University of New Hampshire Athletics
Rick and Erin Boss completed three half marathons together.
Erin Boss: 1982-2019
12/19/2019 12:25:00 PM | General, UNH Insider
Behind The Scenes, A Radio Master at Bringing The Games to You
DURHAM, N.H. – University of New Hampshire football coach Sean McDonnell always got a kick out of Erin Boss, the behind-the-scenes production wizard who was largely responsible for the success of hundreds of Wildcat radio game broadcasts over the last decade and a half.
He enjoyed it when Erin showed up for weekly football press conferences – 1 p.m. sharp on Wednesdays – and set up her recorder to gather material for features on the team. She paid apt attention, rarely said a word, and often the session ended with Coach Mac double-checking: "Are you all set, Erin?"
McDonnell perhaps liked it even more when he'd be at a UNH Coaches Show broadcast with a headset on with Erin on the other end of it, back in the WGIR studio, keeping host and UNH broadcaster Mike Murphy and the show in order.
"Things would be messing up and she'd be giving everyone a hard time and making sure the show ran smoothly," McDonnell said. "She was one funny girl that way. Smart. Very smart. Professional all the way. Really appreciated her for that."
Sean McDonnell was one of the many friends and family stunned and saddened by the news that Erin Boss – beloved daughter, sister, aunt, producer, author, sports and Disney World super fan, runner, writer, former Hopkinton High School softball player, and more – had died the night before Thanksgiving at the age of 37.
The tributes quickly flowed from those who knew Erin best in her working world: those from-the-studio duties on broadcasts of UNH hockey and football and basketball, Fisher Cats baseball and Manchester Monarchs hockey and Southern New Hampshire University athletics.
Pete Webster, calling the plays the day after Thanksgiving from Northern Ireland, dedicated a pair of broadcasts of UNH hockey games from the Friendship Four in Belfast to her memory.
Jack Heath welcomed Mike Murphy, UNH's associate athletic director of communications, and Mike Ramshaw of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats to his show on WGIR-AM a couple of mornings later to talk about Erin and what she meant to their organizations.
Ramshaw told of the numerous times Erin would put together intros and music packages for theme nights the team was having, all in the name of enhancing the radio broadcasts.
"Nobody asked her to do it," Ramshaw said. "She just did it out of the kindness of her heart because she cared."
Murphy recalled when Boss, fresh out of Ithaca College with a journalism degree in 2005, came in to try out for a job when he was at radio station WKXL in Concord.
"She comes in and knocks it out of the park," Murphy said.
The job at WGIR with I-Heart opened and Boss grabbed it and the station became the home for UNH sports, the Fisher Cats and the Monarchs and she produced games there for the next 13 years.
"The rest is history," Murphy said. "No one has done a more important job for more important games on the radio over the last decade-plus than Erin Boss."
Murphy joked with Heath and his producer, Justin McIsaac, who also does on-air work for UNH and numerous other teams, about Erin's ability to keep broadcasters in line.
"Erin was the best at keeping you grounded," Murphy said. "Any time I'd make a mistake, we'd go to commercial break and she'd be on the headset and with her dry sense of humor and say, 'More broadcast excellence. Excellent job.' And heaven forbid my beloved Jets would be on, she'd give me the score of the game, or Syracuse, the Yankees, whoever was losing of my teams, Erin loved to pour salt in the wound."
She took charge of the broadcasts, said Webster and Bob Lipman, who does play by play for UNH football and covers numerous other teams as well.
"She always had the answers to our questions," Webster said. "Most of them were our questions because we weren't paying attention to something and she set us straight. She always had total control over what was going on. Whatever issues that we came across, she was the one who got us right back on track. She was the backbone of our broadcasts."
Lipman estimated he and Boss worked together on well over 1,000 Fisher Cat games and like Ramshaw, referenced the themed games.
"She loved when we did Christmas in July or Star Wars Night or a Throwback to the '70s and she always had bumper music to match the theme," Lipman said. "That doesn't just happen, you need to put in work to make it flow. If we'd start talking about an artist or a song, she'd invariably come out of the next break with the song or something by that musical artist. She was that good and that quick to make it happen."
Mike Murphy noted how much Erin will be missed professionally as well as personally.
"The drop-off from Erin Boss producing a game to anybody else was off a cliff," he said. "I worry about the future of our productions just because of how good Erin was. That's not a slight against anyone. She was the best. She worked with all these great broadcasters: Jim Jeannotte, Ken Cail, Bob Lipman, Justin McIsaac and the rest, but she was the common thread."
Rick and Mary Boss, Erin's parents, heard many of the comments and heard about many more during and after a service held for her Saturday in Concord.
"Mary and I were overwhelmed by the turnout and totally appreciated it," Rick said Monday afternoon. "Erin touched a lot of people's lives. Some were there from high school, college, from the radio station, so many announcers. We were overwhelmed."
Her parents know how Erin would have reacted to the service as well.
"She would have been totally embarrassed by the whole thing," Rick said. "She was not the kind of person that wanted to be in the spotlight."
She was a master at being behind-the-scenes. Making sure stations got to commercial on time and came back on time. Making sure the shows went off without a hitch. Keeping her family broadcasters – they were always "my broadcasters" in Erin-speak - on track.
That was where Erin Boss thrived.
Erin and her dad shared a love of sports – of the Red Sox and Patriots in particular – and if they weren't watching championship and other key games together, they were checking in regularly as those contests progressed.
As she got more involved with running in recent years, in part to help manage the Type I diabetes she lived with and often in support of various causes, Erin introduced Rick to road racing. They ran the Princess Half Marathon at Disney World together last February and planned to run it again this February.
Now Rick will run it alone in Erin's memory.
"It's something we did together," he said.
Rick and Mary are also intending to pick up the habit Erin had started in the last several years of visiting Major League baseball parks around the country. She and a friend she made in the Advanced Studies Program at St. Paul's School were up to 17 parks. Rick and Mary are aiming to add to the list – perhaps starting with the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati – this coming season.
They have Scamp, a stuffed raccoon that Erin took with her everywhere - the ballparks, road races, the WGIR studio. Erin had an idea for a book that featured Scamp looking for Mickey Mouse at Disney World and Erin's older brother, Tim, plans to compete Aunt Erin's story for his kids.
Rick has found tapes, too. Tapes of Erin doing UNH feature stories and reading the weather and doing traffic reports. Erin was good at those assignments, too.
Rick Boss is glad to have the tapes and will enjoy them. In time.
"I can't listen to them yet," he said. "I'll get there eventually."
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
He enjoyed it when Erin showed up for weekly football press conferences – 1 p.m. sharp on Wednesdays – and set up her recorder to gather material for features on the team. She paid apt attention, rarely said a word, and often the session ended with Coach Mac double-checking: "Are you all set, Erin?"
McDonnell perhaps liked it even more when he'd be at a UNH Coaches Show broadcast with a headset on with Erin on the other end of it, back in the WGIR studio, keeping host and UNH broadcaster Mike Murphy and the show in order.
"Things would be messing up and she'd be giving everyone a hard time and making sure the show ran smoothly," McDonnell said. "She was one funny girl that way. Smart. Very smart. Professional all the way. Really appreciated her for that."
Sean McDonnell was one of the many friends and family stunned and saddened by the news that Erin Boss – beloved daughter, sister, aunt, producer, author, sports and Disney World super fan, runner, writer, former Hopkinton High School softball player, and more – had died the night before Thanksgiving at the age of 37.
The tributes quickly flowed from those who knew Erin best in her working world: those from-the-studio duties on broadcasts of UNH hockey and football and basketball, Fisher Cats baseball and Manchester Monarchs hockey and Southern New Hampshire University athletics.
Pete Webster, calling the plays the day after Thanksgiving from Northern Ireland, dedicated a pair of broadcasts of UNH hockey games from the Friendship Four in Belfast to her memory.
Jack Heath welcomed Mike Murphy, UNH's associate athletic director of communications, and Mike Ramshaw of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats to his show on WGIR-AM a couple of mornings later to talk about Erin and what she meant to their organizations.
Ramshaw told of the numerous times Erin would put together intros and music packages for theme nights the team was having, all in the name of enhancing the radio broadcasts.
"Nobody asked her to do it," Ramshaw said. "She just did it out of the kindness of her heart because she cared."
Murphy recalled when Boss, fresh out of Ithaca College with a journalism degree in 2005, came in to try out for a job when he was at radio station WKXL in Concord.
"She comes in and knocks it out of the park," Murphy said.
The job at WGIR with I-Heart opened and Boss grabbed it and the station became the home for UNH sports, the Fisher Cats and the Monarchs and she produced games there for the next 13 years.
"The rest is history," Murphy said. "No one has done a more important job for more important games on the radio over the last decade-plus than Erin Boss."
Murphy joked with Heath and his producer, Justin McIsaac, who also does on-air work for UNH and numerous other teams, about Erin's ability to keep broadcasters in line.
"Erin was the best at keeping you grounded," Murphy said. "Any time I'd make a mistake, we'd go to commercial break and she'd be on the headset and with her dry sense of humor and say, 'More broadcast excellence. Excellent job.' And heaven forbid my beloved Jets would be on, she'd give me the score of the game, or Syracuse, the Yankees, whoever was losing of my teams, Erin loved to pour salt in the wound."
She took charge of the broadcasts, said Webster and Bob Lipman, who does play by play for UNH football and covers numerous other teams as well.
"She always had the answers to our questions," Webster said. "Most of them were our questions because we weren't paying attention to something and she set us straight. She always had total control over what was going on. Whatever issues that we came across, she was the one who got us right back on track. She was the backbone of our broadcasts."
Lipman estimated he and Boss worked together on well over 1,000 Fisher Cat games and like Ramshaw, referenced the themed games.
"She loved when we did Christmas in July or Star Wars Night or a Throwback to the '70s and she always had bumper music to match the theme," Lipman said. "That doesn't just happen, you need to put in work to make it flow. If we'd start talking about an artist or a song, she'd invariably come out of the next break with the song or something by that musical artist. She was that good and that quick to make it happen."
Mike Murphy noted how much Erin will be missed professionally as well as personally.
"The drop-off from Erin Boss producing a game to anybody else was off a cliff," he said. "I worry about the future of our productions just because of how good Erin was. That's not a slight against anyone. She was the best. She worked with all these great broadcasters: Jim Jeannotte, Ken Cail, Bob Lipman, Justin McIsaac and the rest, but she was the common thread."
Rick and Mary Boss, Erin's parents, heard many of the comments and heard about many more during and after a service held for her Saturday in Concord.
"Mary and I were overwhelmed by the turnout and totally appreciated it," Rick said Monday afternoon. "Erin touched a lot of people's lives. Some were there from high school, college, from the radio station, so many announcers. We were overwhelmed."
Her parents know how Erin would have reacted to the service as well.
"She would have been totally embarrassed by the whole thing," Rick said. "She was not the kind of person that wanted to be in the spotlight."
She was a master at being behind-the-scenes. Making sure stations got to commercial on time and came back on time. Making sure the shows went off without a hitch. Keeping her family broadcasters – they were always "my broadcasters" in Erin-speak - on track.
That was where Erin Boss thrived.
Erin and her dad shared a love of sports – of the Red Sox and Patriots in particular – and if they weren't watching championship and other key games together, they were checking in regularly as those contests progressed.
As she got more involved with running in recent years, in part to help manage the Type I diabetes she lived with and often in support of various causes, Erin introduced Rick to road racing. They ran the Princess Half Marathon at Disney World together last February and planned to run it again this February.
Now Rick will run it alone in Erin's memory.
"It's something we did together," he said.
Rick and Mary are also intending to pick up the habit Erin had started in the last several years of visiting Major League baseball parks around the country. She and a friend she made in the Advanced Studies Program at St. Paul's School were up to 17 parks. Rick and Mary are aiming to add to the list – perhaps starting with the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati – this coming season.
They have Scamp, a stuffed raccoon that Erin took with her everywhere - the ballparks, road races, the WGIR studio. Erin had an idea for a book that featured Scamp looking for Mickey Mouse at Disney World and Erin's older brother, Tim, plans to compete Aunt Erin's story for his kids.
Rick has found tapes, too. Tapes of Erin doing UNH feature stories and reading the weather and doing traffic reports. Erin was good at those assignments, too.
Rick Boss is glad to have the tapes and will enjoy them. In time.
"I can't listen to them yet," he said. "I'll get there eventually."
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
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