KC Confidential

Think end of an era…

It’s been decades since a geeky kid from Olathe rose from obscurity to become a force to be reckoned with in Kansas City radio.

His stage name: Johnny Dare.

Yet after more than 20 years of success and huge paychecks captaining 98.9 The Rock, Dare and the station’s ratings are plummeting, revealing that the emperor has few clothes.

“The Rock was in the top five stations for years and for five years in a row it was the No. 1 station in Kansas,” notes a media observer. “And now even with Johnny Dare, it’s ranked 14th. I mean, X105.1 FM came out of nowhere without any advertising or promotion and it’s got a 3.1 share to The Rock’s 3.5 share.

“The Rock is falling apart  there’s no question – and who knows what they’re still paying Johnny…He was a franchise player on that station… They used to pay him $800,000 plus bonus. My point is Johnny Dare is no longer a franchise player, because you could change the station’s format and still get a 3.5 share – three shares are not hard to get.”

In days gone by The Rock reportedly billed as much as $8 million a year in advertising.

The odds of KQRC garnering that kind of revenue now in 14th place among listeners 12 and older: Zippo

“This has been a long, steady decline,” says the source. “But even as they’re losing listeners, they’re still going to have loyal advertisers like Worth Harley. However the biggest part of a station’s revenue comes from ad agency buys – generally 90 percent with the exception of new talk radio.”

The bottom line: Continue reading →

NOT HARLEY

Bear with me…

A long time ago – like nine years – during the early years of KC Confidential there came an irritating, irascible comments section dude named Jojo. Talk about rude and offensive, this dude made just about everybody’s skin crawl. He was a train wreck readers couldn’t turn away from.

Nobody was safe.

Then suddenly, he went away.

However many weeks or months later another equally gifted, odorous comments section dude named Harley rose from Jojo’s ashes and carried poor taste to new heights – or depths – depending on your perspective.

New KCC readers marveled at Harley’s caustic mix of obnoxious wit and flashes of fleeting, borderline genius. With rare exception, poor taste was the dude’s middle name. He was so bad he was good – a train wreck – a funny guy at times.

However for many readers – and a number of past and present KCC writers – Harley’s contributions to the site was a mixed blessing.

I’ve generally taken a bemused, tolerant attitude toward Harley.

Because at times he can bring more to the table than his trademark relentless, repetitive rants.

Other times, less so. Continue reading →

It’s not unusual for 76 year-old men to lose a step after more than 50 years…

Such was the case with ’60s heartthrob Tom Jones before a sold out crowd at the Uptown last week.

What was unusual was for the septuagenarian’s pipes to be in such amazing shape. Make no mistake, for an oldster, Jones did not disappoint.

Unless of course you have a really long memory and/or checked out Jones clips on YouTube from the days when he was – to put it plainly – a panties magnet.

No mas.

These days – with the odd exception, including my date of course – most of the panties tossers in the crowd seemed better suited to Depends.

That said, Jones dress shirt was dripping wet halfway through his two hour show, despite the complete absence of the slinky, suggestive, signature body language and dance moves he was once famous for.

Powering Jones’ show was a stellar nine piece band that breathed fire into many (but not all) of his greatest hits along with a smattering of  R&B, blues and gospel tunes that were pleasing if mostly unfamiliar.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was no small feat; to bring a packed house to its feet and sustain such a high energy level with so many unfamiliar songs.

Not that everything about Jones show made perfect sense.

For example with his arsenal of actual hits numbering under 10, how does one rationalize leaving out, “She’s a Lady” and “Daughter of Darkness” to name two?

“So how do you rate the concert so far,” asked an anxious audience member to my left. “Don’t be a dick.”

“Eight to 8.5,” I shot back.

Again, despite a nonstop parade of mostly obscure songs.

Then Jones threw the crowd a bone and did, “Kansas City.”

Complete with an odd rewording of the song’s signature line:

“You gotta crazy way of living here and I’m gonna get me some,” Jones sang.

Huh, crazy way of living?

What happened to: “They got some crazy little women there, and I’m gonna get me one.”

Maybe at Jones advanced age he’s finally packing it in romantically.

Wasn’t always the case. Continue reading →