99X alum Fred Toucher taking leave from Boston sports show over throat issues

While in Atlanta, Toucher started as a sardonic night personality in 1999 before moving to mornings in 2004 for two years.

Toucher, in a statement Shertenlieb read to listeners on Monday morning, said he had been suffering from voice problems for months. A Hub listener suggested a doctor and Toucher went in for a throat examination. Unfortunately, he said, “it didn’t go great. He found some things in my throat that concerned him. He told me not to worry because he could fix all of it.”

The doctor in question Dr. Steven Zeitels, he noted on Instagram, saved singer Adele’s voice.

In another post, he said he can’t talk for awhile and will soon have surgery. “That means I’ll be off the air for awhile,” he wrote. “I’ll keep you up to date.”

Toucher also wrote, “Never smoke. No matter how old you are. [Expletive] quit now. Trust me.”

In his statement, he went into semi-joke mode, noting that the doctor didn’t take insurance and “between this and my divorce, I’m [expletive] financially! Sorry kids ― Christmas is going to look a lot different this year.”

More seriously, he noted that “if you stick around long enough, there are going to be tough times. ... It has been my pleasure to share my journey over the last 17 years with you guys. I knew that if I let you in on enough of my crap, it would pay off one day.”