AZ: Grant Woods one of our state's largest assets, best hopes for future

East Valley Opinions Page ^ | Chuck Wahlheim

[hsmomx3]

We are all very fortunate to live in the East Valley, one of the really dynamic areas not only in the state but also in the nation. As you look around this area there are some incredible assets, and I would like to tell you about one of them. It is not Tempe Town Lake, or our freeways, or the new arts center that is going up in Mesa, or the Intel plant in Chandler. It is an individual, and his name is Grant Woods.

[hsmomx3]

Is he thinking about a run for governor. Makes me want to gag. Marlene, Grant's wife used to be a news anchor here. She left that job to take a job in CA as an anchor. You could say they had one of those weekend marriages.

[kaktuskid]

One of our greatest A$$es, not assets!

[narby]

Woods is a jerk.

I'm not sure of the details, but I think he had something to do with Barry Young leaving KFYI for a year or so.

Barry's the best guy they have. He needs a national show.

All I can think of about Woods, is his "Woodie Awards".

[w1andsodidwe]

I was thinking of an entirely different person when I saw the headline.

[ChocChipCookie]

Dang, I can hear the sucking-up sound all the way out here in Peoria.

[Spiff]

Grant Woods in a RINO bastard. He and a couple other RINOs have started a group called "Mainstream" Arizona (more like liberal extremist RINO Arizona) to counter the conservative movement in the state. They are specifically targetting the Club for Growth.

[Khurkris]

Geeez!..Who wrote this? Hi Publicity Agent?

I think we can do better than this on FR.

[hsmomx3]

Here's who wrote it: Chuck Wahlheim is president of W.C.B. Enterprises of Tempe. A veteran newspaper executive, he is former CEO of Cox Arizona Publications, a co-founder of the East Valley Partnership and a co-founder of Kids Voting.

Kids Voting. That says it all as they indoctrinate the children.

[hsmomx3]

Do they have a website?

[hsmomx3]

When did he make the switch? I know he talks and acts like a rat but he ws/is a registered Republican.

[hsmomx3]

Wow, I'm going to check this out because I have not heard this before. Thanks.

[hsmomx3]

Thanks!!!

[RatSlayer]

"I'm not sure of the details, but I think he had something to do with Barry Young leaving KFYI for a year or so. "

Yes. For those who don't know the story, it goes like this (this is my view from the outside, I don't know any of these people personally):

Before Woods was hired, KFYI was number 1 in the market for ALL FORMATS. It is pretty much unheard of for a politics talk station to be ahead of the rock stations, so KFYI was flying really high.

Anyway KFYI changed ownership and the jerk that was the programming director who was a liberal, suddenly got a lot more power (IMHO his title was nothing but a title prior to the ownership change). Well, the 100% conservative lineup always bugged him. So he fired a couple of the hosts with the smallest numbers, hired Woods, and shuffled the lineup around to put Woods in the prime afternoon drive time.

Predictably, KFYI plunged from 1 to 9 within a few weeks because previously loyal listeners, like me, basically stopped listening to anything but Rush (If KFYI didn't have Rush they probably would have dropped so far that they would have been behind the smallest religious stations.

Anyway, listeners were constantly trying to talk about the ratings, especially on Barry's show, since he regularly use to mentioned the fact that they were number 1 and those comments suddenly stopped. But management put out a "thou shalt not talk about our ratings" mandate, so Barry had to put a sock in it.

The animosity between Barry and management kept building until he finally quit. About a year or two later there was another ownership change. The programming manager was fired and Barry came back.

[hsmomx3]

I guess not but I'll bet he is going to run for governor.

[MARTIAL MONK]

I've known Grant since he was 16. He has always been flaky. Worse than that, he has been flaky with a missionary zeal. I think he is running for Governor. This piece is not a fluke. It is an arranged endorsement.

[Luke21]

Woods is more like McCain than McCain. He's the very essence of a rino scumbag. As for Fife Symington, a great governor until he was lynched by the machine down here.