, “and nothing that’s made me ever question the future of the show or [if] we were going to continue being a show.”

The key to success in morning drive on an all-sports station in one of the country’s most historic and venerated marketplaces, the duo surmised, was to differentiate itself by bringing a comedic element to the conversation. Rather than solely discussing the events of the previous day and the upcoming schedule, the show spoke about more esoteric, niche topics related to the team and stories surrounding the game to assemble an inimitable program. The conversations with Thomas lasted for about a year-and-a-half before Toucher perceived that the program found and established its voice, something that was helped by the forthcoming stretch of dominance from the local teams.

“When the Bruins won in 2011, I think that helped us immensely because we had the Bruins and WEEI never talked about the Bruins, and we had adopted the Bruins,” Toucher said. “WEEI actively made fun of hockey fans, which in 2011, I think helped us a great deal.”

Two championships by the Boston Red Sox and three by the New England Patriots headlined the remainder of the decade, in addition to sustained winning seasons in the marketplace by nearly all of its local teams. Many sports fans were envious of the locale, but the teams were dominating regional and national sports coverage anyway.

During these times, many shows will welcome players or coaches as guests, but it is a practice that Toucher has tried to stay away from. As a zealous consumer of various sports radio stations, he feels that it is more valuable to have reporters or analysts on the program, affirming that they tend to be more cognizant of how to appeal to an audience and succinctly articulate information and opinion.

“I find 99% of athletes to be a tune-out [and] 99% of coaches to be a tune-out,” Toucher expressed. “Jerry Jones is great – I’m sure there are coaches that are really good, but not many; they’re pretty boring. [Bruce] Cassidy, the Bruins coach, was good, but we couldn’t get him on that often. We got him on twice a year; he was great when he was on.”

Toucher is lauded for his straightforward demeanor and genuine reactions to topics on the air, but in reality, that is the very premise of the show. Show producers Mike Lockhart, Dan O’Brien and Nick Gemelli work with Shertenlieb to research and develop content for the air, while Toucher arrives at the studio to react to what he is presented with throughout the program. His job is rooted in improvisation and remaining alert about local and national sports news, which he does periodically on a daily basis to ensure he is prepared to elicit informed responses.

“We have a loose outline of the show, but I think since we’ve been working together for so long, I don’t know what we’re going to do every quarter-hour,” Toucher said. “I know that Rich is going to have a bit generally, and I know if I want to talk about something that I can feel free to do that and he’ll go along with it, or if he wants to talk about something, I’ll go along with it.”

After each show, the hosts and producers meet to discuss how the program went and begin thinking about the next day. Working in as dynamic and capricious an industry as sports, they remain malleable as the show is occurring in order to provide the most pertinent content to the listening audience. The inherent immediacy of the medium keeps him compelled to continue hosting live programming, along with the desire to remain as the No. 1 program in the market.

One aspect of many sports radio programs that Toucher tends to stray away from, however, is taking live phone calls. The show takes very few calls from its listeners, instead opting to highlight those who participate in Paul Finebaum’s eponymous afternoon program on the SEC Network as part of a recurring bit.

“If you tune in to a Finebaum show, it’s like a whole world – he’s got his own universe,” Toucher said. “Callers are yelling at each other – they’re referencing things [that] I have no idea what they’re talking about; inner-show stuff – it’s its own living entity. It’s got its own thing happening.”

Toucher used to welcome callers onto his nighttime program on 99X in Atlanta, citing that it was the best time to implement listeners because they are oftentimes “coming out of the woodwork.” He remembers doing comedy based on what the people had to say, many of whom he states were drunk, high, and stupid, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing their perspectives. Morning drive evokes a different approach to broadcasting for Toucher, one that is not as conducive to caller-driven discussion and subsequent conversation.

“Mornings [are] a terrible time to take phone calls,” Toucher said. “People aren’t in the mood.”

The Toucher & Rich show continues to garner double-digit shares over the last several quarters, catalyzing sports talk radio to become a staple of the marketplace. Toucher’s goal is to remain in the No. 1 ranking in the marketplace, including among the coveted demographic of men ages 25 to 54, and does not scrutinize over the size of the share as much as he used to. In reality, the number has become so large that Toucher estimates removing a few portable people meters (PPMs) could have a large influence on the breadth of the share.

“I can’t sit down and guarantee, ‘Hey everyone, we’re going to have a 24-share every time we crack the mics,’ so that doesn’t bother me,” Toucher said. “Right now, and since our station has been on the air, sports talk radio has dominated in Boston, but that was not always the case. There’s a lot of shows in non-sports formats that dominated this market, so it’s a fairly recent thing that WEEI and us have been getting this much of a chunk.”

While WEEI may be the most conspicuous source of competition, there are a deluge of other platforms on which to disseminate content that threaten the viability of the program. Boston has various regional sports networks, such as NESN and NBC Sports Boston, along with regional podcasts and live programs on social media. Moreover, there is national sports talk radio and television to contend with, the latter of which is a frequent point of discussion on their program. Toucher has never truly considered working in television as opposed to radio, and over the years, he has adopted a staunch belief that personalities are more effective on audio platforms.

“I think that radio is just a better product,” Toucher opined. “For talking about sports, I think radio is a tremendously better product because you’re not bogged down with graphics and scripts and all that; you have more freedom.”

While Toucher works to consume several different sources of sports media coverage, he understands the trials and tribulations required to reach such a point. When he had to take a five-week leave of absence from his program earlier in the year to receive treatment for leukoplakia, a throat condition that was affecting his vocal cords, he was worried and feared a future where he would be unable to express himself on the air. Toucher has yet to undergo surgery to try and treat the issue and is still trying to get over the resentment he feels from enduring that difficult stretch.

“I was scared for my career,” Toucher said. “I was told there was a good possibility that I had cancer, [and] I still don’t know; there’s still a chance that I have cancer.”

One month later, Toucher wrote an alarming series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, the first of which asked his followers if they ever wished to die. A later post read, “I want to die baby,” which occurred as he had a relapse after working to overcome an alcohol addiction that forced him to miss time on the air in 2020.

As Toucher was facing uncertainty with his vocal cords, he was also facing divorce and thus lived alone without his children, hardships that engendered a sense of foreboding. Upon his relapse, he quickly admitted himself to a detoxification facility where he spent five days to ensure he was stable, and addressed his absence once he returned on the air.

“It wasn’t something that I was like, ‘You know what? If I’m open with this, it’s going to be so good for people,’” Toucher explained. “It was a necessity; I didn’t have any other options. I couldn’t lie [because] I was going to get found out. All my shit is out there, so I was going to get found out.”

Toucher infrequently discusses the matter on the air because he does not know if anyone truly cares to be informed on his personal issues. He does feel comfortable talking about the recovery process when prompted and would be open to starting a podcast to discuss his struggles if granted the opportunity in the future. Craig Carton, FS1 morning show host and former WFAN personality, hosts a weekly podcast with Audacy titled Hello, My Name is Craig that discusses matters related to compulsive gambling, something that previously landed him in prison.

“I need to get there personally before I can start telling anyone else what to do,” Toucher said. “But that’s what’s great about the recovery community is that the way people stay sober is [by] helping those who are struggling or helping those that are new to sobriety. That’s kind of how the whole thing works. If I ever got to a place where I could share and help people on a broad basis, that’s the dream; quite frankly, that would be a dream. That means I’ve stayed sober and stuck with it long enough.”

Toucher affirms that even if people do not realize it, they likely know someone that has been in recovery and that there is a need to be transparent about the ordeal for the greater good. At the moment, he does not discern his remarks on the journey as being altruistic in nature; rather, it occurs because of his status as a public figure. Nonetheless, he believes in what he is doing and aspires to be a role model by overcoming encumbrances and concomitant adversity.

“Believe me, you want people in recovery and you want good recovery places because that’s good for everybody,” Toucher said. “People getting off of drugs and alcohol is better for the world, and it’s not a flaw of character to have a problem with drugs or alcohol because they’re designed to cause those problems. That’s why they’re addictive substances.”

Mike Thomas had been the program director of 98.5 The Sports Hub since its inception, but he left the outlet to take a job with ESPN 1000 and currently works for Audacy as its Boston market manager. As a result, longtime assistant program director Rick Radzik was elevated to the lead role, a move which Toucher originally was concerned would lead to meddling with the show. Even though Radzik had never worked in the position before, he expeditiously gained the trust and confidence of Toucher in that he was adept to lead the station forward.

“I think that he’s as good a program director as there is, and he’s not a pushover,” Toucher said of Radzik. “He says what he believes, and I think he handles talent well. The station has thrived under him; in fact, the station has done better than ever with him as the program director.”

Throughout the last several years, many sports media personalities have started podcasts discussing abstruse topics for niche audiences. Unless the podcast is live though, Toucher believes it wouldn’t feel the same as being on the radio. Additionally, consumers can easily tune into an AM or FM signal, whereas podcasts and other digital programming sometimes require strenuous efforts just to discover. Although the basis of the technology may be more than a century old, there is an alluring charm in the tradition that keeps him captivated to come back for more.

Toucher cherishes his spot in the mornings and hopes to be on the air for many years to come. He is working on doing his part in ensuring that the show remains the top-rated morning program in the marketplace and views anything else on the side as a mere windfall. Throughout the five-week stretch that he was off the air, Toucher felt a keen sense of despondency and realized that the show gives him his sense of purpose.

“If I wasn’t on the radio, I’d really miss it,” Toucher said. “I think it would be a hard pill to swallow.”

Derek Futterman

Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.