Mazz is definitely the weak link in the duo. He has always been a piler-on, and a sleeping-dog-poker, just for its own sake. He's smarter than most people on sports radio, but seems to use his talents for evil more often than he uses them for good. He'd rather see the Jets win the Super Bowl just for the talk it would generate, and openly so. He seems to want the Sox and Pats to lose, Belichick fired, the Celtics to struggle, and the Bruins to win. In short, he seems to want whatever will prompt the largest number of passionate columns and callers. He is like an intelligent and articulate CHB, less interested in sports than in the periphery and human drama.
Neither seem exceptionally knowledgeable, but that's no sin in sports-talk radio, it seems. Felger, the out-of-towner, works better as raconteur and feisty critic. He is more forthrightly opinionated, and also a lot more honest and also open to correction and dissent than anyone else of similar passion. Either of them might do better paired with someone else, and the show itself could do with a bit more technical knowledge. That said, Felger is really the guy you (or at least I) want to hear comment on whatever the day's sports news is. Both because he is bound to have an opinion on it, and because he is bound to have a detailed explanation of his opinion, and because he will at least try to give the spin-free insider version of what's going on between the lines. Moreover, Felger and Mazz are the closest thing to actual journalism on sports talk radio, as evidenced by the interview today, and Felger in particular evidences an interest in getting the facts and cutting to the chase.
Toucher and Rich are by far the current stars of Boston sports talk, and are vastly more entertaining and charismatic than anyone in the game. But they don't really even pretend to be serious sports analysts, they are more what Dennis and Callahan claimed to be-- a talk show for guys who like sports. Their reporting is almost nonexistent, their interviews are goofy and chummy, and their sports talk is more entertaining than informative. Felger and Mazz are the closest things to actual journalists in the market, and they do a decent job at that. But their quality declines rapidly when there is nothing new or specific to talk about. They quickly devolve into pure ranting and contrarianism for its own sake.
On a side note, I am starting to wonder whether WEEI wasn't artificially pitch-shifting Mazz's voice for humorous effect. His high-pitched voice was always a theme for jokes and mockery on that station, and it really did sound unnaturally high. But on TSH, he sounds a lot more like a normal human being, albeit one with a higher-register voice. Maybe it was just a difference in microphone selection and the bandwidth-limiting effect of AM, but I wouldn't put it past the big show to pitch up his voice just for that stupid kind of big-show meathead humor they wallowed in.
Neither seem exceptionally knowledgeable, but that's no sin in sports-talk radio, it seems. Felger, the out-of-towner, works better as raconteur and feisty critic. He is more forthrightly opinionated, and also a lot more honest and also open to correction and dissent than anyone else of similar passion. Either of them might do better paired with someone else, and the show itself could do with a bit more technical knowledge. That said, Felger is really the guy you (or at least I) want to hear comment on whatever the day's sports news is. Both because he is bound to have an opinion on it, and because he is bound to have a detailed explanation of his opinion, and because he will at least try to give the spin-free insider version of what's going on between the lines. Moreover, Felger and Mazz are the closest thing to actual journalism on sports talk radio, as evidenced by the interview today, and Felger in particular evidences an interest in getting the facts and cutting to the chase.
Toucher and Rich are by far the current stars of Boston sports talk, and are vastly more entertaining and charismatic than anyone in the game. But they don't really even pretend to be serious sports analysts, they are more what Dennis and Callahan claimed to be-- a talk show for guys who like sports. Their reporting is almost nonexistent, their interviews are goofy and chummy, and their sports talk is more entertaining than informative. Felger and Mazz are the closest things to actual journalists in the market, and they do a decent job at that. But their quality declines rapidly when there is nothing new or specific to talk about. They quickly devolve into pure ranting and contrarianism for its own sake.
On a side note, I am starting to wonder whether WEEI wasn't artificially pitch-shifting Mazz's voice for humorous effect. His high-pitched voice was always a theme for jokes and mockery on that station, and it really did sound unnaturally high. But on TSH, he sounds a lot more like a normal human being, albeit one with a higher-register voice. Maybe it was just a difference in microphone selection and the bandwidth-limiting effect of AM, but I wouldn't put it past the big show to pitch up his voice just for that stupid kind of big-show meathead humor they wallowed in.
