Tag Archives: Hearne Christopher Jr.
Today: Kansas City’s Hottest Outdoor Pickup Patio to Return!
The outdoor deck atop The Well in Waldo is the place to be on a breezy summer night at this stage of the game…
It’s Chill Chamber delivers the frostiest brewskies in town. The busses have gone to bed. And the odds of your getting drugged, mugged or bugged are slim to none.
You’re high in the sky and all is Well.
Which brings us to the mack daddy of outdoor party places past, Baja 600’s gone-but-not-forgotten patio overlooking Brush Creek.
Today: 610 Sports Nick Wright Clears the Air, Dismantles Jason Whitlock
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So what does 610 Sports host Nick Wright really think about Jason Whitock?
That’s a question worth asking in the wake of last week’s two part visitation by Whitlock to Wright’s afternoon drive local radio show. During which Whitlock feigned friendship while calling Wright out for being a poser.
First the polite answer.
"I think Jason Whitlock is very talented and very good at what he does, at promoting the brand of Jason Whitlock in his writing," Wright says.
Now the unexpurgated version.
Star Search: Former Editor Calls For Stay of Execution For Star Staffers
About spanking new Kansas City Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish…
With the newspaper likely facing another round of staff layoffs and/or cutbacks following the close of its second quarter at month’s end, the question is, will Parrish’s first major order of business be the axing of however many staffers? As has been the practice for years under now-former head dude Mark Zieman.
Or will parent McClatchy grant its newly-arrived publisher a stay of execution for the sake of getting off on the right foot?
"Oh boy, I hope there aren’t more ropes lying around to hang the bodies from the ceiling," winces retired Star editor Jim Fitzpatrick, who covers the newspaper on jimmycsays.
Hearne: Transformers 3; It’s What Not to Sleep Through
Here we go again….
Two years ago on a warm summer night, venerable KC Star movie critic Robert Butler fell fast asleep during the raging battle scenes of blockbuster movie Transformers 2.
"I can’t say for sure how long he was out," I reported then. "But I can tell you he was very much a goner when he was eye-witnessed by the entire KC Confidential Street Team and others in an unawake state. Hey, it was after 10 p.m. and people get tired."
Net result: Butler’s promised-before-noon, next day review didn’t hit the Star Web site until well after 2 p.m.
Complete with a KCC-inspired disclaimer.
Today: Kansas City’s Eric Stonestreet Caught in “Modern Family” Money Grab
It’s hungry at the top …
As in, money hungry. In the playful, halcyon early days of hit ABC sitcom Modern Family, there were group hugs all around. No mas, The National Enquirer reports. The cast is caught up in an "old-fashioned war over money."
"Cast members go for the throat as they battle for big raises," the headline reads.
According to the Enquirer, Modern Family’s castmembers are in the process of renegotiating their salaries "with the series on a hot streak."
"Each cast member wants a bigger piece of the pie than the others, especially in light of the show’s ratings success and the big bucks syndication deal that was cut last year," a show insider tells the Enquirer. "Their agents are climbing over each other’s backs trying to get the best deal."
On top of Modern Family’s financial food chain?
Hearne: Did Jason Whitlock Bitch Slap Nick Wright? Please
Ruthless bitch slap or meaningless love tap?
You make the call. With Anthony Weiner‘s package in the rear view mirror, the Royals in the toilet and the Chiefs in limbo it almost had to be a slow sports news week. So much so that the local sports blogosphere jumped for joy over back-to-back call ins by all-but-forgotten former Star sport Jason Whitlock to 610 Sports afternoon host Nick Wright’s show.
Did Whitlock really take Wright "to the woodshed" or "bitch slap" him as one blogger breathlessly panted?
"No way," says KCC movie guy Jack Poessiger who listened to both broadcasts. "He tried, but he never was able to. It was just an on-air stroking of the mind. There was no bitch slapping on either side."
On a scale of one to ten – 10 being a major league bitch slapping, what would Poessiger rate it?
Hearne: Greg Hall’s Imaginative but Silly Tale of Nick Wright Getting Bumped
A funny thing happened to 610 Sports afternoon host Nick Wright on the way to the dentist yesterday…
He awoke to a column by former KCC media sport Greg Hall claiming that Wright was so damaged from an on-air encounter with former Star sports scribe Jason Whitlock on Monday that he was taking yesterday and today off from his radio show.
That somehow Wright had been either wrist-slapped off the air by management at Entercom or so shamed he couldn’t bear to face listeners.
Which I can now report was ridiculously bogus. Really.
Today: The Case Against America’s Pub in Westport
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The jury’s still out…
It remains to be seen whether controversial black dance club America’s Pub will be allowed to remain in Westport when its lease is up at year’s end. Many Westporters are convinced it’s a magnet for violent crime and the summer weekend night floods of African American youths who fill the streets and surrounding parking lots.
The Brian Euston killing last year, for example, went down in an altercation just outside America’s Pub.
To that end, they’ve initiated a campaign to close America’s Pub down, says its attorney Harris Wilder.
Hearne: Skyrocketing Funny 102.5 FM Success No Laughing Matter!
Radio stations love nothing more than trying to brainwash their advertisers…
Sometimes via smoke and mirrors (do the initials KMBZ ring any bells?), sometimes through unexpected strokes of incredibly good fortune.
As in the case with KC’s new radio darling Funny 102.5 FM. While Cumulus would be loathe to admit it, it’s probably safe to say nobody expected these kind of results when the 24/7, all-comedy station signed on earlier this year.
Now on to the cheat sheet..
Today: The Racial Profiling of America’s Pub in Westport
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It’s no secret many Westport property owners and merchants want America’s Pub to curl up and die.
Their fingers tightly crossed that owners of Manor Square will not renew the predominantly African-American themed dance club’s lease at year’s end.
"I bet they won’t be there after their lease is up at the end of the year," says one Westporter.
America’s Pub attorney Harris Wilder has another take.
Today: KCTV’s Katie Horner Not Just On the Exit Ramp, She’s on the Party Train!
Sometimes stories spring from odd and unusual circumstances…
Take the latest on fading-fast, KCTV weather wonk Katie Horner. I was recently asked to profile her for a local magazine. Nothing controversial, mind you. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. So I made several attempts to contact her at Channel 5 and at what I believed to be her home phone number.
Nada.
After not hearing back for more than a week, I thought the better of it and given the rumors that KCTV was not renewing her contract and moved on…profile-wise.
Hearne: Will O’Dowd’s Rescue Power & Light’s Raglan Road?
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Who better to ride to the rescue of a beleaguered P&L Irish pub than the dudes in the green hats at O’Dowd’s?
That’s the rumor, anyway. Based in no small part on the fact that the Power & Light District is suing upscale pub and restaurant Raglan Road for more than $600,000 in back rent.
The $64 million question: should O’Dowd’s takes the plunge, will it become the third area O’Dowd’s, joining the ones on the Plaza and at Zona Rosa?
Hearne: He’s Out! Ex Star Sports Scribe Jeffrey Flanagan Flies KC Coop
Missing in action on Fox Sports Kansas City…
Former Kansas City Star sports gossip columnist Jeffrey Flanagan. Flanangan’s column – Flanny’s Take – more-or-less dropped from site the latter part of May. He did however post a "Minor League Report" after a month or so writing hiatus.
So what’s the deal? Word is Flanagan pulled up stakes and moved back to from whence he came.
"Steve Penn at the Star told me that he was called back home several weeks ago to Minnesota or Wisconsin," says Stanford’s Craig Glazer. "And the word is, he’s not coming back. Steve said he saw him the day before he left and that (Jeff) told him that, given the situation at the Star, there really wasn’t much here for him anymore. He told Steve he had a couple sports books he wanted to write."
Flanagan declined to comment.
For Glazer, Flanagan’s departure marks the end of a remarkable, at times bizarre, bittersweet era.
Today: Copper Thieves Break into / Camp Out in Star, Leave Beer Cans, DNA in Toilets
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There’s no shortage of copper stealing stories in the news…
Reports abound about bad guys breaking into buildings and ripping off copper from air-conditioning units and the like. The object of the game; raise some quick cash from the resale of the metal to recyclers.
TV news and the Star cover these sort of stories regularly. Just last week for example, the newspaper reported, "Kansas City is taking aim at the thieves who prey on vacant houses and cause thousands of dollars of damage while stealing $50 worth of copper pipe."
But here’s a bizarre, embarrassing story the Star – for some reason or another – forgot to report.
Hearne: Support Your Local Jazz Club, Jardine’s Reloads After Marilyn Maye Shocker
Running a small business can be a handful – murder even…
Even when the business you happen to be piloting is Kansas City’s premier jazz joint. Because Kansas City is a total jazz town. Or so we often say.
Well, that’s exactly the case with Jardine’s just off the Country Club Plaza. Week in and week out, month in and month out, Jardine’s showcases the top jazz musicians in Kansas City. Both local and national. From local keyboard player Mark Lowrey to Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.
Enter the sudden and unexpected hospitalization of legendary KC crooner Marilyn Maye earlier this week.
Today: Don’t Let the Generic (Sports) Radio Ratings Numbers Fool You
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Anybody can access and look at Arbitron’s 6-plus radio ratings online…
Do a Google search – they’re all right there.
And they’re the only ratings widely available to the general public for a reason. To provide a broad, generalized view of local radio rankings, generate media attention and chit-chat and help keep Arbitron’s name in the game.
That said, everybody in the biz knows that the 6-plus numbers are the least important of all the ratings.
To that end, Arbitron requires radio stations to pay big bucks to access to the critically important ratings that provide the far more specific listener information that advertisers require.
It’s really that simple.
Now let’s take a look at the rivalry between sports radio powerhouse WHB and up-and-comer 610 Sports
Hearne: Talent Drought Fuels Ratings Decline at NewsRadio KMBZ
You got it, you double it, you don’t got it…
That’s pretty much what has happened to KMBZ 980 AM, Kansas City’s so-called, news-radio station. Two months into KMBZ’s plan to grow listenership by simulcasting on former sister station KUDL’s 98.1 FM signal, the local talk station has gone nowhere fast. Actually, its combined ratings have plummeted
Check out the digits.
Today: The Heart Sickening Tale of the Sale of One of KC’s Most Iconic Mansions
How the mighty have fallen!
It took four long years, but one of Kansas City’s most famous mansions has finally sold. There’s a "sold" sign in the yard of the former home of deceased local real estate tycoon Jack Frost at 8636 Mission Road.
The six bedroom, four bath, 8,440 square foot, 83 year-old, "storybook French Norman Castle" had everything a buyer could want, including real estate taxes in the neighborhood of $27,000 a year and a pricetag of $1.6 million.
Which trust me, was a steal. More on that in a moment.
Hearne: ‘Paris on the Plains’ Loses a Great One; Kevin Gray Dies of Cancer
They don’t get any better than Greater Kansas City Sports Commission point man Kevin Gray...
Gray died today of cancer, only having learned he had contracted it in March during the Big 12 tourney .
Make no mistake, I had my differences with Gray over the years. Nothing huge. But he was always a gentleman and a good sport throughout. There was just no getting around Gray’s likeability factor – no matter the disagreement.
Did Gray blow smoke up the city and voter’s you-know-whats with a ginned up feasability study about a new arena certain to bring Kansas City an NBA and/or NHL team? Of course he did!
Did we land either one or are we any closer than we were before Sprint Center got built? Of course not!
Hey, but Gray got it done. And while I’m somewhat loathe to admit it, it’s been a great thing for KC.
Star Search: Star Sidesteps Geezer Pleaser Card With Groupon-like Daily Deal
Ah, the incredible lightness of daily deal making…
It’s one thing to be late to the party. Like a year and a half late. Quite another to stagger out of the starting blocks with a weak-kneed effort. Yet that’s exactly what the Kansas City Star did Monday with the launch of its new Groupon-like, dealsaver.com daily deal.
Affiliated – as once rumored – with Groupon?
"It’s not," says one local daily deal expert. "It’s their own – their own misguided product."
