Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
Speaker 1: Show week days at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1: If you thought four hours a day, minutes a week
Speaker 1: was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
Speaker 1: crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse the clearing House of Hot
Speaker 1: takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with
Speaker 1: Ben Maller starts right now that it does. We are
Speaker 1: in the air everywhere as we bloviate here on the
Speaker 1: fifth hours, you know, and then four hours not enough
Speaker 1: on the overnight. We do this now eight days a week.
Speaker 1: This is our Friday podcast and it's a conversation podcast,
Speaker 1: so we'll get right to it. We will not delete Daly.
Speaker 1: And before we welcome in who we're talking to, we
Speaker 1: say at David Gascon, who's back again another weekend with Gascon.
Speaker 1: This is an amazing acomplishment after I thought we were
Speaker 1: gonna get rid of you after that terrible job producing
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. But you're back again, which
Speaker 1: is great because I heard you had a trickle down
Speaker 1: effect with the new producers that were filling in for me.
Speaker 1: It was it was great, and uh now I'm back again.
Speaker 1: It's because you and are our guest here in a
Speaker 1: few moments, have have accused me of being technically incompetent.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna try my best to railroad another podcast
Speaker 1: since you and you alone are on the Marquis Ben Mountain. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say you're technically incompetent. I will
Speaker 1: just say that you were hired by the company to
Speaker 1: produce Quasi produced the show, and you then proceeded to
Speaker 1: not know how to screen phone calls for four hours
Speaker 1: in the overnight, and when the one time you did
Speaker 1: put calls on the air, it was a clusterf So
Speaker 1: that's all I'm saying. Other than that, I mean just
Speaker 1: I'm going by what I experienced. Guests. Well, we're in
Speaker 1: the day and age of disinformation, so I will correct you.
Speaker 1: Because I didn't know how to not answer the phones correctly,
Speaker 1: I just elected not to answer the phones for three
Speaker 1: and a half hours. Us. Well, that's not what I'm hearing.
Speaker 1: I'm hearing that you looked at the phone system and said,
Speaker 1: what is this the space shuttle and you couldn't figure
Speaker 1: it out, and so that was it. But enough about you.
Speaker 1: This is a very important person and we like hanging
Speaker 1: out with people talking about and mostly the people that
Speaker 1: I've experienced on the podcast that I for most are
Speaker 1: like radio guys. I love radio guys. I love hearing
Speaker 1: radio stories. I love people that work in this business
Speaker 1: and do a great job. And we get to talk
Speaker 1: to one of our colleagues. You already know this if
Speaker 1: you download the podcast. The man affectionately known as fur
Speaker 1: Ball a Cincinnati radio legend in icon and he's been
Speaker 1: at Fox Sports Radio for many years. Now. You hear
Speaker 1: him on the weekends with Brian no on Sunday mornings,
Speaker 1: and we give it up now to any Furman who
Speaker 1: is on the fifth. You know, I learned something Ben today.
Speaker 1: I learned that his name is not David Davis. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have more people hear me on this podcast
Speaker 1: then they do. On Sunday morning at the WEE, I
Speaker 1: was at three am Pacific time, no no listen, and
Speaker 1: I used to do a shift around that time. You
Speaker 1: know how many people are stumbling drunk walking around that
Speaker 1: are listening to a huge audience that yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: massive audience. I appreciate you having on, I really do
Speaker 1: because it gives me something to do. I look forward
Speaker 1: to this all day long. I even showered, and during
Speaker 1: this pandemic, I don't do that often. Andy, we're not
Speaker 1: in the same room here, Eddie were I understand. I
Speaker 1: understand that. But but I understand now to various internet
Speaker 1: reports that you can catch COVID nineteen over the phone.
Speaker 1: That's what I've been reading, not that I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: believe that you can find anything you want on the
Speaker 1: Internet or certain news channels. They'll tell you whatever whatever
Speaker 1: you want there. So, and I first met you, Andy,
Speaker 1: you came out. You and Mike North were doing the
Speaker 1: morning show at Fox for for several years there, and
Speaker 1: I love that show. You guys had a great I
Speaker 1: loved it too. It was it was fun, it was great.
Speaker 1: You know, you guys were going back and forth. North
Speaker 1: would say something ridiculous, you'd you'd throw it back in
Speaker 1: his face, and it was wonderful. You know. It was
Speaker 1: very difficult to argue with him when he's bullheaded. I
Speaker 1: love him the death, I love him like a brother,
Speaker 1: but I'll never forget the one argument we had there
Speaker 1: was one person I forgot it was, but there were
Speaker 1: many people in sports that get d uise or whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. And I told him that alcoholism is
Speaker 1: a disease, and he argued with me from top to
Speaker 1: bottom that alcohol who's not. I said, Michael, you could
Speaker 1: look it up in any journal, the medical journals. It's
Speaker 1: a disease. Alcoholism is a disease. And he told me
Speaker 1: that he used to drink and drink and drink and drink,
Speaker 1: and he could stop anytime he wanted to. So I said, well,
Speaker 1: you didn't have the disease. He was just a drinker.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I mean, I was winning, I was Fitz.
Speaker 1: After that show, I'd have to shower. Really, he would
Speaker 1: get me into such a froth I would sweat. But
Speaker 1: it was wonderful because it was human, it was real.
Speaker 1: It wasn't scripted. It was from the heart that he
Speaker 1: went one way, I went the other, and that was
Speaker 1: the way it was. Yeah. You know, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about you, though, Andy, because I I've heard stories.
Speaker 1: Everyone's got an Andy Furman story that you know he
Speaker 1: did this, he did that. I gotta get some answers.
Speaker 1: I know you you're from obviously he sound. You don't
Speaker 1: hide the fact that you're from New York, right, So
Speaker 1: what I can't help it. Yeah, it's hard to disguise that.
Speaker 1: And so you you worked at a religious college at
Speaker 1: one point as uh in the was it the PR department?
Speaker 1: Is that right? He worked? I worked at several I
Speaker 1: wear the St. Francis College of Brooklyn Division one school.
Speaker 1: I shed in all office with the brother Ronald. He
Speaker 1: was the best. On the afternoons, he'd open up the
Speaker 1: bar and away we went. So that was a good
Speaker 1: time at St. Francis. And that I went to All
Speaker 1: Roberts University and that was the first Hebrew to ever
Speaker 1: work at that school. Wait, wait, wait that at the
Speaker 1: time you wait, wait, you worked at Oral Roberts University
Speaker 1: as a Jewish guy for two years at Old Roberts University. Uh,
Speaker 1: the Great Oral. I mean I met him several times
Speaker 1: and I didn't know. And when I got there they
Speaker 1: told me a couple of things I didn't know during
Speaker 1: the interview process when they flew me out. But on
Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Fridays, between the hours of eleven and noon
Speaker 1: Central time, that was the school shut down completely. Electricity
Speaker 1: shut down, the electric typewriter was off. Everything was off, shutdown.
Speaker 1: You had to go to chapel services. And I went
Speaker 1: the first time, and I'm saying, what in the heck
Speaker 1: is speaking in tongues? I had no idea what speaking
Speaker 1: in tongues was? But I went and after a couple
Speaker 1: of times, Oral called me to his office. If you
Speaker 1: don't feel comfortable going to these things, you don't have
Speaker 1: to go, which was great on his part. He was good,
Speaker 1: May he rested peace. He was always good to me.
Speaker 1: He really was. Oh that's cool, that's good. When you
Speaker 1: took the job. Though, what did your family say when
Speaker 1: they say when you said I'm going to Oral roberts
Speaker 1: that is that Oklahoma is Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I think
Speaker 1: my family basically was more concerned with me going to
Speaker 1: the state of Oklahoma than ORL. Robertson University, because you know,
Speaker 1: really we didn't know much about Old Roberts said, I
Speaker 1: didn't know. I mean I knew they were a great
Speaker 1: basketball school, that Anthony roberts was courted something like of
Speaker 1: any points once in an n I T game, So
Speaker 1: they were a basketball power. And when I got there,
Speaker 1: there were sort of like on the tail land they
Speaker 1: still were not at a conference, so that was good.
Speaker 1: Now they're in some sort of a cockamani conference. I
Speaker 1: mean you really they had much about all Robertson anymore now,
Speaker 1: but they were really good. And really we hosted the
Speaker 1: Midwest Regionals and basketball because at the time the Maybe Center,
Speaker 1: which hosted about ten four ten five attendants, was one
Speaker 1: of the bigger arenas in the Midwest. Now it tails
Speaker 1: in comparison to some of the arenas where they play. Now, wow,
Speaker 1: there's another there's another Andy Furman story that I heard
Speaker 1: that I want to verify that you gave the Associated
Speaker 1: Press at one point the score that wasn't an actual
Speaker 1: score that they actually reported in the newspapers. This correct
Speaker 1: that that's been many times, not just once, really not
Speaker 1: just one. So how does this this is back in
Speaker 1: the days where you had to like call in the scores.
Speaker 1: Is that When I lived in Oklahoma, here's the thing
Speaker 1: on Friday night was high school football was huge. I mean,
Speaker 1: I never lived in a place that had such big
Speaker 1: high school football either. Now I live in northern Kentucky. Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: Ohio's real big high school football. But living in New
Speaker 1: York City, high school football is like secondary. No one
Speaker 1: follows that, no one cares. There's once in a while
Speaker 1: a player comes out that's not bad. John Brockington went
Speaker 1: to Ohio State. They've had players from time to time
Speaker 1: out of New York City, but very few. So I
Speaker 1: got to Oklahoma and on Friday nights it was like
Speaker 1: a religion, this high school football. And I'd go and
Speaker 1: watch some of these games. And at the time, you
Speaker 1: could they just call in the scores. Now, I'm sure
Speaker 1: when they call in scores, they're verified, they're on computer.
Speaker 1: You know, there's no way you could pull in a
Speaker 1: fast one. We would go to parties on Friday night
Speaker 1: in Tulsa, get a little liquored up called the TV stations,
Speaker 1: and we'd see on the running scores on the bottom
Speaker 1: of the screen these schools that we just made up
Speaker 1: many know, you know, Uh, North Holden beat South Tulsa
Speaker 1: seventy five to twelve, you know, or something like that,
Speaker 1: and we see them on the bottom of the screen,
Speaker 1: and we all give a high five to one another.
Speaker 1: You know, In the next morning, we just you know,
Speaker 1: I forgot all about it because the buzz warold you
Speaker 1: were the original fake news Andy, you were the yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you were ahead of your time. Andy, Well, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a trend center, a trend center exactly. All right.
Speaker 1: So now I was waiting for gas Gonda chim in there.
Speaker 1: But he's he's so aghast by this, he's so taken
Speaker 1: aback by this. Now right, he's sitting at resumes. He's
Speaker 1: looking for a job. Can you hire me? He can
Speaker 1: clean your lawn or whatever. You know, if you got
Speaker 1: some rubber cool boy, really well, he would be a
Speaker 1: great pool boy. I think he's done that before. I
Speaker 1: think that's how I got some of his other jobs.
Speaker 1: That's I got some of my girlfriends too. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's easy to do when you're west of the
Speaker 1: four or five. Anyways. You know, it's funny because the
Speaker 1: two things you throw in my face are probably the
Speaker 1: two least interesting things. No, okay, because some of them
Speaker 1: got me in trouble and some of them got me fired.
Speaker 1: But that's all right, you know, really, Andy, I'm it's
Speaker 1: it's a slow build up to a crescendo. You can't
Speaker 1: start right away with the good sty you gotta this
Speaker 1: is not bad. So you're building up, you know it,
Speaker 1: You're building up to an amazing crescendo. Okay, take it easy,
Speaker 1: I mean, because another want this to cost me my
Speaker 1: job that that Sunday morning gig. Come on. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: wanted to keep it for a while. I understand. Speaking
Speaker 1: of building up for ball, how did you how did
Speaker 1: you actually get into sports talk radio anyway? Like? What
Speaker 1: was the what was the origin and the genesis of
Speaker 1: all this? You know that that is a pretty good question.
Speaker 1: That's why you are pretty good journalist, gascon. Really question
Speaker 1: on your resume. Put this on the tape, really, but
Speaker 1: it was pretty good. I mean, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you wrote it out prior to but it's pretty good.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. I got a job. I was
Speaker 1: a sales guy at the local TVs. I was forced
Speaker 1: director at Channel five, the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati, and
Speaker 1: the general manage when he hired me, said, if you
Speaker 1: don't like it after about six months, come to my
Speaker 1: office and we'll figure something out. Well, I did it
Speaker 1: for six months. I didn't know anything about TV, and
Speaker 1: I went to a so off. I said, this is crazy,
Speaker 1: being a sports director of local affiliate. It's like an
Speaker 1: animal leading. It's young. You work six seven, eight hours
Speaker 1: a day for two and a half minutes. It's crazy,
Speaker 1: and the next day it starts all over again. I said,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do this anymore. He says, what
Speaker 1: do you want to do? I said, I think I'm
Speaker 1: a good salesman. I could sell so at the time,
Speaker 1: the local LETBC affiliate in Cincinnati carried the Cincinnati Reds
Speaker 1: games over the year. And uh, and I sold Reds baseball.
Speaker 1: But how do you sell Reds baseball? You get a
Speaker 1: telephone book and you look in the telephone book and
Speaker 1: stop calling clients. But what I did, instead of starting
Speaker 1: from A to Z, I started from Z. Because I
Speaker 1: think everybody starts from me when they got a phone book.
Speaker 1: So I started from Z. So I started running letters
Speaker 1: and calling people. Part Procter and Gamble is based in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: I sent a note to the brand manager of a
Speaker 1: product called top Job. Top job as a female oriented
Speaker 1: product that cleans ovens and stoves, you know, And we
Speaker 1: had the weekly sales meeting and I told them, you know, well,
Speaker 1: what do you got going? I saw the top Job.
Speaker 1: They looked at me and they laughed at me. That
Speaker 1: will never happen. It's female Baseball's male never have so
Speaker 1: all right. While about a week later, the brand manager
Speaker 1: calls me up. Go to her off as a young
Speaker 1: girl would have picture a Paul O'Neil on our desk.
Speaker 1: I figured, I'm in. She says, so I love it.
Speaker 1: We'll have the top job of the game on the game.
Speaker 1: No big, it's great. How much does it cost to
Speaker 1: a sponsor this deal? I couldn't get it out of
Speaker 1: my mouth. It was a hundred and sixty thou dollars
Speaker 1: for the deal. She said, yes, I want crazy. I
Speaker 1: hugged there, came back to the station, and a couple
Speaker 1: of days later, the general manager of ww Radio calls
Speaker 1: me up and I said to my wife, I said,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get a job at w W Radio.
Speaker 1: How do you know? So? Why would the general manager
Speaker 1: want to take me out to lunch? We went out
Speaker 1: for lunch before the the major d candy waiter came.
Speaker 1: I said to the guy, and may rest in peace.
Speaker 1: J David Martin. Use his name, I said, Mr Martin.
Speaker 1: I said the answers, yes, I want to work for you,
Speaker 1: and he almost choked. I said what do you mean?
Speaker 1: I said, we Why are you taking me out to lunch?
Speaker 1: General manager takes a guy out to lunch. He's gonna
Speaker 1: fire him. I hire him. I don't work for you yet,
Speaker 1: so he hired me. It was a great situation. I
Speaker 1: sold Redge Baseball on the radio, which is a lot
Speaker 1: easier than TV. Did some promotions for the radio station,
Speaker 1: and there's a great station and still is of a
Speaker 1: hundred AM, tremendous station, high heart media station as well,
Speaker 1: and he put He created a show on Sunday, want
Speaker 1: to Call Sunday wanting sports Talk, which morphed into sports
Speaker 1: Talk during the Week, which I co hosted for a
Speaker 1: while with the great Chris Collinsworth. That's pretty m wild well.
Speaker 1: And the famous story with you is the race you
Speaker 1: were at the track right in Cincinnati. You were the
Speaker 1: I ended up here. I worked for a company based
Speaker 1: out of Buffalo called Delaware North, and they owned a
Speaker 1: lot of racing facilities, and they shipped me from city
Speaker 1: to city, and I was like a vagabond. They went
Speaker 1: all over the place. But I used the same promotions
Speaker 1: in every city and it always worked. I was an
Speaker 1: upstate in New York and I had Beasley Reset the
Speaker 1: New York Football Giants race a trotter at Monacello Raceway.
Speaker 1: When I came to Latonia Racecourse in Florence, Kentucky, I
Speaker 1: had Chris Collinsworth race a horse and it was great.
Speaker 1: People loved it. It was a big deal and made
Speaker 1: the press and you know stuff like that. People like
Speaker 1: that fun. So how did you how did you convince
Speaker 1: Collinsworth to raise a horse? Like, well, what's the pitch
Speaker 1: on that? Like, you shame him into it, you know,
Speaker 1: you start sending material out to the media and you
Speaker 1: challenge him, you back him against the wall that he
Speaker 1: can't say no. And he knew that. So that remember
Speaker 1: they remember a couple of years ago, somebody, I don't
Speaker 1: think you were part of that. Somebody Johnson? Yeah you were.
Speaker 1: You were part of that, were you? Yeah? Yeah? Oh
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that it works every time. You know,
Speaker 1: after a while it gets old. But you know what,
Speaker 1: the kids love it. Chad Johnson was great because he
Speaker 1: actually beat the horse, although he had a head start,
Speaker 1: but he beat the horse. But he hung around and
Speaker 1: he had people sunning autographs. He he's just he's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Chats the best. Heal this was good, but Chad was
Speaker 1: the best. Now you could conceivably like drug the horse
Speaker 1: so the horse doesn't run. Your make the horse feel bloated,
Speaker 1: so the horse can't drug Johnson. That's who he did.
Speaker 1: He was great. He really was fun. You know. You know,
Speaker 1: people ask me what do I do? Are you pr
Speaker 1: guy who promoted you know Ben? You would notice I'm
Speaker 1: what is called the tumbler. A tumbler is a guy
Speaker 1: in Yidish that just creates a lot of mess, a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of action. You know that I'm
Speaker 1: a tumbler. You're as well. Well, you know what the
Speaker 1: late Morny Glickman called me that Mortylan used to love.
Speaker 1: Morty Glickman. He called the New York Football Giant games
Speaker 1: on w n W Radio, New York City eleven thirty
Speaker 1: a m. And I met um Marty Glickman through a
Speaker 1: mutual friend, and you know, he was calling the Jet
Speaker 1: games two at the end of his career. And I
Speaker 1: met him a couple of times through a third party,
Speaker 1: and he said to me, you have the sugunar right,
Speaker 1: Because in New York City, when I was working in
Speaker 1: Saint Francis College and doing stuff and sending stuff out
Speaker 1: to the media, you know, it got around that I
Speaker 1: was a little unorthodox. So to speak fun but I'm
Speaker 1: the author of that. So he called me. May he
Speaker 1: rest in peace. Two Because Morty Glickman was great, Uh,
Speaker 1: he called me the sugun. That's well, yeah, and you
Speaker 1: got if you're a promoter, though, you've got to be
Speaker 1: part of every kackamani idea that you could possibly come with.
Speaker 1: Did you somebody said that you worked for the Dolphins
Speaker 1: at one point, the Miami Dolphins. I heard, was that true?
Speaker 1: What I did was I worked for the fourth Little Strikers.
Speaker 1: I was the pr guy for them, and were owned
Speaker 1: by the late Joe and Liz Robbie. Liz on the
Speaker 1: Strikers and Joe on the Dolphins. So when the Strikers
Speaker 1: weren't playing, I helped out with the Dolphins. But basically,
Speaker 1: my my my main thing was with the Strikers, and
Speaker 1: they were great because we had Georgie Best. George Best
Speaker 1: was the greatest thing. Every time we landed in the city,
Speaker 1: there was seven thousand women at the airport waiting for him.
Speaker 1: Sure you didn't mind that, Andy, No, not at all.
Speaker 1: George was great. I mean it was just you know,
Speaker 1: it's just it was an electric it really was with
Speaker 1: him and every city we went to so, what are
Speaker 1: some of the others any promotion? You had a couple
Speaker 1: of NFL guys, race horses. What are some of the
Speaker 1: other crazy stuff that we don't know about that you
Speaker 1: did best? Well, you know, this was a bad one,
Speaker 1: but you know, since I love you guys, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be honest and open it. It happened way back in
Speaker 1: believe it or not, back when I worked at Manaslla Raceway.
Speaker 1: You know, my job was to get people in the
Speaker 1: race track. Before I worked at a race track, I
Speaker 1: couldn't tell you the front of a horse from the
Speaker 1: back end of a horse, really. But I went to
Speaker 1: monts Seller and the guy says, look, you don't have
Speaker 1: to know a thing about racing, just get people in here.
Speaker 1: Get him in here, all right. So during the summer
Speaker 1: we started getting and crowds because I was going around
Speaker 1: the various service clubs, you know, alliance clubs, whatever, rotary clubs.
Speaker 1: They ask him to come to the racetrack and they
Speaker 1: did so during the summer. You know, Manacello was right
Speaker 1: near the Pennsylvania border, and in Pennsylvania they don't have
Speaker 1: what they call in New York off track wagering. In
Speaker 1: New York City. In New York State and New York City,
Speaker 1: you don't have to go to the racetrack to play
Speaker 1: a bed. You got to a little parlor which is
Speaker 1: off track and you place a bed, which hurts the
Speaker 1: attendance at the race track. But in the state of
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania there was no off track wagering. So we did
Speaker 1: a lot of promoting in Pennsylvania, all right. So I
Speaker 1: would subscribe to the Pennsylvania papers, the Scranton Time, Scranton Tribune,
Speaker 1: and there was a series about the Ku Klux Klan
Speaker 1: in the Scranton papers, and I'm saying, why would this
Speaker 1: be there every day in the front page. And to
Speaker 1: this day I remember the guy was like the ringleader,
Speaker 1: the the master guy, I guess in Pennsylvania. His name
Speaker 1: was Mr Lenz. Albert Lance was the guy. I wrote
Speaker 1: him a letter and I said, please come to the
Speaker 1: race track, the Mantacella Raceway. Leave your sheets at home,
Speaker 1: we'll have I'm not at the races, and you know
Speaker 1: you have dining or whatever it might be, but under
Speaker 1: racist and come to the mansella raceway for not at
Speaker 1: the races KKK. And I I sent that out, made
Speaker 1: copies to like every media person around New York City,
Speaker 1: New York State, Pennsylvania and racing. You have to be licensed.
Speaker 1: You get a licensed from the New York State Racing
Speaker 1: a wagering board. When they got wind of this letter
Speaker 1: with the KKK, they revoked my license. And I loved
Speaker 1: my job, but it was made like every the state
Speaker 1: of the country. I mean, now I lost the job.
Speaker 1: But after I lost the job, I was getting phone
Speaker 1: close from like circuses to be a pr guy Moneleague Baseball.
Speaker 1: It was crazy, I mean, just unbelievable I was getting
Speaker 1: but I never really I'm not an advocate of the KKK,
Speaker 1: believe me. And in Mantosella, you haven't understand. It's to
Speaker 1: three thousand population Hamlet and upstate New York and maybe
Speaker 1: like Jews and five hundred African Americans. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: the greatest place in the world to in fight the KKK. Anyway,
Speaker 1: And you know what I did this day at any
Speaker 1: gonn know why I was fired? Was I fired because
Speaker 1: I invited them? Was that fired? Of course they didn't show.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine if you did something like that? Now,
Speaker 1: oh my god, oh man, I'm a friend to talk
Speaker 1: about it. Then what are you kidding me? There's another one?
Speaker 1: What I did when I when I lost that job,
Speaker 1: I got a phone call. This how I ended up
Speaker 1: with Delaware North Companies and Buffalo. They flew me out
Speaker 1: to Buffalo and they said, of you the guy that
Speaker 1: invited the KKK the Manticello. I said, yes, I was
Speaker 1: said what we were we even the fired we would
Speaker 1: have killed you. And I looked at looked at the
Speaker 1: background at his company. I mean, there was the old
Speaker 1: emprize situation and you could, you know, put two and
Speaker 1: two together and figure But that was all about. So
Speaker 1: they hired me and my first job was a Buffalo
Speaker 1: raceway in Buffalo, New York and Hamburg, New York. And uh,
Speaker 1: I said, you know, maybe what I need to do
Speaker 1: is have like ethnic nights. All right, so not bad?
Speaker 1: So I said, we're gonna have what would I call
Speaker 1: a Polish night? What is Polish night? While we're gonna
Speaker 1: serve Polish sausages, We're gonna have the the drivers of
Speaker 1: the harness horses go around the track the wrong way.
Speaker 1: I want to go around and start the wrong way
Speaker 1: for Polish Night. And how do you promote the game?
Speaker 1: How do you promote polish night. Well, every track has
Speaker 1: like a Marquis on the Highway, so on the Marquee
Speaker 1: he usually says post time tonight seven pm. But the
Speaker 1: being by the bang, I went to the truck's maintenance
Speaker 1: guy and I said, do me a favor. Where it
Speaker 1: says post time tonight seven pm, right, polish night tonight.
Speaker 1: And when you spell polish, put the p on their backwards,
Speaker 1: just put it back. What do you mean, Just do
Speaker 1: me a favorite. So he did that on the highway.
Speaker 1: I run back to the office and I called the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Evening News and I said, some schmucks spell polish
Speaker 1: wrong on the Marquee. Sure enough the Buffer Evening News,
Speaker 1: I'd how you did the promotion went around the track
Speaker 1: the wrong way. We gave out salamis to the winning drivers.
Speaker 1: It was great. Again. I don't think you could do
Speaker 1: that today. I really don't. I don't love a sense
Speaker 1: of humor, you know. And maybe for me even talking
Speaker 1: about it now, this may come back and haunt me.
Speaker 1: What do you think, do you think, Edie? I love it? Man.
Speaker 1: I wish you know you you had so many great
Speaker 1: express Who is your who is your influence? Though you
Speaker 1: sound like Bill Veck. He uh made him several times.
Speaker 1: And I lived in the Lord of Thee the White
Speaker 1: Sox who trained right now, right near there, and I
Speaker 1: met him several times. And you know, it's funny thing
Speaker 1: with him. Not only did I write him, I got
Speaker 1: several letters front him still with my folder and my
Speaker 1: file whatever you may want to call my scrapbook. But
Speaker 1: anytime you ever called him. And I don't know how
Speaker 1: many people would want to call Bill Beck, but I did.
Speaker 1: He took the phone up. He had no secretary. You know,
Speaker 1: you just call the White Sox office as I want
Speaker 1: to talk to Mr Veck Hell, hold on, hello, Bill
Speaker 1: Beck here, and he called and he answered the phone.
Speaker 1: He was unbelievable. But I guess one of my bigger
Speaker 1: influences was the late Alan Jerome Finkelson. Alan Fickleson was
Speaker 1: the PR man of Pampanau Park and Papana, Florida. And
Speaker 1: uh he was like my my godfather, my my teacher,
Speaker 1: and he really was. And uh, I always I always
Speaker 1: admired those guys like the Bill Vex of the world,
Speaker 1: the earthing Ruds of the world. You know, you could
Speaker 1: look him up to. He was a pr guy of
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn, just way back in the fifties. But you know,
Speaker 1: I read about these guys. These are the guys that
Speaker 1: read about, you know, my contemporaries. My friends would read
Speaker 1: novels about William mas Enbiga Mantel, and I'm reading about
Speaker 1: Irving Rudd and Bill Vick. That's what I did. Well,
Speaker 1: who are the you know, who are the guys? Now
Speaker 1: there's nobody really doing what you did and what you've
Speaker 1: done right right, You can't do it now. People are
Speaker 1: too sensitive. You just can't. I'd love to do stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Now you just can't do it. You got
Speaker 1: a jail, will get shot, furball. But like all of this,
Speaker 1: or at least you're like some of your best stories.
Speaker 1: In fact that you told me something like this I
Speaker 1: think last year. But like, what inspired you to write
Speaker 1: letters to people? Because I know you've told me you
Speaker 1: you've written the several head coaches in the National football
Speaker 1: you know coaching. I think what started with the leather
Speaker 1: running was basically when I was like working for a
Speaker 1: newspaper in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Eagle, which I still write
Speaker 1: once in a while, a nautical the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Speaker 1: If you go on the website, you'll see some of
Speaker 1: the alcos I recently written to. But honestly, what I
Speaker 1: do is I get the clippings that I write my
Speaker 1: columns and send them out to coach. And that's how
Speaker 1: I got the job at Old Roberts because you know,
Speaker 1: I had a column called Scholastic round Up. It was
Speaker 1: like a little roundup column, like little one liners that
Speaker 1: would be like Ben Mallard of ex High School is
Speaker 1: now playing freshman basketball at San Jose State. So I
Speaker 1: get the paper, I ripped it out mail to the
Speaker 1: coach of San Jose State. And that's what I did,
Speaker 1: mail and to the sports information guys, and I get
Speaker 1: on at least mailing list. So they had a player
Speaker 1: at or Roberts the name of author Stretched Graham from Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: and every time me and he did something, I put
Speaker 1: a little bit on my column and mail it out
Speaker 1: to the athletics the sports information guy. And I guess
Speaker 1: this guy thought it was like, you know, the New
Speaker 1: York Times getting something from the New York Times from me,
Speaker 1: and they want they wanted to expand their their influences
Speaker 1: pr wise, and he thought that I had contacts in
Speaker 1: the New York media, which I did because I lived
Speaker 1: there and uh, and he hired me. And that's that's what.
Speaker 1: That's the way it was. Did you get any kind
Speaker 1: of negative push back from someone that you wrote a
Speaker 1: letter to. I get negative pushback from my wife because
Speaker 1: she says with him, running letters shows how old you
Speaker 1: are and makes you look old. And I know you
Speaker 1: won't because I'm really adapted on the computer. I could
Speaker 1: do my emails, I could do my attachments and that
Speaker 1: links it all that crap. I could do that. But
Speaker 1: the point is this. Everybody does it, but no one
Speaker 1: sends out letters. So that's why I'm different. You get
Speaker 1: a stack of mail every day at home. What is it?
Speaker 1: Usually junk mail or bills, and then you see something
Speaker 1: like this lether from me. You're curious. You're gonna open
Speaker 1: it up. And a lot of times you send out
Speaker 1: an email, it gets in the trash band. It really does.
Speaker 1: That's why I have made a habit every time I
Speaker 1: had a guest on radio, I'd always send him a
Speaker 1: thank you note. That's what I did. A matter of fact,
Speaker 1: when I lived in Brooklyn of New York City, I'd
Speaker 1: always send a little notes to dig a felt. So
Speaker 1: I still talked to today. He lives not far from
Speaker 1: me in South ben Indiana, and dig is wonderful him.
Speaker 1: He was coaching Fordham and I got to know him,
Speaker 1: and he had a couple of Brooklyn players. I'd send
Speaker 1: him and he was one of the few coaches that
Speaker 1: you send him a note. Kenny Charles played for him
Speaker 1: for for Fordham, and Kenny Charles is a Brooklyn kid.
Speaker 1: I write about Hinton, can dig it flipping in two days? Lady,
Speaker 1: send me a thank you note. Bobby Knight the same way.
Speaker 1: When I came to Cincinnati on w l W Radio,
Speaker 1: Bobby Knight did a half hour show with me. He
Speaker 1: really did. And uh, you know, Bobby Knight to me,
Speaker 1: didn't do many of those shows at any except his
Speaker 1: own coaches show. But he had ground rules to me.
Speaker 1: He said, look, we'll do a half hour, no commercials,
Speaker 1: no phone calls, boom. That was it. And then it
Speaker 1: was great. It really was. Ill give you an example
Speaker 1: about a year or so ago, during Christmas Week, I
Speaker 1: had Bill Belichick on Fox. I was filling in during
Speaker 1: the week on a Wednesday night show, and Bill Belichick said,
Speaker 1: he going why because I sent him letters all that time?
Speaker 1: Said him, notes. I made a relationship. But coach Belichick,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. So you you talked about check used to
Speaker 1: give you change the letters. Do you have talked to
Speaker 1: him on the phone, and I've talked to him on
Speaker 1: the radio. I had him on phone. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but uh, his mom just died about a week or
Speaker 1: so ago, and I sent them a text because I
Speaker 1: got his cell And the other day he texted me back.
Speaker 1: He thanked me so lunch, you know, for my my
Speaker 1: little text for Belichick sends. He sends text messages. Who knew.
Speaker 1: I thought he was a technophobe. I thought that's this
Speaker 1: whole stick right, And maybe if someone did it for him.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but maybe the text. How many letters
Speaker 1: do you think you've sent out over the years? Ay,
Speaker 1: oh god, oh man. You know what if I had,
Speaker 1: if I had like a dime fery letter I sent back,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to work anymore. Well, you would have
Speaker 1: a dime if you didn't send the letters, though, you
Speaker 1: would have a letter you could. You know, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, say of the time, when I
Speaker 1: write letters, I'm mailing him out from business. Didn't cost
Speaker 1: me anything. I don't have an office anymore. That's the problem.
Speaker 1: So now I'm paying for the stamps. That's that's a
Speaker 1: major problem. It really is. I want you I should do.
Speaker 1: This is what I should do. I should collect all
Speaker 1: my mail once a week in to box, send it
Speaker 1: out the Fox in Sherman Oaks and let them running
Speaker 1: through the media machine for me. So be one one
Speaker 1: big postage bill. But I could send out five letters
Speaker 1: in the box. I remember my one of my first
Speaker 1: days working on on Ben show that carried over into
Speaker 1: you guys, and Jonas was producing at that time for
Speaker 1: you guys, and there was just stacks of letters that
Speaker 1: Jonas had and Eddie at the time was filling in
Speaker 1: for Eddie had in his mailbox and I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I said, what the funk is all this mail doing here?
Speaker 1: And Jonah, wait a minute, we don't need that kind
Speaker 1: of a language here on this kind of a family
Speaker 1: related podcast. Just back up a little bit. Not my bad.
Speaker 1: He's from He's from Brooklyn. They don't talk like that
Speaker 1: from Brooklyn. A little bit different of a dialogue there, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: so anyway, but you know, Eddie Garcia, you used to
Speaker 1: get a Fendi get upset every time I saw a
Speaker 1: hockey story that I thought it would be of interest
Speaker 1: to him, and maybe in the New York Times the
Speaker 1: New York Post, which I get, I sent it to him.
Speaker 1: It was probably too currents on him. He's not on
Speaker 1: the list anymore. He's off my mailing list. Now. I
Speaker 1: want you to know. D I in the mail room
Speaker 1: since this COVID thing started. It's a little food gazy
Speaker 1: up there. It's it's messed up. So I went into
Speaker 1: I go to the mail room every couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Actually I haven't been in a while. I gotta go
Speaker 1: to this weekend and check the mail. But I go
Speaker 1: in there looking for stuff for me, and there your
Speaker 1: mail is all over the place. I mean, there's more
Speaker 1: Andy Furman mail than there is for anybody like you.
Speaker 1: Think of the people who work at foxbuts like Cowherd
Speaker 1: and Clay and these big you know, big people whatever
Speaker 1: who think you know, they're important, And there's more mail
Speaker 1: from you than any for any of those people. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: You dominate the mail room, Andy Ferman. That's the way
Speaker 1: it should be. Really. You know, people think that podcasts
Speaker 1: dominate and they talk about ratings on radio There's nothing
Speaker 1: better in life than personal relationships. And the only way
Speaker 1: you can make a personal relationship is through the mail. Really,
Speaker 1: you know, the obviously phone as well. Mail is a
Speaker 1: great personal relationship technique. And people don't do it because
Speaker 1: they think it's a podcast. They think it's a YouTube situation,
Speaker 1: you know what it is. That's one way. It's one way,
Speaker 1: and it's also forces the secondary person to have to
Speaker 1: tune in and find you. Whereas mail, I'm reaching out
Speaker 1: to you and people don't understand I'm reaching out to you.
Speaker 1: And how great does somebody feel? You know? I sometimes
Speaker 1: get on Twitter, uh every now in the game out
Speaker 1: often every now I listened. I have a listener from
Speaker 1: Minnesota about two weeks ago. You know, he gave me
Speaker 1: his address. Could you send me a note? Because he
Speaker 1: knows I write letters. I did. I reached out that
Speaker 1: I won this guy over. You don't think that guy
Speaker 1: is gonna show ten other people. Hey, Andy Firman. I
Speaker 1: listen to him on Sunday on Fox. He sent me
Speaker 1: a letter, you know, that's what it is. One letter
Speaker 1: is worth perhaps ten listeners. And who's the guy that
Speaker 1: you said? Is it? Who's the guy that you sent
Speaker 1: a letter to that you didn't think was going to
Speaker 1: write back, that did right back. Is it Belichick? Who's
Speaker 1: the guy that you said, this guy is not gonna
Speaker 1: write back, and then he did. You know, I never
Speaker 1: thought I hear from Belichick. And it's funny because I
Speaker 1: was sending out resumes just for the hell of it
Speaker 1: to see, you know whatever. And I asked him if
Speaker 1: I could use him for a reference, and you already
Speaker 1: wrote me back. He said, you could use me for
Speaker 1: a reference, but don't have them right, you know, don't
Speaker 1: have me right to them. Have them right to me,
Speaker 1: and I'll take care of you. That's what he said. Now,
Speaker 1: when you first connected with the Belichick? Was he where
Speaker 1: was he in his career? Was he with Cleveland? Was
Speaker 1: he with the Patriots? Was he? Well, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: the story with Cleveland. That's that's how we first met.
Speaker 1: It was unbelievable, really, this is what happened. I was
Speaker 1: running to him in Cleveland, and I was like the
Speaker 1: anti Bengal fan in Cincinnati, which it is not difficult
Speaker 1: to do if you follow the Bengals. Really, they'll give
Speaker 1: you ada watching him play. But that he was coaching
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Browns and for some reason he called me,
Speaker 1: or you had to call me because of no email
Speaker 1: back in the day, I don't think he called me.
Speaker 1: He said, I need a tape of a of a
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Bengal game, right and he gave me his FedEx
Speaker 1: number to send the tape to him overnight. I said,
Speaker 1: how in the hell am I going to get a
Speaker 1: tape of a Bengal game. So I went to Channel nineteen,
Speaker 1: the Fox affiliate in Cincinnati, and I told him, I said,
Speaker 1: I need a tape of a Bengal game. I don't
Speaker 1: know how I sold them on that, but I got
Speaker 1: the tape and I got his fed X number. I
Speaker 1: sent it overnight mail to him and after that and
Speaker 1: it was it was beautiful. It was amazed. Can you
Speaker 1: think about that now, guys asking for tapes Like I know,
Speaker 1: it's amazing how things have changed. And I've seen the change,
Speaker 1: and we all seen the change. I mean, guys asking
Speaker 1: for tapes with a FedEx number. And now immediately after
Speaker 1: the game, these coaches are on the plane with their
Speaker 1: iPads watching the game. Again. It's it's amazing, it really is.
Speaker 1: So you tell me this is a great story, Eddie.
Speaker 1: So Bill Belichick is coaching the Browns and he needed
Speaker 1: scouting on the Bengals and contacted a media guy in
Speaker 1: Cincinnati to send him a game tape that's unbelievable. And
Speaker 1: I did, and I did, And what we're talking about
Speaker 1: that talking like me. He rest in peace. We had
Speaker 1: a love hate relationship. I loved him and he hated me.
Speaker 1: But at the end we kind of made a kissed
Speaker 1: and made up because I used to play with him
Speaker 1: and he used to have the rabbit ears. He really did,
Speaker 1: which is great for a talk radio host. And we
Speaker 1: had a helicopter pilot who gave the traffic every day
Speaker 1: for the name with John Phillips. I love John Phillips.
Speaker 1: In the morning, the afternoon he getting the helicopter get
Speaker 1: the traffic. So I went on. I said to John,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this to play with Sandwich a little bit.
Speaker 1: I said that I was going to be in the
Speaker 1: helicopter taping practice and sending it out to the opponents.
Speaker 1: And he called the station. This was like on a
Speaker 1: Wednesday or Thursday, probably on Thursday maybe was whatever it
Speaker 1: was way back in the day. The next morning, at
Speaker 1: nine o'clock in the morning, he was up in the
Speaker 1: general manager's face, saying Andy Firman was in the helicopter
Speaker 1: taking pictures of my practice. They threatened on the radio,
Speaker 1: is going to send them out my opponents. So I
Speaker 1: got called in the river. This is amazing, really, So
Speaker 1: I got called to the office. I had no idea
Speaker 1: Sam was in there, and say, coach, I don't. He
Speaker 1: wouldn't talk to me. His face is burning red steam
Speaker 1: coming out of his ears. And the general manager, David
Speaker 1: Martin says to me, what's the story. I said, first
Speaker 1: of all, I'm afraid to go in the helicopter. Secondly,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go on with John Phillis the guys
Speaker 1: like a cowboy. He's crazy, he really is. And thirdly,
Speaker 1: I never did it. And Sam went crazy at the
Speaker 1: theater of their mind. They don't his works in radio,
Speaker 1: the theater of the mind. It was wonderful, it really was.
Speaker 1: That's outstanding. I just I can't I love this. Everyone
Speaker 1: loves the Sam wie ran. You know, even Cleveland knock
Speaker 1: it off. And you know what, he was a good guy.
Speaker 1: And uh, if you go on Google and you google
Speaker 1: my name with Sam wise when he passed on, I
Speaker 1: wrote an upbed piece in the Cincinnati inquire at which
Speaker 1: they ran. And I had no idea until that time
Speaker 1: that someone gave me this from the Cincinnati Bengals. He
Speaker 1: hated me so much he had a play named after me.
Speaker 1: He named the play. I got a place. She gave it.
Speaker 1: I gave it to the Inquirer, but they didn't run
Speaker 1: the play, but I ran the name. What was the play?
Speaker 1: What was the play? What was the play? You know?
Speaker 1: I couldn't read it. I had no I don't know
Speaker 1: was it was. It had to be a passing play,
Speaker 1: I would think. No, I don't know, But the play
Speaker 1: was named after me, and so it was. It was
Speaker 1: just like what called F Furman And you could figure
Speaker 1: what that stood for it all right? So is this
Speaker 1: when like Boomers Siasin was the quarterback, So it's possible,
Speaker 1: team the whole, the whole crewise, So it's possible. In
Speaker 1: his n v P season, Boomer Sisen at the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage that was calling the play out and it
Speaker 1: was F. Furman was Now I had to play on
Speaker 1: the sheet of paper from the Bengals, and even with
Speaker 1: the place to cover and the whole thing, I got
Speaker 1: that and I gave it to the inquirer. I thought
Speaker 1: they would take a picture of it when I wrote
Speaker 1: the OpEd piece, but they didn't run that. But I
Speaker 1: have the OpEd piece, so I think you can write.
Speaker 1: Just google sam wise op ed. Since then, the inquirer, Andy,
Speaker 1: I want I want to see I want to see
Speaker 1: the play, Andy, I gotta I gotta see a copy.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll find it. I'll take a picture and
Speaker 1: I'll scan it to you. That's what I'll do. Did
Speaker 1: the play ever? Was it ever productive? Did it ever
Speaker 1: go for a touchdown? How they never want anything? Come on,
Speaker 1: you haven't got to be productive? He could doesn't want anything,
Speaker 1: you know, because Zach Taylor now he's three seventeen and one.
Speaker 1: You don't think I could be three seventeen and one
Speaker 1: of the coach in the NFL. You could be three
Speaker 1: seventeen and only think about it. The only good thing
Speaker 1: about three seventeen and one for Zach Taylor is that
Speaker 1: he could have hopefully passed Dave Schuili's ridiculous record. And
Speaker 1: I love Dave Schula. I really liked it when he
Speaker 1: coached here in Cincinnati. He's now back at Dartman's like
Speaker 1: coaching the quarterbacks, So hopefully he could have raised Dave
Speaker 1: Schuila's ugly record in Cincinnati, so Zach Taylor, I hope
Speaker 1: he doesn't get fired. I hope he stays here another
Speaker 1: eight years. Are you buying the hype? I guess you're
Speaker 1: not on Joe burrow Man, this guy. You know, I
Speaker 1: feel for the guy. You know, if you look at
Speaker 1: the eyes, if you'll see he's playing Indianapolis this Sunday,
Speaker 1: look in his eyes. It's a situation. Now we call
Speaker 1: here in Cincinnati being bangalized. He's become bangalized right now.
Speaker 1: It's like when the deer and the eye look, you know,
Speaker 1: when it gets really why like silver dollars. That's basically
Speaker 1: what he has right now. And he's lost more games
Speaker 1: now in Cincinnati that he probably has. It's an entire
Speaker 1: high school and college career. Really, it's amazing. The back
Speaker 1: of this jersey last Sunday was so green you thought
Speaker 1: that he was playing for the Jets because he was
Speaker 1: full of grastinate. He was hit seventeen times and stacked
Speaker 1: five times. I feel for the guy. And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while, I wish I was still
Speaker 1: on local radio, because the locals right now are brought
Speaker 1: and paid for. I want crazy. I was on Monday night.
Speaker 1: Some local guy in Cincinnati had me on. I said,
Speaker 1: here's the deal, because he's what do you think of
Speaker 1: the Bengals, Joe? But I'll tell you what I think.
Speaker 1: I said, They're losing twenty seven nothing. On Sunday was
Speaker 1: the twenty seven nothing with eight minutes to go. Why
Speaker 1: in the hell is Joe Borrow and Joe Mix is
Speaker 1: still in the ball game. The only reason they're in
Speaker 1: there is to get hurt. I mean, they're not gonna win.
Speaker 1: They lost seven to three. Why were they still in
Speaker 1: at that time? That I never understood And no one
Speaker 1: in the media challenge that Taylor did that? Did that
Speaker 1: hide him at all? Why do you have these guys
Speaker 1: in there? No, listen, I agree with you. I mean,
Speaker 1: but when you were doing you would spice it up
Speaker 1: the local guys. And I experienced this, you know, And
Speaker 1: I'll do a rant on the overnight about the Astros
Speaker 1: and I'll get the local radio hack and Houston who
Speaker 1: you know the fanboy. Oh, you can't criticize, you know,
Speaker 1: the Astros and all this stuff. And I've I've experienced
Speaker 1: this in several cities around the country. The local radio guy,
Speaker 1: it's all upset, But to me, I love how you
Speaker 1: did it, Andy, and there's there's very few. You're like
Speaker 1: one of the last of the Mohicans. The local radio
Speaker 1: guy now is a fanboy. That's pretty much what the
Speaker 1: local radio and literally the local radio guy. If that
Speaker 1: station carries the games, they have that contractual agreement. And
Speaker 1: you don't want to upset the Apple car because it's revenue.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt about that. But here's the thing people
Speaker 1: lasting all the time. What's the difference between local and
Speaker 1: national doing local and national rate? I think national radio
Speaker 1: to me is easier. Why there's more of a broad
Speaker 1: spectrum of topics you could talk about local. If I'm
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, we never talked that n HL or n
Speaker 1: b A. We don't have a team, no one cares
Speaker 1: about it. So basically, locally you're based on NBA, NFL
Speaker 1: and the Cincinnati Ridge. That's basically a little college, University
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati or Xavier University, and basically that's it. So
Speaker 1: you have a smaller, uh piece of the pie to
Speaker 1: talk about. So you have to be harder, you have
Speaker 1: to go different layers, and you can you can make
Speaker 1: a difference. You could get the city after a coach.
Speaker 1: You know, if I'm if I'm on there now, I say, look,
Speaker 1: he's three seventeen and one. The honeymoon for that tail
Speaker 1: is over. And if you lose his five more games
Speaker 1: this year, you start the petition. You have the fans
Speaker 1: meet me outside from the stadium with picket sign saying
Speaker 1: let's get him fired. You could do it at locally,
Speaker 1: you can't do it nationally. It's no different than Hugh
Speaker 1: Jackson a few years ago right in Cleveland, where he
Speaker 1: goes winless and and obviously still maintains a job for
Speaker 1: a short period of time. Andy is there because you've
Speaker 1: you've obviously worked as a sports information director, You've worked locally,
Speaker 1: you've worked national radio. Is there anything that you haven't
Speaker 1: done that you wanted to do or want to do eventually? Well,
Speaker 1: I wanted to run for president, but that would have
Speaker 1: been a good third party guy this year. Ye could
Speaker 1: have been done. You know, you know what, honestly, what
Speaker 1: I wanted to do, and I wrote this in my
Speaker 1: high school graduation book, I always wanted to work for
Speaker 1: the New York Knicks. That was my goal. I really really,
Speaker 1: That's what I wanted to don't want to be the
Speaker 1: PR guy for the New York Knick. About this my idol.
Speaker 1: When I grew up, I watched the Willis Reason that
Speaker 1: Dick Barnett's and Dave Dave to Bush, all those guys playing.
Speaker 1: But the one guy always had my eye on was
Speaker 1: Frank blouse Child. No knows who he is, but Frank
Speaker 1: blouse Child was the guy was sitting next to Red Holsman.
Speaker 1: He was the PR guy in traveling secretary of the
Speaker 1: New York Knicks. That was the job I wanted. That's
Speaker 1: pretty damn good. What about the race track? And what
Speaker 1: about the ponies that if you is there anything that
Speaker 1: ever inspired you to work there? Like on the track,
Speaker 1: at the track even on the p a there you know? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I could never do. I could never
Speaker 1: call a race is now Mike ba Taglia did that.
Speaker 1: He's the best in new business. He was there for
Speaker 1: us at Latona Race Course. But I will say this,
Speaker 1: in all the years I worked in racing, and I
Speaker 1: worked the Greyhound tracks and uh in New Hampshire, I've
Speaker 1: been all of I don't think I've made maybe more
Speaker 1: than twenty dollars total in total bets. It never excited
Speaker 1: me to wager, but I always try to create the racing,
Speaker 1: be honest race, throwab a racing or greyhound racing into
Speaker 1: a sport and make it legit, you know, and try
Speaker 1: to get statistics involved in that so maybe you could
Speaker 1: get on the sports pages and also to a very
Speaker 1: good human interest stories in the world of sports. For example,
Speaker 1: in one I worked in uh In Lakes Region Greyhound
Speaker 1: Park in Belmont, New Hampshire. Belmont, New Hampshire, you could
Speaker 1: take a bed on Highway six and never get hit
Speaker 1: by a car and sleep there. That that's how many
Speaker 1: people were there. And they wanted me to bring people
Speaker 1: to this racetrack, which I did. You know. We had
Speaker 1: a good time. But that was the summer of the
Speaker 1: baseball strike, if you remember one. And we had a
Speaker 1: guy who had a kennel of dogs and he loved
Speaker 1: the New York Yankees, and he had all his kennel
Speaker 1: dog greyhounds named after the Yankees, really Randolf, and it
Speaker 1: said to all of them. So when he had these guys,
Speaker 1: these dogs racing, we got the tape of the race,
Speaker 1: and again this is before computers. I had to go
Speaker 1: to the local bus station in Belmont, New Hampshire, and
Speaker 1: put the tape on a bus to lend Berman at
Speaker 1: Sea BSTV Channel two in New York to get him
Speaker 1: on a Sunday night TV show and he ran it.
Speaker 1: That's what I did in New Hampshire. Yeah, that's pretty
Speaker 1: damn impressive and stupid, really, but I did it firt
Speaker 1: of all. So if if the Knicks called you up
Speaker 1: and said, hey, we want you to move back to
Speaker 1: New York, I'd walk. I would walk there, believe me.
Speaker 1: I mean honestly, what I'm doing right now. And I
Speaker 1: know this is like a dreamland. I know, but it
Speaker 1: could very well happen because I got free time of mine,
Speaker 1: and I'm working with a man in Louisville, Kentucky. He's
Speaker 1: an attorney. His name is Bruce Miller, J Period Bruce Miller. J.
Speaker 1: Bruce Miller is a die hard, die hard NBA fan.
Speaker 1: He uh, he represented many NBA players over the years,
Speaker 1: and he almost had the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Louisville,
Speaker 1: but they ended up in Memphis. So I'm working with
Speaker 1: him trying to get investors to get an NBA team
Speaker 1: in Louisville. I think it could happen. Louisville a tremendous
Speaker 1: basketball city. They have a great arena, uh in Louisville,
Speaker 1: and I think they could support the NBA there more
Speaker 1: than that. And this is at the top of my head.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking this. A lot of these NBA owners took
Speaker 1: a bath this year. They lost a lot of money.
Speaker 1: And I won't be surprised if many of these owners
Speaker 1: would would even go out and try to sell their franchise.
Speaker 1: So I think Louisville has a chance if we can
Speaker 1: get someone to corny up the money. And what I
Speaker 1: do all day long? You talk about letter writing, Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, I mean I I write letters to everybody
Speaker 1: and anybody. And uh, about a year or so ago,
Speaker 1: I wrote a letter to Larry King. And why did
Speaker 1: I write to him? To stow fold number one? I
Speaker 1: knew he went to a pot of Dodgers. At one
Speaker 1: time I watched the Dodging games. He always sits right
Speaker 1: behind home plate number two. He went to my high school.
Speaker 1: He went to Lafayette High School in Brooklyn. So I
Speaker 1: got his address. I got this book of addresses. I
Speaker 1: wrote to his address in Beverly Hills and a couple
Speaker 1: of days later he called me up. He started singing
Speaker 1: me to fight song for Lafayette High School, and he
Speaker 1: said he was interested. But then, you know, God, you know,
Speaker 1: I hate to say his his son died and he
Speaker 1: got a divorce, and I kind of left and be
Speaker 1: because I just don't think he's ready for that right now.
Speaker 1: But we've got other people. And I wrote to uh
Speaker 1: Easter Ray. You know, I was watching the NBA games
Speaker 1: that she was doing promos on on the TV, So
Speaker 1: I wrote, I write to everybody and anybody that I
Speaker 1: think would be interested. I wrote to Charles Barklay wrote
Speaker 1: to uh Kenny the Jets Smith, you know your name it?
Speaker 1: What's the what's You have a circle of people with
Speaker 1: money that would be interested in buying an NBA team,
Speaker 1: So what's the pitch though? Like when you're hey, I've
Speaker 1: got I need you to write a check for millions
Speaker 1: of dollars to buy No I did. I didn't tell
Speaker 1: my background, and I'm legit, you know, like most of these.
Speaker 1: I write to Bernard King, I said, Bernard, I watched
Speaker 1: you play high school basketball at Fort Hambleton High School
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. I was a manager of my high school
Speaker 1: basketball team, and I said, Lafayette High School. I watched
Speaker 1: you play. I said, uh, watched you with the Knicks.
Speaker 1: I said, I'm working with J. Bruce Miller, an attorney
Speaker 1: in Louisville. I said, we'd love to have you join
Speaker 1: our group. I said, here's my cell phone number. I
Speaker 1: could hook you with Mr Miller and maybe you could
Speaker 1: fill you in on what we're doing and who love
Speaker 1: to have you join us. That's all. What could you say?
Speaker 1: You know, hopefully someone will, and I think they might.
Speaker 1: I think there's a there's a lot of people out
Speaker 1: there with money who love basketball and have an ego.
Speaker 1: That's what it takes. You have to have money, love
Speaker 1: the game at basketball, and have a bit of an ego.
Speaker 1: And is basketball your number one love or I love it?
Speaker 1: I love college in the NBA, but I love the
Speaker 1: NBA better. Interesting, So growing up in New York, obviously
Speaker 1: it's one thing. But did you transfer your allegiance to
Speaker 1: any team locally and you know an NBA TC. I
Speaker 1: love the Knicks. I live and die with the Knicks.
Speaker 1: I love Red Holsman. I loved him when he coached
Speaker 1: the Knicks. I went to Summit Camp. I met Red Holsman.
Speaker 1: They I just loved him. I love him to death.
Speaker 1: What about for baseball though, I mean, obviously Yankees are mats,
Speaker 1: and then now you go to Cincinnati with them, you know,
Speaker 1: I tell you, And this sounds terrible, it really does.
Speaker 1: I like the Reds, but I think that the longer
Speaker 1: I follow sports and got involved the sports, I think,
Speaker 1: the less interest to have in baseball. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people feel the same way. Baseball back when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, was a national sport. Baseball now
Speaker 1: is it local sport. It's a localized sport. I mean
Speaker 1: I watched the sportscast now in Cincinnati at eleven o'clock.
Speaker 1: They don't even give the playoff scores. They don't give
Speaker 1: any highlights, any tape because if your team is not
Speaker 1: in it, no one cares. But the NFL they plays
Speaker 1: ding NFL highlights in Boise, Idaho. It's a national sport
Speaker 1: for many reasons, the gambling aspect, the fantasy football aspect.
Speaker 1: But still I think baseball right now has become a
Speaker 1: localized sport. Unless your city is involved in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: no one cares. How does it feel any that you
Speaker 1: you've lived in Cincinnati all these years, you're from New
Speaker 1: York and the Knicks have become the Bengals, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you were saying that, you know who's the Bengals
Speaker 1: of the NBA, It's the Knicks, right. They've been horrible
Speaker 1: for well. I've open Tom Tibodot could turn them around.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping it could turn them around. Really now, I'm
Speaker 1: hearing some rumblings that Russell Westbrook may become a Knick
Speaker 1: and I'd love to see that. I would love to
Speaker 1: see him on the Knicks. So we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I think Tibodogat could. If anybody
Speaker 1: could turn them around, it's him, you know. And it's
Speaker 1: certainly sad because I hear all these fans and all
Speaker 1: these sports blaming owners. You know, in Cincinnati, it's Mike Brown.
Speaker 1: He's the He's the devil, He's the evil guy, the
Speaker 1: evil impick. What did he do? Mike Brown doesn't tackle,
Speaker 1: Mike Brown doesn't rush the quarterback. He has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with. They spent a lot of money this year.
Speaker 1: The Benge spent like a hundred and sixty million dollars
Speaker 1: on players. Maybe they spent it on the wrong players.
Speaker 1: Maybe he should have beefed up the offensive line just
Speaker 1: at the defensive side of the ball. You know, you've
Speaker 1: got a franchise quarterback. Protect the guy, protect him, And
Speaker 1: they didn't do that. So Andy, I want to circle
Speaker 1: back to the letter writing, have you had success with
Speaker 1: any of the younger generation, the millennials of the gen
Speaker 1: Z or these younger coaches? Do they right back or
Speaker 1: do they ignore you? Well, I'm trying to think who
Speaker 1: who they might be. I mean, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: older guys that ignore me too. I wish Saw Campbell
Speaker 1: might be a younger guy and I will stay because
Speaker 1: I knew him at the University of Toledo. He's kind
Speaker 1: of a younger guy. I don't. I don't. I think
Speaker 1: Matt Campbell maybe early thirties and maybe late twenties. I
Speaker 1: don't know how well that Campbell is. I think like
Speaker 1: like Sean McVeigh with the Rams or Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't like a lot of pro coaches. I really don't. Uh,
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll every once in a while and they'll scribble
Speaker 1: a note back. You know. You know who writes me
Speaker 1: back all the time is Hardbor Harbor from Michigan. He's
Speaker 1: the best he's great, hell away who rub me back
Speaker 1: in two three days? Handwritten notes all the time, I said,
Speaker 1: a lot of these letters a kid. I got a
Speaker 1: couple of letters Stiffer made off for up from Kentucky,
Speaker 1: you know, and I said at the time, when I
Speaker 1: was in high school, I said I wanted to attend
Speaker 1: the University of Kentucky was a basketball and he wrote
Speaker 1: me back. I got to find that letter somewhere in
Speaker 1: my basement, I guess, he said, young man, when you
Speaker 1: come down here and look me up in my office.
Speaker 1: He signed the eight offer up the baron. Wow, that's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. And andy have you do you frame any
Speaker 1: of your letters the return of that that's egotistical free
Speaker 1: from what so someone could see it. I know, I
Speaker 1: know you can see it's it's almost like a baseball
Speaker 1: card where you put it in a seal and you
Speaker 1: make sure that it's in good condition if you ever
Speaker 1: want to. I got it somewhere to fight the yellow
Speaker 1: and now it's probably turned that. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you're touched by fall apart, well, you read it once,
Speaker 1: what else you gonna do with it? Like I read books.
Speaker 1: After I read the book, I throw him away I'm
Speaker 1: gonna keep the book, Ane, and any any politician, any presidents,
Speaker 1: or anybody politician type people that you've written to over
Speaker 1: the years that we would know of. You know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I usually do write the president because uh, I used
Speaker 1: to write the President. Well, I tell you what the
Speaker 1: Queen of England. She's written me back several times. What
Speaker 1: the Queen of e I'm sure it's one of the
Speaker 1: staff members. But I got from Buckingham Palace. I got
Speaker 1: letters from Buckingham Palace and what it was. At one
Speaker 1: point in time, I wanted because my grandfather was from England.
Speaker 1: He really was from Golden's Green, right outside of London.
Speaker 1: And I mentioned that to the Queen and I said
Speaker 1: that I'm on radio in the States and I wouldn't
Speaker 1: mind working for the BBC. And I thought that really
Speaker 1: my accent, which I didn't have thought I had, but
Speaker 1: my New York Brooklyn twang, I thought that would go
Speaker 1: big in the BBC in London. It really would. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't know anything about the the soccer matches much, I
Speaker 1: mean the English Premier League maybe, but I think that
Speaker 1: would go the big. But she wrote me back and
Speaker 1: she said that she couldn't help me whatever, like you
Speaker 1: got to contact the station themselves. But she wrote me back,
Speaker 1: she really did. But you know when I used to
Speaker 1: work for the race tracks, but I used to do
Speaker 1: is send others out to the presidents or or the
Speaker 1: queen and and invite them to opening not at the races,
Speaker 1: And that always used to get some good pr. I
Speaker 1: remember I once wrote to George Burns and I said
Speaker 1: that I'd give you a boxes to cars if you
Speaker 1: come out to opening night and you know, zero stats.
Speaker 1: Send it out to the press and they bite on that,
Speaker 1: and they always wrote about that. That's pretty cool. We
Speaker 1: gotta wrap this up, Andy, I love you man. Sunday
Speaker 1: mornings right, promote your show. Andy. People can hear you
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio Sunday mornings six am Eastern Time,
Speaker 1: three am Pacific Time, Sirius XM, Channel eighty three, the
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app. Also thirteen sixty am in Cincinnati, AM
Speaker 1: in Dayton, UH twelve sixty am and in Indianapolis seven
Speaker 1: ninety a m. In Louisville. Look at that. Mr he knew. Alright, alright,
Speaker 1: I got it. We're on a lot of stations, all right, Andy.
Speaker 1: We love you man. Thank you for your time and
Speaker 1: we'll do this again. Thanks, but they're okay. Honestly, that
Speaker 1: was great. It was wonderful. It was life changing. I
Speaker 1: love it. Yeah, it's going to change my life. I
Speaker 1: hope no one is. Be sure to catch live editions
Speaker 1: of The Ben Miller Show weekdays at two am Eastern
Speaker 1: eleven pm Pacific