WBZ-FM producer Mike Lockhart was let go by Beasley Media in a "round of company-wide layoffs” back on Oct. 7, but now the Boston producer is “returning to the top-rated morning show, with cohost Rich Shertenlieb paying his full salary,” according to Chad Finn of the BOSTON GLOBE. Shertenlieb made the announcement during the 7am ET hour on yesterday’s program, “detailing the negotiations and frustrations of the previous nine days since Lockhart and Sports Hub evening cohost Christian Arcand were among eight Beasley employees in its Boston station cluster who were laid off.” Shertenlieb: “In return for the company allowing me to pay my own money to bring Mike back, I was made to sign a contract that the show would write four articles a day for the station’s website. But that was much better than some of the other things that they were asking for.” Lockhart in a message on Twitter wrote: “I spoke to Rich a few times last week and he kept me up to date. He fought like hell from 10 a.m. the Friday I was let go until he called me the following Friday informing me about everything.” Finn writes the decision to let Lockhart go “was a perplexing one in the first place.” Lockhart had been with the “Tougher and Rich” program since “beginning as an intern in January 2009.” Both the station and “Toucher and Rich” have been “enormous successes by any measure" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/17).
