The golden era of sports radio in Kansas City is happening right now. The Chiefs have the most exciting player, as well as the most exciting team in the NFL and could be on the verge of the next dynasty in football. The Royals are nearly six years removed from a World Series title, but the excitement level in the city is still high, despite the team being at or below a .500 record every year since.
Ratings are good. Sales are good. It’s a great time to be a host in Kansas City.
Bob Fescoe is right in the middle of the action at 610 Sports as the host of Fescoe in the Morning. He’s one of the most established and beloved hosts Kansas City has ever had and now he’s enjoying the success of the two hometown teams. He’s truly living his best life.
But it’s not exactly where the eight-year-old version of himself thought he would be. A huge New York Giants fan in the 80’s, Fescoe was more drawn to the play-by-play side of the business, because of Pat Summerall and John Madden
“John Madden was so entertaining to me,” said Fescoe. I always loved him and I realized at that time I was never going to play professional sports. I could already tell that at 8 years old. So what was the next best thing? Being behind the mic. I always thought I wanted to do play-by-play and thought I could be good at it.”
Fast forward a few years and the kid from New Jersey is in south Texas for his first radio job out of college. He still had aspirations in play-by-play and was doing it heavily at KWED in Seguin, Texas, a town right outside of San Antonio. Fescoe was the voice of Texas Lutheran University, a Division 3 college football program and was traveling in busses all across south Texas, north Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
“I was also doing play-by-play for four or five different high schools and dealing with their coaches, which was a lot of fun,” Fescoe said. “I learned so much as to why certain coaches are really good at what they do. I also got to cover the San Antonio Spurs. That was 1999 and they had just won their first championship that year. I really wish I could go back to those years and understand who I was around and who I was covering. At 22 or 23 years old, Greg Popovich wasn’t the same guy as he is today. He was a totally different guy. David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott, it was an unbelievable group of people I got to be around, but I didn’t pay much attention to it because it was the Spurs and it was just the beginning of their dynasty. I really wish I could go back and appreciate being around those guys a little more.”
After nearly two years at KWED, Fescoe made the move to Kansas City to work at KMBZ where he truly discovered his love for sports talk radio. The station was the flagship for both KU basketball and the Royals and he was immediately drawn to the format and the ability to talk about what was happening in the community. There was something about the ability to make a difference in people’s lives that instantly stuck. He realized his new passion. It wasn’t play-by-play, it was being a host on a sports talk radio station.
He was hired to be the producer of the afternoon show. After just a couple of months, he had his own show.
“People say you never remember where you were on September 10th, 2001, but I do,” Fescoe said. “That was the first day I got my own talk show. It was a night time talk show and another guy did that while I was producing the afternoon show. There were a lot of KU and Royals games at night, so there weren’t a lot of night-time shows until the winter time. But that first day we were on the air on September 10th talking about sports and the next day, everything changed. For the next two weeks, we were doing news radio and talk radio and dealing with the after effects of 9/11.”
Fescoe would produce the afternoon show and do his night-time show for a couple of more years, before moving across the street to the competition at WHB Sports Radio 810. After three years on the job, he moved outside of the market to St. Louis.
From the outside, one would think Kansas City and St. Louis are very similar markets. They’re both in the midwest, they’re both full of baseball fans and they’re even located in the same state. But though there are some similarities, the differences of the two markets are pretty extreme.
“It’s definitely a completely different market,” Fescoe said. “That may even apply more today than it ever has before, because of the provincial nature of the city. The people in St. Louis had no interest in having me there, and never gave me an opportunity, because I wasn’t from there. St. Louis is all about what high school you went to and they would make their determination on you based on that. I grew up in New Jersey. I didn’t go to high school there. I think it was a little bit of a shock to them that a guy that wasn’t raised there was talking about their teams.”
It just wasn’t a fit for either party. Fescoe would later leave and go back to Kansas City, but he still got a lot out of his radio experience in St. Louis. Mostly, because he was working with Jason Barrett.
“Working with Jason was great,” Fescoe said. “I went to St. Louis to work for him, because I had talked to him about a potential job in Philadelphia. Jason was the first person I was around that I got real, true radio feedback from. I’ll never forget doing a demo show in Philadelphia and the feedback was like 10-15 pages off a three-hour show. I was like, wow, there’s so much to learn. I had the opportunity to work for him and really pick his brain to find out a lot of stuff that makes radio work. Some of the stuff you still do today, I learned from Jason back in 2007.”
Kansas City is where Fescoe belongs. Not only is he a beloved host but he’s made a real effort to endear himself to everyone in the community. That’s extremely important in a market like Kansas City. He’s on the board of directors for multiple non-profit organizations and people have noticed. If you take the time to embrace the community, they’ll embrace you right back.
“Kansas City is the most giving and charitable community I’ve ever been a part of,” Fescoe said. “We treat everyone in this town like they’re our own. That was one of the things I learned during the 2014 World Series run is how many people were using baseball in this town to get through tough times in their life. We had people on the air during that time talking about battling cancer, or their kids battling cancer, or they themselves had illnesses and the only thing that made them happy during the day was watching the Royals at night. Being connected to the community is vital in this town. I don’t know how it compares to other cities, but this is the most charitable place I’ve ever lived.”
Being charitable is never questioned about Kansas City, but it’s favorite sport routinely is. Is it a baseball town or a football town? That’s a popular question people from outside the market like to ask. It’s often debated with the answers almost always seemingly split. But Fescoe can accurately answer the question of if the sports fans in Kansas City prefer football or baseball more with just one word.
“Yes.”
“People here are truly passionate about their teams,” Fescoe said. “Since 2014 we’ve been on a fairy tail run. We had the Royals make back-to-back World Series and then we’ve been to three-straight AFC Championship games and two Super Bowls. At its core I think Kansas City is a baseball town, because October of 2014 is the greatest month of my professional career, just to see the way that Kansas City came alive and fell in love with this baseball team and was living and dying with every pitch. It gets me kind of emotional to talk about those teams. People were living it every single day and the joy that ballclub brought everyone. I’ve never seen a team turn around a city from an attitude and a belief standpoint like the Royals did in 2014 in Kansas City.”
That 2014 season is a big reason why Kansas City is in the golden era of sports talk radio. Throw that Mahomes guy in as a big reason, too. The Chiefs and Royals have had success in the past, sure, but never at the same time. The past six years they have, and it’s unveiled a passion that can rival any market in the country.
Kansas City sports radio hasn’t just benefited from the golden era on the ratings sheet, but on sales sheets, as well. Local businesses have flocked to get their name attached to the local teams and it has greatly benefitted stations such as 610 Sports.
“When the sports teams are good it’s something everyone wants to be a part of in Kansas City,” Fescoe said. “In any way they possibly can, whether it’s sponsoring a coaches show or being on the air and mentioning the things that are going on in town, they just want to be a part of everyone’s listening habits, because when those teams are good, obviously the ratings are better, because people care more when the teams are winning. I’ve had conversations with people over the years and they’d ask if I’d rather have a losing team or a winning team. It’s not even close. It’s definitely a winning team. When you’re losing, people check out, but when you’re winning, more and more people than you’ve ever imagined are tuning in. Then you’re capturing all kinds of different audiences.”
The golden era of sports talk in Kansas City will likely last as long as Mahomes is playing quarterback for the Chiefs. Judging by the contract he signed last year, hosts such as Fescoe have a lot to look forward to.
“This is the golden era of Kansas City sports,” Fescoe said. “There’s never been a better time in their successes being at the exact same time. That never happened before 2014.”
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
