Don Owen: Entertaining and controversial, Furman has few peers when it comes to talking sports

At one time, he was the undisputed king of sports talk radio in Cincinnati, a one-man gang of controversy and polarizing opinions that made him a legend on the local airwaves during the 1980s and ‘90s.

Even today, no one stirs up a listening audience like Andy Furman. And the native New Yorker-turned-Northern Kentuckian isn’t about to change his on-air routine, which is now heard nationwide on Fox Sports Radio.

“It comes from my personality,” Furman said, reflecting back to his early days at 700 WLW. “I had no formal radio training before WLW. I was thrown in the pool, so to speak. I had no filter — still don’t. I had fun and was lucky to have worked with such seasoned pros like Jim Scott and Gary Burbank at WLW.”

Furman, 68, now hosts a nationally syndicated Fox Sports Sunday show on the weekend (heard 6 a.m. – 9 a.m. on 1360 WSAI-AM locally). He said the national show is never short on content, but it’s not the same type of audience.

“The passion isn’t there like it is on the local level,” Furman said of the national show. “As bad as the Reds are, [listeners] in Idaho don’t care. If I were on Cincinnati radio, I could create a march on the stadium. Local radio creates great conversation and emotion. National radio has the topics, but unless it’s a major topic like the anthem policy or LeBron James, well, the emotion and passion just isn’t there.”

Furman made weeknight radio in Cincinnati a must-listen event in his heyday at WLW-AM. One moment he was slugging it out verbally with retired Bengals tight end Bob Trumpy, and in the next segment he was in an on-air battle with then-University of Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins.

“The Bob Huggins situation was a beaut,” Furman said. “He didn’t talk to me for a year, as he claimed I wrote letters to prospective recruits. Which, of course, is crazy. But we patched things up, and I honestly say this — not only have we become great friends since he left for West Virginia, he was also a great coach for me as far as talk radio. Huggins told me I didn’t need the controversy to succeed. He was correct.”

Furman also took lots of calls while at WLW, something today’s radio hosts seem to have steered away from in the ever-changing formats. And the Brooklyn native has noticed the trend. “The smart hosts realized I took chances and got heat,” he said. “So to save their behinds, they play it straight. I also noticed many local hosts have cut down on the phone calls. Why? Number one, perhaps fearful of confrontation and being called ‘fluffy.’ And number two, it is so much easier to just jabber away.

“In fact, I heard a local radio host just the other day interview — get this — the station’s female news person about soccer. Back in the day, I would have been called out by the program director for a stunt like that. It’s unreal. Yes, local radio has taken a hit. And another reason [it’s gone downhill], is the loss of WLW program director Darryl Parks.”

At WLW, Furman’s topics were never dull. His shows were the epitome of meat-and-potatoes sports talk that both angered and educated listeners. While your blood pressure was rising with each Furman diatribe, you were also fully entertained on the smorgasbord of controversy and confrontation.

In comparison, the current local sports talk scene is more akin to a platter of stale dinner rolls. Once a haven for sports conversations between host and listeners, Cincinnati radio is now plastic, corporate and less than entertaining. In fact, it’s boring.

That’s something Furman promises he will never allow his show to become.

“I think there’s a real problem when a station — any station — has a professional agreement with a sports team,” he said. “Announcers are sometimes censored. Talk hosts are sometimes given parameters on their topics. Again, on Memorial Day, after a Reds game I heard a local host actually say, ‘With four months left, the Reds can still turn things around.’ Several things crossed my mind. First, he was at Taste of Cincinnati too long. Or second, he is delusional, and perhaps he needs a drug test. Or, finally, he wants good will with the club and station personnel. As a listener, one would call this an insult.”

With Furman, listeners never had to worry about hearing host-driven excuses for the local teams, nor the deflection techniques that permeates today’s local sports radio. But his unrestrained, never-back-down style of entertainment eventually backfired.

THE HOUSHMANDZADEH CONTROVERSY

After nearly 20 years, Furman’s reign as the area’s top sports talk host at WLW came to a crashing halt in 2006. The situation revolved around former Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Furman called Houshmandzadeh a “racist” for comments the Bengals receiver’s allegedly made about the host.

Houshmandzadeh, who had failed to make a scheduled appearance on Furman’s show, vehemently denied the accusation. Clear Channel, the company that owned WLW at the time, made the decision to dismiss Furman.

“I didn’t get much support, to be quite honest,” Furman said of WLW. “To this day, all I remember was I was suspended for a time — with pay — and I guess when T.J. voiced a threat, that was it for me. I had almost two years remaining on my deal, and that was fine.

“But in life you expect the people who hired you — and whom you work for — to support you. Coaches do in sports. I never felt I had that support. Things worked out, however. I was lucky. Don Martin, the VP/GM of Fox Sports Radio and iHeart company like WLW, knew my entire story and hired me as a national host for Fox.”

ALWAYS THE PROMOTIONS GURU

While the sports information director at Oral Roberts University in the 1970s, Furman did much more than deal with the media. Ever the showman and promotions guru, the Brooklyn native once crafted a promotion that allowed free admission to an Oral Roberts/Hardin-Simmons basketball game to anyone with the last name of either “Hardin” or “Simmons.”

Furman also generated media coverage with his “Native American Night” promotion against Oklahoma City University — at that time known as the Chiefs — as all Native Americans were given free admission to that game at Oral Roberts.

“I couldn’t get away with a promotion like that nowadays,” Furman said of his idea involving Oklahoma City University, which has since changed its nickname to Stars. “I did a lot of promotions at Oral Roberts back then that generated a lot of interest and got people in the stands, got us attention from the media. It was all in fun, and it worked. But not in today’s world. No one could do those kind of promotions now.”

THE PRESENT-DAY FURMAN

Furman’s road to Cincinnati also included a stop in Ft. Lauderdale as the P.R. contact for the Strikers soccer team. He performed a variety of roles in publicity for racetracks, did television sales and eventually landed a job at WLW. “I made a once-in-a-lifetime sale to Proctor & Gamble for the Cincinnati Reds television network,” Furman said. “The WLW Radio general manager at the time (David Martin) took notice of it, offered me a position selling Reds baseball and doing some on-air work. The rest is history.”

Part of that history included teaming up with notables such as Tom Dinkel and Cris Collinsworth on WLW. After leaving WLW, he landed gigs at WFTK-FM and WQRT-AM before settling in with Fox Sports Radio.

Furman now lives in Florence with his wife, Wendy, and two sons, Jake and Alex. Both his sons are graduates of Thomas More College, and Alex is following his father’s path — as a radio host at WUBE-FM.

“It’s a very tough business, but he’s enjoying it,” Furman said of his son. “He’s done the board operator job and everything else, so he knows what he’s getting into.”

And what are his favorite moments in sports radio? “To have been able to meet and chat with people like Ted Williams, Pete Rose, Bob Knight and Serena Williams,” Furman said. “And, of course, to have been part of a dominating radio station for so many years with hall of famers like Jim Scott, Gary Burbank, Cris Collinsworth and Bill Cunningham.”

But while looking back at his long career, Furman insists he isn’t slowing down.

“I’m 68, but I feel like I’m 28,” he said. “And I look like I’m 18.”

Even if he’s mellowed just a bit over the years, Furman is still feisty and ready for a good argument. If you don’t believe it, just dial him up on a Sunday morning when he hits the airwaves on Fox Sports Radio at 6 a.m. Then brace yourself for a smorgasbord of controversy and confrontation, but without the platter of stale dinner rolls.

Furman actually takes calls.

Contact Don Owen at don@nkytrib.com and follow him on Twitter at @dontribunesport