Posts Tagged ‘Mike Shannon’

That new voice on KMOX news belongs to Allison Blood, known to friends as Allie, and she has lots of friends and admirers after covering statehouse news and politics.  Like many of the talented staff
at KMOX, the vivacious Mizzou grad arrives by way of the Missourinet. .  .There is historical irony here.  Missourinet’s founding and still hard-charging news director Bob Priddy was just starting out in the
business when KMOX legend Bob Hyland dangled a job with pittance wages. Father of a young family, an unimpressed Bob Priddy instead joined Clyde Lear and the late farm broadcaster Derry Brownfield in pioneering what became Missourinet and its parent company, Learfield Communications.  Nearly 40 years later, Learfield has more than 350 staffers, operates five state news networks, the leading agriculture radio network and manages multimedia athletics rights for more than 50 colleges and athletic associations. Learfield has grown into a multimedia power Bob Hyland could envy.  Learfield recently closing a large strategic investment by Shamrock Capital Growth Fund III, the
investment unit that originated with the Roy Disney family.  In Missourinet’s early years, Priddy received a job application from a young announcer at Lexington, Missouri station KLEX.  Priddy took the application to Clyde Lear, who put rookie sportscaster John Rooney to work on Mizzou basketball broadcasts, including a season alongside Bob Costas, who Hyland once hired as a wisp of a lad out of Syracuse University.  Now John shares the Cardinals broadcast booth with Mike Shannon and the meters keep moving.  Over the weekend on the Mssourinet, Alice Blood reported on the $100k Bank of America donation to help rebuild Mercy St. John’s Joplin Hospital.  That hospital became an iconic backdrop for news coverage of the May 22 Joplin tornado.  Its windows were shattered but the Stars and Stripes fluttered from the exposed windowsills.

Silent Auction at Gateway MS Society St. Louis Summer Swizzle

T.J. Birkenmeier avers he has approached Joe Edwards, suggesting a roll-out of Blueberry Hill Beer. . .Nancy Poole, broadcast exec-turned iconic real estater with Janet McAfee, is much too ill. . ..Endowed prof of physics at UMSL Jake Leventhal, with his ever-lovin’ Betty, said enrollment there has risen. “Lose jobs – go back to school,” he reasoned. . .Scotch those rumors, that high-profiled barrister Jim Holloran and his wife, Madison County Circuit Judge Anne Callis, have split. “She has a house in Troy, Ill., and I have a house in Kirkwood and that’s, perhaps, how the rumors began”. . .Youngster Parker Monnig of St. Peters, Mo., is just back with his parents, Melissa and Kyle Monnig, from Huntsville, AL., where he trained to become a Jedi at STARWARS Space Camp. He was singled out at the awards ceremony for “exemplifying Jedi behavior with his actions, ability to learn, and kindness to others”. …Sightems: Mike Shannon at Dino Karagiannis‘ The Tenderloin Room, chowing down on liver with onions; Cards’ Ryan Franklin, with family, at Giovanni’s on the Hill, knocking off veal with porcini mushrooms. . . Look for Debbie Ballman and Kim Lutz to bow their Main Street Cafe on Sept. 1 on West Main Street in Washington, Mo.,.. .Morgan Lily, heiress to former St. Louisan and stand-up comic, Andy Gross, due here from Hollywood on Sept 10, with two comic headliners, at the grand opening of Hottest Ticket Comedy Club in the Third Degree Glass Factory at 5200 Delmar Blvd. The laugh-a-minute comics are Emil Fry and Rocky LaPort. Lily also is featured in Rob Reiner‘s upcoming film, “Flipped,” booked for unspooliing this month. . .More than 300 guests were on hand at the Kemp Auto Museum for the St. Louis Summer Sizzle benefit for the Gateway Multiple Sclerosis Society’s fundraiser. Do-gooder Bill Gillespie was feted for having raised $1 million over the years for MS.

Guests at Kemp Auto Museum for the St. Louis Summer Sizzle benefit

The Benefit Blues Band performed during the festivities . . .Love and kisses for blessed events:  The Post-Dispatch’s crime reporter Christine Byers and courts reporter Heather Radcliff are infanticipating.. . .Newsome twosomes – Sarah Gabriele will say “I do” at her marriage Sept. 11 in French Lick Springs to insurance tycoon Alex Gift.  Sarah’s parents are famed restaurateurs Joan and Agostino Gabriele, who once owned his own dinery here and now operates Vicenzo’s in Louisville. . .WashU pre-med students Claire Shapleigh of Clayton and John Strand of Des Peres are steady-as-they-go. . ..

A sight to behold: fervent Republican Donna Wilkinson and devoted Democrat Tom Green in an embrace. . .Ditto for Jamie and Jason Cohen, a strategist and Beltway/St. Louis commuter, charged with helping to craft the proposal for a Stl victory in the run for the convention… Soldier of fortune/physical fitness guru/mercenary Joe Adams and his better half, mortgage doyenne Diana Daugherty, plunked down $1.1 million for the Hampton Park manse from the late do-gooders Ruth and Dr. Walter Washington, according to their son, Kevin, who tub-thumped holding the convention here. . Mike Shannon arrived with his love, Quincy,IL travel agent Lori Bergman. . .KSDK reporter/co-anchor Mike Garrity telling Kara E. Bolin, press sect’y to Mayor Francis Slay, “I covered the team getting off the bus”. . .Then, it was onward to Tony’s to glad-hand former Cardinals football linebacker Jamie Rivers and his wife, Brenda, who marked their 45th wedding anniversary and toasted their four grandchildren. BTW – The winsome twosome own the McDonald’s on Lindell Boulevard. After a sampling of exec chef Vince Bommarito, Jr.’s soft shell crabs, stuffed with crab meat – another stop. Over at Cyrano’s, bossman Charlie Downs was vending real deal Lake Superior white fish and organic blueberry crumb pie with cinnamon ice cream.

The Cardinals flamed out Wednesday against the D-Backs, but Mike Shannon lit up the room hours later promoting the St. Louis Press Club‘s Media Person of the Year Dinner, September 29th at Lumen Private Event, the swelegant restored space in the Packard Loft Building at 22nd and Locust Streets. Press Club prez Dick Weiss reminisced with more than 100 in attendance about the Moon Man’s storied past. “Over eight seasons as a Cardinals player and nearly 40 as a broadcaster, Mike has made us feel like we are all part of the team,” Weiss said. “Through Mike’s call of the game, we share in a story that goes back generations and will continue on for many years.” For his part, Mike said he was particularly pleased that funds from the dinner would underwrite scholarships and internships for young journalists. “They are the future,” he told Press Club supporters. And, speaking of the future, Shannon pointed to KTRS radio’s sports host Mike Claiborne as an up-and-comer and, perhaps, the next Cardinals play-by-play man. Claiborne will be emcee at the Media Person of the Year dinner, which will also feature Joe Buck and Tony LaRussa. The gambol will be held at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch. Among those on hand for the Shannon do was Bob Fox of New Space and Build-A-Bear Workshop. Fox is orchestrating an auction on behalf of the Press Club in which 100 stuffed Fredbirds with Shannon’s autograph will be offered to those attending the dinner. Others on hand were: Harriet Blickenstaff of Blick & Staff Communications, Laura Hobson Bond of Fox 2, Martin Duggan of Donnybrook fame, Jeff Gordon, P-D online columnist, Susan Hegger and Mary Leonard of the St. Louis Beacon, florists Gail and Walter Knoll, Sr., Larry Levin of the Jewish Light, Diane and Paul Gallant, Webster U.’s Karen Luebert, Bill McClellan, McGraw Milhaven of KTRS, Steve Moore of KMOX, Tom Pagano of Fleishman-Hillard, Shannon’s sidekick in the booth John Rooney and Mary Swan of AmerenUE. For ducats or sponsorship of the Media Person of the Year event, call 636-230-1973.

Pat Shannon-Van Matre and sportscaster Mike Shannon have been chosen Restaurateurs of the Year by the Missouri Restaurant Association-St. Louis and will get their just dessert from incoming prez Shelly Fortel.  (Longtime prez Pat Bergauer is out as prez.) They will be feted at the Four Seasons on Sunday, Jan. 31.  On hand will be Roland DeGregorio, who in 1985, was one of the original managers of Mike Shannon’s.  He is now with U.S. Foodservice or at his favorite spot at Table 3 Restaurant in Wildwood. . .One of our town’s most memorable hosts – Adalaide Cash Balaban – is now calling Texas home.  A state as big as her heart. Who can forget the ebullient Cash-Balaban, who greeted all – not as customers, but as friends – at yesteryear’s Balaban’s?