TALK SHOW HOST'S SURGERY SUCCESSFUL; WIFE RESPONDS TO CRITICISM Scott Parks, who is considered one of the nice guys in local broadcasting, had surgery to remove a nodule on his vocal chord on Friday, March 7. According to a note to BLC (3/12) the surgery went fine and he will have to be almost totally speechless for about two weeks. He returned to the air Monday, March 24. In a bit of side drama to his surgery, a blogger under the name of "Perspective" posted this missive (3/7) on http://gatewaycityradio.com/messageboard/kcboard.asp , a site that discusses local TV and radio issues: "There are people listening to your program who have life threatening illnesses... they are going through radiation, taking pharmaceutical cocktails, and otherwise living through hell trying to survive. Your little inconvenient vocal cord surgery pales by comparison. "How about you stop whining and seeking sympathy for yourself and your non-life threatening situation and show some respect for those who are really hurting."
Parks' wife was so upset with the posting she felt compelled to respond to it: "To Perspective: The only time I lose faith that decent human beings live on this planet is when I see the hatred spewed in email and on this blog. We don't need your education on life threatening illnesses. We've dealt with plenty of it in our life. "There is nothing wrong with Scott sharing his personal stories to connect with his audience and to update his audience as part of his job. Try being a little more positive and gracious in life and go to church. Sounds like you need a dose of good manners. "To everyone else who reads this board, I apologize for my posting. I'm just tired of hearing how hateful people can be and tonight was the wrong night for me to read the shallow posting from the person hiding behind the name Perspective.."
Parks began his broadcasting career in 1994 at KOFO in Ottawa (KS) and then moved to KLWN in Lawrence. He joined 980 KMBZ AM in February 1997 and worked as a reporter, anchor, Assistant News Director and then from 2000 to 2006 he was News Director at the Entercom station. Since December 11, 2006 he has been teamed with broadcasting icon Mike Shanin on the 4-7 p.m. "Shanin and Parks" talk show. Guests will sub with Shanin while Parks is silent. "I first realized I had a problem with my voice when I couldn't sing in church," says Parks with a chuckle. "Basically, a nodule on one of my vocal chords kept it from touching the other one, and I had lost the upper and lower ranges of my voice." Ratings-wise the Shanin and Parks show has done very well and retained most of the audience of previous host Jerry Agar, who is currently in Chicago. 02-28-2008
