The Way They Were: Don Fortune, Larry Moore and Cheryl Jones of KMBC News
At least there’s a little bit of motive to this particular madness, in that someone slipped in a comment on this 2013 column standing up for…waity for it…former sports media kingpin Don Fortune aka Don Fortunado.
And how about, No Way he’s Gay KC Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeting a couple years ago that, “I didn’t mind Don Fortune that much back in the day.”
Didn’t mind him that much? In what passes for his prime, Fortune was iconic.
Putting his foot in his mouth, introducing “controversy” into the kiss up local sports media ranks before it became, not just fashionable, but de rigor.
Then again, I did bust him for after covering up all the dog do stains on his white carpeting with furniture. Jason Whitlock loved him that column.
So where is Fortune now?
Well, unless I miss my guess, he’s six-feet-under somewhere in or around Port Richey, Florida where I last tracked him several years back. His phone number no longer works, nor does another listing. And were he alive today, apparently he would be 88. However, since it appears he checked out in 2018 at age 84, he no longer has to deal with the likes of me, Whitlock, Soren Petro, etc. His other “fans” of note such as Tom Leathers and Greg Hall jamming with him now in the Great Beyond, but by total accident, I give you this last reckoning when he apparently still mattered.
Here tis:
OK, I lied…
Dandy Don Fortune is not coming back – not that I know of anyway – not physically. For one thing, he’s older than God now and he didn’t exactly depart the Cowtown in grand style. Everyone from then halfway young WHB sports yakker Kevin Kietzman to Star bloviator-in-chief Jason Whitlock couldn’t say enough about how old and out of it Fortune was.
WHB even mounted a billboard campaign called “Lose a Fortune.”
Remember that one?
So how long ago was it that Fortune got run out of town? Five years? Ten?
Try a dozen.
However what goes around comes around and with the passage of time even youngsters like Soren Petro start to get a little long in the tooth and – how do you say – predictable
“Petro and Kietzman are starting to become Don Fortune,” says sports radio junkie-turned-scribe Craig Glazer. “They’re set in their ways and they say the same stuff. They’re knowledgeable but they’re just so predictable.
“The problem with Petro and Kietzman is you know what you’re going to get. They’re not controversial anymore. I think they play it pretty safe. I listen to 610 Sports more now, but when I do listen to Petro and Kietzman, I almost know what they’re going to say before they say it.”
That’s basically what happened with Fortune, says former Entercom honcho Bob Zuroweste, Fortune’s boss.
“It’s all about brands and people are brands and you’ve got to freshen your brand,” Zuroweste says. “Because when brands get tired people want something new. And what has to happen is 610 Sports has to give people something that’s different and better and let people know about it. That’s what branding is, being different and better and letting people know.”
What can WHB, Petro and Kietzman do to prevent their further slide?
Nothing,” Zuroweste says. “As long as they’re not being challenged, they’ll be okay, but if 610 Sports hires the right people they’ll be in trouble. It’s all about the people and the content.”
A handful of years back, Kietzman dug up Fortune to fill in for him while he was on vacation and Fortune told the Star the “Lose a Fortune” campaign never really bothered him.
“Bull hockey,” says a source close to the situation. “That’s total bullshit. That bothered Don a lot – I mean, it sounds pretty good to say what he did – but I was there and it bothered him. He wasn’t distraught but he was like, ‘Why are they doing that? Why are they doing that?’
“Fortune’s audience wasn’t going to go away but he was not appealing to the demo that appealed to advertisers. As Fortune’s audience got older it wasn’t appealing to advertisers. And Fortune just got tired of the fight like Denny Matthews and he retired. Denny Matthews is tired of the fight, but nobody’s got the guts to push him out. Denny Matthews was dead 15 years ago, he didn’t put out any effort then.
“Kietzman has a lot more weaknesses than Soren. Kietzman has his ego, basically every commercial is him selling something and he’s got some sort of character questions based on some of the stories about him. Plus he’s arrogant, he’s cockey. Just ask somebody what they think about Kevin Kietzman. People like Soren Petro more than they do Kevin Kietzman.”
Don Fortune was fine until you knew what else was out there. Fortune was the king of Kansas City sports talk when KC didn’t have a sports station and he was doing a show on a news and talk station. Listen to Rush Limbaugh, then stay tuned for Don Fortune. Few if any major markets do that anymore.
Going after the establishmed name isn’t anything new. Howard Stern made his career doing it. Mancow routinely did it in the mid ‘90s. Even Nick Wright when he was here did that on Petro and Keitzman.
It would be interesting to know what Glazer would think of sports talk radio in 2022 if he were alive today. He thought 810 was getting too safe, yet it’s main host was fired for saying something controversial. Something many people condemned him for but later on looks to be 100 percent on the money in his take.
Now because of the firing no one wants to take a stand or they might be the next on the chopping block.
Well, speaking to KK, he might have gotten fired for a lot more than just dissing a couple Chiefs big shots…at least he seemed to think so.
Like money and in my opinion, age.
While his shtick may have gotten long in the tooth, his transition in to politics, I think, was well-timed. Hey, that’s what Jason Whitlock has also done.And while Fox News and other conservative outlets and hosts love to plug him in to counter Wokesters at other stations, his podcast (or whatever) remains tedious and kinda boring.
But when Tucker or Ben Shapiro can aim him at Biden, AOC, Pelosi or whomever, they know they can count on him for some quality putdowns. He’s losing weight, too. Think he knows he likely won’t be around much longer if he doesn’t and that’s a good thing.
The days of him carrying on about Gates BBQ seem to be fading. It was a nice schtick while it lasted though.
RE: Whitlock (“He’s losing weight, too”) Long as he doesn’t lose his grasp reality and become skinny Al Sharpton (who managed to lose an abundance of weight if no substance – because he had zero to begin with), Jason is A-OK with me.
Before there was Fortune in KC, there was Fred ‘The Hammer’ Williamson. Fred beat his gums out of town and off the Chiefs, headed north to Canada, then took a hard left west Hollywood.
Hammer’s demise KC was preceded by Yammer’s: Chiefs talent guru Don Klosterman’s quip “Kansas City isn’t so much Heaven or Hell as purgatory”, bought him a ticket to Houston, followed a stop in Baltimore, then on to LA.
Controversy/smack? Remember Jim Rome? Me neither. He was big. Keith Olbermann? Tragic. Joe Pyne? Wally George? Morton Downey Jr.? R.I.P all… it’s the nature.
Such irreverence!
I just never cared for Don Fortune so I stop listening to him long before he got as some say boring.
Cheryl Jones now that’s a blast from the past. Not that I have looked for her either but she seemed to all of a sudden drop out of sight. My buddy Max will never forget her. Man that was crazy or at least Max’s version to me of it.
I covered her well into the ’90s, early 2000s…
She got a job with like CNN or somewhere and had to pull an overnight shift that messed up her body clock to the 10th power or something. Struggled health wise ever since.
She also had to deal with – shudder – getting old and her looks and weight taking a hit.
Tom Leathers of the Squire kept her alive for the longest time, but now that Larry Moore and Fortune are pretty much completely out of the picture, not a lot of interest in digging up and 80-plus vestige of past tense hotties.
I might take a quick look…
HC did you ever weigh in on KK’s infamous traffic stop with his then staff member, and now wife? I know it is part of KC lore and taken as fact, but never knew if it was actually confirmed.
I did in fact…
However, when I spoke with the Prairie Village police chief (who provides service to Mission Hills), I did confirm the stop but in order to get the video of it from police I needed to hastily apply to see it before it was (soon) to be destroyed and Mark Zeiman did not want me to.
That said, he wasn’t very excited to have his wife’s drunken DUI stop viewed either.
more b.s. about the old guys. Fortune…old and gone fishing. KK…history. no listeners and off the charts of talk radio. Guy was decent at WHB but this is flyover country and look what guys like wright who rock the place can do when they leave kc for the bright lights. These guys are dead…nobodies anymore…hardly recognized. Maybe update your story ensemble to include mundo/and wright who are taking off and making good. You continue to bring up these grisly old nobodies who nobody heard except the guys over 75. Get some fresh talent and subjects!
Easy there, google…
This was an accidental flashback, not a never ending story.
Yes, there are guys like Nick Wright who can and undoubtedly will ascend to far greater heights. But there are plenty who wanted to, thought they were, that did not.
KK is doing fine for now…I still think he could land on a radio station and perhaps matter more – but radio is pretty dinosaurs too. Are you telling me podcasts are too cutting edge for you?
Too bad.
I like Mundo and think he has a future – perhaps here – I turned a lot of people like Nigro on to him before I left.
My overall take on him though is, while he has some good instincts, he’s a bit on the overly cautious side. He doesn’t quite have the full-on jugular instinct. Or if he does, he doesn’t seem to act on it.
Great guy, good overall instincts and view points, but not willing (or capable) of letting it all hang out.
In other words, very Kansas City-like. Perhaps like you?
Tom Leathers was the best. I just miss him. I am not counting Kietzman out at all. We have very very weak and very predictable critical media in KC right now (KC Star and Radio) . In addition to KK’s fans, I think his opponents will subscribe to listen to him.
Don’t count Kietzman out!
He may be relegated to the podcast world – which has actually evolved tremendously, at least on a national level – and don’t forget that Craig Glazer started down that road before his health (financial and physical) went south.
Kietzman, kinda like Whitlock, has evolved into far more of a political commentator, along with his sports.
The difference being that KK is far more lucid than Jason. Once Whitlock strays beyond a slightly elongated soundbite, his verbiage and clarity are out the window.
I first heard Don Fortune on 980 AM back around 1993. Good Lord. His sports knowledge, especially nationally was sorely lacking. He knew some about the local teams, but it was always easy to call into his show and just eviscerate his idiotic, uninformed. And then Kietzman hit the sportsradio airwaves and it was all over for not-so-Dandy Don.
Legitimate points, Sir Guy…
But most of the interest in sports generally struck me as mostly local-centric…which back then included three local Big 12 teams and the rest of that division, pretty much all of the NFL and the general ability to whine about how bad the broke dick Royals were (are?).
Don’t forget, the the late 1980s/early ’90s, there were a lot more oldsters floating around.\
Sadly.todays, people like myself, Bill Nigro and others are what passes increasingly for oldsters so…
And there are so many truly excellent options on YouTube and online, that people really no longer need locals like Johnny Dare, that Peter guy on KCMO AM to champion their points of view.
Our cups runneth over!
We may be older, but we knew it all when it was cool and a blast to be around here. Ahhhh the fun we had back then, great movies, radio stations, media worth reading and not worrying about dodging bullets if you went downtown, Westport, or The Plaza. These youngsters now day don’t know what fun is or was and can’t stray more than five feet from their iPod. Oh and don’t forget the Cowtown Ballroom, The Ship, Auditorium Bar & Grill, River Quay, Nichols Lunch, just a few names off the top of my head where you could have a great time plus a lot of the old downtown bars you could go in with a group and not have your ears fried from over cranked stereo systems. I could walk into any of the Longbranch Saloons and if Walt was there hear him shout out , “Hey Super Dave.” Those good ole days are long gone where you all gathered at a table and not on Zoom.
Hard to argue your points, Super, but…
I still kinda like living in the present and future tense. And when you get right down to it, it’s really mostly been disappointing in many respects the the very recent years.
Even less than 15 years ago, it was still fun and halfway normal working at the Star. Yeah, it could be a struggle at times, but as I’ve told Dwight – with some exceptions – there was at least a prevailing desire to be accurate and at least halfway fair.
These days, accuracy is up for grabs and fairness is out the window.
But that’s pretty much the nature of the game these days…
Read some of those Washington Post opinion pieces on Musk takeing over Twitter, and the consensus is basically that free speech is old school internet thinking. Doesn’t work in the current idiom.
Seriously
Jason has re-invented himself more times than anyone I know. Now, since he’s gone full blown Christian, he seems to be picking up a big head of steam. I think Tucker has a man crush on him!
Side Note: In his new found fame, he no longer returns messages…
glad to see you’re still around. Miss the conflicts. Hope you and the misses are doing well.
Awwww, that’s touching…
After all the many past clashes, you didn’t even resort to calling Paul a box salesman!
Do I sense a catharsis coming on?
I agree…
On the Tucker part, anyway.
Establishment, conservative white guys tend to love having a black dude to back them up. And Jason is an accomplished ass kisser to powerful white dudes, including during his years at the Star.
When he wasn’t busy pimping them, that is.
I keep waiting for him to get a guest gig from Fox or somebody, which I think he sorely could use. Because his blogging efforts – largely boring video rants and the like – gets old really fast.
That said, he can lay down a mean soundbite on Tucker.
His sports takes just don’t seem to hold up very well these days.
It appears Don Fortune is still around and living in Punta Gorda, FL. Someone by the name of Don Fortunato, age 82, who also lived at several different addresses in Johnson County, is living in Punta Gorda.
Could there be more than one elderly Don Fortunato who formerly lived in Johnson County, then moved to Florida several years ago?
Hey, anything is possible, I guess…
However Don Fortune’s name WAS Fortunado, not Fortune.
His phone numbers are long gone, his address and my hunch is if anybody knew of him still being alive, I’d have heard back by now.And I’ve reached out to some who likely would know.
Maybe you can check it out when YOU hit those pearly gates and send me an update via a dream or something and I’ll revisit
No one – save maybe Nick Wright, could compare to “the Freak” John Renshaw. He was the most talented sports radio guy during this period, too bad his personal demons got the better of him. Steven St. John is also very underrated. He was always better than Kietzman or Petro, who both are/were essentially hacks for different reasons.