I listen to the Paul Finebaum show as much as possible. Whether it is during football season or out of season, Finebaum is the most interesting and informative show on the radio. Finebaum covers sports and politics with aplomb.
The Tuesday show was textbook Finebaum; it combined a sports topic of the day, with a foray into local politics. Both topics were interesting and made the entire four hours entertaining. Oddly enough, the callers contributed substantially to the program (something unusual for talk radio.)
When Athletes Attack was the major sports topic of the Tuesday show. The discussion centered on the arrest of Alabama’s Jeremy Elder, and the discontent brewing in Knoxville over players getting in trouble with the law.
However, the show deviated from sports talk, and focused on damning political revelations published in Tuesday’s Birmingham News. The News reported a charity with links to Mayor Larry Langford had engaged in financial mismanagement of donated money. The most salacious element was an allegation the charity paid $30,000 to a gay porn star for computer work.
Hilarity ensued with callers sharing thoughts on RAM upgrades, and a host of other jokes.
A highlight of the program was a classic clip from last summer where Jim from Tuscaloosa engaged in a verbal battle with Langford. Langford, always eloquent, called Jim a turkey.
The classic call combined with many entertaining and enlightening calls from the audience made me appreciate the callers for once. I’ve often been critical of callers on local radio programs. They range from annoying to inaudible—I’m not sure which is worse. But Tuesday, the callers were funny.
Unfortunately, the guests were buffoons.
Donald Maurice Jackson appeared on the show to discuss the Elder case. Listening to Jackson, you’d think this was the OJ Simpson case. Whatever. This is the guy who blamed Alabama’s free throw shooting problems on every high school, junior high school and elementary basketball coach in the state.
Jackson has problems placing blame where it belongs.
He’s a lawyer. That explains it all.
Another guest of the day was John Adams, a Tennessee columnist who called for UT coach Phil Fulmer to resign. Adams wants Fulmer out because of all the arrests, and discipline problems in Knoxville.
Yawn. Does anyone think Fulmer would be catching heat if he had defeated Nick Saban or Les Miles this year?
Of course not. Fans only care about these issues when they are losing to rivals.
There was one comment made on the show about Alabama fans wanting to call on Fulmer to be fired, but being unable to do so because of Alabama’s current discipline problems.
I don’t know one Alabama fan wanting Fulmer fired. I want Fulmer to continue in Knoxville. Why? I want him to face actual Alabama football teams unhindered by past troubles. I want Fulmer to stay in Knoxville where Alabama and UT can face each other on equal terms.
Fulmer must face Saban, Marc Richt at Georgia and Urban Meyer at Florida every season. Fulmer is obviously inferior to those coaches, and the UT program is fading as Georgia and Alabama are heating up.
The hypocrites wanting Fulmer out can shut up—we aren’t buying your fake concern over morality and discipline. We know it is all about winning, or in your case losing.
The biggest criticism of the show Tuesday was the online streaming. I listen to the broadcast most of the time from my desk via MyFoxFinebaum.com. The partners streaming the broadcast on the Internet do a decent job; however, the volume on commercials for Fox 6 programming are deafening. The audio is so much louder on commercials than the show’s regular audio that it impairs listener’s ability to enjoy the show.
Due to the ear-splitting audio, I’m forced to mute the program from time-to-time.
I also keep the mute key handy for certain callers.
The callers I don’t (usually) mute or wouldn’t mute if they still called are:
1. Don from Downtown. (Whatever happened to him?)

2. Jim from Tuscaloosa (That throwback call Tuesday was great stuff)

3. Shane (good call Wednesday regarding FG)

4. Calvin (freaks can be entertaining…that’s why there is a circus)
Callers I despise include Dawson (he gives pastors a bad name) and I-Man (he gives dumbasses a bad name). If there were bigger time burglars in this world, I wouldn’t want to meet them or have to listen to them on talk radio.
Even with dullards like those two, the show remains the best in Alabama.
Any suggestions on a show to review next?
17 thoughts on “Media Review: Paul Finebaum on WJOX”
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Oh look, it’s Mr “I’m so cool, I just got linked by Finebaum”! 😉
I say review some national shows if you can. I can only imagine how you feel about Jim Rome and the others.
haha, i didn’t know I’d gotten a link. I’ll have to send a note of thanks for that.
Is Cowherd still on WSPZ? I’m thinking I need to hit him and Rome and Dunaway & Brown on that station. But I probably won’t be nice in my reviews of Rome and Cowherd—I hate smartasses!
Who knows about WSPZ. I can’t hear any of that 690 AM stuff in Tuscaloosa due to the weak signal.
I was shocked at how bad the WJOX FM signal was today. I was driving from Springville and Ashville today into Birmingham and there were times the signal was very hard to hear.
what, no mention of mildred???
dead on about dawson, bud. whether it’s stallings, dubose, shula, hobbs or gottfried, he’s got the same pollyannish lines about them all. sickening.
i’ve been listening to finebaum for years. since ’89. anyone remember roger from bessemer? i’ll never forget roger’s encounters with beano cook.
“beano, at what point in your life did you realize……..you know everything?”
classic finebaum show moment. and there have been many over the years.
the tommy charles pistol whipping. (in the parking lot!)
the time paul claimed the famous (or infamous) “punt ‘bama punt” call was made by jim fyffe. of course, it was gary sanders who was the auburn play-by-play man at the time but paul argued with callers for two hours!
and the interview with tonya harding’s fan club “refreshment chairman”!
from bob lochamy to neal vickers, the paul finebaum show has entertained me many for about 450,000 miles with no oil change. that’s no lemon!
Agreed, this is easily one of the best sports shows period. I live in Atlanta, and we are pretty much devoid of anything close to quality sports radio talk show. I listen to the Finebaum show every day at work too.
I have enjoyed your reviews of the other sports talk, as well. I have tried listening to some of the other shows on JOX, but they are of poor quality.
You need to do D&B and i wonder how Herbie’s new show on 960 is…. You should review that one.
What do you think makes the difference between the callers to Finebaums show and those of the other shows that you hate so much? Are Finebaum’s so much better in general, or are there just a few excellent callers that put him over the top?
Of the other shows are there callers of equal caliber to Finebaums that get overlooked because of more inferior callers?
Yep, Capstone, it’s ALL about winning-that is the EXACT philosophy of your Lord and Savior, Nick Saban.
What is it-7 arrests in 11 months or something like that. Yeah, NO BIG DEAL.
Yeah, Auburn has been corrupt in the past, but CTT has changed that, I can assure you I will take 6 in a row over you, one of the best records in the SEC over the past four years, an SEC championship and undefeated season WITH discipline and character ANY DAY OF THE WEEK!
I’ve added those to my list, and will try to get them asap.
As for callers, I tend to hate ALL talk radio callers…but a friend keeps telling me I’ve become a misanthrope…so maybe that is it. LOL Every time I listen to talk radio, I find myself worried about the future of the Republic. 😉
Finebaum’s callers are on average just a little better than the other shows. But sometimes the callers are on their A-game, and enrich the show greatly like Tuesday and Wednesday.
Please review Seth Harp in Huntsville. Show is streamed from 6am to 9am at http://www.730ump.com.
If he gets a favorable review, I will be shocked.
What the Hell is Chris talking about? What does that have to do with a Finebaum review?
I have no idea what he is talking about, but he seems to forget about the whole Sociology department thing. It sounds like a new Auburn talking point “discpline and character.” I think that is all we have heard from Auburn since NSD.
Chris,
It’s 4 in 11 months, mostly left over from the Shula regime. Saban had 1 month to recuit last year.
Yeah, tell us about Trey Blackmon and the other thugs Tuberville has let off the hook. How about the 10 NQs last year, or the Sociology abyss. AU the model of purity – ha.
The problem, and you know it, is that AU and Tuberville are being destroyed in recruiting, so you are looking for any diversion to console yourselves. You’ve not had to recruit the last 7 or 8 years, but now things have changes and you are not up to the challenge. So whine on about any Bama slip, while your program falls further and further behind the SEC elite. Btw, desparate offensive philosophy changes, will only exascerbate your fade.
But continue to lie to yourself.
How about reviewing Dunnaway and Brown.
the panic in chris’s voice comes through quite clearly. they are going to be forced to live in the the past, and they know it. this is just a matter of time, and not that much of it.
I just named my enema “I-Man”. I figure that’s the best place for him.
All Paul Finebaum does is trash talk about the Bama Program, our players and our coach. Its a shame he makes his living by trashing us live on radio everyday. The callers and people who listen to his show is what makes it possible for him to continue to do this, If we as bama fans would turn him off, stop listening, and stop calling his show, he would not have a show left. Paul Finebaum talks out of both sides of his mouth anyway. I stop lisenting to him because I cant stand the way he downs the bama program, as a fan, I refuse to listen to his trash anymore. I wish he would go back to where ever he came from, because hes not a bama fan, thats for sure!