Category Archives: Hearne_Christopher

Longtime KCC readers know I’ve been an admirer and staunch defender of Groupon from the get-go…

When some of you guys zeroed in on the discounting – saying it cheapens the seller’s products – I pointed to the marketing benefits. I quoted local restaurant and nightclub owners that had done well with Groupon and vowed to continue to party with the daily dealmaker.

People like Jardine’s owner Beena Raja (who’s on her third last name in the past year). Jardine’s, like others, turned its back on the local newspaper’s trusty-but-rusty Star Dining Card and found nirvana instead in Groupon’s mass email blasts.

"Let me tell you, Groupon has a solid clentele, they are up to 350,000 people locally now," Raja told me last March. "And these people are no Star Card people – these are people who will spend money and I’ve seen it. They’re younger, hipper, they know how to tip and they make reservations. I have nothing but positive things to say about Groupon."

That was then…

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Why ruin a totally cool event with fraudulent crowd counts?

Simply said, there’s no effing way the new, 3.400 seat Kauffman Performing Arts Center hosted 55,000 people at its open house Sunday.

I mean, think about it.

That’s nearly double the size of the Plaza Lighting Ceremony. More people than attend sold out Royals games, which have acres of parking and dozens of police and staff to manage and control the traffic and crowds.

All of that said, here’s what the Star’s Robert Truseell reported:

"Nobody can know with certainty how many people actually walked through the center Sunday, but an estimate of 55,000 was based on the assumption that the building could only accommodate 5,000 at a time. If that number ‘turned over’ 10 times, then total attendance would be 50,000, which was the official estimate by midafternoon. Later, (Kauffman CEO Jane Chu) upped the figure to 55,000."

Hold it right there…

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OK Cliffy, you asked for it, now you’re gonna get it…

 I’m not talking Craig Glazer. I’m not gonna punch anybody’s lights out, Just making good on my pledge to publish the pic I took several years back of Watson’s Girl Jennifer Eichler and then Star editor Mark Zieman.

It was taken when the owners of Watson’s (now Family Leisure) strode through town calling on advertisers – the Star being one – and I hijacked the Watson’s Girl for a photo shoot. The Star photographer who got to do the honors still worships at my altar for bestowing on him the savory task.

Far less thrilled was Zieman, who posed uncomfortably (and looking a little pudgy) when I led Jennifer to his office while giving her a tour of the newsroom and asked them to pose. Yes, it was my idea alone. Nothing sinister, mind you. I’d have done the same thing had she been standing by that statue of Superman in Metropolis, Illinois.

I digress…

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Don’t look now but…

A funny thing happened earlier this month. September 5th to be exact. That’s the date former Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock teased via Twitter that he’d be heading home to KC to do a radio show on 610 Sports. Maybe even take rising star Nick Wright‘s place.

Some local bloggers were all over that story early this summer. The Royals were in the tank. The Chiefs up in the air. And MU, KU and K-State football and KU basketball were a long way off. Even the Big 12 appeared halfway off the hook. They needed something to write about.

Remember the sports talk radio war?

"He intended everyone to think he meant he was coming back to take my job," Wright says.

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Goes without saying, when even the Pitch and Star hop on the daily discount deals bandwagon the party’s about over….

With two fierce years and dozens of firms hawking half price email offerings, a thinning of the herd is in order. So how many different companies are out there attempting to con local businesses into giving their shit away at half price?

"I’ve been contacted by no less than 40 and I’ve used 10," says Stanford’s main man Craig Glazer. "And none of them got anywhere near the results I got with Living Social and Groupon. Our last round with Groupon was in May and we did around 1,000 deals when they had 450,000 people on their list. Now they say they have 680,000."

New owners of the Pitch are trying to cash in on the gold rush but with little apparent success.

I contacted a number of businesses that participated in the Pitch‘s The Big Deal.  Results; weak as a kitten. Its Big Deal Kansas City Facebook page has been frozen for weeks at 146 "likes."

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You asked for it…

You wanted an even humbler sports scribe. Someone to walk the walk and talk the talk, hotties be damned. A writer with whom English is not a second language – sex with strangers an avocation. A sportswriter cut from the actual cloth (not Fredericks of Hollywood). With ears not mired in the hopelessness of Don Fortune and the inability to look past hip-hop into the full metal straightjacket that is Kansas City.

To borrow a trite expression from fallen Star Jason Whitlock – you wanted "the real deal."

So here it is…

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It’s like this…

Things are about to get a lot more sporty at KC Confidential. You asked for it and now you’re about to get it receive. Starting this Monday – and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday – KCC will sally forth with a blazingly hot, new sports columnist. One who even knows how to spell and has a rudimentary command of the King’s English.

A dude who’s passionate about sports and will bring both a knife and an edge to the gunfight otherwise known as the "comments section." Some of you may remember him from the Pitch. And no, it’s not C.J. I’m talking a different kinda dude.

And not Charles Ferruzza either.

I won’t bore you with the details until I can unleash a full bio but, suffice it to say sports is back.

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I’ve seen the future of Halloween and it is now….

That spanking new Halloween City at 91st and Metcalf in the former home of Borders Books is eye popping beyond belief. I kid you not.  This store has anything and everything that you can or cannot imagine where Halloween is concerned. And you can take that to the bank.

Entire sections of spiders, swords, Jack O Lanterns, vampire capes, witch’s brooms and hats, plastic swords, caveman clubs, shields, fog and sound effects machines, massive displays of everything immaginable, devil paraphernelia, "spooky frames," life-sized, suspendible fiends of every type and an incredibly wide variety of costumes for every age.

Plus a whole heckuva lot more.

Remember how vast Kansas City’s first Borders was? Halloween City has jammed stuff into every square inch!

It’s Disney in Orlando-like, and then some. It’s completely over-the-top. It puts Christmas to shame.

And here’s where it starts to get interesting…

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Uno que mas…

Which have you had the most "more than enough" of? My radio ratings breakdowns or Harley‘s comments section rants about me not having a clue?

That said, I’m going to risk it all by offering up one last ratings breakdown I think you’ll find of interest. You won’t find it on any local loser, blogger sites cuz they can’t get ’em.

So here come the Top 5 afternoon drive radio shows for male listeners ages 25 to 54, weekdays.

In other words, most of you dudes reading these words.

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Things have gotten a little trampy where the Watson’s Girl is concerned…

You remember, KC’s beloved and lusted for sexy, swimsuit hottie in the hot tub abd above ground swimming pool ads that flooded local television for 15 years. Spots that ended with her purring provocatively, "That’s Watson’s!"

Make no mistake, Jennifer Eichler was a huge local TV icon from the mid ’90s until a few short years ago.

So what happened?

In a nutshell, Jennifer – who lives in Indiana – finished growing up, got married, had a couple kids and the company changed its name to Family Leisure.

I remember asking her shortly before her wedding what would become of her sexy, on-screen persona after she was off the market and had kids. Whereupon she taught me a word that at the time I was totally unfamiliar with.

She would become a MILF.

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It’s August, fall and football are already in the air…

Why not, given the sorry state of baseball here? It’s hardly surprising that local sports talk stations were looking ahead to the NFL season. Despite the Chiefsn poor preseason play.

Music heavyweights KCFX and The Rock were softer but still strong. But who tied a lead balloon to alt rocker The Buzz‘s formerly high flying kite? Maybe Lazlo should spend more time in a real church and less preaching politics in his. And now…

KANSAS CITY’S TOP 10 RADIO STATIONS IN MEN 25-54, 6 A.M. TO MIDNIGHT, MONDAY THRU FRIDAY

1)  KCFX FM with a 11.9 share, down from 12.8 in July. Still going strong but awaiting will a shakey Chiefs season take a toll?

2)  The Rock with a 10.1 share, down from July’s 10.6. Johnny Dare still living large with new contract in tow.

3)  WHB with a 7.7 share up from 6.2. This is why you gotta ignore bloggers touting 6-plus and 12-plus seven day ratings that plainly do not matter. And where you’ll find ridiculous headlines like this one: "KCSP STILL AHEAD OF WHB"

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One of the most prized possessions in all of radio is women listeners….

Obviously, right? Equally obviously, you can’t break those numbers out and thus make a determination by staring at the 6-plus ratings readily available to the public.

You gotta go deep so here they are…

The Top 10 KC Radio Stations in Women Listeners gaes 25 to 54, Monday thru Friday from 6.am. to 7 p.m.

1)   K-Love with a 10.1 share up from 9.3 in July tied with Mix 93.3 at 10.1 up from a 7.5 share.

2)   KPRS FM at a 6.8 share up 6.7

3)   KCMO FM with a 6.2 share down from a 6.5 share.

4)   The Rock with a 5.6 share down from 6.1

5)   KCFX FM with a 4.8 share up from a 3.4 share

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There’s only on word for the ratings fall suffered by radio station The Buzz in August…argggh!

Five short months ago the local alt rocker was kicking butt and taking names in adults 25 to 54 weekdays from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a 7.4 share of listeners. In August – during its bitter falling out with music fest Kanrocksas – it plunged from No. 3 in the marketplace with a 6.1 share to No. 9 with a 3.9 share. Ouch!

It gets worse.

In Men 25-54 in that same period, The Buzz fell from a 6.3 share to 3.9 for 10th place. Its morning drive show dropped from 4th to 15th from a 6.2 share in men 25-54 to to 2.9.

Things could be worse…

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You guys did a kickass job of indulging me on my explanation of why the seven day, 6-plus radio ratings are bogus…

Actually, you barely laid a glove on me. Not even Kansas Karl. Obviously, you had other radio things on your minds, which is fine. Not that I couldn’t use the abuse. Anyway, here are the Top 20 radio stations in KC for August in adults 25 to 54, Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

1) Who else? KCFX FM, The Fox, with an 8.7 share, up from 8.6 in July and the station’s best month in a year.

2)  The Rock with an 8.1 share, down slightly from 8.5 in July.

3)  K-Love with a 6.4 share up strongly from a 5.3. No two ways about it, these Christians are lions!

4)  Mix 93.3 FM with a 5.6 share, up from a 4.5 share.

5)  KCMO FM with a 5.2 share, up from 4.8.

6)  KPRS FM with a 5.0 share up from 4.8

7)  WHB with a 4.5 share up sharply from a 3.5 share.

8)  Alice with a 4.0 down from a 4.4 in July.

9)  The Buzz, freefalling to a 3.9 from a 6.1 share.

10) Q104 FM with a 3.8 share, down sharply from a 6.0 share a month earlier.

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Lost in shuffle and the blistering August heat was a story about banning at KU….

That’s right, banning. I’m not talking about KU football coach Turner Gill‘s banning of Twitter for the team. We’re talking "Banned in Boston" type banning. Or like the time the Plaza tried to banish panhandler Jerry Mazer.

You know, banning.

Take the case of former Pennylane music guru Saul Tucker, aka the KU sports mascot who goes by White Owl…

After pyramiding his strange looks and dance moves into a love affair with the KU football team (when it was good a handful of years back) and a 20-something KU coed, Tucker vaulted from homeless dude to toast of the town.

No mas….

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I’ll give you the correct, accurate, important radio ratings and rankings shortly…

In the meantime allow me to explain why the publically published ratings for listeners ages 6 and older, Monday thru Sunday, 6 a.m. to midnight are unimportant. Misleading even. Those are the ratings Arbitron releases to the public and media largely for PR purposes.

They’re free-to-good-home, unlike the key ratings ad agencies and stations pay thousands of dollars to obtain.

If all Arbitron had to offer were the 6-plus numbers, it would be out of business.

The ratings that matter measure key listening hours and specific demographics important to stations and advertisers. And the timeslots where the most listenership and revenues are attained are on weekdays between 6 a.m. (morning drive) and 7 p.m. (afternoon drive).

Far fewer listeners tune in outside of those hours, with few exceptions.

What’s more, the 6-plus ratings actually distort the real radio ratings and rankings.

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Ready to get star struck?

Find yourself moping and daydreaming all day? Fantascizing becoming the next Matt Donnelly or something?

Mope no more.

KC Confidential is looking for someone to help lighten the onerous burden of almost single handedly carrying the entire Greater Kansas City and Lawrence sports scene upon his back; World’s Humblest Scribe, field marshall Craig Glazer.

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READING KU’S "BIG 12" TEA LEAVES

Not every communication re the impending death of the Big 12 is meeted out to sports journalists. Take the email KU Alumni Association prez Kevin J. Corbett dispatched re KU’s plans for a Big 12 afterlife.
 

"Dear Jayhawk," it begins. "Amid the latest round of conference realignment discussions, I want all KU alumni to know that Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little and Dr. Sheahon Zenger, KU athletics director, are aggressively pursuing the best possible outcome for KU."

It doesn’t say much, but the message is clear. KU’s actively pursuing and presumeably considering its options outside the Big 12. And that it won’t be caught with its pants down when and if the nightmare unfolds.

Which is good, but…

It also feeds in to the demise of the Big 12, when pretty much all its teams – with the possible exception of Baylor – are out fishing for new conference affiliations. Can assuring alums that such a process/search is underway help but fuel the fires now consuming the Big 12?

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Give it up for fallen Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks…

But first let’s get real. Odds are Hendricks would like nothing more than to poke one of my eyes. Or, in a kinder, gentler mood, cut out my journalistic tongue. Since leaving the newspaper nearly three years ago I (reluctantly at first)  embarked on a course of citiquing it as I do other local media. 

And frankly, there was no easier target than Mad Mike.

His columns,] – with some exception –  were a paragon of mediocrity. While they shone brightly next to those of also ousted columnist Steve Penn and Mary Sanchez, column writing just wasn’t Hendricks’ thing.

I also remember the lengthy, at times futile search for Star "Metro" columnists long ago that brought Hendricks to power.

And I recall another Mike Hendricks – the other Mike Hendricks…

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