This year marks the 15th anniversary of Beasley Media Group’s 98.5 The Sports Hub, by any measurement one of the top sports radio stations in the country. August 13, 2009, was the official start date for the station and last week the station celebrated the milestone, looking back at many of the top moments in the station’s history.
It was a conscious decision to not make the celebration all about the radio station during the week over the air. There were several great retrospectives put together by the production team and those played over the air but also on YouTube and the station’s social media channels. Since its launch, the station has been named the National Association of Broadcasters’ Marconi Award for ‘Sports Station of the Year’ four times including last year.
Consistency is a word that comes up a lot when you talk about the station. In speaking with Program Director Rick Radzik and afternoon co-host Tony Massarotti, who were both part of the station from the very beginning, they both not only talk about that consistency, but also the Boston sports teams doing a lot of winning, something they did not expect when they first took the air.
Radzik was working at WBZ-AM, an all-news station. Mark Hannon and Mike Thomas, then of CBS, eventually offered him the Assistant Program Director position, an offer that came on August 7, he accepted a day later, started the next day and the station launched four days later.
“It was a whirlwind,” Radzik said.
Massarotti had been with the Boston Herald and The Boston Globe prior to joining the radio station. Massarotti covered the Red Sox from 1994-2008 and that was a main reason he was thought of as a co-host with Mike Felger. Felger had also been with the Boston Herald and had covered the Bruins and the Patriots. He also had radio experience having hosted on 890 ESPN, one of a few AM challengers that eventually lost out to incumbent WEEI.
“The primary decision-makers were Mark Hannon and Mike Thomas, who was the program director,” Massarotti said. “They wanted someone to put with Mike, who was really sort of a baseball person. And I was on the list.”
Massarotti said Thomas had been talking with Brad Blank, an agent, about other people and had asked the agent if he represented Massarotti. Blank did not but had had conversations with him before. It was Blank who reached out to tell Massarotti about the opportunity.
“The first call I got was from Brad Blank who said, ‘hey, I was talking to Mark Hannon and they are interested in potentially putting you with Felger. I’d love to handle it if you still need representation,” Massarotti said. “That’s how it started. So, I got in touch with Mark. I did an audition, a demo with Mike. It seemed to fit and we were kind of off and running.”
WEEI had a long head start in the market and while others had tried to knock them off the perch, one thing that had not happened in Boston, or really any other market for that matter, was having a sports station that was not on the AM dial.
“I think one of the things that I think was a little bit underestimated on our launch was that we launched on the FM signal,” Radzik said. “And I’m not even sure we anticipated the impact that that would have. At the time, there were not, if any, all sports radio stations on an FM signal. And I think what we wanted to do was sound a little bit younger. More of the imaging was rock and positioning all of the imaging around just sounding different than what was already being heard.”
Radzik said at the beginning they were just trying to figure it all out. He said there was very little sleep in the first few months of building the new station. Radzik said, “What we’ve all said in 15 years is we’re surprised we survived that first month! We were trying to figure out what we were doing. But we were pretty confident in the talent we had.”
For Massarotti, who had mainly appeared on radio as a guest before starting with The Sports Hub, this was a completely different experience for him. Not only were they all trying to get an audience to get used to a new sports station, but he was also trying to figure out how to be on a show every day for four hours per day.
“For me personally, that was a big, big adjustment, more than I ever could have understood at that particular point in time,” he said. “And there were a lot of people that were patient with me in the process, as we sort of developed. But the chemistry and the conversation with me and Mike worked on air right away. We looked at things a similar way. And I think we both have a passion for the teams in the town and understand what the teams mean to the people here.”
Something else the station had going for it from the beginning was play-by-play rights as they aired both the Patriots and the Bruins games. Radzik said the hockey fan base was also a part of the station’s initial growth. “We were really kind of showing that you could talk hockey and try to give that fan base an outlet, which they didn’t really have before,” he said. “They had a diehard fan base. And we did provide a lot for them on that. So, I think that helped.”
In order to be as successful as the station has been, it takes a lot of people doing a lot of the right things. Massarotti said that while most people know the on-air staff, it takes a lot more than just them to make it all work. It also helps when the teams win and there is plenty to talk about.
“We’ve been pretty fortunate to have the group of people that we have, the market that we have, the teams that we have, because for it to all go the way it has gone has been something of a perfect storm,” he said. “Between the listeners, the people we have in the building, and I mean that on every level, it has felt like a good thing from the very beginning pretty much. And that doesn’t mean we haven’t had our share of little bumps and whatnot, but I would say for the most part it really clicked on a lot of levels, which has been great.
“We just kind of stick to the job. We’ve had good success for a long period of time, and there are a lot of variables in that. But it makes it easier to focus on the task when you’re getting results, when the results are there…And we always have something because it’s Boston and because it’s sports, we always have something to talk about.”
Radzik said that while there has been some turnover recently, going as long as they did with little to no turnover made a big difference.
“We went a long time with a regular lineup,” he said. “That, in this industry, was pretty rare. The longevity of many of our shows and many of the hosts being in the same position they’ve been in since day one has been huge. It’s been a fun ride. It’s a bumpy ride once in a while, but overall, I think we all feel like it’s been a pleasure to do it.
“It still matters, and I think that passion does come across on our shows because we have a very passionate fan base in Boston and in this region, and I think they would see through it if we started mailing it in, and no one’s doing that for sure.”
Dave Greene is a former Editor and Columnist for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting.
