Upheaval is the name of the game in morning drive in Boston. In recent years, the market has lost stalwarts like Matty in the Morning on Kiss 108 and Karlson & McKinzie on WZLX. Most recently, Rich Shertenlieb left 98.5 The Sports Hub, bringing the dominant morning brand Toucher & Rich to an end.
Mike Thomas is the man that put Toucher & Rich on sports radio. He, along with then-market manager Mark Hannon, oversaw the frequency shuffle that led to the launch of The Sports Hub. He saw the success the duo had on WBCN, the legendary alternative station that was being laid to rest and recognized the potential for sports fans.
“I think the world of those guys obviously,” Thomas says. “You know, we worked with them for 12 plus years in the CBS Radio days. Both of those guys are extremely talented, and it was an honor.”
Now it’s Thomas who is the market manager. He oversees six local brands in Audacy’s building, including legendary sports talker WEEI, but when Thomas thinks about the breakup of Toucher & Rich, he doesn’t just see an opportunity in sports radio. He’s got a building full of stations that offer listeners stability and familiarity every time the market is thrown into chaos in morning drive.
“In a market where there typically has not been a ton of change, there has been a ton of change,” he says. “I think that we’re benefiting from that because we have Karson & Kennedy on Mix 104.1. They have been in the market now for 15 years and are number one. We’ve got a morning show on Magic (106.7) that’s been together for many, many years. They are a top three radio station, and a top three show. Then you’ve got Greg, who’s knocking on the door of number one.”
Completing a successful transition from programmer to market manager is not an easy one. Thomas points out that plenty have been able to do it, including Dan Mason, Chris Oliviero, and most recently, Tim Wenger. But to be ready to go from leading a brand to leading a building, you need knowledge, luck, and support.
He asked the right questions. The right people took an interest in his goal. That helped him get where he wanted to go, but his background helped him win the trust of the people he supervises.
Maybe you know a bit about Mike Thomas’s radio history. Surely you know that Bruce Gilbert, one of the truly iconic names in sports programming, is his brother. Maybe you didn’t know that their sister is a radio lifer too. Same goes for their parents. Between watching and doing, there isn’t much about the business Thomas is unfamiliar with.
Thomas got his first shot to run a building in Chicago, where he served as Good Karma’s market manager. There, he was only working in sports with ESPN 1000. All of that previous experience helped him to succeed atop Audacy in Boston, because he needed to have credibility with the staffs of six different stations in six different formats.
“I’ve done, I think, almost everything in this business,” he says. “I was just talking to somebody yesterday, who is just starting out in this business and is very excited about working in our industry, which is great. I said, ‘Look, I did traffic logs for a couple of years while I was doing part-time on air, just because that was a full-time job, and I literally just wanted to be in the radio station 5 or 6 days a week. And that was my only way to do that.’
“So, I think with anything you do for a career, the more you know, it doesn’t matter what you do. I mean, if you work road construction, the more you know about why the construction is being done and what the design is and everything that goes into it, you’re probably going to be more likely to rise to be a leader in that industry.”
Part of successfully ascending is trusting someone new to do the job you used to hold. While Thomas never programmed WEEI, he did program the Sports Hub when it was that station looking up at WEEI. It would have been tempting for him to say “I know how to do this. Get out of my way” to everyone around him.
That’s not what he did though. Instead, he put his faith in someone he saw was already respected by the staff. First, he made morning show executive producer Ken Laird WEEI’s ops manager. One year later, Laird became the station’s new brand manager and Thomas has never had a reason to doubt him.
“He really, I think, learned a lot in that [ops] role and now he is leading the radio station and doing a great job,” Thomas says of Laird. “He’s well respected and well-liked by, not only everybody on the programming side, but also, he’s built a great relationship with our sales managers and our sales department. So, he’s doing all the right things.”
Laird is doing all the right things. The station has a lot going for it. Does that mean WEEI is bound to overtake The Sports Hub in the ratings?
Thomas knows it can happen, but if it does happen, it will be less about what happens at The Sports Hub and more about how WEEI responds when growth opportunities present themselves, and he has lots of reasons to be optimistic that his station will rise to those occasions.
WEEI is the radio home of the Red Sox. Thomas points out that this will be the 30th year that, even without play-by-play rights, the station has been where to hear the Patriots’ quarterback and coach speak each week. There are plenty of reasons Boston sports fans need to come to EEI, and he’s confident that what the station airs every morning is one of them.
“Greg Hill is putting up some great ratings in the morning now, and obviously the morning daypart is arguably the most important day part. So, you know, we start each day with a show that is one of the top shows in the market, not just with men, but also with adults.”
Sure, it helps that Mike Thomas is familiar with success in multiple formats, but this is Boston. Sports matter. His staff doesn’t have to be reminded of that and that is something that showed up in a big way for Thomas’ adult hits station Big 103 during the Celtics’ championship run.
Listeners can hear the artists played on Big 103 anywhere. If they love Beyonce and hate Taylor Swift, they can go to Spotify and build a playlist that is all killer and no filler just for their ears. But Thomas’ staff made the station essential to their listeners during that time by reflecting life in Boston.
“Steve Salhany and Mike Mullaney program Big 103. Big 103 doesn’t have any live personalities on it, but that station is full of personality, and it’s all done through the imaging,” he says. “The imaging is fresh every day, every week. It’s timely. After every Celtics game, there was new stuff on talking about what happened the night before, and it’s done tongue-in-cheek, with some attitude and humor. The radio station has a ton of personality with no personalities, and that’s brilliant.”
Sports radio will always be under a microscope in Boston. Mike Thomas knows that. The city is crazy about competition and drawn to conflict. But sports radio and WEEI are on just one of the plates Mike is charged with keeping spinning these days.
That’s why people like Ken Laird, Greg Hill, Karson & Kennedy, Steve Salhany and Mike Maloney are so important. Keeping plates spinning takes a lot of attention and effort. To do something really special, you have to put people you trust in a position to do their jobs well and succeed. Mike Thomas thinks he’s done just that.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
