After the whole Mike Lockhart situation I doubt Rich has much love for Beasley. Guessing he'll have plenty of potential suitors as he doesn't have to be a sports guy.
RIP Toucher and Rich Show ... It was fun while it lasted
- Thread starter HomeBrew1901
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Could we be overthinking things? From the best I can tell, Rich seemed to be the only host to also run that show’s Twitter. Maybe they just wanted to have it run by an intern or someone else and Rich was allowed to take the followers to his “new” account since that was essentially Rich’s personal account anyhow.
Yeah, I’m still worried. Rich is the consummate professional. So I can easily seen him masking any issues going on behind the scenes and doing his job on the air like he always does. Fred is a bit of the opposite, and if he was in a contract dispute, we would definitely be hearing about it — at least inferentially/tongue in cheek or on social media. Again: I hope this all works out. But I’m definitely worried.
Very well could be. We know they had an issue with Lockhart and Beasley. We know Rich has shut Fred out of his life completely. I’m sure Rich is negotiating. I also think Rich may not be great at this and a simple tweet about why he changed all the accounts is not just the right thing to do but he’s has to do. The next time they mock a player for unfollowing their team or changing their avatar, rich should get 50 calls like Joe Murray being late to a Zoom meeting
One anecdote comes to mind. Rich went to Oktoberfest in Munich a few weeks ago. He came back and told the story (crazy beer tents, people puking, etc). In telling it, he mentioned that he drunk-Facetimed Wallach, Zolak, Murray and a bunch more people at the station. Seemed from listening that Fred didn’t get one and was realizing he was the only one who didn’t as Rich told the story. I have no idea but I doesn’t sound like they bond a ton outside of work these days.
If I had to guess, the Lockhart thing is the symbolic driver of whatever’s going on. Rich has put the show on his shoulders quite often over the past few years.
Beasley is cutting costs even with their top rated shows, as we saw with the Lockhart thing. I'm sure they think they can save money on the morning show by only having one high priced talent and still beat everybody else, because what else is out there these days? So I could see them not bringing back Rich and replacing him with another guy who'd be happy to work for much less. Maybe Fred didn't ask for a big raise because of his current situation, or he just got an offer he liked first. Who knows? It could be a lot of things. But Beasley is in the business of making money on advertising, not of producing the funniest morning show they can. They'll cut costs at every chance until it hurts them.
It probably wouldn't be great form for Rich to rub his drunken debauchery in the face of a recovering alcoholic.
This had occurred to me as well.
fwiw - They are back at it today and seem same as usual.
Hard to read the tea leaves but todays podcast includes different twitch links from yesterday and most social media links refer to 98.5 station instead of the show.
I'd actually say the chemistry on the show seems to be as good or better than average this week as well. Either there's something coming up that everyone's made their peace with, or we are in fact overthinking everything.
When did the current ratings book start?
With Chad Finn’s story about them the day before, I’m guessing yesterday’s show had a yuuuge audience.
With Chad Finn’s story about them the day before, I’m guessing yesterday’s show had a yuuuge audience.
I'd wager Rich is still negotiating and it is simply more complicated than Fred. As many have mentioned, I doubt Fred made much of a fuss over a significant raise considering the leeway he had over the past year and change. Rich threw down with them over ML and probably soured relations on some level. No doubt the work he's put in should be compensated but the figures are likely quite different on either side. Where is the middle? At the end of the day, can't break up the best show in Boston.
Beasley has to see ratings are down when either T or R are out and ratings up when they are in and at their best.
I am thinking the rebranding of the socials is a power play on R's part as he works out his own negotiations. In one fell swoop all the followers of the show's socials were eliminated and now they all follow R exclusively. His way of flexing? Either way I hope he gets paid and T & R live on.
I am thinking the rebranding of the socials is a power play on R's part as he works out his own negotiations. In one fell swoop all the followers of the show's socials were eliminated and now they all follow R exclusively. His way of flexing? Either way I hope he gets paid and T & R live on.
I know northing about any of this but I'm assuming the socials and their followers are the property of the show correct?
I know nothing as well but I do believe the show has their own socials. That may not mean, however, that Rich has to promote/use them exclusively over his own. Or maybe it does, like I said I know nothing.
Yeah the show owns them but Rich has been the primary content contributor to them, so him turning the keys over to someone else doesn't feel good. This and the above reference to T & R normally negotiating together really sucks.
This certainly has gotten us talking about them again. Probably been great for the ratings as well.
I’d be surprised if Rich *didn’t* make a renewal with Beasley as grueling as possible to get the most favorable outcome.
The guy carried the show for nearly 2 years while Fred was dropping in and out because of rehab, and his throat, and his divorce, and more rehab, and more throat. Oh and in the midst of all that Beasley laid off Lockhart. And Fred lied about Rich’s response to his throat stuff. Truly fun times, I’m sure.
Rich will have suitors if he passes on renewing. As listeners we’d all be the worse off for it, I wouldn’t blame him at all for looking elsewhere. Life is too short.
The guy carried the show for nearly 2 years while Fred was dropping in and out because of rehab, and his throat, and his divorce, and more rehab, and more throat. Oh and in the midst of all that Beasley laid off Lockhart. And Fred lied about Rich’s response to his throat stuff. Truly fun times, I’m sure.
Rich will have suitors if he passes on renewing. As listeners we’d all be the worse off for it, I wouldn’t blame him at all for looking elsewhere. Life is too short.
Fred has discussed financial issues on the show, signing an extension is probably necessary for raising his family to the standard he desires.
Rich got porked on the Lockhart situation, I'd bet there's terrible blood there.
Only point I'm making (with no knowledge) is that the situation could exist without it being a Fred vs Rich standoff.
Rich got porked on the Lockhart situation, I'd bet there's terrible blood there.
Only point I'm making (with no knowledge) is that the situation could exist without it being a Fred vs Rich standoff.
The fact that they did not do the annual "Who is the Spookiest Member of the Sports Hub" bit this morning is such a bummer.
I wonder if the beef (no pun intended) with Joe Murray had something to do with that.
I wonder if the beef (no pun intended) with Joe Murray had something to do with that.
Fred said in the weird Joe interview last week they were doing it. So disappointing.
I will quit the show likely within weeks if Wallach becomes the 2nd chair. I won’t be able to hack it. Hope that doesn’t happen.
I haven’t listened to the show in years but reading here it seems as though there’s been drama related to Wallach and the Celtics announcing job. I apologize for my ignorance on the subject. Would anyone mind providing a quick recap for someone who’s totally out of the loop?
So over the past few seasons when Sean Grande (radio play-by-play man for the Celtics) has been double booked with Bellator announcing duties, Wallach has stepped in and taken his role. With Mike Gorman (tv play-by-play man for the Celtics) announcing his retirement at the end of the season, most believed that Sean Grande would be promoted up to the tv gig and that Wallach would potentially have a shot at taking over the radio duties. However, about a month ago the C's hired Drew Carter to replace Gorman, leaving Grande on radio, and Wallach in his current spot.
I doubt Beasley would pay someone else to do headlines. They'd just have Wallach pull double duty.
I don't dislike Wallach nearly as much as some of you, but Toucher & John would be a dreadful radio show.
What makes T & R great is their edgy "shock jock" (for lack of a better term) approach to radio. It's all anyone says in the folklore of how they went from WBCN to 98.5. Would their rock radio style translate to the world of sports talk radio? OMG, it did! Killer ratings! Marconi award!
Toucher and Walldich, Freddy T and Johnny Boy, The Shazowee Show with Fred and John....no matter what it would be called, that show would suck. The band needs to stick together and whether it is Beasley being hard on Rich or Rich being hard on Beasley, it blows knowing Rich isn't locked up long-term like Fred. Let's hope they come together on a deal soon.
Toucher and Walldich, Freddy T and Johnny Boy, The Shazowee Show with Fred and John....no matter what it would be called, that show would suck. The band needs to stick together and whether it is Beasley being hard on Rich or Rich being hard on Beasley, it blows knowing Rich isn't locked up long-term like Fred. Let's hope they come together on a deal soon.
I'll disagree with that "shock jock" take. To me, T&R are great at sports radio because they're just regular fans. They don't pretend to be Sports Experts (tm) like almost every other show. And they don't make sports out to be some kind of critically important thing. It's just a hobby that we're all wayyyy too into.
It also helps that they can talk about pop culture, music, TV, etc. in a very entertaining way. Those are topics that the Sports Experts (tm) shows do soooo awkwardly. Anyone want to listen to Felger & Mazz do Armpits of America or Fart Court? It'd be excruitiating.
I think this is right, though Fred occasionally has a serious edge, ‘shock jock’ label or not.
This is the only show in the market that could crush a week of shows…not talking sports.
Also 1 + 1 = 3 so let’s make sure we keep the band together.
For sure.
Wallach in the 2nd chair is pretty terrible radio, especially when paired with Fred. It was tough knowing that RJ was there today, but far less engaged than when he was 2nd chair with Rich. That was pretty good radio IMHO. Not T&R, but pretty good.
Fred said at least twice today that Rich was really sick and don't read into it. Rich's voice has been going for days.
The online stream has been a mess this morning. It cuts out every couple minutes, no matter which app I use.
Yeah, I gave up on the Amazon Alexa stream during T&R. It seems much better after their show ended.
