Rich Shertenlieb focuses on his new show, not ‘Toucher vs. Rich’

Sports news

Shertenlieb is grateful that iHeart Media encouraged him to create the series he wants and hire the people he wants.

From their arrival in Boston at the end of the lamented WBCN in 2006 to their wildly successful decade and a half run as the table-setting morning drive show on 98.5 The Sports Hub, Rich Shertenlieb and Fred Toucher complemented each other in a certain way. it’s as coveted as it is rare on the radio.

Their split last November after several well-documented controversial months marked the end of “Touche and Rich,” with Toucher signing a new contract to stay at Sports Hub and Shertenlieb embarking on something new.

Next Monday at 6 a.m., something new from Shertenlieb — his eponymous program on classic rock station WZLX, in which he was given carte blanche by parent company iHeart Media to select its supporting cast — debuts.

And while he swears his sole focus is on making this new show the best it can be, it’ll be impossible for the rest of us to avoid thinking of this new phase of Boston radio as Touch. against. Rich.

“Hey, I can’t even focus on that,” Shertenlieb said. “I know it sounds lame and I know it’s probably not what people want to hear, but I have so much going on right now. I couldn’t think of anything other than building this new show from scratch. Right now my focus is: I want next month to be better than this month, and then a month after that, better than the month before. I’m not able to think of anything else right now.

Toucher, whose show with co-host Rob “Hardy” Poole easily draws top morning audiences among men 25-54, has made various digs at his longtime co-host. Shertenlieb has never responded, keeping a low profile in recent months, and insists he has no hard feelings.

“It’s funny that there’s this perception that you must hate where you worked. That’s simply not true,” he said. “I like a lot of people there. You may just find a better opportunity.

“It’s a bit like an actor finishing one movie and then moving on to the next one, like, for lack of a better example, like Ben Affleck finishing ‘Good Will Hunting.’ He probably didn’t go on the set of “Armageddon” and was like, “You know, this Matt Damon is a real (expletive) I want to crush him in my next box office total.” don’t grab it.

Shertenlieb did not reveal details about when WZLX and iHeart approached him about the series, but noted that he usually considered his options before signing new contracts over the years with The Sports Hub, and repeatedly reiterated that he was grateful that iHeart encouraged him. to build the show he wants and hire the people he wants.

Among them is Michael Hurley, a radio novice formerly of CBS Boston, who will serve as daily co-host. “Hurley has a great sense of humor and is probably the smartest person I have ever met in my life,” Shertenlieb said.

The show’s third rotating presidency includes former Patriot Ted Johnson, Mike Giardi and Charlotte Wilder, who will continue her work for Dan LeBatard’s Meadowlark Media.

“These are all people that I’ve worked with at some point before and I was like, ‘I’m going to keep them in the back of my mind,’” Shertenlieb said. “They’re obviously good at talking about sports, but there are other reasons why I like them. They can talk about life, they can chat with me.

The show won’t air music, even if it’s on a classic rock station.

“Right now, obviously, with the playoffs and everything else, there’s going to be a lot of sports, probably 60 or 70 percent,” Shertenlieb said. “But the rest is going to be (complaining) about the new ‘Roadhouse’ movie and how they should never have ruined a classic and all the other crap that’s going on right now. Whatever we want to talk about, we we’ll talk about it.

There was speculation, believed to be accurate based on my reporting, that WEEI wanted Shertenlieb for the afternoon ride. Shertenlieb neither confirmed nor denied specific rumors, saying: “There were other opportunities. Some were pretty funny and maybe I’ll talk about them later.

Shertenlieb, who never lacks energy despite years of incredibly early awakenings, admitted that he was particularly inspired by building something new.

“It’s really fun. It’s a lot of work because you’re really building this thing from the ground up,” he said. “At the other place (The Sports Hub), I would have a decade and a half of sound clips ready to go, the listener base that we’ve built. Now it’s almost like when we first came back here. You fight, you start again and you create this thing from scratch. I feel like it’s back when The Hub was relaunched and I love it.

“It’s kind of a mentality: let’s prove it, us against the world. It really lit (me) on fire. I still like to think I had one, but now it’s the size of a bonfire.