Media
“Did he study something in any respect from his short-lived (Might-November 2024), chaotic morning present on WZLX?”
4 exhibits into Wealthy Shertenlieb’s time helming WEEI’s latest attempt at a day drive program, I’ve so much of questions, however two above all else.
At first, there’s this: Did he study something in any respect from his short-lived (Might-November 2024), chaotic morning show on WZLX?
I’ve discovered in 18 or so years of pecking out these sports activities media columns that it’s clever to provide a brand new present time to settle. Chemistry typically develops additional among the many hosts, roles change into extra outlined, and the general present can enhance with repetitions.
Shertenlieb was as soon as part of a present that bought higher over time — The Sports Hub model of the “Toucher & Wealthy” present, after Shertenlieb and co-host-turned-current-mortal-enemy Fred Toucher discovered the appropriate stability between sports activities and myriad different matters they preferred to debate.
The inclination is to provide Shertenlieb’s new show — titled, not notably creatively, “Wealthy and Ken with Ted Johnson” — the good thing about the doubt, or at the least extra time.
However then, this isn’t actually a brand new present, is it? Shertenlieb and Johnson labored collectively on the WZLX present, with Michael Hurley because the sidekick. Apart from the station and the timeslot, the one main roster distinction between the WZLX present and this new one is that Ken Laird, somewhat than Hurley, is the opposite distinguished voice.
Shertenlieb initially had free reign from mother or father firm iHeartRadio to construct the WZLX present in his personal imaginative and prescient, from selecting the co-hosts to the construction of this system.
That objectively didn’t work. Scores had been poor, and it was not lengthy earlier than administration insisted upon tweaks to the present, together with taking part in extra music, which Shertenlieb balked at doing.
I’m curious whether or not Shertenlieb has discovered the required classes from that present’s apparent shortcomings.
It’s been only a week and there’s that entire diplomatic good thing about the doubt factor. However the very early returns counsel that he doesn’t intend to vary a complete lot.
Because the present’s de facto level guard within the No. 1 chair, he has a shoot first after which shoot once more method. That always leaves his co-hosts standing on the sideline whereas Shertenlieb dominates the present with a hyper-caffeinated type. The chemistry and timing and all of that’s understandably a piece in progress, however I’d like to listen to extra from Laird, who one way or the other survived all these years working with Chris Curtis together with his humorousness intact.
Shertenlieb, who is just not a sports activities fan in the way in which a typical sports activities radio host often could be and typically doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, ought to make a degree to lean on extra analysts and beat writers as company, reminiscent of NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran.
What else ought to change? He must remove the AI voice nonsense that he preferred to make use of on WZLX. It’s totally unentertaining trash. A bit of extra topic-to-topic focus than he had at WZLX would serve the brand new present effectively, too.
Within the weeks after iHeartRadio, as a part of nationwide price range cuts, deep-sixed the WZLX show in November 2024, Shertenlieb remained sure that it might have labored. On Christmas evening, Shertenlieb e-mailed me to level out that the present had completed within the high 5 Boston morning drive applications within the Nielsen Audio scores in the course of the third week of November, the present’s last week on the air, with a 5.1 share amongst males ages 25-54.
Maybe the present was about to hit its stride. However any perception that it was shouldn’t preclude Shertenlieb from recognizing its flaws, and ensuring he doesn’t carry them to this new alternative.
As for that different aforementioned query, it’s a broader one: What does administration at WEEI and its mother or father firm Audacy contemplate successful?
There was about as a lot job safety in afternoon drive on the station over time as there was for Pink Sox front-office executives.
The latest program, that includes Johnson, Andy Hart, and Nick “Fitzy” Stevens, had only a 2.7 share within the newest three-months scores interval. Hart and Stevens had been fired after that guide got here out in April.
WEEI has pieced collectively the brand new present with Shertenlieb and two holdovers already on the payroll, and saving as a lot cash as attainable in that spot certainly counts as a victory inside Audacy headquarters. However have they got any intention of making an attempt to problem Michael Felger, Tony Massarotti, and the Sports activities Hub’s practically 20 years of dominance in afternoon drive? Or are they simply content material to get respectable bang for his or her buck, and barely higher scores than they’ve had just lately?
Absolutely Shertenlieb believes the present can be a heavyweight contender. He all the time does together with his initiatives. Actuality doesn’t all the time agree with an optimist.
