KC Confidential

Sometimes the smartest guy in the room isn’t a guy at all…

Which is usually the case when MSNBC host Rachel Maddow happens to be one of the guys in said room. And the room she’s gonna be in today on Earth Day is the big one at the Uptown Theater.

Consider this a reminder.

Rainy Day Books honcho Vivien Jennings will do the honors, interviewing Maddow about her new book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power.

In it Maddow "argues that we’ve drifted away from America’s original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails," Amazon says. "Sensible yet provocative, dead serious yet seri­ously funny, Drift will reinvigorate a "loud and jangly" political debate about how, when, and where to apply America’s strength and power–and who gets to make those decisions."

Maddow will sign copies of her book for attendees.

The deal goes down at 2 p.m. today at the Uptown.

What to expect from Maddow’s book? Expect the unexpected, says New York Times reviewer Scott Shane.

"Some readers will come to Rachel Maddow’s first book expecting an entertaining left-wing screed against the military. They may be surprised to discover instead a lively but serious argument about American history," Shane writes. "Fox News fans will be taken aback to find a blurb from none other than Roger Ailes, that conservative channel’s creator, declaring that ‘Drift’ offers ‘valid arguments’ and is ‘a book worth reading.’ Meanwhile, devotees of Maddow’s liberal MSNBC show may raise their eyebrows at her declaration that ‘my generation of veterans’ is ‘a huge part of why I’m bullish on America’s capacity to adapt, lead and succeed in the 21st century.’"

Even Fox New types may want to check out Maddow and her new book:

"If the book lures readers briefly from their political silos, it will be because Maddow’s thesis crosses ideological lines," Shane continues. "Like the Tea Partiers, she believes that the United States must return to the lost principles of the nation’s founders — in this case a suspicion of standing armies and a deep reluctance to go to war. ‘America’s structural disinclination toward war is not a sign that something’s gone wrong,’ she declares. ‘It’s the way the founders set us up.’ ”

But here’s the real reason pretty you should go check out Maddow today at the Uptown or at the very least start watching her weekday show on MSNBC:

Nobody gets to the bottom of more significant news stories and issues better than Maddow.

She’s that good.

Guys like Bill O’Reilly and Chris Matthews get the ratings and the plaudits, but it’s Maddow who brings home the bacon with stories like Friday’s expose on oil spills and the pathetic, dated techniques of cleaning up oil spills still employed by BP and others after more than 30 years.

"The BP oil spill started two years ago today," Maddow told viewers. "And one of the shocking things about that disaster, is that it made us all realize  that over the course of 30 years cleanup technology, what is available to us to respond when there’s a big, horrible oil spill hadn’t really progressed at all…Like we’re still stuck in 1979."

In other words even with all the push to drill more oil wells, little to nothing’s been done to protect against the incredibly harmful spills we’ve seen in the past.

In another story Maddow updated the so-called Republican War on Women with a report on regulations  targeting medical (nonsurgical) abortions in Wisconsin.

"A new state law which establishes criminal penalties, including prison time, for doctors. The new law signed by Republican governor Scott Walker earlier this month sets up requirments for exactly how a doctor needs to talk to a patient before any abortion. It also includes requirements for specific exams and specific doctors visits both before and after the medication is prescribed for a nonsurgical abortion."

At the same time, Walker greenlighted a bill "removing contraception from the state’s sex ed curriculim," Maddow reported, adding, "That’ll help."

Oh yeah, check out the Uptown’s Earth Day garage sale across the street to the north while you’re there.

Let’s’s talk a little sports business and KU, shall we?

With Missourian-turned-Kansan John Kiefer of Kiefs Audio Video fame in Lawrence. Kiefer’s been a Lawrence business and real estate fixture for more than half a century even though he was born and raised in good, old KCMO, so he brings a balanced perspective to the area Big 12 basketball, football and culture wars.

For starters, why does Manhattan, Kansas suck so bad?

"You have to go back to 1959," Kiefer says. "In 1959 Aggieville should have been called Downtown Manhattan."

Kinda like downtown Lawrence is called Downtown Lawrence.

"When you have half your population as students like Lawrence and Manhattan, they decide where they want to hang out," Kiefer says. "But they decided to call it Aggieville and the problem was, all they had there then was a bunch of shit kicker bars and country music. So while KU was lsitening to blues, soul and jazz back then, K-State was listening to country music. And they called K-State Silo Tech back then. What does that tell you? And KU used to be known as Berkley on the Kaw. It’s not as prominent now, but it’s still Silo Tech."

In other words, K-State hasn’t quite caught up to KU in hipness and worldiness yet?

"No, not at all," Kiefer says. "I mean, it’s a fine school…"

A school still trying to live down its rep as a hick haven, courtesy of the Aggieville tag.

How about Missouri?

"I’m a Missouri kid and Columbia’s a Missouri town and that’s where I met Sam Walton," Kiefer says. "But it’s kind of a wide spot on I-70"

Translation: Slightly better but about the same as K-State.

Going forward, will MU be better off in the SEC or not?

"That’s an interesting question," Kiefer says. "And my honest opinion is, no. I think Missouri made a poor decision leaving the conference. I mean, it may have been good financially.

"But the worst thing that happened was when Missouri started playing KU in Kansas City in 2006. They lost the school spirit and that damage was done. Think about it, who in the hell in Florida wants to fly into Columbia to watch football? It doesn’t make sense.

"And think about why would Kansas want to play Missouri now after they left us? Fuck ’em. I wouldn’t walk across the street to watch Missouri play and everybody I know in Lawrence says the same thing."

How about playing again, down the roadm after the hurt feelings subside and fans forget?

"People don’t forget certain things," Kiefer says. "If the money’s there, yes – follow the money – but if they do, you will see a big uprising against it."

Any sympathy in LA for the KU ticket embezzlers, one of whom is trying to weasil out of his sentence?

"I think they got everything they deserved – they cheated," Kiefer says. "They cheated the people of Lawrence who couldn’t get a seat to the basketball games. And it’s hard for me to imagine that somebody could steal that many tickets ($2 million) and the athletic director didn’t know what happened. Give me a break!"

Speaking of which, how do folks feel about gone and almost forgotten KU athletics director Lew Perkins?

"As an athletic director he brought our stadiums and facilities up to the highest level," Kiefer says. "Other than that, I don’t know what he did. He didn’t hire Bill Self, he hired Turner Gill, but everybody I’ve ever heard talk about him says he collected a ton of money from the alumnae."

Now here’s what Kiefer and Lawrence Journal World publisher Dolph Simons know that most KU fans don’t.

Because of Perkins heavy-handed extorting of big bucks from alums and local supporters for basketball and football tickets, a number of unassuming but rich-as-cream folks wrote KU out of their wills.

The kind of people who live unassuming lives but are sitting on millions and had planned to leave vast chunks of their wealth to KU.

Take the older woman Kiefer knows personally who had basketball tickets she was letting her grandson use and had planned on leaving KU a cool $12 million. However after Perkins bumped grandma out of her seats because she wouldn’t write a six-figure check to the athletics department for Perkins point system, she pulled the plug on the $12 million donation.

"It was already in the KU endowment and she pulled it out," Kiefer says. "But that endowment was not going to go to the athletic department, it was going to go to the university."

Kiefer’s bottom line on not-so-sweet Lou:

"I have yet to hear one single person say, ‘God, we lost Lew Perkins!’ There’s been no comment on Lew Perkins. If they don’t say something negative, they don’t say anything."

Nobody apologizes for St. Patrick’s, Thanksgiving or Earth Day...

However, that’s hardly the case with 420 Day, at least around these parts.

Take Westport sparkplug Bill Nigro, the organizer of Westport’s First Annual 420 Day Celebration.

"Everyone around here is kind of bashful about the whole 420 thing," Nigro confesses. "They don’t want us to be making too big a deal out of it – this is the Bible Belt, buddy."

It’s also the year 2012 Anno Domini.

And since 420 Day (April 20th) is the longstanding day of celebration for all things pot, Kansas City’s party central has elected to launch a festival recognizing the holiday.

They’re not alone. Take Vancouver’s annual 420 celebration.

"April 20th or ‘420’ as it is called is a considered a holiday for marijuana smokers in downtown Vancouver," says entertainment writer Dawnn Behrens. "Each year thousands of cannabis fans gather across the country on ‘420’ for ‘smoke ins’

"During the annual 420 celebration the Georgia Street lawn of the VAG comes alive with free concerts, artists and street performers. There are also vendors offering everything from pot brownies,cookies, to cannibis paraphernalia."

There’ll be none of the latter – wink, wink – in Westport, Nigro says.

"Just a peaceful crowd, a small peaceful crowd," he says. "It all starts today at 4:20 p.m. and it’s being put on by all the bars that surround the alley in Westport – Ernie Biggs, Buzzard Beach, Dark Horse Tavern, Harry’s Bar & Tables and (by special invitation) Gusto.

How about Kelly’s?  "Uh, no," Nigro says.

"And it’s not really just about getting high," Nigro says. "That’s why Jerusalem Cafe is gonna have a Hookah bar outside. And we’ll have free tobacco and cigarette rolling contests."

Not to mention a slate of bands outside Buzzard beach with ridiculously insane names starting around 4:20 pm.

"The Buttermilk Boys are the opening act," Nigro says. "Then we have the Fall Down Drunks and Whiskey Breath. And then the main acts are David Hasselhoff on Acid and the main act is The Porn Huskers at 9 p.m."

All of that said, Nigro can envision the day – not that far in the future – when 420 Day will take its rightful place alongside mainstream holidays like Cinco de Mayo and Mother’s Day.

"It’ll be like Oktoberfest," Nigro says. "States are realizing the tax money is too tempting. I realistically see Missouri only about three years away from legalizing marijuana."

In other words, there may come a day when Wild Bill can envision himself standing along Westport Road alongside a peace officer, relaxing and blowing a joint?

"Long as I got my medical card," Nigro quips.

Did somebody slip something in my coffee?

Maybe it’s Radio Week. In any case, here’s an update on legendary Kansas City broadcasting badboy Randy Miller.

The DJ who made a name for himself by getting fired – and dramatically so – from every on-air job he ever had, inlcuding by at least four stations in Kansas City, including Q104, ZZ99 and The Planet to name only three.

It’s been like nine years since Miller parted company with the latter, so what’s he been up to since?

For starters, he’s the brains behind local marketing firm Brainstorm Media, or BS Media, as he likes to call it.

"Brainstorm Media is headed by media veteran, Randy Miller. With more than 25 years of on-air experience, Randy understands how to use your message to attract attention!" reads the site’s home page. "Randy heads a tremendous team of graphic designers, copywriters, video experts, and IT professionals to produce original and dramatic results for our partners.

"Whether it’s traditional media, event marketing, or Internet integration, we’ve been there. Everything from product launch, to brand development. From fifteen second TV commercials, to one hour TV shows. From press releases to marketing consultation. We can do as little, or as much, as you need. If you have the question, we’ll provide the ANSWER."

Miller’s client list includes, Rob Sight Ford, Crowley Furniture, Factory Directory Appliance and the VFW.

"So I look at life from both sides now," Miller says.

All after parting ways with the Planet in 2003 and coming to terms with his future after, I realized there was not that kind of money in radio anymore," Miller says. "I mean, I was offered the morning show and assistant program director job on a station here two years ago. And when I asked how much it paid, they told me it was $75,000. And I said, is that for each job? And they said, no, it’s for both.

"And I started thinking that I had to stay all day and I thought, ‘Well, I made about ten times that much for working just four hours with a bonus – my base salary was $550,000.’ I mean, I know morning show guys that are making just $40,000. You know, and getting up at 4:30 a.m."

It could have been worse, like Siberia maybe…

But if many, you’ve been pining away for some halfway decent local talk radio and happen to be in either Omaha or North Dakota, be sure and pay your respects to former KC radio personality Tom Becka.

"I’m up here in Fargo now," Becka says. "I’m the program director of an AM/FM talk station, 101.9 Talk FM."

Becka in management? Wearing a suit to work? No way!

"I’m also doing the morning show here," he says. "And a week from Monday I’ll be doing afternoon drive in Omaha again on KKAR 1290 AM. So instead of playing golf, I’ll be doing talk radio."

The two towns are a five and a half hour drive apart but, "My home base is going to be Fargo right now," Becka says. "And Fargo is just booming. It has the lowest unemployment rate of any city in the country."

Hmmmmm….

So is it like, you know, the movie?

"It’s not like that at all," Becka backpedals. "They have a very good arts community here and the people here are incredible. It’s a great eperience. The only thing I am concerned about are the winters – the weather here can be brutal. There can easily be four or five feet of snow and temperatures have gotten down to 40 degrees below."

How about the accents- are they even like in the movie?

"There’s a bit of a Northern Minnesota accent, yes," Becka says.

And what do the locals think of Becka’s accent?

"They think the same as everybody else thinks, that I talk funny," Becka says. "The same as people in Kansas City think."

So how’s the love life up north, has Becka dated any strippers yet? "No, I have not," he says.

Why, too cold? "It’s never too cold for strippers," Becka quips.

As a Chiefs, Royals and Nebraska fan, who’s Becka rooting for these days?

"Right now, the North Dakota State Bisons," he says. "They were the National Champions last year in basketball. And they’re in the same league as UMKC, so we’ll be playing you guys."

Talk about throwing one’s voice…

Listeners to "NewsRadio" KMBZ are a little confused re the whereabouts of midday talk show host Chris Merrill.

"I think he’s still on the air in Kansas City, but he was supposed to go to San Diego," says one. "Is he out there phoning it in?"

In a word, yes.

However many – if not most – KMBZ listeners don’t have a clue.

That’s because Merrill does such a good job of researching local and area topics online and constantly bantering with his board op / producer as if they’re about to go out for lunch beers after the show.

The talk among insiders however is KMBZ would not let Merrill out of his contract until a replacement could be found.

So Merrill continues to phone it in, starting at 7 a.m. San Diego time and ending at 9 a.m. – that’s 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Kansas City.  Which leaves the former Lawrence-ite plenty of time to prep for his 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. show on KOGO AM & FM on the left coast.

As for where Merrill’s loyalties may lie, check out the shirt.

Let’s straighten out all of this confusion where Mike Shanin and Entercom are concerned, shall we?

First of all, forget pretty much most of what you may have read or heard about what was blogged locally about the aging radio veteran’s untimely departure from News Radio KMBZ 980/98.1 earlier this year and more recently KMBZ’s new, weak sister business station at 1660 AM.

When Shanin refused to go on the air on 1660 on March 5th, hours before the station’s launch, the question was why?

And if you recall, one reason offered here was that according to sources he was upset that Entercom had not hired a producer to do the leg work and much of the heavy lifting in terms of booking guests and doing research for Shanin’s weekday business show on 1660.

A former Entercom manager who had hired Shanin to read business reports on KMBZ and 61 Country several years back noted that Shanin was not a business reporter per ser with a business background, describing him rather as a "rip and read " guy when it came to business news.

So quite obviously Shanin – who’d been demoted from his comfortable perch doing afternoons on KMBZ talking about news – would have been hard pressed to deal in complex business news and issues and foster intelligent discussion with local business leaders.

Hence the need for – at the very least – a true producer for his show on 1660 AM.

Instead what he got was the board op dude who did afternoons on KMBZ.

A guy who makes sure the commercials and news breaks, etc. run. Not the seasoned professional business news producer Shanin was counting on.

Thus Shanin continues to tell others in the industry that "the reason he didn’t take 1660 show was in fact they would not hire him a producer," says a source. "But he lied about that to Bottom Line so it would not sound bad or lazy."

Naturally management was furious with Shanin for refusing to go on the air at the last minute, but allowed him to continue to promote the new business station at 1660 by rip and reading business news on KMBZ. And if you recall, I wrote that under the circumstances, the chances of that continuing for very long were slim and none.

So it is, that Shanin and KMBZ have now parted ways and former KC Business Journal staffer Krista Klaus has replaced Shanin there, as well as on 1660. Obviously Klaus is a far better fit.

However, Entercom says Shanin will still be allowed to do voice commercial spots for advertisers on KMBZ (duh) and may be contracted in the summer or fall to do some political reporting for the station.

As for the concept of The KMBZ Business Channel at 1660 AM moving at some point to KMBZ 980 AM’s slot, don’t hold your breath.

That is a possibility, Entercom says, except for one thing.

"Very few stations around the country doing business get much if any ratings," says a broadcasting industry insider. "In fact, I don’t know of any as a matter of fact. For example, WBBR in New York City is ranked 37th in 12-plus, which means there aren’t a lot of people interested in that format on the radio. And New York is the financial capital of the world."

No way Entercom would be dumb enough to kill KMBZ 980 and replace it with business news, he adds.

"There’s no way anybody’s going to take that signal and put local business on it. That is so far out in left field, I don’t care what they’re telling people. That’s the dumbest thing in the world. That would kill KMBZ. If they would do that, that would be unbelievable. They’d be better off launching another talk format on 1660 and going up against KCMO 710 AM."

There’s more than one meaning for the word jazz…

Don’t bother looking it up, I’ve got it right here; "insincere, exaggerated, or pretentious talk."

And where the neverending saga of fallen Plaza area jazz club Jardine’s is concerned there’s been plenty of that.

Let’s think briefly about the lies, tabloid TV, confusion and subterfuge that’s gone down at Jardine’s since last November when the you-know-what hit the fan. The interested parties that have come and seemingly gone. The catty behind-the-scenes dealings that went awry. Larger than life personalities reduced to cartoon-like, lowest common denominators. And lastly, of the endlessness of it all.

We good? Now here’s the latest.

A week ago Jardine‘s founder and former owner Greg Halstead fired off an angry email to the leasing agent for Jardine’s space:

"As you know, I have a financial interest in Jardine’s per my Agreement with Beena Brandsgard Raja," it begins. "You have a copy of that Agreement.

I have recently learned that you will not respond to messages from Paul Wilson regarding his interest in buying Jardines. Wilson has been interested in buying Jardine’s since early January and that you, of late, will not respond to either his phone messages or his e-mails.

I have been told that Robert McCain and Joseph Fulgenzi are no longer pursuing to lease the Jardine space because of, according to them, your failure to communicate with in a timely or professional manner.

I also understand the Matt Jones, proprietor of the Phoenix Jazz Club is no longer interested in buying Jardine’s because of your refusal to communicate with him.

I stopped trying to contact you roughly 10 weeks ago because you would not return my phone calls or respond to my e-mails…"

Got all that?

Raja, however, begs to differ.

"He calls me all the time," she says of the leasing agent for Jardine’s space. "And I talked to him today, too. He’s one of the greatest property managers I’ve ever had."

As for the other players mentioned in Halstead’s missive, "You know what?" Raja says. "The gay guys got plenty of calls back – that’s bullshit. And Matt from the Phoenix met with (the agent) at Jardine’s, I was there. What is Greg talking about?"

Jones is no longer interested in Jardine’s, Raja says. "And I haven’t talked to the gay guys for a month or more," she adds.

Speaking of which, my last contact with McCain was a text on March 28th reading; "spoke to halstead today, have a call out to american century. funny how things all changed today after we did all the due diligence"

McCain did not respond to requests for comment today and yesterday on whether or not he was still in the running for Jardine’s or if he’d heard recently from the leasing agent for the space.

The latest from Jardine’s suitor  Paul Wilson:

"Yeah, I’m still interested," Wilson says. "I mean, I’m far less interested than I was two months ago, but if eveything lined up, I’d still be interested."

On the leasing agent front, Wilson says it’s been three weeks without a return call or email since he submitted a list of seven questions pertaining to the lease to the leasing agent for American Century.

Raja’s bottom line:

"Hearne, I got screwed. I signed the lease termination that Friday, so I’m out of the lease but I still have the license and I’m talking to a couple people. And I talked to American Century today and they’re going to keep it as a bar…I don’t want to be a part of it, but I’m hoping for the best. It’s my name and my license and nobody else can get it."

That is, without making a deal with Raja first, and a ‘for sale’ sign is up on Jardine’s Web site.

stay tuned.