The run of 98.5 The Sports Hub hosts Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb run as a duo recently came to an end, and while there were some signs that the relationship between the two had gone south, Barstool Sports host Kirk Minihane thought it was curious the two didn’t just make it clear how they felt about each other.
On The Kirk Minihane Show, Kirk said he had been telling folks for a while that Toucher & Rich was ending. He said behind the scenes employees at The Sports Hub had reached out to him about it, but he couldn’t confirm it was done before news of Shertenlieb’s departure became official.
Toucher said on the air the day after he found out that Rich was gone that he was kind of taken aback by the sudden exit. He also noted that the two did not have regular communication outside of work.
Minihane said Shertenlieb didn’t owe the audience a goodbye on the air, and that the practice, especially when two hosts are splitting up, can be quite awkward.
“It’s always a weird segment in radio – where you have to say goodbye,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be weird. I don’t know why it has to be so weird.”
Kirk continued saying that he didn’t get why they had to beat around the bush by not saying they didn’t like each other. He fell back on his exit from WEEI with Gerry Callahan and realized that maybe Toucher and Shertenlieb thought it would be better to keep things out of the public light.
“I don’t know maybe they’re learning their lesson,” Minihane said. “When Gerry and I ended our show I went back for a day, and we yelled at each other. And I said the show was gonna fail. So maybe they’re like, ‘We don’t do it like that.’ Fred just doesn’t want it. They hate each other I mean I know that. And I’ll take Fred’s side, because I don’t like Rich. But it’s very strange. Radio’s so f–king weird.”
“I don’t know why you just can’t say it, like ‘We didn’t like each other very much,'” he added.
Kirk Minihane was asked if it was ego-based. He said ego definitely has a lot to do with it, but you also have to factor in the weird hours when you’re doing morning drive. Minihane mentioned that when it came to him and Callahan, he felt like he was getting bigger than the show and that he didn’t want to strictly talk sports anymore.
But ultimately he felt like Toucher and Shirttenlieb’s relationship had run its course, especially after Toucher took a leave of absence earlier in the year and Rich had full control of the reins of the show.
“I think Rich and Fred just got sick of each other. That happens,” he said. “I mean mornings are a weird beast. You have to fight to do whatever for four hours, and you just get sick of each other.”
Minihane peeled back the onion a bit further and explained that there are power struggles at play as well where people behind the scenes side with one host, management sides with the other, and the whole dynamic just sours over time.
Kirk Minihane said he thought Rich just wanted to escape the situation, and it’s something he thinks might not work out so well in his favor.
“I think he’s going to regret it. I don’t think he has an audience,” he said. “There’s still a few media companies left that are dumb enough to spend money on a Rich to do a podcast. They don’t know better. They have some money, and they don’t know better. That’s his only shot. There’s no money in radio, I don’t know where he would go.”
