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Glazer: To Those of You Who Said Bryan Callen Sucks, Well
Some of you didn’t believe me…
Bryan Callen, who is at Stanford’s next week, is now officially a monster in the entertainment biz. Callen’s landed the lead on this fall’s most talked about new TV series., DEATH VALLEY for MTV.
Bryan plays a sheriff in a town ravaged by crime. However, the bad guys are ALL vampires and zombies. The show is big bucks.
MTV has never spent this much on a series in its history.
Hearne: Support Your Local Jazz Club, Jardine’s Reloads After Marilyn Maye Shocker
Running a small business can be a handful – murder even…
Even when the business you happen to be piloting is Kansas City’s premier jazz joint. Because Kansas City is a total jazz town. Or so we often say.
Well, that’s exactly the case with Jardine’s just off the Country Club Plaza. Week in and week out, month in and month out, Jardine’s showcases the top jazz musicians in Kansas City. Both local and national. From local keyboard player Mark Lowrey to Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.
Enter the sudden and unexpected hospitalization of legendary KC crooner Marilyn Maye earlier this week.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Green Lantern’ Delivers Fun, Summer, 3-D Popcorn Ride!
Hollywood’s going green this weekend…
By breathing new life into DC Comics’ good old GREEN LANTERN! The question is, whether Warner Brothers can elevate the film above its geeky fanboy base?
My hunch?
They succeed, even though this comic book action adventure is squarly targeted to male teens and the early 20’s crowd.
New Jack City: AMC Ends Reserved Seating @ Town Center, Drops Food Req
AMC Theatres is bidding adieu to the reserved seating experiment at its Town Center 20!
Company spokesperson Ryan Noonan confirmed that the Kansas City-based theater circuit will be phasing out the reserved seating-only policy at the South Leawood theater by July 22nd.
"We will be advising our guests of the pending policy change prior to the switchover date through in-theater informational postings," Noonan says.
During the experiment, theater patrons paid a mandatory ticket premium for guaranteed reserved seats, something that many moviegoers enjoyed—especially on busy weekend nights. However, evidently there weren’t enough of them to sustain the policy for the long term causing AMC to kill the program off.
Hearne: Talent Drought Fuels Ratings Decline at NewsRadio KMBZ
You got it, you double it, you don’t got it…
That’s pretty much what has happened to KMBZ 980 AM, Kansas City’s so-called, news-radio station. Two months into KMBZ’s plan to grow listenership by simulcasting on former sister station KUDL’s 98.1 FM signal, the local talk station has gone nowhere fast. Actually, its combined ratings have plummeted
Check out the digits.
Today: Don’t Let the Generic (Sports) Radio Ratings Numbers Fool You
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Anybody can access and look at Arbitron’s 6-plus radio ratings online…
Do a Google search – they’re all right there.
And they’re the only ratings widely available to the general public for a reason. To provide a broad, generalized view of local radio rankings, generate media attention and chit-chat and help keep Arbitron’s name in the game.
That said, everybody in the biz knows that the 6-plus numbers are the least important of all the ratings.
To that end, Arbitron requires radio stations to pay big bucks to access to the critically important ratings that provide the far more specific listener information that advertisers require.
It’s really that simple.
Now let’s take a look at the rivalry between sports radio powerhouse WHB and up-and-comer 610 Sports
Hearne: ‘Paris on the Plains’ Loses a Great One; Kevin Gray Dies of Cancer
They don’t get any better than Greater Kansas City Sports Commission point man Kevin Gray...
Gray died today of cancer, only having learned he had contracted it in March during the Big 12 tourney .
Make no mistake, I had my differences with Gray over the years. Nothing huge. But he was always a gentleman and a good sport throughout. There was just no getting around Gray’s likeability factor – no matter the disagreement.
Did Gray blow smoke up the city and voter’s you-know-whats with a ginned up feasability study about a new arena certain to bring Kansas City an NBA and/or NHL team? Of course he did!
Did we land either one or are we any closer than we were before Sprint Center got built? Of course not!
Hey, but Gray got it done. And while I’m somewhat loathe to admit it, it’s been a great thing for KC.
Glazer: Toeing the Line on KC’s No. 1 Women’s Radio Show @ Mix 93.3 FM
Hey, Johnny Dare rules over men in the mornings (and lots of women as well), but it’s MIX 93.3 that truly has the women listeners.
Case in point…
Glazer: Time for KCMO Police to Man UP & Fight Crime, Not Businesses
There is a serious problem in midtown and for once it’s not about crime.
It’s the raids Hearne talked about yesterday by liquor control and vice on the bars they don’t like.
Especially the ones in Westport. Westport is the only area that gets hit with as many as 15 officers weekly to check liquor cards, the business licenses on the walls, to ID minors, etc. It’s nearly a total waste of time and manpower.
We don’t get these sort of hassles at The Legends.
For years this has been a bad habit in Westport and NOWHERE ELSE other than a few black bars in KCMO.
Today: The Heart Sickening Tale of the Sale of One of KC’s Most Iconic Mansions
How the mighty have fallen!
It took four long years, but one of Kansas City’s most famous mansions has finally sold. There’s a "sold" sign in the yard of the former home of deceased local real estate tycoon Jack Frost at 8636 Mission Road.
The six bedroom, four bath, 8,440 square foot, 83 year-old, "storybook French Norman Castle" had everything a buyer could want, including real estate taxes in the neighborhood of $27,000 a year and a pricetag of $1.6 million.
Which trust me, was a steal. More on that in a moment.
Starbeams: Parlez Vous Gold Cup? Dresses to Di For
The U.S. National Team played in Livestrong Sporting Park last night in Gold Cup action.
It’s nice to see soccer catching on because I was running out of places in town where I’m the only person who speaks English.
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The Princess Diana exhibit set a new record for ticket sales here. Union Station officials were hoping to sell 75,000 tickets but more than 105,000 people took the tour. Including 3,100 people the day Will & Kate were married. Kate can hardly wait for the exhibit to return to England so she can RECYCLE SOME OF THE DRESSES.
Donnelly: Goalscorers Struggle to Finish, US Slips Past Overmatched Guadaloupe
Based on the results, Tuesday night was an overwhelming success.
LIVESTRONG Sporting Park was sold out for Team USA‘s 1-0 victory over Guadaloupe.
Many players, coaches and media observers that were getting their first taste of Sporting KC’s new home were thoroughly impressed with the stadium and atmosphere it provided for this crucial Gold Cup game.
"It was fantastic," said Landon Donovan when asked about the new stadium. "I think everybody involved should be commended. The crowd was great, they were energetic. The stadium, the locker room and facilities are beautiful. I definitely hope we come back here."
"It’s a great stadium," said head coach Bob Bradley. "I think all of the players were really excited about every part of it. The stadium is really well done. It is first class in every way. The atmosphere inside of the stadium, it is great to play in front of a crowd that is there for us, a U.S. crowd.”
And, hey, the US will now advance to the next round where a very respectable Jamaican squad will try their luck at knocking off the Yanks. So it’s all good right?
Not really…
Hearne: Movie Critic Robert Butler Pre Spanks Ex Boss, The Star
Who’s minding the movie store at the Star?
One has to wonder. Especially after reading exiled Kansas City Star movie critic Robert W. Butler’s story last week about the demise of the founder of the AMC Kansas City FilmFest. A report that came out a handful of days before the newspaper’s watered down version of the tale appeared on Sunday.
"Longtime KC film fest leader steps down," shouts the Star‘s headline. "Jubilee founder Fred Andrews cites health reasons; board promises to continue his mission."
Hold it right there!
I’ve seen some news coverups, but this baby takes the cake.
Hearne: And the New Publisher of the Kansas City Star is…
From the Idaho Statesman – the Idaho Statesman? – Mi-Ai Parrish!
That’s right. Forget about the dude part. Blessed mother of god, they hired a hottie!
The $64 million question: will touchy-feely Star editor Mike Fannin be able to resist keeping his mitts off of her?
Hearne: Star Poised to Announce New Publisher!
This just in….
Any minute now – any second even – the Kansas City Star will announce the name of its new publisher. The dude who will replace the dearly departed Mark Zieman. The guy who will decide the fate of embattled Star editor Mike Fannin.
A gentleman who – surprise, surprise – is coming in from outside the newspaper. From another market.
Stay totally tuned!
Star Search: Star Sidesteps Geezer Pleaser Card With Groupon-like Daily Deal
Ah, the incredible lightness of daily deal making…
It’s one thing to be late to the party. Like a year and a half late. Quite another to stagger out of the starting blocks with a weak-kneed effort. Yet that’s exactly what the Kansas City Star did Monday with the launch of its new Groupon-like, dealsaver.com daily deal.
Affiliated – as once rumored – with Groupon?
"It’s not," says one local daily deal expert. "It’s their own – their own misguided product."
Glazer: Hangover Star to Splash Down Next Week at the Legends!
Bryan Callen‘s worked about as much as any actor who’s NOT a household name.
He’s a co star of The Hangover 1 and 2 will be at Stanford’s next week doing stand up. Which is how he started his career. And he’s very sharp doing it, as well.
It’s Callen’s second time at Stanford’s in 10 years. He’s been scheduled several times but had to cancel due to film or TV work. I can’t list even a third of his work but go to IMDB (International movie data base) and check out all his credits.
But it’s his recent work in both Hangovers that’s finally put him at the top of the game.
Hearne: Marilyn Maye Hospitalized, Father’s Day Week Shows @ Jardine’s Canceled!
This just in…
Legendary KC crooner Marilyn Maye was rushed to a hospital earlier today and her weeklong series of sold-out shows at Jardine’s for Fathers Day week – slated to begin tomorrow – will have to be rescheduled.
"I’ve got bad news," says Jardine’s owner Beena Brandsgard. "Marilyn’s in the hospital. The shows are all canceled. She has three kidney stones."
Donnelly: That’s More Like It! Sporting Regains Touch in Thrashing Of Dallas
Did I call it or what? 
Mere days after I praised Graham Zusi as the only Sporting KC player with a dangerous long shot, he puts in one for the ages from about 50 yards out, and another on a strike from about 20.
Yes, Zusi made me look good this time.
But Zusi wasn’t the only player to find the net – Aurelien Collin and Luke Sassano tallied one each – as Sporting regained their scoring touch in a 4-1 beatdown of FC Dallas in Frisco, Texas.
Hovick: Have a (Clothing Optional) Happy Father’s Day, Courtesy of Midland by AMC
Statistics don’t lie…
Dads get the stiff end of the stick – plenty of puns intended – on their national holiday
Mom, Mom, Mom
Is the normal cry in the household
And Mom is who a Dad really wants to hear from when the kids are sick
Mom is who Dad really wants to hear from when the kids need a ride to anything and he’s busy watching sports Or when Dad could be away from the house at a sports bar with other Dads
Mom is who Dad really wants to hear from when his daughter at any age wants to have the talk
You know, when her body starts to change
Go ask your Mother, is the standard Don’t Disturb Dad line
But when the kids want money – who they gonna call?
Uh, Dad
