NorthEast Radio Watch 10/24/2022: Sports Hub Producer Stays

In this week’s issue… Toucher & Rich rehire producer – iHeart ups McCabe, makes PA moves – Remembering CBS’ Saviet, WINS’ Klein – Toronto permit changes hands

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

*While we wait for the week’s expected big news on Thursday (and we’ll have more on the launch of WINS-FM in New York later in the column), our lead story from the week just ended is the return of one of the WBZ-FM (98.5 the Sports Hub) staffers who lost his job in Beasley’s big cuts earlier in October.

It’s good news for listeners to the top-rated Toucher and Rich show that producer Mike Lockhart is back on the job, filling a role that hosts Fred Toettcher and Rich Shertenlieb insisted was essential to keeping their broadcast going. But while Beasley was willing to agree with the hosts that they still needed Lockhart on the job, the company still wasn’t willing to pay for him – and so Shertenlieb said he’d pay Lockhart’s salary, plus (as he told listeners) a “38% markup” to cover Beasley’s administrative costs and Lockhart’s benefits.

Is any of this good for our business? Not especially. While there are some higher-profile morning shows that function as their own separate businesses, where the station pays a lump sum for the show and the hosts and producers then get paid out of that revenue, it’s our understanding that that wasn’t how Beasley had things set up with Toucher and Rich, and so effectively Shertenlieb was forced to take a cut in his own pay to keep Lockhart as an essential part of his team. It might be sustainable as a one-off situation, but it’s no way to run a radio station in the long run – and it will surely come up whenever Shertenlieb’s contract is up for renewal.