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REGIONAL RADIO WARS: Fred Toucher Doesn’t Like Being Called a Faker
Published:
It’s the dawn of a new era for RADIO WARS, as we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory. Skirmishes and guerilla movements once relegated to the greater Philadelphia region have expanded up the Atlantic coast and into New England proper, which is home to the most smarmy and entitled sports fans you will ever meet.
The background here is that Barrett Sports Media did a poll of the best sports talk morning shows in America, and Boston’s Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb placed first. In our writeup of the ranking, I noted that Toucher was the doofus who hung up on the Carolina Hurricanes beat reporter because he didn’t think a guy with a southern accent knew anything about hockey. Talk about disrespect.
In response, Toucher found our article and read a portion of it on the air. He accused me of being “some guy in Philadelphia who hates all the radio there,” which is not true. It’s a malicious lie. Toucher also stumbled over Angelo Cataldi’s name, and I noted the following at the bottom of the story:
“I love how all these guys pretend to stumble over Cataldi’s name, as if they’ve never heard of him before. They know who he is. Everybody in sports radio knows who he is.”
So what happened is that Toucher took umbrage with that. He didn’t like the accusation of being a faker, so he turned the Boston missile defense system towards Philadelphia this morning and launched a salvo:
Toucher: “Okay fine, yeah, we’ve probably talked about him before, off air, but how is it so ridiculous that I wouldn’t know who he is?”
That story about the simulcast is funny. They were one minute late and so egomaniac Angelo decided to move on. Cataldi hates when people show up late.
But carry on:
I’ll admit that I can’t prove whether or not Toucher was faking it, because I don’t have empirical evidence and can’t read minds, but I’ve seen this a hundred times before in radio. A classic move is that a lot of guys show disrespect by pretending to not know who someone is, then they butcher their name on purpose. Missanelli used to pretend he didn’t know what Crossing Broad was, even though he read the site daily. Colin Cowherd once called Angelo “Angelo Castaldi” on purpose. But the thing is that sports radio is a small and insular world, and these guys all know other successful people in their industry. 99.9% of people in sports talk radio know and respect Angelo as a 30-year veteran of the medium, so if Toucher has never heard of Angelo before, I would be absolutely stunned. Everybody I talk to in sports radio worships Angelo as some sports talk radio pioneer and demigod. Industry folks deify the man.
Anyway, Ill have to call 98.5 The Sports Hub on Friday morning to clear things up. Perhaps we can call for an armistice. Kinkead on the Toucher and Rich program. And if they don’t accept our terms, we’ll have pull out our secret weapons. We have the audio of them hanging up on Rick Pitino after two seconds. We have the audio of them being total dicks to Jim Gray. We have audio of a disastrous Incubus interview. Don’t make us use it.
Appreciate you @Toucherandrich pic.twitter.com/cyyW5BT0AZ
— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) February 10, 2022
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com