There won’t be a Mike & Fred show anytime soon.
Boston sports radio host Fred Toucher called Mike Greenberg a “a no-talent pr–k” during a rant about the famous ESPN host Tuesday on the “Toucher and Rich” show on Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub.
A discussion about the Jets veered off the rails when the show’s hosts noticed Greenberg, a noted Jets fan, on the screen as “Get Up” debated the top threats to the defending champion Chiefs in the AFC, with the Jets being listed as No. 1.
That’s when Toucher let the world in on his beef with Greenberg.
The inspiration for Toucher’s rant Tuesday stemmed from a Facebook article featuring Greenberg offering career advice. Toucher labeled said advice as “asinine.”
“He’s dropping the facade when he’s talking, this isn’t friendly Greenberg, this is business, Greenberg. Listen to this no-talent pr–k,” Toucher said while diving deep into the media business. “This guy who is making all this money, listen to his advice: ‘If you’re not writing out your teases, you’re not hosting a show.’ He’s like, ‘You could be the funniest guy, the most interesting guy. You could know the most about sports. But it doesn’t mean anything if you’re not holding people over the breaks.’
“I said, ‘That is tremendous advice. If you’re the most interesting, funny person in the world, really it all comes down to your teases.’ What a hacky, dumb thing to say. Talk about a guy justifying his career. That’s your career, that you’ve written out teases for what’s coming up next?”
A tease in radio or television terminology is when the host previews what is upcoming in order to keep the viewer or listener to stay with the show through the commercial break.
With the floodgates opened, Toucher’s partners jumped in.
Jon Wallach said he served as an intern in the Chicago market in the 1990s and had to help Greenberg, at the time an up-and-coming radio and TV host, prepare for his sports radio spots.
“What a pain in the ass that guy was,” Wallach said. “He would come in on a show that he didn’t work on and ask me or the other interns to put him together — this is old-school photo copy, we had to print everything out, photocopying box scores from the night before from the newspaper, print out this massive stack of information that he would not refer to once during the show.”
Toucher replied: “If you require to do a radio show a dossier of material, you’re an idiot. And you’re never going to refer to it because it’s not necessary. You’re talking.”
The show’s hosts then marveled at Greenberg’s reported $6.5 million salary.
“All you need is one person, assuming it’s the right person, to like what you do,” Wallach said. “That’s Mike Greenberg’s career. Somebody at ESPN really likes him because I don’t know anybody else who does.”
Toucher perhaps summed up his argument best with this one line.
“He’s justifying his career as really being someone devoid of talent,” Toucher said. “That’s what it sounded like to me.”
Toucher is known for saying things that get him in the news, including when he hung up on an NHL reporter due to his accent and when he ripped co-host Rich Shertenlieb and Wallach earlier this year for not checking in on him after he underwent throat surgery that kept him off the airwaves for a bit.
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