Kansas City sports radio.....in my opinion.

You'd think that in a small market like Kansas City you'd feel blessed if you were something of  a sports junkie, to have not one but two radio stations committed to sports 24 hours a day, and actually I do.  We have some dogs and after sunset you're pretty much consigned to national guys, but it's not bad for a metropolitan area of just a bit over 2 million people.    For around 12-13 hours a day we have at least one option for local sports news and let me tell you, that's pretty good when you have teams as unsuccessful as the Chiefs and Royals that you'd normally count on as an anchor topic.
We've got the little station in town, 810 WHB, which is run by a ku guy (Chad Boeger, who actually stole the station from his uncle.  typical beak) and makes no bones about having hosts that are loyal to their schools, yet they are able to make it work.  We also have the Entercom entry in town.  They are the local shills for the university of kansas, and make very few bones about supporting them, although frankly, it is probably their best chance to build something of an audience.
KCSP is 610 in KC and when they went all sports they fully intended to run the 810 guys out of business.  After all, they had corporate bucks behind them and had stolen the popular Jim Rome show away from WHB.  All this turned out well for Boeger and his largely mediocre on air talent and they still have by-in-large average talent which 610 has always be able to under-perform.  The classic for them is the new guy they brought in to host their day shoe, "Bullet" Bob Fescoe.  Fescoe worked at 810 a few years ago where he started "The Border Patrol" with Steven St. John.  It was a show that had a lot of promise but frankly was held back by Fescoe's lack of presence.  He spent a few years in St Louis where he failed miserably in 3 separate gigs before his final termination where he was hired back to 610 because, I assume, he was willing to work cheaply.

His former show, still The Border Patrol has flourished in his absence, as Nick Bukaty has joined in as the kansas fan to act as the foil to St John's unabashed allegiance to Missouri.  St John should never be mistaken for a sports expert, but he's pretty damn funny, which is what you're looking for in a morning drive host.  Bukaty may have one of the worst radio voices I've ever heard, but he's entertaining and doesn't take himself or the rivalry too seriously.  Putting Fescoe up against them would have made sense had the show sputtered after he originally left, but that wasn't anywhere near the case.  The show really never hit any sort of a stride until Fescoe left.  Hell, even the ku fans that I know and associate with believe that Fescoe is an untalented boob and they're embarrassed to share fanship with him.  I'm enjoying Nate and Steven driving the final stake through his black heart.

After the morning show, 610 decided to play it safe and went with the syndicated Jim Rome show while 810 has gone with Soren Petro.  I've thought Petro was nothing more than Howard Stern with a (slightly) better haircut.  He's abrasive, opinionated and tends to resort to petty personal attacks when confronted with an opinion that doesn't mirror his own.  In other words, he's Rome without the listenship and ratings.  He's also responsible for the unquestioned worst hour of radio every Friday when he wheels out a perpetually drunken sidekick named Pete Enich who joins him for scintillating programming known as "Stump the Chumps".   I have no idea what Enich's credentials for co-hosting a sports show might be, even if it's just for an hour a week, but I do know he's been telling Kansas City listeners for 15 years that we're privileged to have a guy as sharp as Petro to listen to.  Well, that would explain how he started at a 75 watt KC station, go to Vegas, get fired, stumble around the country and finally wind up back in KC when 810 discovered having Tim Grunhard and Bill Maas host a mid morning show and telling old football stories was even duller than it sounds.  However, as abrasive as Petro is, at least he brings some local perspective to his hyperbole.
So we go to the afternoon shows where 610 has brought in Nick Wright to try and combat Kevin Keitzman, Danny Klinkscale, Todd Leabo in "Between the Lines".  I'll confess right here that I've never much cared for Wrights work and thus, I've never listened to his show.  For all the bitching I hear about Keitzman, I think he's fairly decent.  He's a huge K State fan so he has the little brother complex working against him and he's lately become infatuated with appearing relevant.  That being said, I've listened to a bit of Kevin Slaten in St Louis and I'll take Keitz every day of the week.

So here we are with at least 18 hours of local programming in a medium sized city with 2 losing professional franchises and college programs that have been less than universally successful.  I think that we should be happy with what we have going for us.  I don't see anyone as being wildly talented and we're probably never going to get an actual story broke here.  Unless of course one of KK's wild speculations finally proves to work out the way he said in which time he will proclaim himself the ultimate Kansas City insider and find a way to work that to his and the stations advantage.  Not holding my breath there.  Actually, who I'd like to see get her own show would be the eye candy from 38 the Spot, Holly Starr.  She seems as knowledgable as any of the guys, and she definitely has attributes that none of them ever will.  Of course, that would just be wasted on radio.  But if she was never seen, didn't know a thing about sports and had a shrill grating voice, she'd still be better than Fescoe.  Have a good week folks!