CRAIG GLAZER CALLS THE PLAYOFFS!!!

TKC NOTE: Our pal Craig offers his football predictions and insights. Check it:

610 Sports is on a Roll
Playoffs? Playoffs?

“I gotta be honest with you, when the team loses I hate talking about this football team. And then you lose in epic fashion like you did on Sunday; you’re a bunch of losers and there are a lot of people who need to be called out today.”

This is the opening to Bob Fescoe’s rant on 610 Sports regarding our Chief’s recent playoffs defeat. I like the fact that Fescoe isn’t sugar coating anything. Bob actually went to Indianapolis with a couple other on-air personalities from 610 including Danny Parkins. I believe Carrington Harrison was also trapped in the car on the way to and from the nightmare. Bob may have shown his age by complaining that his two younger cohorts spent the entire time texting or facebooking on the drive. He said that drove him crazy while Parkins was upset with the long rants from Fescoe during what must have been an excruciating drive home in bad weather from Indy. In case you live in basement somewhere in KC, the Chiefs blew a 28 point lead and lost a playoff game with the Colts and the final score was 45-44. It was the second biggest playoff collapse in NFL history.

We’ll get back to that. What’s most important is the fact that while many younger radio listeners have tuned out to what was once their favorite music radio stations, they are tuning in to sports talk all day and sometimes all night. As we all now know, sports; especially football, is the number one entertainment venue in America. Case in point, had the Chiefs won they would have faced New England this Saturday night at 7:30 pm. The streets of Kansas City would be empty, there would be less traffic than if the polar vortex dropped four feet of snow. I can’t think of any movie or TV event that could accomplish such a feat today.

610 Sports has found its audience and it’s growing by leaps and bounds. The 610 Morning show is headed up by Bob Fescoe and Josh Klingler. These are the senior statesmen of the personalities that man the various ‘shifts’ on the station. They are the morning show. These two have a great rapport and come up with unique angles not only on sports but related entertainment news. Their producer is twenty-something Steven Spector; he takes all the calls and is the brunt off many fun-loving attacks piled upon him by both Josh and Fescoe. Recently they have even had a few big name celebrities on like Tom Arnold and Louie Anderson. Fescoe is clearly a huge fan of the Chiefs and Royals but is clearly of the opinion that both teams need to be in the post-season AND win now. No more excuses. He even felt that the Chiefs should fire Defensive Coordinator Bob Sutton ASAP. Fescoe said, ‘Somebody has to take the blame for having one of the worst defenses in the NFL. That’s our Chiefs. Even Indy said the Chiefs defense is predictable. He needs to go.’ I agree.

Mid-day is now a comfortable exchange between Jay Binkley and Henry Lake. Jay is one of the hardest working sports guys in town. Binkley fills in regularly on other shows besides his when someone is absent or on vacation. You often see Jay on local television announcing high school football and other sporting events. Jay has come a long way in the last two years with 610. He, too, can be edgy regarding the ups and downs of both the Chiefs and Royals. Henry Lake likes to paint a rosy picture as best he can and looks at the cup more as half full than as half empty. These two have a very upbeat show they are often not only funny but right on target. Henry is from the northern part of the US, he puts out an upbeat attitude towards almost everything Kansas City. They keep you listening.

Danny Parkins and Carrington Harrison have had the tough job of replacing Nick Wright. In fact Danny was even going over to the Buzz at times with Lazlo to show off his sports wit. I think what makes these two young stars stand out is that they are growing into a couple of interesting young bachelors right before our eyes. Parkins is on top of everything from stats to who’s who from both baseball and football. Now that we are in basketball season, he and ‘C-dot’ (which is Carrington’s nickname) are all over it. I found out recently that Danny and I both when out with the same pretty hot blonde at two different points in time, a chick named Kat. That impressed me. Carrington had more dates with Channel 5’s Kelly Jones than I did. I don’t know if that impressed me or upset me. Oh well, she’s gone.

These two are the youthful intelligent pranksters who can put a smile on your face on your way home from work. They can also piss you off with some sports arrogance on their part but more often than not, they are correct. This show is really an insider sports person’s dream. Bill Maas is on during the football season, the former All-Pro Chiefs Defensive End and one-time Fox Television Analyst is perhaps the most honest about what’s going on with the Chiefs. Bill doesn’t like to sugar coat anything either. Maas should be the heir apparent to Len Dawson when that worthy local hero steps down from the broadcasting booth. Other insiders include former Chief Jayice Pearson, and Chiefs Offensive Tackle Jeff Schwartz. Danny likes to remind us that both he and Schwartz are Jewish.

Collectively these three teams have listeners calling in and responding all day long. These three on-air teams along with Royals and Chiefs insider, late night man Josh Vernier, are fast approaching being the hottest radio station in town. Okay, they don’t have Johnny Dare beat, but they are moving on up. If you haven’t already done so, spend some of your day parts listening to these humorous and intelligent guys talking sports on 610. I do. P.S. C-dot is the only other on-air media guy who can challenge my football game predictions; he is especially good on college games.

Pro Picks

We are nearing the end. My goal was to break 60 wins and stay in the thirties on losses, it’s gonna be close.
New Orleans Saints (+14) over the Seahawks on a tease with the Colts (+14) over New England.
San Francisco (+5) over Panthers teased with San Diego (+16) over Denver.
You can hear the entire Fescoe rant on the 610 podcast Monday morning online.

Pretty Woman
Comic Kira Soltanovich

Kira Soltanovich has been doing the Tonight Show for the last eight years. She has been on more with Jay than any other entertainer in his long NBC career which ends in just a few weeks when Jimmy Fallon takes the show over in February. Kira will make her last appearance January 14th with Jay. Soltanovich is not only beautiful but has a sharp comedy intelligence too rarely found amongst the few successful women comics in America today. Stanford’s has always made a big effort over the decades to give female comics an opportunity right here in Kansas City to show their stuff.

Kira’s big break came 10 years ago when she and Chelsea Handler were given their own TV series on the Oxygen Channel, ‘Girls Behaving Badly’. Leno hired her originally to do the phony photo booth on his show 8 years ago which would air about twice a month. He later increased her appearances and then gave her a comedy panel on his show that included big stars like Jim Norton and Patton Oswalt. Soltanovich also wrote and co-starred in the Disney series, ‘Pranksters’. Kira is also a regular headliner in Las Vegas and across the country. Soltanovich is about to shoot a feature documentary that she is producing that will include some work right here in Kansas City.

While Kira can be sharp-tongued, she now spends a portion of her show talking about her 3 year old baby and her producer/husband and how crazy their life is in Los Angeles. As her name indicates, she is Russian and was born in the Soviet Union before she came to America as a child. Yes, there is much material about her heritage. See Kira this Friday and Saturday at Stanfords At the Legends Shopping Center. Call for tickets at (913)400-7500 or go online at stanfordscomedyclub.com.

Next week at Stanford’s the Legendary Jimmy ‘JJ’ Walker, Wednesday through Sunday.
Follow me on Twitter @KCKingofSting and have a great weekend.
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