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A funny thing happened to 610 Sports afternoon host Nick Wright on the way to the dentist yesterday…
He awoke to a column by former KCC media sport Greg Hall claiming that Wright was so damaged from an on-air encounter with former Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock on Monday that he was taking yesterday and today off from his radio show.
That somehow Wright had been either wrist-slapped off the air by management at Entercom or so shamed he couldn’t bear to face listeners.
Which I can now report was ridiculously bogus. Really.
"Nick Wright Takes Sudden ‘Vacation’ Following The Dissestion," reads the headline on Hall’s story about the show.
"Is Wright’s absence the rest of the week an unannounced vacation or a result of his tumultuous on-air dialogue with Jason Whitlock earlier this week that has now been dubbed, “The Dissection?” Hall wrote. "It would seem to be at least partly due to his dual encounters with the Round Mound of Sound. I am guessing Whitlock will not be taking the rest of the week off to recover."
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There’s more…
"Apparently, Wright has taken The Dissection far harder than even any of us know," Hall added. "Instead of enjoying his time in the spotlight – and make no mistake, Wright and his show have been on the main stage this week – he has chosen to create so much inner strife that he is off his show instead of capitalizing on what surely would be his most anticipated afternoons maybe all year"
And later…
"The more I read over these comments from Wright, the more I understand why someone at Entercom decided he needed some time off."
OK, now hold it wright there!
Hall’s story was up and at ’em early Thursday. However, by sheer accident, I happened onto the real reason Wright took yesterday and today off. And it had absolutely nothing to do with Jason Whitlock’s faint-hearted dissing of Wright on Monday.
The entire conspiracy theory about Wright being suspended or somehow shamed is – in a word – bogus. Silly even.
After reading Greg’s and another local blogger’s take, I conjured another opinion. So I texted Wright at 8:25 p.m. Wednesday to try and get an interview.
"Hey, can we talk," I texted, before Hall’s story appeared Thursday.
"Tomorrow is tuff because I’m having some dental work done," Wright texted back. "Call you after royals game?"
Late yesterday Hall did add a disclaimer from Wright’s boss telling him that Nick’s time off was for personal reasons and had nothing to do with the trumped up Whitlock soap.
But by then the damage had been done.
"I have wondered myself how this week will ultimately affect Nick’s radio career," Hall had wondered aloud in his column. "I think taking two days off immediately following The Dissection was not a good start."
Now here’s the real story – about Wright’s teeth and gums – which has absolutely nothing to do with the all-but-forgotten by many, former Kansas City Star sports columnist.
In the scheme of things, it’s pretty funny, actually.
"It’s like I didn’t go to the dentist for like a decade," Wright says. "And today they did a procedure on one half of my mouth. And tomorrow (Friday), they do the other half. Then in the next couple months I’m having all four of my wisdom teeth out. And hopefully, the rest of my teeth won’t fall out."
The painfully obvious reason Wright wasn’t on the air yesterday and won’t be today:
"They numbed my whole mouth so I wasn’t able to talk very well for several hours," Wright says. "And I had talked about this on the air a couple of times weeks ago, and after Whitlock called back the first time and before the second time, I told (my fill-in host), ‘Don’t mention that I’m not going to be here Thursday and Friday. Because the people who listen to the show already know. But I’ll bet you money that Hall (or another local blogger) without checking a single thing will write something about that I was suspended.’ And before my show even started, Greg wrote a whole column about it."
The bottom line on the deal for Wright:
"In the last week, Greg offered to tuck me in at night on Twitter, he called me a bitch twice and he’s written three columns entirely about me. One of which was a complete and utter fabrication by a middle-aged software developer who I’ve never met but is obsessed with me, which at this point is getting a little creepy."
Re the possibility Hall really believes Nick got suspended or whatever?
"I don’t know what he thinks," Wright says. "That’s certainly the impression he gives purposely. He either thinks I got suspended or I am so mentally depressed by the fictitious beat down at the hands of Jason Whitlock that I’m taking a couple days off.
"You know, a grown man calls you a bitch and offers to tuck you in at night – he definitely wants me to acknowledge him on Twitter. I mean, if he picks up 10 percent of my Twitter followers, that doubles him. I don’t mind the name calling, but I do mind the lies. And I don’t care how small his audience is, it’s still an audience."
Please! Nick Is The J.Dare of Sports Radio Now
I agree Hearne. I know peoplle think you and I pimp for Nick. WE DON’T. As I have said many times, I used to be a guest on his show all the time, but he has so many great sports people on, HE DON’t NEED MY ASS. Sure I will be on again at some point. I enjoy his show. Simply put, this young man GETS IT. He has mixed Jim Rome with Dare and does a fun often unique brand of sports talk.
He has a radio posse of funny yet sharp guys on with him ala Dare/Stern. It works. He has regular callers who do everything from imitate Whitlock to add rap sports talk to the program ala Rome. Yet he isn’t stealing he is taking it a step further, its younger and God knows doing KC sports daily with no ‘hot’ teams is tough. So Nick goes with national hot buttons much more than say 810.
Example: I was in love with his on air exposure of “hookers for hire by the colleges who go after football players” …one school spent on the record 80,000 bucks for ‘hostesses’ to greet, meet and go out with player hopefuls. He then had players on who said and I quote, “yeah he sleep with them and yeah they know its gonna happen”…..in other words most of them take the SCHOOL PAID position to get hocked by incoming and current jocks. Now thats alot worse than selling a t-shirt or autograph huh? Great story.
Wright is always looking for hot buttons be it in KC or nationally in sports. He is clever and often damn funny. I think I know what funny is. NO NICK IS NOT IN TROUBLE, he is on the way to being a TRUE number one in sports radio. Hey more important at 28 he is a valuable commodity and Entercom will have to do battle soon to keep him. He is their sports Johnny Dare and the flagship of 610 period.
nice article
great article hearne….it shows the bias of the media. We all know it exists.
Nick is The Man At 610
You landed on GO with this one. Wright is no doubt the big star of 610. He has put 610 back in the game with 810. Its just a matter of time before he is what KK was. Age and energy do that. I think Kevin is very good so is Soren, but they always sound a bit tired now, like oh yeah I have to do radio, again. Nick is fresh and high energy. He wins.
Wow hearn first the star now Greg!
You pretty much will take a dump on anyone that throws you to the curb won’t you?
xxMillerTimexx
Not sure about that buddy.
I just read Greg Hall’s blog re: Nick Wright’s absence, and Hearne is dead on the money.
I like Greg Hall, but he booted this one like Lin Elliot in the clutch.
Nick Got Grilled
Dentist my ass. I’ll bet Nick got a grill?
To play devils advocate why didn’t Nick mention earlier in the week he’d be taking a couple of days off?
He’s still a no talent hack that pissed away an opportunity of a lifetime. Kietzman is in his Don Fortune stage and Nick still can’t take him out.
It’s like Glazer and Jerry Mazer trolling for tail and Jerry kicking Craigs ass.
Don’t know about his teeth but whitlock tore his ass up
Anyone who heard the Whitlock interview , heard wright get punked. Wright spent 20 or 30 minutes the following day trying to clean it up, but the damage is done. If whitlock didn’t shred this wigga, why spend so much time next day trying to discount what jason said? As for Hearne going after Hall, its the old Indian and Snake fable…….
An Indian walks by a rattlesnake. Snake asks the Indian to carry him up a hill, says he isn’t feeling well. Indian says ” hell no, you’ll bite me. Snake promises he won’t. Indian picks up snake and instantly gets bitten. The Indian lays dying, looks over at the snake and say’s ” you promised not to bite me” Snake say’s ” Hey pal, I’m a snake. You knew that when you picked me up”.
Moral of the story. A snake is going to be a snake.
It’s tough for an attention whore like Whitlock when he’s past his prime and on the verge of becoming irrelevant. He’s lost his major platform here in KC yet it’s the only place where a significant number of people still care what he has to say. So, he calls up a wet-behind-the-ears kid and punks him on air. Way to go, Jason. Feel better now?
Nick still can pull out of this. I hope he does.
I didn’t hear the interview,
It does sound to me like Nick DID go to the dentist.
But I love the Jerry Mazer reference and the ‘Snake” story.
I really like the snake using the word “pal” on the indian, you know, like maybe he had a flashy suit and sold used cars to other snakes.
Don’t care
I didn’t hear the Wright-Whitlock interviews. I only caught wind of it because Greg’s site and Bottomfeeder Communikayshuns, which only serves to prove how insignificant and impotent this “dissection” really was. If this episode reveals anything, it’s how blogs more often than not just suit the author’s narrow personal agenda. I’m not sure why Greg’s been teeing off on Wright, but Leawood John seems vexed by Wright when Wright called him a bad guy on one of Hearne’s two takedowns of Leawood John.
By the way, I thought based on Leawood John’s earlier writing about Wright that he’d taken a distaste to profanity and otherwise blue language? Didn’t he blast Wright for being a pottymouth after he was quoted in Ink using some bad words? And then I see Leawood John using terms like “bitch-slapping” and such to describe Wright’s supposed castration at the hands of Whitlock.
the snake lived on a trust fund
and drove a ghey micro snake car.
I suspect Leawood John and others don’t take kindly to a brash, uppity kid getting the shot he’s getting. They probably feel he hasn’t paid his dues. They’re correct but that’s not Wright’s fault.
Landsberg would never allow comments like this. He couldn’t take it.
end of story
wright is doing afternoon show in major market probably doing well financially.
whitlock is chomping on gates bar b q at home watching sportscenter at home jobless.
Now tell me who’s the winner.
He had mentioned it a couple times weeks earlier. Nick answered your question in this story; he didn’t mention it on person because he was hoping to catch Greg or a certain other local blogger taking the bait and trying to blow it up into a story. Without a shred of evidence other than conjecture.
Uh, game on.
I would remind you that Petro bumped along for years with so-so ratings in the Golden Age of Don Fortune and was not able to “take anybody out” either. Look at him now.
Charming fairytale!
Score one for Cliffy
You can listen to the interview on 610sports.com
Nick Wright is obsessed with the number of Twitter followers he and everyone else has.
If you listen to the interview, Whitlock (as usual) kissed up to Gates. Probably so Ollie would ship him some free ones in LA (he’s not here anymore).
He does still have the blog gig on Fox and he’s doubled the number of weekly columns he writes there. But the people I talk to – and I’ve posed the question to quite a few – don’t think that likely adds up to very much money.
Greg has told me that he disagrees and JW is making six-figures plus.
He’s not the only one. Anderson Cooper on CNN is obsessed. Howard Stern. Even Art Brisbane wrote a column about getting into the tweets game.
Ahem
Has Nick’s case of red ass healed yet or is that treatment coming after the dentist?
Honestly, he doesn’t sound the least bit upset. he set a trap for Greg and then busted him. He didn’t do that by accident. He did want to set the record straight though and he has.
I was in the exact right place at the exact right time by total accident.
There is quite a bit more to the Whitlock appearance on his show yet to come out. Which you can read right here on KCC Monday morning.
Enjoy!
Why all the love
Seriously, why all the love for Nick. It is like you and Glazer are little league parents mad because your lesser talented son is not getting to pitch all the time. Some people like Nick’s show I’m sure. I am not one of them. I think he sucks and all of this has helped to verify it. It seems like you have a vested interest. I am guessing that the interest comes from a dislike for Kietzman rather than liking Nick.
Doesn’t everyone hate Kietzman
He is such a self satisfied putz
A better question would be, why all the hate?
You think Nick sucks and because he was falsely accused that reinforces your dislike for him?
FYI, I’ve barely listened to his show, like, ever.
Hey
“Reply From: Hearne Christopher
01:35:08 AM – Sat. Jun 25. 2011
A better question would be, why all the hate?
You think Nick sucks and because he was falsely accused that reinforces your dislike for him?
FYI, I’ve barely listened to his show, like, ever.”
Hearne, people thought he sucked long before this happened. If you have “barely listened to his show” then why all the love? Most of the people that think he sucks are disappointed because they want some relief from KK, but Nick’s show is so unlikeable that we have to listen to grilling and freaking cookies. So before YOU give an opinion try to do some research.
I heard the interview. I didn’t think Wright got punked at all. As a matter of fact, I thought Whitlock sounded kinda silly…like he’s read too many self-help books, which, you know, Whitlock probably really needs to read…over and over and over again.
Again, you miss the entire point. This isn’t a story about you like NW, me liking NW or either of us not liking him. It’s a story about him being called out bogusly for something he was not guilty of.
Plain and simple.
And that’s exactly what I did research. It wasn’t about sharpening my listening skills!
Yall are self-satisfied putzes!
I listened to the interview as well, and it was not a punk. It was a conversation with a bored sick fat hasbeen, and his wannabe next gen successor. I thought Nick was respectful and deferential.
Guys who talk about sports–didn’t play well enough to be on the field. Guys who write anonymously on blogs about those sports commentators have short dicks and too much time on their hands. Y’all are no better than Kietzmann, self-satisfied putzes, hitchin’ up your belt buckles as if you showed THEM.
Pathetic waste of time.