Yearly Archives: 2011
Hearne: Police to KU Fans & Bars, Read Our Lips; No Open Containers
It’s that time of year again…
You can almost taste the jubilation. KU’s forging ahead in the NCAAs and the prospect of dancing in the streets is smack in the minds of Jayhawk faithful. To that end, a bartender at La Parrilla in downtown Lawrence told me the city and/or police enacted an ordinance or policy allowing bars and restaurants to let customers buy booze and take it to the streets.
Whenever KU‘s basketball team makes it into the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.Other customers added assurances that this was the case. It started in 2008 when KU won the national title.
Kinda makes sense, right?
New Jack City: How KC $tacks Up For Tourism & Business Visitors
Got a lot of response to my story about price gouging downtown during the Big 12 Tourney.
Most people agreed that parking prices up to $30 by opportunistic lot operators. were outrageous. Others thought I was a cheapskate and should have just ponied up the bucks no matter how bad it might look to visitors to KC.
But not to worry, the Slyster– new mayor Sly James — will surely look into it.
Which brings me to another matter; how Kansas City stacks up in terms of daily expenses for visitors and out-of-town business people compared to other cities.
And Business Travel News has just released its 2011 corporate travel index with the daily costs of doing business in the top 100 domestic and international cities.
Donnelly: Sporting Kansas City Should Never Have Let Chad Ochocinco Try Out
Today marks Day One of the traveling three ring circus known as Chad Ochocinco’s “Tryout” with Sporting KC. I’ve gone back and forth on this since the announcement.
On the one hand, I can theoretically understand why SKC would invite Ochocinco in for a few days. Let’s face it MLS is not exactly on the tip of most sports fans’ tongues.
In fact, there’s an almost unnatural distaste for soccer among some of the meathead NFL crowd.
They see soccer as a euro-centric pageant where guys with frosted tips and mullets roll around on the ground every time they get touched by an opposing player. So maybe, in a way, getting the support of a legit NFL star could help to bridge this gap between the D&D MLS diehards and fans of big time American sports.
And that’s a big maybe.
Hearne: Will Nick Wright or 980 KMBZ Commandeer KUDL FM’s Signal?
What’s to become of one of Kansas City most esteemed local radio signals, KUDL-FM?
Parent company Entercom told key advertisers today it would announce the signal’s fate tomorrow. KUDL currently plays soft rock, targeted to women at 98.1 on the FM dial. However at noon today Entercom did away with its Gen X radio format at 99.7, changing it to The Point, playing "Today’s Best Music" and targeting women between the ages of 25 and 49.
There’s more…
OTC: Nick Wright Gets Inked & It Might Stain Him
“I say this, and I mean it: You could not speak English, and be scanning the radio dial in Kansas City, and you would stop on my show.”Nick Wright, Ink Magazine
GH: Dugan Arnett wrote a feature piece on 610 Sports afternoon sports talk host for The Kansas City Star’s alternative weekly, Ink Magazine. I think Dugan’s piece was fair but a bit confusing. He appears to waffle between whether or not Wright is delusional or credible. One thing rang clear in the story, Wright is high on Wright. Read on.
“As (Nick Wright) spoke, he was nursing a wine cooler and … he had just finished providing a detailed and unsolicited account of how intelligent he happens to be (“I crushed the SATs”), how regularly he is recognized around town (“a lot”) and how, had he not decided to pursue a career in radio, he would have almost certainly become a very successful doctor or lawyer (“I could have gone to Harvard, probably”), and now he was leaning forward in his seat and explaining that, when you really break it down, there isn’t a sane individual on this planet who could listen to his radio show and not conclude that it is, without question, the best sports-talk program in Kansas City.”
Dugan Arnett, writer, Ink Magazine
GH: Makes you wonder why this future Johnny Cochran/Doogie Howser settled for talking sports.
Dugan Arnett, writer, Ink Magazine
GH: Makes you wonder why this future Johnny Cochran/Doogie Howser settled for talking sports.
Glazer: Elizabeth Taylor, The Queen is dead, Long Live the Queen!
Another big – in fact monster – movie star has passed away…
Elizabeth Taylor joins the long recent list with celebrities like Paul Newman and Dennis Hopper as, "Man, I can’t believe they’re gone" people.
The way Hollywood is today, it’s not likely there’ll be another Liz Taylor. Someone who literally owns the screen for decades as both a sex symbol and a great actress. I remember being in Miami, Florida as a little kid and my grandmother taking me to see CLEOPATRA with Liz and her husband Richard Burton. I hated seeing her die in the movie, but not so much him. Hah!
As I’ve said before, there are few movie stars that I didn’t meet, know or see in Hollywood during my 16 years there. And without doubt, Liz Taylor was at the top of my list, even though I only saw her once.
Today: Entercom To Blow Up Historic KUDL FM, Changes Format on 99.7…Again
This just in….
Entercom radio told advertisers today that it’s blowing up up one of Kansas City’s most legendary radio stations, KUDL 98.1 FM. The soft rock station is more-or-less being folded into a new station and format called The Point on sister signal 99.7 FM. Until today 99.7 was the home of Gen X Radio, which debuted just last year.
In a telephone conference call, Point program director Mark Edwards described the new format as being designed to serve Kansas City women between the ages of 25 and 49.
OTC: Media Struggles To Solve Whether Mike Anderson Stays Or Goes
“I have never covered a story where both sides are hearing such diametrically things. Anybody who tells you they know, they’re not telling the truth.”Gabe DeArmond, of PowerMizzou.com, on the fluidness of whether or not Mike Anderson is staying or going, in an interview with Steven St. John and Nate Bukaty, 810 AM
GH: The Mike Anderson saga is now in its third year of whether he stays or goes from the Mizzou basketball program he revived after the Quin Snyder debacle. This courtship with Arkansas is easily the most serious of his past affairs. In the past few days reports have swung wildly back and forth that Anderson was gone to Arkansas and also that he had struck a deal to stay in Columbia. It somewhat mirrors his Tigers’ chaotic performances on the court the past two months.
“Overwhelmingly the Missouri fans who follow me on Twitter want him to go.”
Steven St. John, 810 AM
GH: Has Anderson tested the Mizzou faithful fan base one too many times? According to SSJ there may not be much of a home to return to if Anderson does decide to stay.
Steven St. John, 810 AM
GH: Has Anderson tested the Mizzou faithful fan base one too many times? According to SSJ there may not be much of a home to return to if Anderson does decide to stay.
Joe Miller: Election 2011, Out With The Old, In With The New, Take Cover!
Once again, the Star is the big winner on Election Day in KCMO.
During the primary, the paper of record conquered the Titans of Industry, the Chamber of Commerce and the secretive cabal of CEOs known as the Civic Council, when it backed Mike Burke and Sly James over Deb Hermann.
For the general, for the coup de grace, they vanquished the King Maker, the Old Mr. Moneybags who had never backed a loser in a mayor’s race: Mr. James B. Nutter.
So now we know, once and for all, who runs this city.
A word to Mayor-Elect Sly James from a man who has been 29th floor and failed:
Sounds Good: James McMurtry, Lewis Black, and the ACBs
Like a moth to a flame, this week’s must-see shows will suck you in, but may ultimately contribute to your untimely demise…
The first, with a grizzled and honest desperation. The second, with insanely maniacal exasperation.
And the third……… with a huge gun.
I know, scary, right?
Okay, just kidding about the huge gun thing – kinda – not about the first two though…
Tonight: End of an Era; Jim Nutter Sr. Loses Mayor’s Race for First Time
This just in from a political observer who declined to be identified…
"This is the first time Jim Nutter Sr.’s lost a Kansas City mayoral election since H. Roe Bartle was in office," says the source. "Until tonight, he’s won every mayor’s race since H. Roe Bartle – that’s your story."
In an interview earlier this week Nutter confirmed he was backing Mike Burke over eventual winner Sly James. Nutter noted that this was the fourth mayor’s race pitting a black candidate against a white one.
Nutter had backed the winners in the first three; Dick Berkley over Bruce Watkins, Emanuel Cleaver over Bob Lewellen and – to Nutter’s everlasting chagrine – current KC mayor Mark Funkhouser over Alvin Brooks.
This was to be Nutter’s fourth victory in the mayoral races of black versus white. Just one problem..
Joe Miller: To Vote or Not to Vote, That Was the Question
That thing I wrote last week about voting for Mike Burke? Total lie.
It wasn’t a lie at the time I wrote it. But today, as I stepped out of my house and headed for the polling place, I realized that I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Maybe it was the conversation I had this weekend with one of my neighbors. He said he was voting for Sly James because his wife, who used to work right in the middle of everything at City Hall, said Burke is exactly the same kind of leader we’ve always had. He’s always been part of the in-crowd, and the in-crowd is who has made this city the fucked up mess that it is.
Hard to come up with a good response to that one.
So as I strolled down to the old Catholic church where I do my voting, I thought about who I might vote for.
Tonight: Jimmy C’s Money Talks, HC’s Dart Throw Walks
Just how fast can a skinny white boy from the burbs eat a scarcely-cooked crow?
This fast!
It’s still early. However word that the polls south the of the river were slow – even with kickass weather -, combined with an early 69-31 lead up north for Mike Burke over Sly James have experts like Tony Botello and Larry Sells giving me the distinct impression that James goose is cooked.
If Sly pulls it out – and the concensus seems to be that he needs 40 percent of the vote up north – he will have to be on the receiving end of some sort of landslide later in the southland. But with a light turnout – the old guard white folks who live off Ward Parkway like Jim "Jimmy C" Fitzpatrick – will likely get their way.
Starbeams: Escaping Japan to KCI, Shrinking Sprint & Royals Opening Day Pitcher
A group of Japanese exchange students arrived at KCI Monday. The students were thrilled to be here, relieved to escape the radiation scare but a bit surprised to see our airports ceilings still covered with asbestos.
*******
The first-ever face transplant in this country was performed in Boston this week. A construction worker who had his face disfigured in a terrible power line accident received a new nose, lips, skin, muscles and nerves from a dead person. If all goes as hoped, the 25 year-old man should look more natural than Joan Rivers.
Hearne: The Story Behind Sporting Kansas City’s Bid to Book Concerts
Star sports scribe Sam Mellinger was on the right track…almost
Mellinger was high in pegging Sporting Kansas City’s stadium naming rights to Lance Armstrong’s cancer charity LIVESTRONG at a value of $2 million a year. SKC honcho Robb Heineman suggested only $1 million, possibly up to $2 million for the rights.
That said, Mellinger’s larger point being that "Livestrong’s “payment” — if you can call it that — was Armstrong’s "access to big-name performers who could help fill the stadium for high-dollar concerts," Mellinger writes. "Armstrong is close with Justin Timberlake, for instance. He shares a house in France with Bono. Jimmy Buffett rode in the pace car during one of Armstrong’s Tour de France races."
So will SKC be able to draw top drawer talent to its new outdoor soccer stadium despite competition from the myriad indoor and outdoor area concert venues, like the nearby, similarly-sized Sandstone?
Today: Has Claire McCaskill Used Up Her Nine Lives?
When it comes to dodging bullets, few have done it better than Claire McCaskill…
Long ago the Missouri senator’s political colleagues bestowed upon her the nickname "Blonde Ambition." And through the years McCaskill’s used her uncanny skills at charming members of the local media to navigate past any number of potentially career killing missteps.
Let’s look at McCaskill’s latest hot mess and review some of the ones she’s skittered past in the past.
Starbeams: KC Mayoral Tough Guy ‘Test, Buzzing Libya, KU Ripe for Upset & Tiger Woods Update
No one is sure who be elected Mayor of Kansas City today, but we’re pretty sure who would win if it came down to a boxing match.
*******
B-2 Stealth Bombers from Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force Base were involved in the attacks on Libya over the weekend. You could tell the pilots were from Knob Knoster when they asked permission to buzz the Tripoli Walmart.
Hearne: Sly James Victory Dance To Go Down at Negro Leagues Tonight
With all due respect for the political prognosticator known as Jimmy C….
The losers I talk to are forecasting a victory for Sly James in today’s KC mayoral contest. Not for Mike Burke, as my well-heeled colleague Jim Fitzpatrick (Fitz choked out a cool five grand to Burke) wishfully predicted earlier today.
The reason: For starters, the weather.
Today’s pleasing climes will turn out voters in parts of town and of an age that will likely countermand the waspy white, older voters to whom meaningless support of over-the-hill former mayors counts for something.
In other words, it will bring out younger, hipper voters, to whom staid endorsements from the old guard are more likely to be seen as a reason to vote against rather than for Mike Burke.
That’s what I’m hearing anyway…
Joe Miller: Why Temp Editor Joe Tone Won’t Be Missed at the Pitch
Editor Rule #1: Protect your reporters.
Even if you know you’re going to have to downsize them on Friday, protect them.
If someone attacks one of your reporters: lash out, fight. It’s your job to make reporters look good and feel happy. And no one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE can make them feel bad, except YOU. Punish all extra-editorial transgressions immediately and severely.
If, say, some overweight, droopy-eyed blogger were to refer to one of your reporters as, say, a chickenhead, it is your obligation decree that said blogger “will never appear in the pages of MY FUCKING PAPER except in stories written for the sole purpose of DESTROYING him!” (Decree must be shouted.)
This is especially true for a publication such as the Pitch, where you have the freedom to write really nasty things about really nasty people.
OTC: Kansas Rolls Into Alamo Looking Like Santa Anna
“The Kansas Jayhawks are in the Final Four in Houston. Just pack your bags and get ready to go.”Frank Boal, on the number of upsets that have left Kansas a seemingly easy road to Houston, TV 41
GH: Kansas fans may cringe to hear such bold talk but almost everyone expects KU to roll through San Antonio this weekend like they were Santa Anna at the Alamo.
“I think this year’s NIT bracket might be tougher than the road Kansas will face to the Final Four.”
Sean Callahan, of Rivals.com, Twitter
Sean Callahan, of Rivals.com, Twitter
“KU sure seems to play better against ‘name’ teams in the NCAAs which should prolly make KU fans worry a bit heading into this weekend.”
Gary Bedore, of LJW, Twitter
Gary Bedore, of LJW, Twitter
“Ohio St probably has to beat Kentucky, UNC & Duke to get to championship game. Kansas? Richmond, Florida State and Florida. What a difference!”
Dirk Chatelain, writer for Omaha World Herald, Twitter
Dirk Chatelain, writer for Omaha World Herald, Twitter
