Since the departure of Rich Shertenlieb, the co-host vacancy alongside Fred Toucher on Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub has become a popular topic of discussion and speculation.

On Wednesday, Fred Toucher utilized a “Man-on-the-Street” segment headed up by producer Nick Gemelli to point out the fact that the question of who will replace Rich on the show is something on a lot of people’s minds.

“This is simply just Nicholas asking people who should take Rich’s place, which is a topic of conversation,” Toucher said. “Our own Nick Gemelli, only son of Mark Gemelli, went out to talk to people. I can’t speak to this I haven’t heard any of these, just about who will fill this coveted chair that people are texting me about that have no experience in radio and think they have a legitimate shot at it.”

But the segment seemed to get some criticism from longtime listeners of the show, as initially Toucher was unsure of whether to call the segment drunken recaps or not. But Fred said it didn’t make sense to call it a drunken recap because Boston Celtics fans tend to be more well-behaved.

Fred added later that the goal of the segment wasn’t to try and dunk on Rich, since drunken recaps is a bit from Toucher and Rich. It was just simply a chance to try and get a sense of the pulse of station listeners about who should be the next co-host.

“The point I was trying to make is that I’m not trying to do a drunken recap here,” he said. “All anyone is talking about in the region at all, the only thing anyone’s talking about, is who’s taking the Rich chair.”

KNBR has undergone a series of cuts, which have eliminated the positions of a pair of on-air hosts.

Morning co-host Paul McCaffrey was one of the hosts affected by the reductions. He had hosted Murph and Mac alongside Brian Murphy since 2005. He joined the station after previously working at 1050 KTCT as a weekend host at classic rock station 107.7 The Bone. The morning show’s producer — Erik Engle — also confirmed on X that he was let go as part of the station’s cuts.

Additionally, former MLB outfielder F.P. Santangelo was let go. He was hosting KNBR Tonight in the 6-10 PM timeslot.

“I was informed today that due to budget cuts there will no longer be a 6-10pm show,” Santangelo wrote on X. “That said I’m super grateful for the time spent bonding with all the amazing Bay.”

According to SFGate.com, the live nighttime call-in show hosted by Santangelo had been heard on the station for more than 50 years. The station aired nationally syndicated programming from CBS Sports Radio on Wednesday night during the timeslot previously helmed by the MLB veteran.

In addition to the departures of McCaffrey and Santangelo, former programmer Lee Hammer also exited. Hammer had been with the station since 1998. He programmed 1050 KTCT from 1998 to 2016, and KNBR from 2005 to 2017. He also spent time programming talk stations 560 KSFO and 810 KGO.

Adam Copeland, who was tabbed as Program Director of KNBR earlier this month, revealed the cuts at the end of his program co-hosted by Tom Tolbert Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s been a really difficult day. I love this building, I love this station, I love working with you, Tom, and I’ve listened to you for years. I love a lot of people, and I love the guys we let go of today,” Copeland said, according to RadioInsight. “I’m looking forward to the future, but I really think we need to tip our cap and applaud the work that those guys have done.”

During the summer ratings period, KNBR finished with its best book of the year. However, the station remained behind competitor 95.7 The Game in every daypart except mornings, which will now undergo a change with the departure of McCaffrey. In the overall prime ratings in the men 25-54 demographic, KNBR finished 15th with a 2.6 share behind The Game’s 11th-place 3.2 share.

For a sports radio host, Dan Patrick has quite an impressive list of IMDb credits. He will add a new one next month, when he appears on The Simpsons.

During The Dan Patrick Show Tuesday, the legendary sportscaster mentioned that several of the voices for the show are reaching senior citizen status, putting future seasons in question. Patrick joked that the show’s guest booker, Todd Fritz, could be a natural replacement for Julie Kavner as the voice of Marge Simpson.

After joking that Fritz would want to change the script too often, Patrick revealed he would appear in an upcoming episode, and changing the script wouldn’t be an easy proposition.

“I’m on an episode that — I think — comes out on Christmas Eve (of) The Simpsons” Patrick admitted. “I’ve had a couple of sessions, and I only had like four lines, five lines. They wanna hear what they wanna hear.”

Patrick continued by noting that when he worked at ESPN, former co-worker Kenny Mayne was notorious for wanting to change the scripts of commercials during the “This is SportsCenter” campaigns.

“Kenny would always go ‘Hey, how about this?’ or ‘What about this?’, and I’d say ‘Let’s just stick to the script. They really have a good track record here.'”

He added that the voiceover artists on the program have deserved the millions they’ve made during the show’s long-running tenure.

“They’re extremely talented. They do a variety of voices there…that show has been on for how many decades? (It’s) still funny (and) relevant,” Patrick said.

On his IMDb page, Dan Patrick has 36 acting credits to his name, with the majority coming from projects with Adam Sandler.