Michael Felger is one of the last sports talk hosts to hold off from using social media, but at the beginning of the month, he finally tweeted from his long-dormant Twitter account.
For Felger's followers, it was a big moment and a chance to finally interact with him online, but it turns out that Twitter won't be the best place to reach him. The real place to follow the WBZ-TV host for his unfiltered opinions and commentary on sports will be Fancred, a sports-focused social media network, BostInno has exclusively learned.
Fancred is expected to announce later Tuesday morning that Felger has joined the network, which was resurrected last year after the original business operating it shut down. After Fancred's original Boston-based company shut down in March 2016, it sold the company's assets that summer to Football Nation Holdings, a company founded by Boston entrepreneur Andrew Miller. Miller originally planned to rebrand Fancred as Football Nation's official app, but the company decided to instead focus on rebuilding Fancred as its own brand.
With that decision, Fancred sought out Felger as a social media influencer who could bring his large audience with him. In an interview with BostInno, Felger said he held out from using social media for so long because he is "absolutely pathetic with technology" and that his long hours on TV and radio gave him enough of an opportunity to voice his opinions.
"It's exciting being on the ground floor and taking a chance on something new."
"I do enough chirping in the course of my day jobs that to take it home with me seems exhausting," Felger said.
He changed his tune, however, when Fancred reached out through a mutual friend. On one hand, Felger said, he knew he was eventually going to have to change as more people look to follow their favorite media personalities online, but he was also enticed by Fancred's singular focus on sports, where politics and other things won't get in the way.
"It's exciting being on the ground floor and taking a chance on something new," he said.
In a press release announcing Felger's arrival on Fancred, the company described the radio and TV personality as an "investor" and "partner." Felger declined to provide any specific details on his partnership and investment, but said that he would be using Fancred regularly for at least the next two football seasons. He said followers can expect him to be active on Fancred during football games and when he's otherwise off-air.
"I don't want to say exactly what the deal is, but I have upside in the company," Felger said. "There are lots of different ways to invest."
Fancred now operates under the umbrella of Command Media, which also runs the Command Center publishing platform and fantasy sports game FantasySpin. Andrew Miller, president of Command Media and Fancred, said the company is primarily focusing its energy on building out Fancred, whose Android app will soon receive a substantial update. The company has raised a little over $2 million from investors, Miller said.
