The Bruins and Hurricanes playoff series may have ended last week, but that hasn’t stopped Boston and Charlotte sports radio hosts from continuing their back and forth.
Two weeks ago, Fred Toucher, co-host of Toucher and Rich on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, abruptly ended an interview with Hurricanes beat reporter Chip Alexander because of his southern accent. This jump-started a media battle between Boston and Carolina, with Toucher and Rich at the center of it. On Monday, the Sports Hub duo laughed at another southern voice, this time it was Kyle Bailey, afternoon host of Charlotte’s Sports Radio WFNZ.
Bailey was interested in having Fred Toucher join the program and his producer, Julian Council reached out with an invitation. The Boston morning host and Beasley Media employee declined the invite because he’s not allowed on Entercom owned stations, which WFNZ is, but wanted to know how Julian acquired his cell phone number.
WFNZ’s afternoon drive producer declined to share who gave him the number, which angered Toucher and caused Julian Council to block the Boston radio host’s cell phone. Noticing he was blocked, Toucher claimed on-air that he had others call the producer, which Julian later said was a lie and never happened.
“Why would I lie about being a psycho?” Toucher responded.
Kyle Bailey came to his producer’s defense, telling his Charlotte audience, “Fred Toucher’s a mouth-breathing jackass and a liar.”
“I’ll be up there in July, to see the in-laws for vacation, so instead of calling and trying to bully my producer, you’re welcome to bring your complaints straight to me,” Bailey added. “My name’s on the show so instead of harassing Julian just let me know when you’re free and I’ll stop by in July and we can figure this out like grown men.”
The challenge garnered a chuckle out of Toucher and Rich, with Fred saying, “If he comes up to see the in-laws and he finds me and wants to fight I’ll fight him.” But Toucher doesn’t want to do any planning, Bailey needs to do the leg-work.
“If he can find me in my personal life and wants to fight, I will fight him,” Fred added.
Toucher said he will not have a boxing match for charity, circa 2003 when New York radio hosts Sid Rosenberg and Bernard McGuirk pulled the bit. Toucher said Bailey just needs to find him outside of the radio station and start the fight.
Charlotte (which isn’t even the home of the Carolina Hurricanes) and Boston aren’t known for their sports rivalry and most likely never will be, but their radio hosts are certainly capable of stirring the pot. It’s unlikely anything will come of this challenge, but once Bailey is off-air for a week in July, expect listeners from both cities to follow up on social media in an attempt to organize a meet and greet.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.