Sports
Ratings were dismal, and nothing Shertenlieb did with the program since launching in May suggested it was going to get better.
The postmortem on Rich Shertenlieb’s WZLX morning show — lifespan: a little less than six months — is not complicated.
The decision to whack the show Tuesday morning was primarily financial. Parent company iHeartMedia is in the midst of massive cuts nationwide, which CEO Bob Pittman said during an earnings call on Thursday should save the company in the range of $200 million in 2025.
Pittman referred to the elimination of dozens and potentially more than 100 jobs across all genres of iHeart’s stations as part of the company’s “modernization journey,” just in case you were wondering if he had the proper soulless corporate jargon required of a modern media executive down pat.
Shertenlieb, whose name was on the program, and third-chair co-host Ted Johnson — the former Patriots linebacker and current NBC Sports Boston analyst — were the most well-compensated of the program’s hosts and contributors, which include still-in-limbo No. 2 host Michael Hurley and Emerson Lotzia. They both could be part of a revamped, more conventional morning program.
But this is also true: The financial decision to spike the show had to be an easy one for iHeart. Because ratings were dismal. And nothing Shertenlieb did with the program since launching in May suggested it was going to get better.
When the program debuted, Shertenlieb told me, while praising iHeart’s willingness to support his vision for the show, that the company gave him everything he wanted — meaning that he had oversight of hiring co-hosts, the format, structure, and tone, all of it.
It’s what anyone who has had success in radio dreams of, and Shertenlieb had extraordinary success in partnership with Fred Toucher, first in Atlanta before coming to WBCN in 2006, and then at 98.5 The Sports Hub from 2009 until their contentious split last November. That’s when Shertenlieb abruptly left the show after a me-or-him ultimatum to management backfired and parent company Beasley Media instead signed Toucher to a contract extension.
Despite having six months off between leaving The Sports Hub and debuting on WZLX, there was nothing inspired or fresh about Shertenlieb’s new show. It often felt like a watered-down version of his former program, with familiar bits such as “Brookline 911,” except he was in the lead chair and there was no one like Toucher to riff and add a caustic balance to Shertenlieb’s rapid-fire energy. (Hurley, a novice to full-time radio, has a sharp, dry sense of humor, but Shertenlieb’s style overwhelmed his co-hosts.)
Shertenlieb’s approach to the show left me wondering how much awareness he has about his own strengths — of which there are many, including production — and weaknesses. It surprised me that he kept a primarily sports-oriented format on a classic-rock station, especially since one of his strengths is a deep trove of music knowledge.
When WBCN went dark and The Sports Hub launched 15 years ago, Shertenlieb acknowledged that he was initially devastated and did not think he would enjoy doing a sports show.
“Toucher and Rich,” of course, had massive ratings success at The Sports Hub, and those bonus checks can change one’s perspective a bit. But I was surprised Shertenlieb didn’t seize the opportunity to focus more on music or pop culture and less on sports at WZLX. He’s knowledgeable enough about sports, but that was never his primary strength, and never seemed to be his main interest.
When WZLX and iHeart executives, panicked by the dismal ratings and hearing frustrations and confusion from longtime station listeners, began making the show play entire songs each hour, Shertenlieb resisted. I didn’t get why, but then, I thought the show should have played music in the first place.
Ultimately, hubris seemed to get the best of him, as if he thought he would retain WZLX’s morning audience while the brunt of the audience from the old show would follow him to the new one and thus he would beat Toucher and his new co-host, Rob “Hardy” Poole, at their own game.
It’s easy to dream of delivering that kind of comeuppance. Instead, Shertenlieb lasted five-plus months.
The abruptness of the ending, even with iHeart’s ominous financial plans, is staggering. I was trying to think of an equally abrupt ending in Boston sports radio, and Mike Salk’s stint as Glenn Ordway’s replacement a decade ago at WEEI came immediately to mind. But Salk lasted a year — from March 2013 to March 2014 — before leaving on his own to return to the Seattle market.
Rumors had been percolating that Shertenlieb’s show might be in for a shakeup come the new year. The fall Nielsen ratings period ends in early December, and that seemed the earliest that something might change. No one, especially the show’s personnel, anticipated it happening this past week.
But that’s what happens, I guess, when executives are on their budget-slashing rampage — uh, “modernization journey” — and a new show with very few new ideas has failed to maintain or find an audience. The ending can be cruel, and abrupt, and probably the right thing to do.
Get the latest Boston sports news
Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.