Boston-based WBZ-FM's Michael Felger on Thursday went on-air and apologized for the "low-class" comments he made criticizing late former MLBer Roy Halladay following his fatal airplane crash, according to the BOSTON HERALD. Felger said, "I feel bad about what I said and how I conducted myself. To say it was over the top, and insensitive, is really stating the obvious. ... The presentation and the tone, and the hyperbole, was just low-class, bad, not good." He said that Halladay's family is "dealing with enough, and didn't need to deal with inflammatory comments." Felger added that he has "not been treated unfairly by media coverage of his controversial comments." Felger: "'I deserve whatever headline I get" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/10). Co-host Tony Massarotti said that his "only regret was not stopping Felger in the middle and trying to 'rein him in'" (N.Y. POST, 11/10). In Boston, Chad Finn writes Felger "should be suspended" by WBZ for his "crude and tasteless commentary." His comments were the "latest contribution to the hot-take cesspool that Boston sports radio has too often become in recent years." His remarks "lacked all pretense of sympathy and sensitivity." If CBS Boston, which owns WBZ-FM until a sale goes through with Beasley Media Group, "doesn’t punish Felger, it must be deemed complicit in his callousness." Still, the "suggestion in certain social media circles that Felger should be fired is absurd" (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/10). Also in Boston, Michael Graham writes Felger should not be fired, as his future instead "should be left to the marketplace." Graham: "I’m tired of the rush to demand that people be fired for every mistake, misstatement or misunderstanding" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/10).
WE CAN WORK IT OUT: The BOSTON GLOBE's Finn reports as a result of the Entercom/CBS Radio merger, WBZ will "move to new studios" in Dorchester "sometime after the deal is officially completed." This means that WBZ and WEEI-FM will "no longer be neighborhood rivals," which is a "good thing for Boston sports radio listeners." The possibility of WEEI and WBZ "becoming sister stations under the initial terms of the merger was intriguing only in the sense that it would have been amusing to see how they would have coexisted under the same umbrella." The stations "theoretically would have had to play nice with each other." That "wouldn’t have been much fun -- or, given their contentious history, authentic." Beasley management has said that it will keep the WBZ programming lineup "intact, and that is wise." Sources "described the mood regarding the new ownership" at WBZ as "optimistic, albeit cautiously." Sources added that they were "grateful the station did not end up with iHeartMedia, which already has wreaked havoc" at WBZ-AM (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/10).
