ALBANY – The chairman of the state Democratic Party, Herman Farrell, made an impromptu appearance on a radio talk show yesterday to heatedly berate its host over a news story about the impending birth of a child to the party leader’s girlfriend.

The host of the show on WROW-AM in Albany is Fred Dicker, the New York Post’s state editor.

“I just came in to let your radio listeners know what a piece of slime that you are,” Mr. Farrell declared in the Post’s state Capitol office where Mr. Dicker was broadcasting his morning show. “You’re a bully.”

Mr. Dicker defended his handling of the story and at one point took the microphone from Mr. Farrell and told him: “You’re the head of the Democratic Party and you’re acting like some street character. Obviously, you’re a little bit out of control here, Mr. Farrell.”

Immediately afterward, Mr. Farrell said he felt his heated exchange with the talk show host was appropriate even if there could be negative consequences.

“My staff is going to beat the stuffing out of me for doing this, but I don’t care,” he said. “You don’t let people get away with this crap.”

In a later telephone call to the Associated Press, Mr. Farrell said: “I want to apologize to the audience for losing my temper on the radio. Fred Dicker is not worth losing your temper about.”

Mr. Farrell said he had no plans to apologize to Mr. Dicker and wasn’t going to worry about the potential political consequences of his verbal attack on the reporter.

“To have him turn this into a sleazy episode is unacceptable,” he said. “So the outcome is the outcome.”

Mr. Farrell’s appearance was prompted by Mr. Dicker’s on-air complaints that the party leader had gone to other news outlets on Tuesday with the story about the impending birth, knowing Mr. Dicker was preparing to write about it for the New York City tabloid.

After the on-air confrontation, Mr. Farrell said he had taken the story to other news organizations, including the AP, only after Mr. Dicker began asking others about the “Farrell scandal.”

Mr. Farrell said that when Mr. Dicker first called him about the story earlier in the week, “I said it was private and none of his business, and I said I’m not speaking about it.”

“When he tried to turn it into a negative, as he did, I have a responsibility to make sure that the true story got out and that’s why I called everybody,” said Mr. Farrell, state party chair since December 2001.

Mr. Farrell, 72, is also chairman of the state Assembly’s powerful Ways and Means Committee. The Manhattan Democrat has been in the Assembly since 1974. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor in 1985.

“In early February, I will be blessed with the birth of my third child,” Mr. Farrell told the AP on Tuesday. “Along with my partner of many years, I have been looking forward to this for a number of years and we are overjoyed about welcoming our child into the world.”

Mr. Farrell, who has a son and a daughter in their 40s, has been separated for a number of years and was divorced last year.

“This will be a very happy event, and my family and I hope our privacy will be respected,” Mr. Farrell told the AP.

The state party chairman wouldn’t identify his girlfriend. She is in her 30s.

Mr. Farrell said the woman has never worked for him. She was an intern in the state Assembly about 20 years ago, but he didn’t meet her until after she left, he said.

Yesterday, Mr. Dicker’s story said Mr. Farrell “has fathered an out-of-wedlock ‘love child’ whose birth is imminent.”

“I think the question of whether I have a child out-of-wedlock – and even that word – it makes it look like major sin,” Mr. Farrell said yesterday. “We’re living in the 21st century.”

During the exchange, Mr. Dicker told Mr. Farrell the story had news value because Mr. Farrell is a public figure and “you’re an elected official in a community that’s been troubled with out-of-wedlock births.” Mr. Farrell is the first black to serve as New York’s state Democratic Party chairman.

Following the radio show, Mr. Dicker added, “I did say it was slimy that he leaked our story because we had it as an exclusive, and I think that’s generally recognized as a slimy thing to do.”