NorthEast Radio Watch 5/6/2024: Shertenlieb Returns, Squier Remembered

In this week’s issue… Shertenlieb back on Boston radio – Vermont remembers a radio and racing giant – Edwards’ Bruins run ends short – Tunnicliffe out at WBZ – WPRO’s new morning mix

By SCOTT FYBUSH with BOB WELCH

*When a personality conflict broke up the “Toucher and Rich” morning show on Beasley’s WBZ-FM (98.5 the Sports Hub) last year, leaving Fred Toucher as the remaining host on the top-rated Boston sports station, it was pretty much inevitable that Rich Shertenlieb, his on-air partner of 14 years, would end up across town somewhere.

Now we know where that “somewhere” is, and it’s not on WBZ-FM’s sports competitor, Audacy’s WEEI. Instead, Shertenlieb is about to start in mornings at iHeart’s WZLX (100.7), the classic rock station that vies for male audiences against the two big sports talkers.

The announcement on Monday came in stages, starting with a big change to WZLX’s heritage. After the death last year of longtime WZLX morning co-host Kevin Karlson, the awkwardly named “Boston’s Only Classic Rock Morning Show” soldiered on with Pete McKenzie hosting alongside Heather Ford and Kenny Young – at least until Friday. This morning, it was nothing but music and an announcement that McKenzie and Ford were out, unceremoniously ending nearly 20 years with the station.

Just hours afterward, it was Shertenlieb’s turn to announce his imminent return to the air.

“Hey Boston Hey. I missed you,” he said on social media, telling fans he’s been assembling a new group of co-hosts who will join him whenever the new “Rich Shertenlieb Show” makes its debut. In the meantime, only middayer Carter Alan and afternoon jock Chuck Nowlin remain listed on the WZLX schedule, although it appears Young is also still with the station.

(There’s more about iHeart Boston cutbacks later in the column for subscribers, too.)

*Until the WZLX news broke early this morning – and that’s why this week’s column is a little later than usual – our other top story was coming from VERMONT, where legendary station owner and sportscaster Ken Squier was remembered over the weekend.

Our friend Bob Welch, a former broadcaster and public relations consultant who worked at Squier’s WDEV, attended the celebration of life and sent us this dispatch:

It is a rare occurrence for members of a symphony orchestra to appear at a racetrack. But, when it is the celebration of life for NASCAR Hall-of-Fame broadcaster, Vermont Association of Broadcasters Hall-of-Famer, and Radio Vermont Group owner Ken Squier who died last November, it hits the perfect note. In addition to his founding of Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, VT where his celebration was held Saturday, he also cared so deeply for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra that he served on their Board of Directors. Your correspondent should also make note that for 17 years, RVG station 101.7 WCVT Stowe was a classical music station.

The line at the bottom of the collectable sticker handed out with the program to attendees Saturday read, “Common Man Who Did Uncommon Deeds.” Those six words indeed sum up well a man who built Thunder Road at age 20 after reporting on a stock car race in Connecticut and thought “We need something like this back home,” recalled Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM host Dave Moody in his role as master of ceremonies Saturday. Ken Squier was one of the founders of the Motor Racing Network in the runup to the 1970 Daytona 500. He would then convince CBS to telecast the first NASCAR race from start-to-finish, the 1979 Daytona 500. He would broadcast NASCAR on CBS until 2000. From the 1960s he contributed to the CBS Sports Spectacular, ABCs Wide World of Sports, along with NBC, Fox, TBS, and the old Nashville Network.

Those who were a part of the 85 minutes of storytelling, also broadcast on Radio Vermont Group flagship WDEV, were a crossroads of the Vermont community, racing, and broadcasting. They included NASCAR President Steve Phelps, childhood friend and former WCVT & WDEV host Brian Harwood, VT Secretary of Agriculture, Food, & Markets Anson Tebbetts who was also one of WDEVs news directors in years past, along with longtime Radio Vermont Traffic Director Kia Winchell Nealy, and the Thunder Road Track Champion who is also Vermont Governor Phil Scott. Vermont entertainer Rusty Dewees, “The Logger,” also appeared to tell of his friendship.

Ken Squier was always thinking about everyone else. He also never forgot where he came from. Among stories told Saturday were Dave Moody remembering the yearslong effort to induct Ken into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame. Dave, who started at WDEV as a sports play-by-play announcer and who worked with your correspondent on high school basketball games and Norwich Hockey before MRN, explained that each year after he’d convinced everyone to support Ken’s induction, it never came through. Dave explained this was because Ken would later tell everyone that such an induction was for drivers, and he was merely a storyteller. The toughest person to convince was Ken Squier himself.

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