Nobody has ever ruled this city’s air waves like the crowned king of radio and all media, Johnny Dare.
There is no argument on this one. Kevin Kietzman, Larry Moore, Jason Whitlock – none of them have even close to the insane following of the Rock 98.9 FM’s Pied Piper of the Masses. Dare’s been No. 1 in morning radio (and for that matter all radio) for ten years now. He’s got monster ratings and has always been number one in the market here.
To further prove this point, this Saturday is ROCKFEST with no less than
smartman
And now ladies and gentlemen, when we need him most, the one, the only live and large DINO MARTINO!!!
tony
Johnny Dare is a dime a dozen local rock jock. There is nothing special about him. Go to any other city and they have one of their own. Same old shtick, same old ass kissing celebrity interviews etc. This guy is so played out its not even funny. If JD is really the king of all KC media I really do need to move far away.
jojo
SORRY GLAZER…THE KING IN THIS TOWN IS
NOW KEVIN KIETZMAN.
I LOVE DARE…BUT OUTSIDE KC JOHNNY DARE
ISN’T WELL KNOW OR RECOGNIZED.
THIS WEEK KK MADE AND HIT THE BIG TIMEWITH
HIS EXCLUSIVE STORY ON THE BIG 12.
MILLIONS FOLLOWED IT…MILLIONS HEARD HIS
NAME…HE;’S NOW MOVED UP THE CHARTS TO
BE THE EQUAL OF THE TOP SPORTS NEWS ANNOUNCERS
IN THE NATION…..
JOHNNYS GREAT…BUT NO WHERE NEAR THE
NATIONAL COVERAGE KK IS NOW GETTING.
MandDShagger
A journalist is supposed to have a POV, that’s point of view, NOT point of YOU.
It’s Sturgis for Godsake! Sturguss gets you shanked in any lack of respectable biker bar. Good thing for you the 2%’ers don’t read this blog.
I’ll take my BSA over ANY Harley ANY DAY. There was a time when having a Harley and a tat was cool. Not so much now.
I’d rather listen to Don Fortune show transcripts read in Mandarin Chinese by Gilbert Gottfried in quadrophonic audio at 137db than listen to Johnny Dare. Ditto what Tony said. He’s the Kevin Kietzman of rock. Who listens to him? People that have finally figured out it’s NOT cool to listen to Kelly Urich? Johnny may be good at what he does but so is Paris Hilton. Gomer Pyle was popular too but he wasn’t any George Patton.
Fuck me for being esoteric but I’d much rather be Daniel Day Lewis than Will Ferell.
Rockfest is just a white trash beer bash. Low IQ, $10.00-$15.00 an hour, (on average for those of you that passed math in public school), grunts and gruntettes with maybe on average a just got out of high school education. Maybe an MBA, JD or two tossed in to offset the 7th grade dropout meth queens. Basically the kind of people jojo hires and fires every day. I’m just sayin.
KC is not gonna get dragged out of the societal shithole vortex we’re spinning in by Johnny Dare and his fans or the Chris Stigall whackjobs on the other end of the spectrum.
KY Fan
My wife and I are former Ky listeners, and loved that show, thanks for mentioning them. You hit it on the head, Dare is the man in this market, and hey dumb ass jojo, Dare is national he has a fulltime tv show on TruTv, Full Throttle, and its back this season, he kills KK.
Collective Noses
Great article Craig. JD is a solid dude and cares about KC. His ‘Hope for the Holiday Campaign’ which he does every year always brings a tear to my eye. I think you accurately characterized all of the characters and each is humorous and entertaining in their own way.
Whatever happened to MW? I never heard the gossip why she left the show? Maybe since this is a gossip site someone with some insight will clue me in.
DonkeyPunch
Collective Noses sed:
Whatever happened to MW? I never heard the gossip why she left the show? Maybe since this is a gossip site someone with some insight will clue me in.
Donkeypunch sez:
JD found out she was really a dude
Rob Lane
Nice piece guys, didn’t know why Dare was such a big thing in your market, now I do.
MGarr
Hey guys don’t forget Bikers For Babies, thats huge for them too. Man they get like 8,000 bikers in a line flying through KC. Love it.
Duke
And Randy Miller continues to wish he wasn’t such an a-hole and blew the whole thing. The cream rises to the top.
Susan Dunlap
So cool, love this story. Johnny is great and I listen almost daily. Glad you guys explained why he’s such a big star. For those on this blog who think he isn’t, what the hell are you smokin.
KellysGuy
Johnny love you at Kellys. Glazer you can stay the f out, take Nigro with you.
KCMO staffer
Dare kicks our butt, but we don’t play music either. I have to agree he is the KING.
Rick in PV
You left out Phil Jay and Johnny Dolan (WHB, 1960s) and Dick and Jay (KY102, 75-83)
jweinberg
You got that right Glazer, have listened to Dare for years, love when you guys go at it. His show gets better every year.
smartman
Randy Raley was the best rock DJ EVER in KC. He walked it, talked it and lived it.
Bikers for Baby’s, BACA and ABATE were around way before Johnny bought a Harley… when every other yuppie wanna be badass did. Nothing like seeing the guys in JOCO on a 883 bitch bike.
If Johnny had any REAL game his show could be syndicated from KC. His schtick plays here, as does KK’s, Chris Stigall, even Shanin and Parks ….it’s just a reflection of how people in the metro are so easily entertained and part of the reason we are a community in serious decline. Spend a day in, STL, Chicago, NY, Philly, hell even Omaha surfing the radio dial. You’ll find lots more interesting and intellectually challenging conversation on sports, politics and local affairs from both hosts and listeners.
jweinberg
Smartman, I won’t argue that Chicago,Stl,and New York are more on top of it then we in KC are, however Randy Raley never reached Randy Miller status, let alone Dares. If you hate it here so much and we are all such losers, move.
jack hanrahan
Craig, Johnny is and has always been the real thing. When he got hired by the AM station
“Z Rock” way back in the 80’s he was paid dog shit to DJ on the air. No real ratings but I sensed a young man with “star power” who knew his stuff… I could see the raw talent. He was nervous and high strung but loved what he did..
We were looking for a more edgy in-house DJ for our club The Lone Star as the music had become much edgier with Rob Zombie,Alice in Chains, Jane’s Addictions etc, doing sold-out shows at The Lone Star. Johnny sold us on using him as our main in-house joc and he kicked ass and made the new music scene arrive in a big way for us. We started booking national bands from that genre because Johnny said they would sell out… he was dead on right…
That’s not to say that I didn’t have to “finesse” his every other filthy 4 letter word initially but he wised up on that and we had a long, long win/win relationship with Johnny.
He’s the King of Rock in my book…He’s welcome in my home anytime…
Cheers, Jack Hanrahan
Collective Noses
Smartman says:
“You
jweinberg
Jack, great add in story, I was at Lone Star back then, my band played there a few times, Mornigstar, Johnny was a great DJ then and is now.
KY Fan
Johnny just got back from the concert, had to work, but even in rain, great crowd, great show. You rock.