“Do you know who I am?”
Summer of ’88, I was privileged enough to nab an internship at KMOX-1120. For three months, I played unpaid radio reporter, from 6pm-3am, Thursday through Sunday — in addition to my 9-5 weekday job. A union shop, I couldn’t go on the air, but I did everything else a reporter does.
Why was I willing to work such dreadful hours for no pay? Because KMOX is a CBS-owned, 50,000 watt clear channel AM news/sports/talk station. “Clear channel” in KMOX’s case doesn’t mean the dreaded conglomerate. It means that nobody else in the country shares their position on the dial — and 50,000 watts means they have listeners from Canada to Texas, and from Indiana to Colorado.
There aren’t many stations like KMOX in the country, and an internship there is quite an honor. The next year, when I moved to California, just having their call letters on my otherwise unimpressive resume was enough to land me my first paid radio job.
KMOX was home of Jack Buck, the fabled sportscaster, “the voice of the Cardinals.” It’s where Harry Carey got his start. KMOX has been around for 70 years, and will be around for at least 70 more.
Why do I mention all this? Because John Kerry had no idea what KMOX was, and just made a huge fool of himself in a bellwether state he needs to win next fall.
Read:
The John Kerry campaign came to St. Louis Saturday evening. . .and seemed a bit confused. The Democratic hopeful appeared at a tightly-guarded rally in Forest Park to talk about his plan to create jobs. KMOX Reporter Molly Hyland was on the scene but found Kerry campaign aides had decided that only television reporters could interview the candidate. Kerry’s campaign aide said she had never heard of KMOX and would not allow an interview. The Kerry campaign did arrange for the senator to call KMOX by phone earlier in the day. . .but that, too, fell through. The call never came. Saturday night, the Kerry campaign phone lines were closed; its spokesmen out of reach.
Brian Noggle has the rest of the story.
A trivial mistake or a costly snub? Whichever it is it’s looking like a pattern of careless behavior on Kerry’s part.
Remember the infamous Cheesesteak incident in Philly? It may have been laughably inconsequential, but it’s just one of those things that you expect from a politician. When you’re in Philly, you order a cheesesteak dripping with Whiz, get your photo op, and humor the residents.
Now Kerry rolls into St. Louis and disses a legendary radio station. Ok, maybe he didn’t know KMOX personally but doesn’t someone check who it is? Wouldn’t you think a candidate would go out of his way to be familiar with major media outlets in key swing states?
The question is: is Kerry oblivious to the fluff and ticket punching that a politician has to do, or does he just think he’s too good to play the game? Neither answer helps him much, and adds to the growing snowball of his elitist, out of touch attitude.
If I was Kerry’s campaign manager, the next time he was in Philly he’d be running up the “Rocky” stairs, cramming his mouth full of Tasty Kakes, and posing for pictures with the Phanatic in the rubble of Veteran’s Stadium. (I’m not from Philly, this isn’t hard stuff) Or he could just jet into a closed event and dictate who can have the honor of interviewing him between ski trips…whatever floats his boat, I guess.
Mike:
Let’s just be frank:
Kerry’s an amateur. Plain and simple.
He’s never run in a national general election before. And, my God, does it show.
He wants to be the “second black President,” huh? Right.
He’s received the endorsements of “foreign leaders,” huh? Really. Which ones, Senator? Castro? Chavez? Osama?
For the past 35 years, Kerry has been living in the proverbial “liberal cocoon,” politically speaking. Massachusetts? Give me a break. It’s only the most rabidly liberal state in the Union. Now, he’s forced to go “out there,” e.g., to St. Louis, to Philly, to Columbus, and his mind-numbing elitism, condescension, and aloofness are starting to creep out. In spades.
Just wait until October, my friend, when he’s fighting for his policial life in places such as Madison, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Tacoma, and Kansas City. That’s when his campaign will turn into a live action Saturday Night Live-esqe self-parody.
How the hell can a president create jobs? He just says “let there be jobs”? Why do people believe politicians making such a claim? Are Americans really that stupid? Do they know that it takes time to make changes? Do they really believe that Bush’s responsible for the recession and for 9/11? Do they really want to be Euro-also runs, to surrender and appease the terrorists? Are we like the Spaniards who blamed Asnar’s govt for mishandling a terrorist investigation as an excuse and voted against him in order to surrender to the terrorists? Are we doing the same thing here, blaming Bush for 911, then vote against him, and convince ourselves we weren’t really appeasing the terrorists? Voting for Kerry is voting for terrorists because Kerry would surrender to the French, whose only trick is to do what terrorists told them to do. Do anybody really believe the French discovered the railroad bomb without paying ransoms to the terrorists first? Kerry had said that American military should be at UN’s disposal. But UN is the culprit of the oil-for-food pgm, supporter of mass-murdering dictators. Can we trust the UN, can we trust Kerry?
I just came home from work listening to KMOX and the host, McGraw Milhaven, was all over Kerry for this gaffe. To make matters even worse, the reporter Kerry’s droids snubbed was Bob Hyland’s daughter.
Is this what is know as shooting yourself in the….uh…..genitals?
(Mike M: Cheese Whiz makes a cheesesteak suck. It’s white american all the way.
Widout.)
(Or a pizzasteak: pizza sauce, mozzarella and a sprinkle of oregano. It’s to die for.)
When I was in high school in the ’60′s in Indiana, I used to enjoy trying to find distant radio stations on my AM set. I’d rig antennae to help reception. It was always fun to get the different stations and keep track of the cities. You would think that there would be at least a few “media people” on the Kerry staff who had done this when they were young and who would have remembered some of the big ones you could receive at night. I hope the Kerry staff fails to learn the lesson to have local people do the background work. Radio may not be as big as TV, but it is still very important. In addition to KMOX, I remember WCAU, 3WE, WOAI, WHO, CKLW, WABC, WBZ, WOWO, WLS, and KDKA. It was always interesting to listen to the programs, music and sports from places other than Cincinnati and the %&*#^*@#*!!! Reds, which were just 80 miles away.
MUWAHAHAHAHA!
I love the smell of Dimocraptic blunder in the morning. Smells like…victory!*
*I’m actually a libertarian, or more accurately, a “Anybody but another damn Dimocrap!” voter, so all you Republican haters out there can just take a quick moment to stop and suck it, mmmkay?
Echira: Is that, “Republican Haters” as in those who hate Republicans, or “Republican Haters” as in Republicans who hate?
‘Cos I resemble one of those…
Don’t hate the players…
CLUMSY, CLUMSY
Apparently, John Kerry’s media relations people are not exactly the most savvy people around….
The list of the 50kW “clear channel” stations as of 1951 included:
WVOK 690 (Birmingham AL), KFRE 940 (Fresno),
KFI 640 (LA), KFBK 1530 (Sacramento),
KNBC 680 (San Fransisco), KOA 850 (Denver),
WTIC 1080 (Hartford CT), WGBS 710 (days)(Miami),
WSB 750 (Atlanta), WBBM 780 & WCFL 1000 (Chicago),
WIBC 1070 (days) (Indianapolis), WHO 1040 (DesMoines),
KXEL 1540 (Waterloo IA), WHAS 840 (Louisville),
WNOE 1060 (days) & WWL 870 (New Orleans), KWKH 1130 (Shreveport),
WBAL 1090 (Baltimore), WHDH 850 (Boston),
WLAW 680 (Lawrence MA), WJR 760 (Detroit),
KSTP 1500 (Minneapolis), KCMO 810 (days) (Kansas City MO),
KMOX 1120 (St Louis), KFAB 1110 (Omaha),
KOB 770 (days) (Albuquerque), WPTR 1540 (Albany NY),
WKBW 1520 (Buffalo), WINS 1010 (days) & WOR 710 (New York),
WHAM 1180 (Rochester), WGY 810 (Schenectady),
WBT 1110 (Charlotte NC), WPTF 680 (Raleigh NC),
WCKY 1530 (Cincinnati), WGAR 1220 (Cleveland),
KOMA 1520 (Oklahoma City), KVOO 1170 (Tulsa),
KEX 1190 (Portland OR), KYW 1060 (Philadelphia),
KDKA 1020 (Pittsburgh), WSM 650 (Nashville),
KWBU 1030 (Corpus Christi), KRLD 1080 (Dallas),
KTRH 740 (Houston), KABC 680 (days) (San Antonio),
KSL 1160 (Salt Lake City), WRVA 1140 (Richmond),
KING 1090 (Seattle), and KGA 1510 (Spokane).
The really ironic thing here is that the Democrats’ political icon, Bill Clinton, most definitely knew what KMOX was about, when he went on the station a decade ago to attack Rush Limbaugh for attacking him on the radio.
Growing up and then governing neighboring Arkansas, Clinton would natrually have a better idea about the station, since it would come booming into his state nightly. But odds are Kerry couldn’t tell you about any Boston radio station, either, except for possibly WBUR.
“That’s when his campaign will turn into a live action Saturday Night Live-esqe self-parody.”
What do you mean “will”? Did you hear that Kerry was in Vietnam?
He ought to write for SNL…one un-funny joke repeated for far too long is pretty much the show’s entire repertoire. And Kerry’s.
When did John Kerry hire Minnesota Vikings WR, Randy Moss, to handle media relations?
John had a rough trip in. A letter in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
I attended the March 27 John Kerry rally at the World’s Fair Pavilion in Forest Park, where I found the only place in the U.S. where there was no awareness of the Americans With Disabilities law.
Since the event was sponsored by the Missouri Democratic Party, I assumed I would be welcomed in my wheelchair. What I found was a hostile environment from the event organizers toward people in wheelchairs.
I arrived one hour before the event was scheduled to be open. We were not allowed to pass through the security screening on the level entrance to the pavilion, but rather had to negotiate our chairs down five steps to get in line. Then all 300 pounds of me had to be carried up more than ten steps into the event area, where I was able to hear Kerry speak but could not see him because of all the people standing in front of me.
I also found no curb cuts approaching the pavilion from Hampton Avenue, and found all the sidewalks had potholes. Several times, I had to get out of the chair before proceeding. Why did everyone in wheelchairs have this same experience at a park with such historic value and which is supposedly a source of pride to residents?
David Depker
St. Louis
Christopher:
Astonishing.
Mike M. is right; I’m wrong. It won’t take until the Fall for Kerry’s campaign to turn into a live action, satirical political self-parody.
IT’S ALREADY HAPPENING.
A disabled supporter not being able to have easy access to a Democratic campaign event?????
What’s next?
An American Lung Association convention offering smoking sections?
A Green Party Convention featuring a key note address by the CEO of Pacific Lumber Company?
I have to start revising my prediction for this election. I thought that the national partisan-liberal media would be able to keep the total vote fairly close. But it’s not even April, and Kerry is starting to unravel like a burlesque dancer’s costume.
Old predictions:
Bush – 36 states
Kerry – 14 states
Nader – 0 states
New predictions
Bush – 38 states (and 400+ electoral votes)
Kerry – 12 states
Nader – 0
someone tell karl to stop… we need a healthy (ie somewhat credible) dem candidate until mid october…
otherwise they’ll switch candidates…
just look at NJ, the torch got torched, and then they pulled him, in flagrant defiance of the law..
we want to beat kerry.. but not too soon!
Dave P.: That would be “those who hate Republicans.” Dear Beelzabubba, I hate being mistaken for a pansy assed Republican.
Hey:
Hey.
Yeah, I know. The Hillary rides to the rescue to save the party scenario.
Sometimes just the thought of that makes me want to vomit.
But, you know what? We might as well fight that battle this year with this President.
Screw waiting until 2006 to try to end her career with Guiliani. Screw having to fight for the country’s very existence (possibly in a literal sense, in view of the al-Queda menace) in 2008, assuming she gets the nomination.
Let’s just do it right now.
We have a surging economy. A job market that is primed to surge right before the election. A sitting President who has raised more money in $2,000 increments than could have been imagined as recently as 2000, and who has: stood tall in the face of arguably the worst single event in U.S. history; cut taxes three times; signed the partial-birth abortion ban; fought and won two separate wars; disarmed our old foe Quadaffi just by sneering at him; and opened up the Pacific Northwest to heavy logging, thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs literally with the stroke of a pen.
I say let’s take on Hillary this November, and let’s eradicate the Democratic Party as a viable political force in one fell swoop. You don’t treat a cancerous tumor by removing half of it; you remove it all.
Peace, Dude (through overwhelming force).
Kerry Screws Up
It looks like he’s really pissed off some people in the midwest.
“I hope the Kerry staff fails to learn the lesson to have local people do the background work.”
He won’t. His inability to do so is part and parcel of his elitist and centralizing political instincts.
“I hope the Kerry staff fails to learn the lesson to have local people do the background work.”
He won’t. His inability to do so is part and parcel of his elitist and centralizing political instincts.
Hmm. I’m pleasantly surprised to see that ClearChannel doesn’t own WLW 700 (Cincinnati), “the first United States commercial 50 KW station and the only standard broadcast station to ever broadcast at a power of 500KW from 1934 to 1939.”