Sunday, February 25, 2001
Sports on TV-Radio
Furman taking Sundays off
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Andy Furman is going to sleep in today. Furman, who got his start on Sunday morning SportsTalk, becomes a five-day guy starting today.
Clear Channel AM operations director Darryl Parks and Bob Trumpy worked out a deal this week. Trumpy and Tom Dinkel, Furman's partner, will host the Sunday show on WLW-AM (700). Trumpy also will continue his Bengals duties and be used as a fill-in host.
Furman wanted off Sundays. He has been doing SportsTalk solo Monday through Friday for three years, in addition to Sunday.
“I'm going to take it easy,” he said. “I've been waiting for this.”
The Reds season means a lot of extra hours for Furman. He does SportsTalk before Reds games and Extra Innings after the games Monday through Thursday.
Tracy Jones will continue to do Extra Innings Friday through Sunday.
JON & JOE: Sunday Night Baseball's Jon Miller and Joe Morgan signed multiyear contract extensions this week. ESPN's Miller and Morgan are the best team working in baseball, so that's a good thing.
They are working their 12th season together.
The Reds make two appearances on SNB — May 13 against Houston and June 3 at St. Louis.
FOX SHINES: Lost in the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt was the terrific job Fox did with its first NASCAR race last week at the Daytona 500.
The pictures are excellent, although the “Crank It Up” segments (just video and sound) fell flat. The graphics were exceptional; I particularly liked the breakdown of the car to show how the camber works.
The announcers, Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds, didn't sound like they were doing their first Winston Cup race. They made it easy for non-fans to understand.
Waltrip rooting for his brother, Michael, was actually a nice touch. You want analysts to call things down the middle. But when it's the greatest moment of your little brother's career, let the emotions flow. The viewers will understand.
Fox's half-hour prerace show at 12:30 p.m. today will focus on Earnhardt, but the coverage of the Rockingham race will be about the race.
“Dale died tragically on Sunday,” Darrell Waltrip said. “But racing did not.”
NASCAR FEUD: ESPN has accepted credentials from NASCAR to cover the race at Rockingham but won't shoot footage.
The network didn't accept credentials for the Daytona 500 in a dispute over NASCAR limiting RPM 2Night's access.
RPM 2Night had its three highest-rated shows ever in the wake of Earnhardt's death, pulling a 2.2 Sunday, a 1.7 Monday and a 1.6 Tuesday. The show usually draws a 0.3.
“Fans are reaching out to RPM 2Night,” ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said. “We felt like we had to be there.”
SCHAAP STUFF: ESPN Classic will air an adaptation of Dick Schaap's autobiography Flashing Before My Eyes at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The segments on Schaap are mildly interesting. The segments on Mike Reid, Bill Lee and Bo Jackson are great television.
KUDOS TO KATHRINE: Spring training pieces this time of year have a way of looking and sounding alike. But Channel 9's Kathrine Nero broke the mold by showing the Reds players video of the new Cinergy Field.
Their reactions — they loved it — made the story work.
E-mail: jfay@enquirer.com.
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Furman taking Sundays off
