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Fred Toucher: Mike Greenberg ‘Misses The Point’ on Radio

“By improvising for four hours a morning, you’re required to at least share your personality, if not details of your personal life.”

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Mike Greenberg, Fred Toucher
Mike Greenberg - Courtesy: Tim Nwachukwu, Getty Images | Fred Toucher - Courtesy: Beasley Media Group

After Fred Toucher made critical remarks about ESPN host Mike Greenberg, which included calling him a “no-talent prick,” sports media pundits took notice across the industry. Various publications disseminated what Toucher and the rest of the in-studio crew had to say, which included information update anchor Jon Wallach heard over the years about Greenberg.

Toucher expressed that it was never his intent to make fun of Greenberg; however, he was perturbed by what Greenberg had recently expressed in an interview regarding the importance of teasing content. Essentially, Greenberg said that no aspects of a radio show or its personalities truly matter unless the cast is able to engross listeners through a commercial break – something Toucher chided as “hacky” and “dumb.”

“The thing that sucks about that is that it misses the point on why radio is always going to be viable, and that’s the intimacy that you share with an audience,” Toucher said Thursday morning on 98.5 The Sports Hub. “By improvising for four hours a morning, you’re required to at least share your personality, if not details of your personal life.”

Toucher saw what people were saying about the interaction and read an article from Awful Announcing on the air that divulged his quotes and gave context on the situation. Most of the story had pertained to Greenberg and his roles at the network as host of Get Up, NBA Countdown and coverage of the NFL Draft this year – in addition to appearing on his national radio show, #Greeny.

“Toucher has endured some much-publicized issues this year,” the story read, “including throat surgery, divorce proceedings and a stay in an alcohol detox facility that led to his week-long absence from his show.”

One-by-one, Toucher addressed each of the points made in the final paragraph, the air time, however, was not about Awful Announcing or Toucher personally, but instead to address the possibility of their being a feud between he and Greenberg. With the multifaceted host being “one of the two personalities at ESPN,” according to Toucher, he does not feel the criticisms warrant much consideration.

“If I’m Greenberg, I’m seeing this and I’m going, ‘I’m making $6 million [and] I’m on national television, and this is the worst thing that someone said about me. Fine,’” Toucher assumed.

The segment concluded with Toucher conveying his final thoughts on the situation, specifically taking umbrage with the premise that successful radio centers on teases. He has been in the business for over two decades and has become synonymous with Boston sports, thanks to his prosperous morning show with Rich Shertenlieb on 98.5 The Sports Hub. Accordingly, Toucher assured his listeners that radio shows have much more to do with being able to inform and entertain the audience instead of solely focusing on how to keep people at the edge of their seats.

“I just thought as a radio personality, it was a really dumb thing to say,” Toucher articulated. “It doesn’t make any sense. Then if you’re someone in radio, ‘So I don’t have to do anything? I can be really uninteresting and really boring?’”

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Tiki Barber: ‘I Saw Ryan Clark and We Made Up’

“I haven’t talked to Saquon; I don’t have his number.”

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Photos of ESPN's Ryan Clark and WFAN's Tiki Barber

WFAN afternoon host Tiki Barber stopped by the WIP studios in Philadelphia today to chat up his old boss Spike Eskin along with Ike Reese and Jason Fritz who together host 94WIP Afternoons. Eskin was the programming boss at WFAN before recently moving back to Philadelphia to host the afternoon show. Barber is in Philadelphia to attend Knicks-Sixers Game 6 with New York leading the series three games to two.

After talking about the game and the series, as well as some football, Ike Reese asked Barber about his relationship with a few people he had been in the news for having feuds with. A couple of months ago, Ryan Clark of ESPN had been critical of Barber for comments he had made about Saquon Barkley and his departure from the New York Giants when he signed a three-year deal with the Eagles.

Barber had previosuly suggested it was preposterous for Barkley to even consider playing for the Eagles due to the rivalry between the two franchises. When Barkley did join the hated rival, Barber claimed the NFL star was “dead” to him.

When talking about what Barber had said about Barkley, Clark said on an episode of The Pivot podcast, “Tiki taught me what I didn’t want to be as a veteran. Tiki taught me how you don’t make a young player feel welcome, how you don’t make a young player feel like this could one day be his team. The way he made me feel as a young rookie and a second-year player, I said I don’t ever want to be that dude. And he’s continued to be that person.”

Ike Reese asked Barber, “Have you made up?”

“I haven’t talked to Saquon; I don’t have his number. But I saw Ryan Clark and we made up.”

“You and Ryan Clark made up? That’s good, because y’all are two of my favorites,” Reese said “I love Ryan and he does a great job on ESPN, but he was a little bit out of line.”

“He was commenting on something that he wasn’t a party to,” Barber responded.

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Dan Patrick: ‘You’ve Got to Be Willing to Ask a Tough Question’

“…I remember Parcells saying, ‘How many games have you coached?,’ and I said, ‘Uh, none,’ and he goes, ‘Exactly.’”

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Dan Patrick

Over the years working in New York City, Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo has been present at several press conferences with key figures in New York sports. Being within the No. 1 media market in the world and hosting afternoon radio with Mike Francesa, Russo was willing to ask difficult questions to team personnel and would sometimes be reprimanded and/or simply ignored. Nonetheless, he always maintained his courage and confidence in these situations and recalled some of his more memorable moments while appearing Thursday afternoon on the Dan Patrick Show.

The prompt to discuss these incidents followed discussion about the NBA Playoffs, including the rivalry between the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers that will continue with Game 6 on Thursday night. Russo began by remembering how New York Knicks head coach Pat Riley was participating in a press conference after the team’s narrow Game 7 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals. With speculation that Riley was going to be leaving the organization after four years as its head coach, Russo decided to broach the topic in the season-ending press conference.

“I asked him, ‘Pat, is this it? Are you done?’ You know me – I love to ask those questions in those press conferences in those days – open up my big, fat mouth,” Russo said. “But I asked him that and he didn’t give me an answer…. I felt so bad for the poor guy because we all knew that he was leaving and he was only after four years and they had not won a championship yet.”

Russo remembered another moment at a press conference with a New York head coach when Bill Parcells decided to leave the New England Patriots to coach the New York Jets. Attending a press conference on Long Island, he remembers Parcells calling in and being put on speakerphone in a large auditorium, thus presenting audio difficulties. Even though he was about 100 yards away, Russo asked Parcells if what he was doing was fair to the Patriots when he was under contract with the team.

“He said, ‘Who is that? Who is that?,’ and he got mad,” Russo recollected. “So I went down to the speakerphone on the [stage] there, [and] I said, ‘Bill, can you hear me now for crying out loud!”

Patrick responded to Russo’s answer by reminiscing on his years working in New York and how he had also attended press conferences featuring Riley and Parcells. Within his remarks, Patrick said that he was once “dressed down by Parcells in one of his press conferences,” to which Russo stated that it was “a badge of honor.”

“Yes, because it’ll humble you,” Patrick said. “You’ve got to be willing to ask a tough question, but be willing with whatever repercussions are going to happen, and I remember Parcells saying, ‘How many games have you coached?,’ and I said, ‘Uh, none,’ and he goes, ‘Exactly.’”

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Channing Crowder Loses Tooth On Air for Second Time in Two Weeks

“I tried to glue it myself. I don’t think that Gorilla Glue did it.”

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Channing Crowder
Courtesy: Audacy

During a segment on Wednesday’s edition of the Hochman and Crowder afternoon drive show on 560 WQAM, co-host Channing Crowder lost his tooth live on the air. Crowder, who was formerly a linebacker on the Miami Dolphins, was responding to a story told by executive producer Alejandro Solana about morning host Joe Rose meeting former quarterback Dan Marino. As Marino was trying to conceal his identity, Rose shouted that Marino was there and “booked it out.”

Crowder understood his sentiment, recalling that he and his family were at Universal Orlando and ended up running into former linebacker Zack Thomas. People seemingly recognized Crowder in the park, and he almost felt compelled to do to Thomas what Rose had done to Marino. As he explained that he wanted to say, “No, the hell with my autograph, that’s Zack Thomas,” one of his teeth fell out on camera and was quickly discerned by Solana. The tooth ended up falling on his foot massager in his remote studio.

“Crowder, did it not just pop out?,” Solana said. “He’s searching for it – he’s searching for it.”

Hochman asked his co-host what was going on with him, to which he replied that the people on the show were making him yell. From there, he confirmed that it was the same tooth that had fallen out two weeks ago while discussing Haley and Hanna Cavinder returning to the University of Miami women’s basketball team next season. Solana then conveyed that he observed Crowder trying to catch his tooth as it flew out, looking to pull it in so it would not be noticed on the show.

“What a weird affliction to have that your teeth keep popping out,” Hochman said.

“I tried to glue it myself,” Crowder replied. “I don’t think that Gorilla Glue did it.”

Hochman then advised Crowder to see a professional and articulated that he was excited to watch the video of him losing his tooth live on the air. Solana later mentioned that he may implement a sound effect whenever Crowder loses a tooth during the show.

“You remember Rick Ankiel, the pitcher? All of a sudden, he couldn’t throw a strike,” Hochman said. “If you’re a talk show host and your teeth just keep popping out, like that’s the yips.”

Hochman explained that he is usually looking at other things during the show and revealed that Solana was trying to get his attention earlier in the segment in such a manner that he thought Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had signed an extension. Conversely, he was trying to inform everyone on the show that Crowder had lost another one of his teeth.

“You were trying to forge ahead on whatever it is you were trying to tell us,” Solana said, “but I’m like, ‘No, bro. Let me interrupt you.’”

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