AwfulAnnouncing- The Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes face off in Game 1 of the NHL Eastern Conference Final on Thursday. With that in mind, Boston radio station WBZ-FM (98.5 The Sports Hub) had Raleigh News and Observer Hurricanes beat writer Chip Alexander on “Toucher & Rich” to talk hockey Wednesday morning.
After Alexander was on the phone for just over four minutes, host Fred Toucher hung up on him. Toucher explained, “I just can’t listen to a guy with a southern accent talk about hockey.”
(16:20-22:00 in the clip above)
--------- My reaction, in a nutshell...
Now, I could easily say that the mindset of the talk radio host who hung up on a insightful beat reporter who was nice enough to offer some time to temporarily clear the air of verbal vomit simply because he didn't associate the interviewee's accent with the sport being covered is the very same one that has actively castrated the growth and popularity of hockey. I wouldn't be wrong to say that abrupt conclusion to an otherwise copacetic conversation is a stereotypically symptomatic example of the self-importance of the Boston sports' scene. However, because that's exactly what some predictably disagreeable dick who was shamelessly searching for attention in clinging to the shortage of relevance left in his occupation of choice wants me to say, I won't. The idea that the Mason-Dixon line separates those that can talk hockey from those that can't is so preposterously stupid and outlandishly archaic that I refuse to believe that it was conjured up as anything other than a desperate cry for controversy on a medium that no one under the age of 50 listens to. In my opinion, Fred Toucher doesn't care about having his hockey talk seasoned with a little Southern twang. After all, his eardrums must be pretty calloused after having spent his dying days listening to locals ignore the entire existence of the letter 'R' with an accent that's about as audibly satisfying as listening to nails get scratched on a chalkboard through blown out speakers. All Fred Toucher cares about is that we've now heard of the name Fred Toucher. So congrats to him, I guess? He certainly didn't gain me as a listener by being a counterproductive cliche who prays on the insecurities of hockey fans in the Northeast that think surviving snowy winters has somehow increased their NHL expertise, but at least he made it easier to avoid accidentally stumbling upon his increasingly unheard words.
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