Shertenlieb Show? Rich Radio? - mornings on ZLX
- Thread starter Rusty13
- Start date
So funny, that just popped up on my Yahoo page and that was my first thought. Rich’s Morning Zoo on WZLX!
Tons of Rich bashing from Fred today. He just can’t let it go.
Wasn't Fred's advice for him to get out of the pure sports stuff and back into a music gig?
I didn't realize Karlson had died last fall. I can't imagine the show was nearly as good without him anyway. Glad to hear Rich is back, looking forward to my next visit east to listen
Ugh, the Karlson thing was so sad. I think it was a Monday morning and no one could reach him - Heather had to drive to his house (Attleboro I think?) and do a wellness check with the police. If I remember correctly, Karlson and his wife have a place in CT but he also stayed in a townhouse closer to work during the week so he was alone.
If Chuck is Chuck Nowlin he's a fine third guy on a morning show, but I don't think he's strong enough to be a #2
I'll bet. 59 years old. I just read the obit which listed New London, but I know he lived in a few places. Attleboro was probably his "work week" place and went back to New London with the family on weekends. WZLX was my usual station in the morning when Fred and Rich were off, mostly for the music, but also the three of them (Pete, Kevin and Heather) played well together for a very long time
Think Rich will be a lot happier in a music format, good for him. Plenty of room for him and Fred in market and hope he can put together a good show which I expect he will. He was still super opinionated about music on the air
What was it this time?
Although Rich doesn't know sports all that well, I didn't pay much attention to Jokic until Rich started hyping him up. I think that was before Giannis even won his first MVP. Rich was ahead on that, at least.
I just texted the same exact thing to a friend a few minutes ago. The Karlson and McKenzie show definitely held its own and I liked it very much during commercial breaks and off weeks of T&R.
I'm honestly not looking forward to both of them taking shots at each other.
There were a number of comments from Fred shitting on Rich (in)directly based upon the Brady roast and then about how it always pissed Rich off that Fred got higher bids than him for things like the Who's Your Caddy golf stuff and Rich would be super pissed but claimed "he couldn't care less"
Who's the audience for Rich now? 40-54 year old men who don't like sports?
My favorite parts of T&R were when both of them talked music at length and Fred's "inside baseball" radio stories. I was never there to get any deep knowledge of sports. I do hope that they let Rich play the music he wants to play.
I was trying to make the joke that I think Rich will be happiest in a "no-Fred" format, but that's as much of a joke as I could construct and it's not great.
Thanks for the recap. I mean, that's a good question about the audience. It will be nice if Rich is allowed to share real opinions on music and not have to toe the line on who IHR is trying to put over but how likely is that? You think WZLX is going to pick up gambling sponsorships?
Haha I guess that is what it would actually mean. Rich got me into Gojira, which is technically death metal. King Crimson is my Rush.
If Rich is smart, he completely ignores Fred and doesn't even mention anything about him or their old show. Move forward. Let Fred be the grump who won't let it go.
I have a feeling he will still mix in some sports talk, but it will be MUCH less substantive. Rich is a legit C's fan, so I'm sure he will at least take up some air time with them.
Didn't they used to work in sports a bit while at BCN too? It was before I started listening. I hope Rich still covers them a decent amount.
I honestly forgot WZLX was still a station but went back to dig and I was shocked they are the #2 station behind 98.5:
https://www.boston.com/sports/media/2023/12/28/despite-change-up-with-toucher-and-rich-the-sports-hub-takes-the-top-spot-in-fall-nielsen-ratings/
https://www.boston.com/sports/media/2023/12/28/despite-change-up-with-toucher-and-rich-the-sports-hub-takes-the-top-spot-in-fall-nielsen-ratings/
I have a long morning commute. I like football and basketball but couldn't care less about hockey or baseball and often change the station to SiriusXM especially when one of them (usually Fred) is out. I care deeply about music (far more than sports) and comedy but don't really like listening to either on the morning drive. Now I have another option.
I started listening towards the end of their BCN days, but I do recall Drunken Recaps being a regular part of the show even back then. And Fred became a huge B's fan during that time period.
I could be wrong as it's been 15 years but I thought they also had Scal on and Bruins. Cuts for a Cause (or that hair cut thing, then became a ping pong thing that Fred can't remember as he refers to them as) started with BCN.
You are correct - they always talked at least some sports - I think Crash had a segment on it. They also talked Bruins all the time on WBCN. They had weekly B's players (I want to say the first 2 they had on weekly got traded shortly after) but Aaron Ward had a great relationship with the show. Thornton took over after Ward left, but that may have been when they switched to 98.5.
Oh I am definitely going to prioritize this over T&H to give it a shot. I imagine it will be more classic music, less sports (duh). I love sports, but Fred has been such a nightmare for the past few years now, I'm happy to see what Rich has to offer and (presumably) to have some music mixed in.
As for Fred vs. Rich, or Rich vs. Fred, Rich is quite obviously more secure than Fred. Rich may have his initial cathartic moments (he references non-competes in the tweet above), but Fred is so much more needy and neurotic that I'm sure he'll piss and moan for the foreseeable future. To some, that's part of Fred's appeal. For me, I can't stand it and am actively looking for alternatives. Happy to make my way over to Rich's show at the outset.
It can’t be worse than Hillman. I love Toucher and Hardy but I’ll be happy to have Rich as an alternative. I really have no use for classic rock radio though as we have every streaming service with all the songs and better than they play.
I think you're right - if Rich is taking shots at anybody it's going to be Beasley for making him pay for a producer out of pocket and for enforcing the non-compete. The silver lining to the NCA is that it gave Rich some time to plot out how his new show is going to go, which from what I gather T&H with Wallach could have used. I think Fred is going to have a tough time with this because I think deep down Fred himself would rather be in WZLX's format than 98.5's.
Let's just hope Rich doesn't alienate his new co-workers the way he apparently managed to estrange all the people I thought were his closest friends among the coworkers he had at 98.5, BCN, and 99x. Maybe he will tell his side of the story on that, but that's a lot to be explained away.
I haven't heard Hillman's current show but I used to listen to him on WAAF, maybe 25? years ago during my summers and I thought he was ok. I take it he's no good with the sports format.
He’s absolutely awful. I don’t love the Fred and Hardy duo but the drop off to the Greg Hill show is massive
Good for Rich! I wonder if they’ll make his new show available via podcast, maybe sans music? I don’t have much interest in listening to classic rock on terrestrial radio, but I’m down for hearing his segments in between songs.
Maybe you’ll be proved right and Rich will crash and burn. But, collectively, I think your comments in the thread significantly underrate his talent and creativity. My guess is he’ll put together a fun and inventive show that will transcend the ZLX format, much as T&R transcended sports talk radio. We shall see.
Big props for the Dune reference (the David Lynch director's cut is in my top 5 of all time sci fy films)
I’m not saying Rich will crash and burn or they he’s not talented. He’s very talented. I don’t like Rich as the main guy.
I didn’t realize WZLX already pulls decent ratings and T&H will definitely take a hit as Rich will pull percentage of the audience.
OK, I see where I misunderstood. I appreciate you taking the time to clarify. You are right, of course, that Fred is a beast as the front man.
#2 overall but I believe in the morning they are down around 6 or 7. General feeling seems to be most listeners prefer talk on the morning commutes.
92.2 is generally in my wheelhouse of XEnnial music but I'm down to catch up with Rich. He's at his best when he's geeking out over music stuff.