Category Archives: Hearne_Christopher

The days of the radio giants may be fading fast…

where are the up-and-coming Johnny Dares, Mike Murphy’s or Kevin Kietzmans these days? In the PPM metered ratings world of today,  success seems to be based more on music format and programming than personalities.

So how are the few we have left faring?

Let’s start with morning drive, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. with men 25 to 54. Numero Uno: Who else, Johnny Dare with a 14.5 share

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Just how widespread is 420 Day nowadays?

So much that a mere mention of the national holiday for pot smokers in the checkout line at Sam’s Club in Topeka elicited a comment from checkout dude Nick.

"What high school kid hasn’t heard of 420 Day?" Nick quipped. "Half the students at school would take off on that day."

Meanwhile, back in KCMO, Coffee Wonk owner Micah Riggs has seen better 420 Days…

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The Golden Age of Groupon is upon us…

The question is, for how long?

Comments section skeptics aside, businesses across Kansas City have taken advantage of Groupon’s email blast, deal-of-the-day marketing propostions. It’s not about undermining the value of a product by giving away the farm for half price. In less than two years here, Groupon’s forged the image as a proven means of reaching hundreds of thousands of locals with offers they can’t resist. Offers that work for both the biz and the customer.

It’s that simple.

However we may be nearing the turning point.

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Are you ready for some football?

Where the new Kansas City Command is concerned, the answer appears to be no. Four games into the Arena Football League team’s inaugural season there’s almost zero buzz. The Command won its first home game last weekend against the Iowa Barnstormers – after losing three on the road – but attendance was a far cry from its forebears, the Kansas City Brigade.

In 2006 the Brigade packed Kemper Arena for its home opener with an announced, sellout crowd of 16,523.

That was then…

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Almost forgot…

Unless I missed something, the Star‘s FYI Section unleashed a new creation today called "A & E (Wednesday)." How to describe the single page (plus jump) insert in the paper’s all-important food section? 

Columnist insert

Frankly, it’s kinda hard to be kind.

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Local radio will never be the same…

The advent of PPMs, portable people meters – electronic devices replacing handwritten diaries used by Arbitron to gage radio listener’s actual listening habits – have turned the media world upside down the past two years.

Stations & personalities that loomed large have been humbled.

While wallflowers mired in Cinderella-like shadows have been tongue-kissed like frogs, rising to star-like status.

Winners, KCFX FM, KCMO FM and 97.5 The Vibe – love PPMs. They’re on Cloud 9, doing fine.

The opposite is the case for Urban stations like KPRS FM.

So with millions of dollars on the local line, let’s take a look at today’s PPM ratings world

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A quick check of the Kansas City Star…

When baseball buff Craig Glazer told me he hadn’t read Sam Mellinger‘s front page interview with Royals owner David Glass Sunday, I figured he probably wasn’t alone. And while I’m bullish on Mellinger, I think the story could have been reduced to a tiny fraction of its size.

Here’s why. Because who really cares about the minutia Mellinger had to wade through just to get the interview?

That’s just the way the sports journalism game has to be played with an out-of-town owner getting along just fine who doesn’t really give a rat’s ass what folks here think of him. As long as it’s nothing wildly embarrassing, that is. I mean, think about it. What sort of a presence does Glass really have in this town?

Heck, his son Dan Glass – the team prez – is a nice enough dude, but who knows or hears much of anything about him? And he lives here.

A former Star publisher once described Dan Glass to me as "nebbish."

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Here we go again…

The first quarter of the year being up, staffers at the Kansas City Star are braced for another round of cutbacks and/or layoffs. Nothing’s been announced but after four years of cuts, a pattern’s emerged. Parent company McClatchy‘s newspapers are given quarterly financial targets. Those targets must be met or at quarter’s end cuts made.

The talk on possible pending cuts among insiders at the Star:

"Just that it’s coming is all I know," says one staffer.

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The parallels are freakishly familiar…

The settlement last week of a lawsuit by parents of a KU student who died after a night of binge drinking two years back has striking similarities to Kansas Citian Brian Euston. Euston, 24, died last fall after a night on the town at Kelly’s.

Jason Wren, a 19 year-old KU freshman, was found dead at a frat house after a night of heavy drinking. Euston died after an altercation in Westport and a night of even heavier drinking. How heavy?

Wren’s fatal blood-alcohol level measured .362, more than four times the legal limit to drive in Kansas. 

Euston took it to even further extremes with a BAC of .387

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Too much of a good thing? You make the call…

The train wreck that is Craig Glazer’s confessional regarding the ins and outs of his serialized sexcapades unleashed a firestorm of comments. And face it, what more could anybody say on the subject that hasn’t been said?

Enter KCC rabble rouser Tracy Thomas…

"Maybe you need to visit Craig to get a bevy of glamour shots of Junior," Thomas says of Glazer’s trusty dachshund. "Even one with Black Barbie and someone else in his bullpen? Or maybe Junior by himself in various poses including, of course, roll over and down. Craig hugging Junior. Craig illustrating the sit or down positions. Craig trying to play Tug of War with Junior with a sex toy."

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Fact; Chiefs fans love to hate those dastardly Oakland Raiders….

How venomous is it? There’s even a Wikipedia page on the subject. No kidding.

"The Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders of the National Football League are considered to have one of professional football’s most bitter rivalries," it begins.

The teams first met in 1960, but "the rivalry did not become so apparent until the Kansas City Athletics baseball team moved to Oakland, California in 1967," Wikipedia adds. "The move was met with considerable distaste in the Kansas City area and much of the frustration was put upon the Raiders when they played in Kansas City."

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What to make of yesterday’s Rod Stewart/Stevie Nicks two-for-one ticket offer…

Was it a desperation move, as the Star‘s Tim Finn implied (carefully avoiding criticizing a major advertiser)? A dumbass move by promoters, as music biz blogger Bob Lefsetz harangued?

"You make tickets 2 for 1 in the beginning, not when you realize you’ve got a stiff and can’t sell tickets and the acts are embarrassed about playing an empty hall and are having their managers lean upon you," Lefsetz groused.

Au contraire, promoters have been "papering" arenas since the days of Old Blue Eyes (more on that later).

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Ah, the Kansas City Star….

For all that it should be and what it is, let’s take a quick look at a few obvious shortcomings. Starting with its partial front-page headline Firday about the Kansas City Royals season-opening loss at home; "The future looks bright."

Now contrast that with a headline buried deep inside  Sports Daily: "KC has smallest payroll."

That the Royals are fielding a team of largely young unknowns (again),  likely to leave if and when they reach their peak playing levels, is underscored in the underplayed report. That New York Yankee‘s star Alex Rodriguez makes nearly twice as much as the entire Royals payroll for its starting lineup is the point the Star should be pounding home, rather than trafficking in statistics and naive optimism.

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The scramble for survival is on…

The good, old days of the alternative publishing industry are behind it. Ahead lies an uncertain future. A future former Pitch – and until recently East Bay Express publisher – Hal Brody has placed in the rearview mirror.

"These papers can’t really survive like they used to just by having the world’s best calendars and a few good feature stories," Brody says. "You really have to be imbedded in the community. You have to get to the point where the community wants you to survive."

After three years of layoffs, cutbacks and incredibly-shrinking issues, Pitch editor C.J. Janovy and top reporting gun Nadia Pflaum not only left, they bailed from the biz.

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It’s been a rocking 11 years for the man who brought Kansas City Pennylane Records & The Pitch…

After cashing in big time on the Pitch in 1999, Hal Brody moved to California and until recently ran Oakland’s East Bay Express alternative news weekly. He’s been through lawsuits, business turnarounds and temperatures the likes of which have convinced him never to move back to the lowly Cowtown.

But Brody still owns the building that until January housed Pennylane successor Streetside Records.

Let’s start with a deal that fell through to lease or sell the building to Vinyl Renaissance, the Shawnee wax works and audiophile electronics seller. Earlier this year staffers at both Streetside and VR confirmed Vinyl Renaissance’s hope to pick up where Streetside left off in Westport with a second prime location there.

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The search for the cold, dead body of illustrious kc panhandler Jerry Mazer just got a lot more complicated.

Yes, it’s April Fool’s Day, but no, this isn’t a spoof.

Reports from multiple sources that Mazer – infamous for his Plaza presence outside Barnes & Noble and "Can I get a down payment on a cheeseburger?" parlance – died last year have to date proved unconfirmable.

With all that’s truly known being that Mazer – who forced the city and the Plaza to their knees by getting a no panhandling ordinance tossed – disappeared from the local scene last fall. Followed by a flurry of rumors he had died. But a check with Kansas City’s Department of Records found no evidence of a death certificate.

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It’s official; the courtship is o-v-e-r…

Now that Shawnee music emporium Vinyl Renaissance has announced intentions to open a second store on 39th Street in Midtown, the chances of ressurrecting the old Pennyland/Streetside location in Westport proper is deader than Liz Taylor.

"As far as Streetside Records goes…let sleeping dogs lie," reads VR’s Facebook post annoucing the new digs yesterday. "We’re all excited about the new store and look forward to seeing everyone on Record Store Day April 16!! Thanks to everyone for their patience and support."

Not that negotiations for Streetside’s space didn’t go down before it all fell apart…

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New columnist Sam Mellinger is taking Sports Daily to new heights in terms of column writing. But the section remains largely toothless when it comes to coverage of local teams and sports news.

Yeah, they get the obvious stories like KU athletics director Lew Perkins fall from grace and the KU ticket ripoff. But aside from that the section sets forth a largely unquestioning approach to teams and managements not mired in obvious scandal or disarray.

For example, yesterday’s massive headline: "The Royals REINVIGORATED."

Please…

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Remember that stuff I wrote about the Pitch and its many problems and woes?

Well, you can forget about that now, it’s time to move on. That’s exactly what’s about to happen, if my examination new Pitch owner SouthComm‘s alternative news weekly Nashville Scene is an indication of what’s in store for Kansas City.  And more to the point, for the now-nervous wretches at Ink.

Oh yeah. Sources say the Kansas City Star owned Ink is shaking in its shoes, having taken the measure of SouthComm’s handiwork in Nashville. SouthComm may only be a four year-old firm, but its doings down south run circles around what Village Voice‘s Pitch has failed to accomplish here. Same goes for Ink, only different.

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The Star lazily folded the news of legendary KUDL FM’s demise into a bit about 980 KMBZ simulcasting on KUDL’s signal…

For two reasons; the first being that Star reporter Aaron Barnhart could care less about radio – he’s a TV guy. Second, because the aging newshounds at the paper are mostly white males 50 and up and the simulcast story was a bigger deal to them than a women’s music station biting the dust.

They were wrong.

The death of a half century old station is far larger than a lateral move with a 14th rated station.

So KUDL goes away at 8 a.m. today, and word is KUDL’s Tanna Guthrie is planning a very special sendoff.

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