Tag Archives: Hearne Christopher Jr.
Hearne: Who’s Gonna Play Christmas Music Now That KUDL & Star 102 Are History?
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One of KC’s most fleeting, yet wildly profitable radio formats appears to have gone homeless…
For years adult contemporary stations Star 102 and KUDL FM duked it out for the hearts and ears of lovers of 24/7 Christmas music. Star led the way under former main man Jon Zellner. Entercom followed on KUDL, resulting in year after year of Christmas music warfare between the stations.
And while the day after Thanksgiving was good enough to start, competition between the stations resulted in earlier and earlier launch dates for the holiday music format. The idea being that whoever got there first would lock in more listeners.
Four years ago on Halloween day I bade readers both Trick or Treat and Happy Thanksgiving.
Today: Businessman Uses Math to Unravel Bogus Kauffman Center Crowd Count
It’s time now for KC’s top crowd counter Gary Evert to weigh in on the Kauffman Center‘s haltingly high attendence figure…
That after people no less illustrious than one of the Star‘s most respected (now laid off) entertainment writers and the tech who helped produce the event scoffed at the notion of 55,000 bouncing in and out of the PAC’s rainy Sunday afternoon public opening.
To be fair, anonymous commenters have supported the PAC guesstimate, suggesting anecdotally that a count might have been made. However that flies in the face of the reported fact that the "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."
In other words, by the PAC’s own accounting of things, it was a guesstimate not an actual count.
Hearne: All That Glitters…Jardine’s Hammers Groupon
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…
Car: 2012 Toyota Prius Gets Geek Chic w/ Body Kit, Sound Effects, ‘Creepy’ Commercial
Not that long ago Toyota’s Prius was a lifestyle statement for nerds…
People who didn’t care much how frumpy and/or dorky they looked when they spruced up for a night on the town. Let alone how ungainly their fuel-sipping ride looked as they lumbered about saving the earth and promoting world peace.
Then came the 2010 model year…
Just like that the pabulumy Prius was transformed into a green machine that not only averaged 50 mpgs, actually looked halfway decent.
Today: Source Says Kauffman Performing Arts Center Crowd 20,000 Not 55,000
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…
Today: Love at First Sight? Nah, Just the Watson’s Girl & Ex Star Honcho Mark Zieman
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…
Hearne: Remember When Jason Whitlock Tweeted He’d Replace Nick Wright Sept. 5th?
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.
Hearne: The Pitch’s ‘Big Deal’ Tanking; Are Daily Deals Drying Up?
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."
Today: Lest There Be Any Mystery, I Present To You Brandon Leftridge
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…
Hearne: Don’t Look Now but KC Confidential has a New Sports Columnist
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.
Hearne: Halloween City Blows Away Christmas at Borders, 91st & Metcalf
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…
Today: Justice Was Served; The Sad Sum Up in the Death of Brian Euston
Kudos to Star reporter Mark Morris for his reporting on the Brian Euston trial…
From the get-go coverage of this case was canted towards the deserved sympathy for Euston’s grieving family. It wasn’t their fault their son had been recklessly drunk and obnoxious at the exact wrong time in the exact wrong place. Having consumed nearly five times the legal limit of booze to drive, Euston had managed to navigate himself into harm’s way where he got in Stanford Griswold and his girlfriend’s faces resulting in him getting a punch to the mouth.
However instead of a fat lip and a hangover – as Griswold’s lawyer said in the trial – because of Euston’s being "massively intoxicated" (as Morris describes him), he fell backward, hit his head on the curb and later died.
Very sad, but let’s get back to Griswold…
There’s little doubt that because of TV news coverage, sympathy for the family and that Griswold was black and Euston white, the court of public opinion was stacked against Griswold. It didn’t help that he had an assault conviction, but heck, so does Star editor Mike Fannin.
Now let’s cut to the chase…
Hearne: Nick Wright vs. Kevin Kietzman, No Punches Pulled
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.
Hearne: Extreme Micro Wrestling Federation Slams Granada in Lawrence Tonight
To borrow an expression, let’s get ready to rumble…
You guys are about to owe me. That’s right. Because I’m about to turn you on to the Extreme Micro Wrestling Federation‘s midget wrestling show tonight at the Granda in downtown Lawrence. You can thank me later.
Or not.
In any case, I didn’t want you to miss it, since chances you’re bound to see stuff like "people 4’10” and under pummel each other with fists, various props, and Spandex," according to imposemagazine.com (why didn’t I think of that name?). "The entire event involves three one-on-one matches, a steel cage match involving several of the wrestlers, and then a surprise bonus at the end, which is promised to be ‘unlike anything you’ve seen before.’ This ends up being stripping midgets."
Fancy that. But before you guys go Craig Glazer, be advised it looks like all the midget strippers will be dudes. Can’t say for sure, but I couldn’t find any PR pix of chicks other than the full size ones.
Hearne: Watson’s Girl Pigs Out, Takes Web Walk on Slutty Side
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.
Hearne: Kansas City’s Top 10 Radio Stations in Men 25 to 54 in August
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"
Today: Humble Scribe From Vegas to Comments Crowd; ‘I Told You So’
Get ready to wash the cars, run errands and do yardwork…
That’s how bad this year’s Kansas City Chiefs are. Why watch bad football and drink cheap beer when the Great Outdoors beckons?
With the Chiefs down 41 to 7, humble scribe Craig Glazer called from Vegas to say, "I told you so."
"The headline should read, ‘Humble Scribe says, Will the Chiefs Win Even One Game?’" Glazer says. "This will be Todd Haley‘s last season. Get Marty Schottenheimer back!"
Glazer’s been on record all summer that the Chiefs would have a gawdawful season.
Hearne: The Top 10 Kansas City Radio Stations for Women Listeners in August
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
Hearne: Radio Station The Buzz Plummets from Top 5 in August
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…
Hearne: Kansas City’s Top 20 Radio Stations in August – For Real!
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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.
