Boston-based WBZ-FM's MICHAEL FELGER has spent five years atop the Nielsen Audio ratings for the city market’s afternoon drive time, but for "someone so high-profile," he is "strikingly averse to outside attention," according to a profile by Chad Finn of the BOSTON GLOBE. CBS Radio Boston VP/Sports Programming MIKE THOMAS called Felger the "most polarizing person in Boston radio." Thomas: "It’s the HOWARD STERN effect. Whether you loved him or you hated him, you always wanted to know what Howard’s take was going to be.’’ "Felger & Mazz" Exec Producer JAMES STEWART said Felger and his co-host TONY MASSAROTTI "don’t want to be loved or loathed." Stewart: "The goal is to create an emotional investment between the host and the listener." The show is known for Massarotti antagonizing listeners with Felger "playing the contrarian" to his "mope." But there are times when Felger will "bewilder his audience by brushing off a frustrating outcome as no big deal." And he will "listen to your argument, agree the facts are on your side, then continue with his argument unabated." But through the generations on the Boston sports media scene, a "select few personalities have emerged as the voice fans want to hear from when something significant takes place." Felger has now "entered that company" along the likes of the Globe's BOB RYAN and DAN SHAUGHNESSY. When the Patriots win, fans "want to know what Felger will say about it," and when they lose, "it’s the same, perhaps more so." "Felger & Mazz" became an "immediate, enormous, and ongoing success" and surpassed WEEI-FM's GLENN ORDWAY in the ratings "less than a year" after WBZ's August '09 launch. Now the program has "been the No. 1-rated afternoon drive program in the men 25-54 demographic" since summer '12 (BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE, 7/30).
