Norm Resha, Cohost Of Boston Sports Radio Show, 59

[DGH]

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Norm Resha, a passionate sports fan who parlayed his love of sports
into a radio show that became a weekend staple in the Boston
[Massachusetts] market, died yesterday at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center of complications following a heart attack and bypass surgery, at
the age of 59.

Mr. Resha, following his graduation from Boston College in 1967, worked
for Ford Motor Co. as a regional representative, then as a stockbroker
before opening his own insurance company. Later, he got involved in
sports as a memorabilia dealer and, in 1991, approached WBZ radio. He
wanted to bring back "Calling All Sports," the station's groundbreaking
sports talk show that made its debut on July 15, 1969, but later had
been discontinued.

Instead of looking for a job as the show's host, Mr. Resha took a
different approach. His proposal was to pay for the show's production
costs, then keep 50 percent of the advertising spots for himself and
the station could sell the remainder. WBZ agreed and Boston's sports
fans had a new Sunday afternoon show.

Mr. Resha first went on the air with two cohosts, Upton Bell and Bob
Lobel. Trouble is, he had a hard time making himself heard with two
professionals who didn't like to give up the microphone to an amateur.

In many ways, the cohosts were protecting their boss from himself.
Resha knew sports, but his role was really to react. "I just say what I
feel, and I don't have to be politically correct," he would say later
on many occasions when he had brought in cohosts such as Gary Tanguay,
Lenny Megliola, and Bob Rodgers.

Mr. Resha loved to have his show air late on Sunday afternoon. "It's
the wrap-up of the weekend. You get people driving home from their
weekend away and you get the sports fans coming home from a Red Sox or
Patriots game," he said. "Most Sox or Patriots games end at 4 p.m.
Being on the air then gives us the opportunity to wrap up the games
from the locker room."

Mr. Resha would accomplish that by hiring a writer or broadcaster who
covered the team to call in and do a 15-minute segment on the show.

In that respect, he was ahead of his time. A decade later, the teams'
own sponsored postgame shows now do the same thing.

Mr. Resha chafed when WBZ moved his show to Saturday afternoons late in
the 1990s. It meant that, during winter, the show was often preempted
for Bruins broadcasts and he had to preview Sunday's sports events
instead of commenting on the results.

Late in 2001, he made a deal with WTKK (96.9-FM) to move his show back
to Sunday afternoons. "Instead of saying, `I hope the Patriots win
tomorrow,' we can say, `They won!' " he said. Continued...

When NESN fired Rodgers for leaving spring training to coach his
Whitman-Hanson basketball team in a state tournament game last winter,
Mr. Resha was one of the first to call, urging Rodgers to stay in the
broadcasting business. "You have no idea how much that encouragement
meant," Rodgers would later say.

Later, when Tanguay was hired to do the Patriots' pre- and postgame
shows on WBCN (104.1-FM), Rodgers succeeded him in working with Mr.
Resha on "Calling All Sports."

Mr. Resha had a heart attack in December. Since then, Rodgers and the
show's other regulars have carried on, confident that Mr. Resha, who
had defied longtime weight and diabetes problems to continue leading an
active life, would soon return.

"We're doing the show this Sunday, and it's going to be an emotional
afternoon," Rodgers said Friday. "No one loved being on the air more
than Norm and you always feel as if something's missing when he's not
there.

"The three hours of the show always went by so quickly that it was
effortless. The first time I was on I came in totally prepared, to try
and make a good impression. I learned right away that all you had to do
was know what was going on in town and then react to Norm. He never bit
his tongue."

Mr. Resha loved having the big names of the media on his show, but he
also always asked, "Who can we give a chance to?" said Rodgers.

Back when the show was on WBZ radio, Mr. Resha gave Michael Felger,
then a new Herald writer, some air time.

A partial list of Boston media members who appeared on Mr. Resha's show
includes Will McDonough, Mike Adams, Steve Burton, Gerry Callahan,
Kevin Paul Dupont, Karen Guregian, Michael Silverman, and Dan
Shaughnessy.

Mr. Resha was born in Boston. He graduated from Dedham High School in
1963 and Boston College in 1967.

He leaves a sister, Norma Janvrin, of Dedham, Massachusetts.
Boston Globe