Struck Dumb

How do you shut up the biggest mouth in Kansas City sports-talk radio? Wave a tape recorder in Jason Whitlock’s face and ask whether he is negotiating to move his radio show from WHB 810 to KMBZ 980 and there compete head-to-head against his current radio boss, Kevin Kietzman (Kansas City Strip, November 15). “Get the fuck away from me,” The Kansas City Star columnist answered.

Maybe he just had a lot on his mind. We were on the sidelines an hour before 810’s annual Turkey Bowl flag-football game between teams captained by Whitlock and Kietzman. The Rockhurst High School bleachers were filling with media and sports junkies who’d either heard that day about Whitlock’s secret negotiations or were reading about it at that moment in copies of the Pitch that I’d generously provided. Talk about stress: Whitlock’s loathing of certain coworkers was rapidly becoming public knowledge, and he still had to play a friendly game of charity football with them.

I asked again about the talks he and The Star have had with Entercom, 980’s parent company. “Do we have any security?” Whitlock replied. Five minutes later, during an interview with 810 President Chad Boeger, two uniformed Kansas City police officers grabbed me and said, “You’re leaving, or you’re going to jail.” Damn, I should have worn clean underwear.

One cop reached for my tape recorder. “Turn that off,” he demanded. I refused. “No. You can’t make me turn this off. This is America, guy.”

After about twenty minutes outside the gates, I heard from a sheepish Scott Levinson, 810’s vice president of promotions and marketing. We discussed the irony that a sports radio station such as his — which prides itself on asking tough questions, breaking stories and refusing to be bullied by sports organizations — would sic police on a lone reporter armed only with a story.

Later in the week, Entercom executive Bob Zuroweste complained to the Pitch about an inaccuracy in my reporting of Entercom’s possible bid to pick up Whitlock. “I did not meet with Jason Whitlock personally. For the record, that is all I am going to say,” Zuroweste told the Pitch. Well, that depends on how one defines “meet.” Has Zuroweste talked with Whitlock on the phone about his coming to 980? Sources close to the situation say yes. Has Whitlock met with other representatives of Entercom to discuss moving his show to 980? Sources say yes. Have representatives of The Star met with Zuroweste to discuss this matter? Again, yes.

I’d guess that Zuroweste is only feigning outrage that this story leaked. If 810 canned Whitlock immediately for disloyalty, the Entercom exec could play hardball in negotiations with The Star‘s farting columnist while settling old scores: Both Kietzman and Whitlock have let Zuroweste court them in the past, pretending to favor moves to 980 before bolting back to Union Broadcasting for pay raises. Kietzman and Whitlock even made fun of Zuroweste on the air, boasting how they’d duped his company into thinking they would leave their locally owned station for “Conglomo” (Kietzman’s pet name for Entercom).

Zuroweste is very interested in upgrading his afternoon sports-talk slot with a name like Whitlock’s. The Star’s participation in contract negotiations this time gives Entercom more confidence the deal can be closed, but Whitlock is a volatile wild card that not even The Star has been able to control. “There is a lot of money to be made in this deal for everybody involved,” says a well-placed source. “The only person who can screw this up is Jason.”