Tag Archives: Hearne Christopher Jr.
Hearne: This Just In…Lawrence Barbecue Sucks, Locals Say
You read it right…
The verdict is in on Lawrence Journal World foodie Sarah Henning‘s assertion Tuesday that Anthony Bourdain "should’ve made ‘Reservations’ in Lawrence."
That in reference to the irreverant Travel Channel personality’s recent episode about KC barbecue, Stroud’s fried chicken, the Savoy Grill, Town Topic hamburgers and other local esoteric, edible delights.
But alas, no Lawrence BBQ, Henning lamented.
Hearne: The Unfortunate (unexaggerated) Report of the Death of the American Royal
Let’s talk about what’s left of the once great, Kansas City institution known as the American Royal...
When I was a kid I didn’t have a clue about the American Royal outside of getting to hang out downtown and catch a really cool parade once a year. Needless to say, that didn’t last long.
As I grew older my awareness of the local annual Cow & Pony show grew and I was inculcated into the school of thinking that the American Royal was a very important component of the business and social fabric in Kansas City.
After all, local giant-among-men, banker R. Crosby Kemper Jr. was its most ardent supporter.
Plus people of my father’s age with ties to what is sometimes referred to as KC’s "agribusiness industry" gave it more than just lip service – they bought into it big time and backed it with bucks.
Even high society types worshipped at the Royal’s altar, offering their daughters as debutantes in the annual BOTAR Ball.
Hearne: Star Fiddles with ‘Hipster’ Best Of While Wall Street Journal Burns P&L
Think of it as a black eye for KC and another nail in former mayor Kay Barnes PR coffin…
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal drilled Kansas City’s Power & Light District and Cordish for the bad bet Barnes made that the taxes generated by the $850 million entertainment district would pay for itself or the city would pick up the tab.
We all know what happened next.
"Today, the project, which sits near the onetime headquarters of Kansas City Power & Light Co., generates less than one-third of what is needed to cover the debt service on the bonds," the Journal reports. "The city is setting aside $12.8 million in its budget for the fiscal year that starts next month to cover the gap, a notable hole in a $1.3 billion budget that calls for $7.6 million in cuts to the fire department."
Worse yet, "Given the sluggish real-estate recovery, the city expects similar gaps to persist for years." the Journal adds.
Hearne: Promoters Poised to Name New Downtown Venue for City Market Shows
One of Kansas City’s worst venues to catch a concert is no more….
That’s the bad news you might say – that the shows at Kansas City’s historic City Market are history.
However, the really good news is that a new downtown home for the concert series has been found and is about to be announced, sources say.
Will it be along the riverfront in Berkley Park, in the city-owned park to the west of City Market, at Liberty Memorial, the home of Rock Fest or elsewhere?
No word just yet, but there will be more than one show on the docket for this summer, sources say.
Star Search: Forget Dick Clark & This Year’s Royals, We’ve Got Bobby & Jessica
We interrupt this Dick Clark and Royals wake to bring you a few distractions from….
The national media circus that continues to surround ousted Arkansas head football coach Bobby Petrino. You know, the dude who was slated to become the poster child for Missouri‘s new SEC football rivalry with the neighboring state that will replace Kansas?
Unfortunately, the 51 year-old Petrino had the romantic misfortune of banging bodies with a 20-something volleyball hottie who was engaged to another Arkansas coach. All of which fell asunder after Petrino dumped his motorcycle recently, babe aboard, and all heck broke out in the biggest college sports sex scandal since Penn State.
Or was it Syracuse?
Hearne: MSNBC Heavy Hitter Rachel Maddow Lays it Down at The Uptown Today at 2 p.m.
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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.
Hearne: Oracle of Lawrence Speaks Out on Best Buy Booty Boondoggle & Free Fall
There’s little doubt that few in Lawrence, Kansas loom larger than businessman John Kieffer…
From humble beginnings on the wrong side of the tracks on Kansas City’s East Side, Kieffer built both an audio/video and commerical real estate empire in the Land of the Jayhawk by being in the exact right place at the exact right time. For 53 years and counting, no less.
Not to mention he’s lived to tell the story.
Kieffer’s take on the ongoing free fall of audio/video giant Best Buy, which recently ousted it’s 50-something, married CEO over a sex scandal with a 20-something woman subordinate, after days earlier announcing the closing of 50 stores, hundreds of layoffs and a plan to downsize its box store biz by opening 100 smaller, Best Buy Mobile stores?
Hearne: What’s Wrong with K-State, MU & How Lew Perkins Cost KU $12 million
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.
Hearne: Make Way for the New Oktoberfest – Live from Westport – Happy 420 Day!
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.
Hearne: Former Radio Bad Boy Randy Miller Alive & Kicking as a Marketing Maven
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 & Hot Talk 1510 to name a few.
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.
Hearne: Phoning it in – The ‘Voice of Merrill’ – Live from San Diego
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.
Hearne: Former KMBZ Talk Show Host Tom Becka Weighs in from Fargo. You Betcha!
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."
Hearne: Jardine’s Founder Fires Off Angry Email, Owner Raja Responds
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 or so ago Jardine’s founder and former owner Greg Halstead fired off an angry email to the leasing agent for Jardine’s space:
Hearne: Befuddling Departure of Mike Shanin from ‘KMBZ Empire’ Explained
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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 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 discussions with local business leaders.
Hearne: Old Age Reaches New Highs, Lows with 91 Year-Old Walt Bodine & 104 Year-Old Judge
A pair of stories making the rounds today has to make you wonder about the sanctity of youth…
That august Kansas City radio talk show host Walt Bodine of public radio station KCUR FM is retiring is one thing. Bodine’s 91 and the awful truth is management’s been counting the days, waiting for him to bail for probably 20 years. And as significant as Bodine’s contributions have been, his retirement is long overdue.
And that’s just the tip of today’s Really Old Dudes iceberg.
The story that gets me – really gets me – is about the slimy guy who helped his wife scam KU for all those basketball tickets ($2 million worth that they know of) appealing his 46-month sentence from a year ago.
That’s right, former KU athletic department consultant Thomas Blubaugh wants his sentence reduced to 33 months. He’s in the slammer in Oklahoma and thinks the sentencing judge relied too heavily on heresay.
Now the kicker…
Blubaugh’s sentencing judge was a 104 year-old Kansas man by the name of Wesley E. Brown.
Hearne: Four Months After the Fact, Anthony Bourdain (Finally) Does KC Tonight
They seek him here, they seek him there, those foodies seek him everywhere…Is he a chef or merely a drunk, that demmed abusive Bourdain punk.
The "unrepentant" drinker, smoker and cusser of bad words Anthony Bourdain hit KC last December, mixing business with hedonism – playing the Midland downtown (courtesy of former KU concert king turned theater bigshot Steve Traxler) – and working up a future show about what Kansas City that airs tonight at 8 p.m. on the Travel Channel.
Look for it to be part not-so-fine dining expereinces and part and drunken expedition. With The Black Keys tagging along for the ride. And as KCC reported last year he hit BB’s Lawnside BBQ and Stroud’s, to name two. He also reportedly polished off a a raucous post-Midland wilding at the Cigar Box downtown.
Hearne: Yeah We’re Fat, So Rank Us
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Enough with the phony surveys..
A funny thing happened during yesterday’s breakfast interview/meeting with Mancow in Chicago. In what came across quite innocently – at least at first – Mancow called out the women in Kansas City for being overweight.
Fat, actually.
"Are you shocked by how big the women in Kansas City are?" he mused. "They are so huge."
Hey, it’s not like this comes as a news flash or anything.
The Cowtown’s been on the receiving end of countless "Fattest Cities" surveys over the years.
Hearne: My Breakfast with Mancow; Death of Radio, Fat Girls, Andrew Breitbart’s Death & $4.69 Gas
You know you’re in Chicago when the drive in from the outskirts is 10 times worse than the entire rest of the trip…
Turns out there’s something to be said about quality of life and all that falderol we take for granted in KC. Somebody remind me to check out the train accommodations here next time. Speaking of checking something out, get a load of the gas prices here, fellow flyover types. My nine gallon Fiat fillup ran an eyebrow arching $43.00 @ $4.69 a gallon.
Caught up to KC radio export Erich "Mancow" Muller for breakfast at Chicago’s ritzy new Palomar hotel downtown. The Cow was hanging there with wife Sandy and their twin daughters for Spring Break.
A few hightlights….
Hearne: Steamboat Arabia Puts Kibosh on ‘Buzz Under the Stars’ @ City Market
Talk about buzzkills…
In one of the more oblique press releases ever penned, the Kansas City City Market wrote late yesterday:
"The City Market is interested in the success of our tenants thus does not anticipate booking a 2012 concert series as a response to a concern from the Steamboat Arabia Museum that concerts have and continue to put their artifacts at risk. Investigation of this matter is a priority at this time.
"The past five years the City Market has partnered with AEG Live and Entercom Radio for the “Buzz Under the Stars” Concert Series hosting artists such as Mumford & Sons, The Killers, Incubus, Death Cab for Cutie and Offspring. This great partnership has brought more than 120,000 music enthusiasts to enjoy the atmosphere of concerts with downtown Kansas City, Missouri as its backdrop. We thank you for your patronage."
Talk about carefully-worded- "does not anticipate" – how could it get any vaguer?
Hearne: Glen Campbell Farewell Tour Erupts in Sad Controversy, Headed to KC April 26th
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Not that long ago the celebrity gossip on Glen Campbell was pretty generic…
He was still raising heck and garnering typical big star headlines like, "Glen Campbell Given Jail Time" in June 2004.
Or, "Country singer Glen Campbell issued an apology to his family and fans Tuesday after being arrested Monday evening on charges of driving drunk and kicking a police officer," in a 2003 CNN story. "Campbell, 67, spent several hours in a Maricopa County jail cell Monday evening on drunken driving, hit and run and assault charges after a series of incidents police say started with a minor car wreck near his home in Phoenix."
Believe it or not, those were the "good old days."
More recently the news has turned sadder, much sadder.
"A nasty family feud has erupted over music legend GLEN CAMPBELL’s $50 million fortune," read a headline in the National Enquirer last October.
