Paul Finebaum

Paul Finebaum is an American sports author, television and radio personality and former columnist based in Birmingham, Alabama. His primary focus is sports, particularly those in the Southeast. Finebaum was born in Memphis, Tennessee and attended the University of Tennessee, where he received a liberal arts degree in Political Science. He currently serves as host of the Paul Finebaum Radio Network, whose flagship station is on WJOX from 2:05-6pm CST. The show is syndicated in Alabama (27 stations), Mississippi (2 stations), Tennessee (3) and on single stations in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The show can also be watched live internet stream at MyFoxFinebaum.com. It can also be heard daily on Sirius XM Radio (Channel 91).

News Reporter

Paul Finebaum arrived in Birmingham in 1980 and became a columnist and investigative reporter for the Birmingham Post-Herald. Finebaum's work has earned him over 250 national, regional and area sports writing awards, including his investigative stories on the recruitment of Alabama basketball player Buck Johnson. He also in 1993 broke the story of Antonio Langham, a University of Alabama football player who signed a contract with a sports agent while playing for the school, which led to NCAA probation for the school. He was also first to report the firing of Auburn University coach Terry Bowden in 1998. Finebaum joined the Mobile Press Register in 2001 where he wrote a twice-weekly (later weekly) column with the column syndicated to other newspapers. Finebaum discontinued the column in December 2010. On Sept. 1, Finebaum returned to writing with his first column for Sports Illustrated. His weekly column appears every Thursday at SI.com. His Christmas Eve column on a radio caller from Iowa suffering from cerebral palsy was among the most critically acclaimed stories of his career.

Finebaum found himself embroiled at the center of one of biggest stories in America - the poisoning of the famous trees on Toomer's Corner at Auburn University. The man charged called the Finebaum show, claiming to have poisoned the trees. The audio of the call was played on nearly every national radio show and television newscast in the nation. In the aftermath, Finebaum was featured on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, appeared on CNN, ESPN, MSNBC and several other networks. He also was blamed by many for the reason for the event including one caller saying "if anything else happens, there will be blood on your hands." On April 21, Harvey Updyke appeared again on the Finebaum show, speaking publicly for the first time since the incident, breaking his long silence. The interview, perhaps the most listened to ever in the history of the Finebaum show, made national news, appearing in publications ranging from the New York Times to ESPN's SportsCenter. Updyke ended the 45-minute interview with his signature Roll Damn Tide. Finebaum also had a leading role in ESPN's critically acclaimed documentary, ``Roll Tide, War Eagle. The producers used Finebaum and his program as the voice of the documentary, which debuted on Nov. 8.

In late May, Finebaum received more national attention for his four hour interview with Randy Owen, raising awareness for victims of the April 27 tornadoes. Donna Francavilla described the moment in a recent article in the RTDNA (Radio television news directors association) magazine: ``On the day the storm hit, Finebaum described the tornado as he watched it approach the big picture window in his studio. Since then, Finebaum hasn’t talked much about sports. Finebaum said, “On the day the Bama Rising concert was announced, we had (Alabama native country music star) Randy Owen in studio for the entire show, four hours, promoting the event, taking phone calls about the tornado. He ended up giving a mini-concert. (Citadel manager) Bill Thomas told me afterwards that we broke every rule in sports radio history; however, it was by far, the most memorable and meaningful program we have ever done - and the best. He sang many songs and naturally ended the show by singing an acoustic version of ``My Home’s In Alabama.’’ There wasn’t a dry eye in the house or in cars across the listening audience. We have stayed with the story non-stop with the support of our partners at Sirius-XM.” In October, Mark Kelly wrote the cover story in Weld on Finebaum http://weldbham.com/blog/2011/10/18/the-listener-paul-finebaum, a piece many consider the most definitive and revealing of his career. Kelly is reportedly turning the magazine story into an upcoming book on Finebaum.

Radio and television

Finebaum started his radio appearances in the mid 1980's by giving morning commentary on the Mark and Brian Radio Show on WAPI-FM (I-95). After starting his own afternoon radio show a few years later on WAPI-AM, his program quickly became the highest rated sport-talk show in Birmingham. In October 1993, Finebaum moved his sports-talk show to WERC. His show prospered immensely and in 2001 the show began syndication with affiliates across the southeast. It is now one of the highest-rated sports show in America.

In 2002, Paul was named by The Tennessean in Nashville as one of the Southeastern Conference's Top Power Brokers.

The Paul Finebaum Radio Network, comprising Finebaum, Network Director Pat Smith, Newsman Neal Vickers, Associate Producer Kerry Adams and webmaster Dave Sibley was named in 2004 by Sports Illustrated as one of the top 12 sports radio shows in the United States. In January 2007, his radio show moved to WJOX.

In 2008, Columbia University named Finebaum's Show as one of the winners of its annual 'Let's Do it Better! Workshop on Journalism, Race and Ethnicity. Sponsored by the Ford Foundation, the award singles out newspaper, broadcast and web reporting that fosters coherent, authentic coverage of race reporting. Finebaum was selected for providing a strong and sometimes controversial view on racial issues in sports through his multi-media contributions that include the “Paul Finebaum Radio Network,” his Web site, Finebaum.com and a twice-weekly syndicated sports column. In particular, Columbia cited a poignant show on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday - which highlighted the slain Civil Rights leaders still strong connections with today's sports stars - was among those submitted to the panel selecting the awards. Among Finebaum's written works noted included a column in the Mobile Press-Register on the first two black coaches in the bowl, the admission of NBA star that he was gay, a column on the University of Alabama snubbing of Sylvester Croom to be the first black football head coach in the SEC and a tribute to the late Grambling coach Eddie Robinson.

In July 2009, The Orlando Sentinel named Finebaum as one of the SEC's 10 most powerful people. "With a syndicated show heard in multiple SEC states that also commands a big audience on the Web, the Birmingham, Ala.-based Finebaum has proven in more than two decades of muckraking in print and on the air that his barbs can influence a coach's fate." On Jan. 11, 2011, CNBC's Emmy-Award winning sports reporter, Darren Rovell, wrote: ``Back 2 back titles by Alabama & Auburn make Finebaum the most powerful small market sports media member in the nation." Rovell added:``What makes Finebaum so good at what he does? He's the best listener of any sports talk radio host. In July, 2011, Finebaum was awarded the dubious honor in a list of 10 sports figures, as the 'Most Hated Man in the SEC' beating out the likes of Cam Newton, Steve Spurrier and Harvey Updyke. In January,2012, The Bleacher Report named Finebaum one of the 25 Most Influential People in college football. He was one of only two members of the media listed, along with ESPN president John Skipper.

Finebaum's television contributions have been numerous. In Birmingham he currently appears as a sports analyst for WBRC Fox 6. He was sports director for WIAT-TV from 1997 to 2002 and co-hosted individual shows on WVTM-TV NBC 13 and ABC 33/40. Recently he has been a frequent guest on ESPN's Outside The Lines with Bob Ley commenting on national and regional stories.

He's been a guest on television's Larry King Live, CBS' 60 Minutes, Nancy Grace, MSNBC's Morning Joe, HBO and Tru TV.

Publications

By Finebaum

Finebaum's books include his popular I Hate... series, including I Hate Notre Dame: 303 Reasons Why You Should, Too, and several dozen similarly titled works which attack most major college athletic programs.

Finebaum's other books include The Worst of Paul Finebaum (ISBN 1881548120), a 1994 compilation of some of the newspaper columns he has written; and Finebaum Said (ISBN 1931656037), a 2001 collection of columns and interviews.

About Finebaum

As a spoof, his friend and colleague Tommy Charles published I Hate Paul Finebaum: 303 Reasons Why You Should, Too in 1996. This fall, the publication of a book exclusively about the unique culture of the Finebaum Show. Great Call: Why The Finebaum Show Is America's Barbershop, was written by Author Tom Ward.

Famous guests

On his weekly show during the college football season, Finebaum has many weekly guests. Included is former University of Alabama head coach Gene Stallings, former Auburn University head coach Pat Dye, Barbara Dooley, wife of former University of Georgia head coach Vince Dooley and mother of current University of Tennessee coach Derek Dooley, Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News, ESPN College Gameday's Kirk Herbstreit, CBS college football analyst Gary Danielson and CBS Sports's Tim Brando. Leading up to the season, the show had a number of major head coaches on, including Alabama's Nick Saban, Auburn's Gene Chizik, Florida's Urban Meyer, Jacksonville's Kerwin Bell, South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, Notre Dame's Brian Kelly, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops and TCU's Gary Patterson.

References

• Barnes, Susan. (Summer 2005) "The Devil We Know". Tennessee Alumnus Magazine. Vol. 85, No. 3 - accessed April 16, 2006
• Paul Finebaum is "the most influential sports-talk personality in the Southeast" - Huntsville Times, August 21, 2003.
• "Paul Finebaum, the state's most influential sports columnist and talk-show host" - New York Times, May 4, 2003.
• Fowler, Jeremy. "Finebaum voted as one of the SEC's 10 most powerful people"- "[1]". Orlando Sentinel, July 10, 2009.

External links

• Paul Finebaum Radio Network official site
• MyFoxFinebaum.com (streamng video)
• FinebaumFan.com (Community Fan Site)
• Finebaum headed to WJOX, Birmingham News
• Cranehill Press "I Hate..." Series
• Paul Finebaum article at BhamWiki.com
• Listen to Paul Finebaum Show on RadioJunkee.com