Vermont Legend “Arlo Mudgett” Joins Staff

CHESTER, VT – He’s a character, both figuratively and literally, and now Arlo Mudgett has joined RIDE-CT & RIDE-NewEngland as a contributing writer and columnist. His real name is Bob Furman and he’s a longtime radio personality and newspaper columnist in southern Vermont using the Arlo Mudgett moniker.

He also just happens to be a lifelong motorcycle enthusiast, who owns a ’93 Honda Nighthawk 750 project bike, a 2010 Triumph Bonneville, a 2006 Harley Sportster 1200 and a 2014 Honda CRF 250 dual sport.

Beginning this week, Furman, er, Mudgett will write a column for the website called “Hill Country,” presumably because he “resides on a beautiful Vermont hillside” between Saxtons River and Chester.

When not writing columns for the “Brattleboro Reformer” and “Springfield Reporter” or appearing daily on WKVT and WKVT-FM in Brattleboro, Mudgett, er, Furman works full-time as marketing director for the River Valley Credit Union in Brattleboro.

How the Arlo Mudgett character came to be is a whopper of tale.

Furman explained, “Way back in 1981, Rick Joyce, the current executive producer of “Entertainment Tonight,” was a morning deejay in Springfield, VT. He had a great idea: Why not pull off an April Fool’s joke on air?”

Furman was working as a sales executive at the station, WCFR, and Joyce enlisted him “to play the part of a disgruntled local farmer who was sick of the music that the radio station played and decides to take Joyce hostage.” The farmer’s made-up name was Arlo Mudgett.
Imagine trying to do that today.

Joyce and Furman recorded a series of Ted Koppel interview-style news updates that ultimately uncovered the identity of the hostage taker. Furman recalled, “The news reports were titled ‘Who is this Arlo Mudgett?’ I did all of the voices of the interviewees, including Arlo Mudgett’s mother who said, ‘Arlo is one of thirteen children and the only one who had his own room. He was a loner.’ Each interview ended with those same words – ‘He was a loner.’”

What happened next was unexpected. “The hoax was a hit and the president of Idlenot Dairy, the third largest dairy in New England, happened to hear the program and hired Furman on the spot to be the dairy’s spokesperson. With a thick Vermont accent, Mudgett soon became a celebrity,” he said.

Now, 35 years later, Mudgett still does a daily radio program at 8:35 a.m. Monday through Saturday in WKVT called “The Morning Almanac with Arlo Mudgett.” It is arguably the oldest continuous local radio feature in Vermont. Under the name Arlo Mudgett, Furman has entertained audiences in person, on radio, and in two weekly newspaper columns for decades.

Furman is a native Vermonter from Chester, a graduate of Boston’s Northeast Broadcasting School. He also attended Dartmouth College as a community student and got his start on America’s only commercial college radio station, Dartmouth’s WDCR. After a stint at WOCB/WSOX in West Yarmouth, MA. Furman returned to Vermont and was the sales manager at WCFR for many years. After studying graphic design, Furman became the marketing director for a staffing firm and ultimately marketing director for River Valley Credit Union, where he has been for over 18 years.

“Bob Furman, excuse me, Arlo Mudgett will bring a unique perspective to RIDE-CT & RIDE-NewEngland, and will will likely teach the flat-landers on the staff a thing or two,” said website editor Bud Wilkinson. Mudgett’s first column will be posted later this week.