By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
September 28, 2016

In August, 97.1 — The Ticket talk show host Terry Foster suffered from a stroke that the personality labeled in subsequent interviews as mild. Foster has been off his PM drive show since that unfortunate health episode while recuperating and going through various rehabilitation exercises.

When the news of Foster’s condition and leave of absence was made known to the public an announcement was also made that Foster would return to his broadcast chair to co-host with Mike Valenti on October 3rd.

Well, I was told yesterday by industry sources that it is unlikely that Foster will be able to make that planned return on Monday due to lingering issues from the stroke. Executives at CBS Radio are extremely concerned with Foster’s impaired speech and they do not believe Foster has recovered sufficiently to co-host a four-hour talk show.

Now, I am not sure if Foster is pressing to return on Monday or if he is in agreement with station executives that he is not yet ready to physically return to work full-time or not. All I have been told by sources is that Foster is still experiencing “major speech” issues.

The situation is extremely untimely for Foster who just last winter was forced out by the Detroit News when given an ultimatum by the paper to either quit his radio gig and accept the responsibility of covering the Detroit Pistons beat full time or retire. Foster made the no-brainer decision to stick with radio and he accepted a buyout from the News while Rod Beard eventually took over the Pistons gig.

Now, it would appear the stroke has damaged the one instrument Foster needs to perform his duties at 97.1 and the question remains when will he be fully recovered to return to the airwaves to shoulder the load of speaking to an audience for 20 hours a week.

While Foster has been on medical leave, Jeff Riger has been filling in for Foster. Will that continue on Monday when Foster was expected to return to work and if so, will we get more hot takes from Riger that Barry Sanders was overrated?

It would not shock me if Foster returns Monday for an abbreviated shift with Valenti and Riger while announcing he is still going through speech-language pathology with a specialist to get back to 100% and make a permanent return.

Will that ever become a reality? We will have to wait and see.

[Editor’s Note: While the DSR has had MANY issues with Terry Foster in the past, we all wish him a speedy recovery and a return to normalcy as soon as possible.]

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