KC Confidential

Who goes to a WWE wrestling match on Super Sunday anyway?

Who goes to a WWE match period, you might counter.

Uh, me.

I actually paid for tickets and took my stepsons – ages 11 and 15 and a comments section refugee – to the Sunday afternoon affair at Sprint Center.

Hey, I’m not exactly alone. Justin Kendall of The Pitch seems to be something of a wrestling buff – although like me, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t take it ultra seriously like The Glaze. You know, jaunts to La Vegas to put his money down.

Kendall wrote a couple pieces about Sunday’s match here, including an advance item speculating that WWE “superstar” C.M. Punk probably wouldn’t be making it even though he’d been advertised as coming.

Now here’s what you didn’t read in the Pitch:

Kansas City pretty much got screwed. Continue reading →

Don’t take this the wrong way but…

I’d like to dedicate this nightmarish snowstorm to…KSHB TV weather wonk Gary Lezak‘s mother Kay Rubell, who passsed away last Sunday.

A little background…

To get your head around this concept, you need to understand two things. That the two things Lezak has loved most are his mom and the weather.

That’s not to say he’s lacking in affection for other family members, in his romantic life or for his friends, workmates, etc.  It’s simply that Lezak lives to study and break down storms and the weather and was amazingly close to his mother.

Anybody who has called Gary on his cellphone, knows that what they hear while awaiting his answer is not the typical phone ring, but rather a selection of music from one of Lezak’s favorite artists…or…more often than not, one of his mother’s favorite artists.

Like the Simon & Garfunkle song “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Continue reading →

All bets are off at Alice 102.1 FM…

Or perhaps on, depending upon how you look at it. Because as predicted here last week, the low-rated Adult Album Alternative (AAA) station is doornail dead and a robotic on-air countdown is on – presumably leading to whatever format the station debuts at sometime tomorrow.

Will it be a Gold Based Adult Contemporary format as hinted on that mysterious Facebook page that radio insiders suspect was a curveball thrown by Alice to draw attention away from whatever the real format will be.

Besides, “KC 102.1” and “More Music, Variety & Fun!” is lame, insiders say. Continue reading →

Wilco

Going, going…

Triple A radio station Alice 102.1 FM isn’t gone yet, but the future of the Adult Album Alternative format on airwaves is soon to rest solely on the untested shoulders of a public radio station owned by public television station KCPT, Channel 19.

Which of course makes for some interesting prospects.

Because while KCPT may have borrowed and/or invested way too much ($1.7 million and $400,000) in acquiring and bringing its new baby The Bridge 90.9 FM fully into the local marketplace, the pending departure of Alice 102.1 FM certainly could help them – and maybe help them a lot.  Continue reading →

There’s nothing quite like quarreling over radio station ratings…

On the surface, radio ratings may appear to be a zero sum game, but after the slicing and dicing of the all-important demographics go down – you know, men, women, age groups,  sexual orientation, etc – are factored in, practically anybody can play and everybody is a winner. Or are they?

Most media buyers probably know better though they may be loath to admit it. Continue reading →

How bad was it?

Comedy club czar turned sports scribe Craig Glazer’s esteemed take on yesterday’s Super Bowl:

“Well, unless you were a Seattle fan or bet a lot of money on Seattle, you’d probably call it the Super Dud,” Glazer cracks.

Final score: Seattle 43, Denver 8

Not that the game itself wasn’t telling. Continue reading →

Was a time Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock was a go to guy on significant matters of race and sports…

Think about it.

Like the time when long-in-the-tooth shock jock Don Imus uttered the words “nappy headed hos,” propelling Whitlock straight to the couch of Oprah Winfrey. There have been other high profile media moments, but they seem to be growing fewer and farther between.

Oh sure, Big Sexy drew some fire during the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide incident at Arrowhead just over a year ago. But clearly that was based on his ties to Kansas City and the Chiefs and his 16 year newspaper career.

Nope, Whitlock may be in a better place financially for the time being at ESPN, but his recognition that he has almost no more bridges to burn – and retain a halfway decent sports journalism paycheck – seems to have caused him to mellow and tone down his once vitriolic rhetoric. To the point that he’s no longer out there fanning the flames of racism like he’s been wont to do, lo these many years. Continue reading →

Deny, deny, deny…

That’s a strategy some folks employ for almost any situation – any prickly situation – that they don’t want to admit to or have to deal with.

And face it, when it comes to pending music format changes, not may radio stations like to come clean until they’re darn good and ready. No sense giving their employees advance notice so they can find another job (and possibly leave the station in the lurch for a few days or weeks).

Nope, it’s far easier to plot one’s course, then spring the new listening format on everybody after the proverbial t’s are crossed and i’s dotted.

So when Jack Poessiger speculated here quite recently that changes may be in the works at Alice FM – the AAA station at 102.1 on the FM dial – he took some grief from Alice stationalities who scolded, while assuring that nothing of the sort was in the works.

Nope, the Kansas City Adult Album Alternative station was doing just fine and was ready to steam into the bright future of kicking public television station KCPT’s Warrenburg AAA import, The Bridge 90.9 FM’s butt.

Just one problem… Continue reading →