It’s the question that 98.5 listeners have been asking for weeks: Who’s going to be the full-time third chair on “Zolak and Bertrand” now that Hardy has moved to the mornings?
On the eve of the debut of “Toucher and Hardy” on 98.5 The Sports Hub, Mike Felger and Jim Murray addressed who will fill that opening on the midday show.
The “Felger and Mazz” hosts during the Facebook Live “Off-Air Show” on Wednesday were asked about who will fill the Hardy role on Zolak and Bertrand. Rich “Hardy” Poole was recently named the co-host of the morning show with Fred Toucher.
Hardy was the obvious pick for the morning show after Rich Shertenlieb left, Murray said. But filling the midday slot is not so clear-cut, “Big Jim” added.
“I was just talking to (Matt) McCarthy about it because McCarthy wants it, as does everyone else you’ve heard in some type of part-time role here,” Murray said.
“Of course they’re all going to want it — whether it’s Cerrone (Battle) or Matt or you know, spin the wheel of part-timers,” Murray said. “Who do we have here? Kendra (Middleton). Like, of course everyone’s going to be going for this job. Who gets it? I don’t know. No one’s said anything. I don’t know who’s a front-runner.”
Another 98.5 fill-in who has been floated for the midday slot is Tim McKone.
Murray said he hopes Scott Zolak and Marc Bertrand have some say in the third chair decision.
Felger said his ideal profile for the next midday host is “someone sporty.”
“Because I listen to their show a lot,” Felger said. “You know, it’s just on when I’m doing (prep for) my show, so I have it on in case anything happens.”
Hardy has done a lot of production work for the midday show, as well as for Felger and Mazz.
“I would like to see that element somehow remain in someway shape or form” Murray said. “Like, that’s going to be a missing element that I think needs to be plugged. So which of those folks have it? I don’t know.”
“You know me,” Felger added. “I want sports. Sports, sports, sports.”
On Felger and Mazz, Hardy produced “The Fuppets” segment, along with Greg Bedard’s 10 questions, and “Squeaky Mazz and Mad Mike.”
Murray said he’ll be producing “Squeaky Mazz and Mad Mike.”
The 10 questions with Bedard will be produced by Felger and Mazz executive producer James “Jimmy” Stewart or producer Kevin Maggiore.
The future of The Fuppets is unknown.
“That’s a big, big spot right there,” Felger said, who later added, “Hardy will be missed.”
He proposed that a high school or college student produce the puppet segment, and in return, they would get class credit.
“So you get something out of it, we get free labor,” Felger said as Murray laughed. “That’s really what I’m concerned with. Getting you for free and getting content out of it… It is one of those things where everyone’s a winner.”