It appears the highly-rated "Toucher & Rich" morning radio show on 98.5 The Sports Hub is no longer.
On Thursday, co-host Rich Shertenlieb raised eybrows when he posted on the official Toucher & Rich X social media account that he was no longer maintaining it.
He also posted a similar message on his own account.
Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters.
Then on Friday morning's show, co-host Fred Toucher announced that Shertenlieb had left the show and tried to explain how it all went down.
"Rich is not coming back," he said.
Toucher said he was on his way home from Thursday's show when he got a call from the station informing him that Thursday's show was Shertenlieb's last with the station.
"I assumed Rich was gonna be here (Friday)," he said. "We all assumed Rich was gonna be here... He didn't act like anything was going on."
Shertenlieb and 98.5 The Sports Hub had been involved in contract negotiations, while Toucher signed a new deal just last month.
"My negotiations went well," Toucher said. "I have a good relationship with management."
He also said the station wanted him to mention that they made Shertenlieb "a multi-year offer that he chose not to accept," adding that "negotiations weren't going anywhere."
"I don't have any idea what the issues between them were," Toucher added. He said he never told management he wouldn't work with Shertenlieb, and to his knowledge Shertenlieb didn't either.
Still, Toucher acknowledged that he and Shertenlieb had their issues, especially over the past year, a period during which Toucher spent time in an alcohol treatment facility and dealt with a cancer scare and a throat issue that kept him off the air for about five weeks.
"Earlier this year, Rich said some stuff on and off the air about me I didn't like, so I texted him some things I had been holding onto from the course of our relationship that he didn't like," Toucher said on the air Friday morning.
Toucher said the show will continue as usual through the end of the year, as if Shertenlieb were on vacation, and the new show will launch after the New Year.
"I've talked to management and some poeople around the industry about the future of this show, and I have to be honest with you, I'm extraordinarily excited. There's a tremendous amount of talent in here, a talent that is sometimes overlooked by everyone. They're incredibly valuable and incredibly good at what they do and I hope they stay. I believe in their talent and I believe in them sticking around and I'm excited about that."
He also teased that "there's some very talented people in radio -- some you know, some you don't know -- that would be very excited to join this show."
And as for Shertenlieb's future?
"I have no idea," Toucher said. "It literally could be he's got the best job ever."
But Toucher said it's unlikely he'll be talking to Shertenlieb anytime soon.
"I begrudge Rich nothing. I'm very happy about the 17-plus years we spent together. I couldn't have done it without him."
Shertenlieb issued a statement Friday on the social media platform X thanking listeners of "Toucher & Rich" and the other members of the show.
"There's a lot to say and a lot more fun to have, and when we connect again every day, my commitment to you will be the same as it's always been, to have a great time together," he said. "It was not my decision to not say goodbye on the radio, not was it my plan to leave the program and station this soon, but just know that I'll be announcing my plans in the near future."
