A separation of powers in the Kansas City area has spawned a dissident and unruly, yet extremely…read morerich source of sports broadcasting. This in your face station seems to come off with an agenda with no holds barred, which, to me, presents much more engaging than its forerunner who shall remain nameless but really likes to hang out on the plaza.
Almost with an avant-garde approach, the hosts expel explicit, candid thoughts giving generic issues a shot to the mouth. This can turn into a cathartic tirade of behind the scenes reality, capturing a raw glimpse of what really goes on, otherwise pretty scarce in the average, often bleak Kansas City press room.
The morning opener wakes you up with two guys engaging in banter that can be very easy to disagree with. Straightforward pleas and foregone conclusions about teams that may not be very good make it entertaining enough though, especially when followed by relentless invitations to follow their Facebook accounts and eat at a local Mexican restaurant. Klingler masterfully helps string together potentially hazardous assumptions to make a solid cogent point. Together, they seem to set a tone for the station, kind of like the guys who make an important keg run for the party that's about to take place. In this sense, it's like one guy who drinks a lot while loyally defending his alma mater and the other who gets high and reads a lot of philosophy with an exceptional ability at damage control.
This seems to transition nicely into the next host's show who claims to be the sheriff but opens his show with mainstream hip-hop, creating a strange illusion. Shariff's show is called "New School" and offers an ultramodern platform, tackling confrontational issues in a pretty unique way. It's almost like a teacher liquoring his students up for two hours straight with eccentric deliberation, sometimes even telling them how they can get laid in different ways; this might be because of a trade by the Royals or maybe if the Chiefs win more than 4 games. This is the part of the party where everyone is getting drunk and high, spouting off text messages about seemingly fanatical pipe-dreams related to their favorite local team. Still, a breadth of different ideas can be gleaned from his late morning show as he facilitates the raw nature of local current events and trends among listeners while also encouraging positive attitudes on Monday mornings, following a potentially devastating Sunday afternoon during football season.
The final show, "What's Right", takes you into a spiraling, opinion-laden world filled of tirades, emotions, and conjectural thought that really seems to push the envelope well beyond the droning, generic sports chatter we may find elsewhere. In other words, the host, Wright, to me takes relevant issues and blows them up into an epidemic portrait, throwing it on the wall and then dissecting points listeners attempt to resolve. This happens sometimes abrasively as if he has the remedy for why the sports world is contaminated. This might be a frustrating trait at first, but ultimately becomes endearing as his honesty grows on you and you adapt to his personal beliefs as they apply to a vast range of topics. In fact, he seems to steer away from the sometimes tiresome Whitlockean school of thought, which to me conveys what many of us are ready to embrace at this point. Interjections throughout the show come from two other accompanying guys, keeping the structure of the show together at times and who may enhance the overall personality the show while taking shots at each other's personal lives at unpredictable times. Finally, sound analysis is augmented late in the show on Fridays/Mondays by highly credible input given by a KC journalist, Kent Babb (supposedly founder of a burger-see future reviews). Bill Moss, ex- KC Chief, also offers logical insight and a pretty detailed analysis on anything from the groundwork and inner workings of the coaching staff to why Charles isn't getting the ball on a regular basis (I will digress from making any other direct references).
The show is like when everyone starts taking shots and throwing back extreme insight and insults back and forth at each other until the cops shut it down at 6pm.
When thinking about how this city as a whole has adopted a culture of losing lately, this is the type of radio station that I think may be a solution to turning the city's attitude in the right direction. Overall, the hosts make up a collective amalgamation of personalities, blending together effectively and maybe making Kansas City feel better about itself while throwing a hell of a party over the air while they're at it...broadcast style.
If anyone from anywhere reads this and gets mad at me, this is my sole interpretation and I in no way represent any affiliation related to the above and am not claiming any sort of credibility.
