COMMENTARY

WHB is abusing its power

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That’s not a recommendation for anyone to listen to 610 — not if you respect your ears. KCSP is so embarrassingly awful that I don’t even enjoy making fun of it anymore.

OK, that’s not really true. KCSP’s big-budget, heavy-hitter, new morning show featuring 1970s megastar Roger Twibell pulled a 1.0 in the ratings, answering the question of whether it was humanly possible to find anyone in KC more boring than Neal (Bland) and Marty (Blander), KCSP’s riveting afternoon show.

And no, I’m not bitter or upset that I walked away from local talk radio in 2005. I worked for both organizations. I enjoyed my time at 1510/810. I made the mistake of jumping to 610 because I foolishly believed that Entercom was committed to putting out a superior product and because I couldn’t handle the grind of working in the morning after five years.

This column isn’t written to settle any scores. I proved my point in talk radio and as a media personality. I just didn’t have any more energy to waste trying to convince out-of-town decision-makers that I knew better than they did what would work in a battle against people who secretly want to be Don Fortune.

This column is a screed complaining that nothing has really changed in 15 years of local sports-talk radio in Kansas City. Fortune is still the standard when it comes to the power structure.

Radio listeners revolted against Fortune’s style of radio, overthrew him and are now being served a second helping of Fortune disguised as Kevin Kietzman. That’s sad. It’s a disservice to sports fans.

Fortune had big ratings numbers, too, similar to the ones that make Kietzman feel bulletproof. You just have to hope that some energetic, fearless young person will figure out a way to challenge WHB the way Boeger took on Entercom and Fortune.

If there’s no competition, WHB will never again live up to the ideas that empowered the station originally. We’ll be stuck with Fortune today and his prodigal son, KK, for the next decade, if not longer.

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To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.