In Boston sports radio — and probably in other markets too, but absolutely in this one — there’s a tradition that accompanies the news that a station or show fared well in the quarterly Nielsen Audio ratings:
The hosts of those stations or shows gloating on the air about those ratings — sometimes entirely truthfully. John Dennis has been gone from WEEI eight years this month, and I still half expect to see him howling into the void about ratings in all caps on Twitter/X.
There is one exception to this, and it happens to be the most consistently successful Boston sports radio show over the last decade and a half.
Hearing Michael Felger talk — on the occasion of 98.5 The Sports Hub’s 15th anniversary Tuesday — about the ratings dominance of the “Felger and Mazz” afternoon-drive program was a reminder of something perplexing, and yet kind of admirable.
Felger and co-host Tony Massarotti rarely address their enormous success, and certainly never at any length.
I checked in with Felger a few days later to ask a simple question:
Why not?
“Because I don’t want to jinx it,” said Felger. “I’m superstitious like that. I worry as soon as I start talking about it, it’s going to go the other way. I’m reluctant to even do it.
“I kind of regretted talking about it the other day on the air because we very rarely mention it.”
Felger, who has always had a deep, data-based awareness of what resonates with listeners and what doesn’t, came armed with numbers Tuesday.
He noted that he logs the ratings books, and that “Felger and Mazz” has not lost a quarterly period since spring 2012, when it finished third.
“We’ve been No. 1 for 47 consecutive quarters,” said Felger on Tuesday’s show, while noting how much of the original personnel from 15 years ago remains at the station.
“If you want to break that down by months, it’s basically 119 months. We’ve been No. 1, not just beating EEI, but we’ve been No. 1 in the market for 118 of the last 119 months.”
(According to my notes, “Felger and Mazz” was indeed third in spring 2012, with a 6.2 share. WEEI’s “Ordway and Holley” program was second with a 7.9. Rock station WZLX’s “Karlson & McKenzie,” which also featured Heather Ford, took first.)
The show has succeeded for so long because Felger, and Massarotti, too, have a sense of humor about themselves, consistently sustain their energy over four-hour shows five days a week, and understand what resonates with Boston fans.
That includes a heavy dose of antagonism toward fans, a here’s-why-this-thing-you-like-is-going-to-flop negativity. But Felger in particular occasionally mixes in a changeup of unexpected positivity.
And given those longtime, massive ratings in a fickle industry, it’s hard to make any kind of case that fans desire something else.
Though it’s another thing that doesn’t always come across on the program, Felger knows to appreciate Boston teams’ success, and the extraordinary investment fans have in them in this market.
“The teams have kept winning, and the fans are great,” said Felger. “Don’t forget that. That’s bigger than anything. We could be engaged and energetic and doing this in Orlando and I don’t think it would fly. It’s about the market and the fans of Boston, first and foremost.
“And I’ll tell you, the Patriots are important, and that’s why even Drake Maye showing those glimpses Thursday night was huge. If the Patriots are bad for a prolonged period, will the whole thing be different? I don’t know. But I don’t want to find out.”
Felger said the most stressful time for him was not when the station changed ownership in 2017, moving to Beasley Broadcast Group after a merger of Entercom and previous owner CBS Radio.
It was the times when he has made a tasteless comment that brought backlash, such as in that same month as the move to Beasley in 2017, when he commented that retired baseball star Roy Halladay, who died in a plane crash in which he was the pilot, “got what he deserved” because witnesses saw him doing dangerous stunts.
“The more stressful thing for an individual host is to make a mistake or say something truly dumb on the air,” said Felger. “You worry, ‘That’s the one that’s gonna get me,’ and we’ve all had them. There’s nothing more stressful than making a comment that gets away from you and then you think, ‘What’s this going to lead to?’
“You could take a much more conservative approach and not have to worry about anything that you said. There have been guys who’ve done that and I bet they sleep really well at night. But if you want to be interesting, then you do have to push it. And invariably you just say something stupid.”
I asked Felger how long he wants to do this. Fifteen years is already a long run, particularly given the show and station’s remarkable success.
“I will do this forever,” he said.
For real? Forever?
“I feel that way now,” he said, noting that the relationship with Massarotti, with whom he sometimes golfs, remains strong. “It’s the quickest four hours of my day. And I enjoy most parts of it. I mean, I’m a sports fan. I’m a sports dork, but I don’t know what kind of sports dork wouldn’t enjoy our job.”
