September 17, 2021 5 p.m. News

September 17, 2021 Noon News

Kelly says she won't pursue mandates right now, Democrats divided on large spending bill in Washington, plus more from Hutch Post.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1601052662830.jpeg" alt="" />
                        <figcaption></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>Kelly says she won't pursue mandates right now, Democrats divided on large spending bill in Washington, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="September 17, 2021 Morning News" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=9pv7h-10e13e9-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

September 17, 2021 Morning News

September 16, 2021 5 p.m. News

September 16, 2021 Afternoon Sports

HutchCC president likes theory behind Regents proposals, Officer convicted in George Floyd killing in court again, plus more from Hutch Post.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1601052662830.jpeg" alt="" />
                        <figcaption></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>HutchCC president likes theory behind Regents proposals, Officer convicted in George Floyd killing in court again, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="September 16, 2021 Morning News" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=nmbyw-10dfc50-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=auto&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

September 16, 2021 Morning News

September 15, 2021 5 p.m. News

Two arrested after high speed chase, Biden having meetings to keep agenda alive, plus more from Hutch Post.

<p>Two arrested after high speed chase, Biden having meetings to keep agenda alive, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="September 15, 2021 Noon News" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=hw66t-10dec8e-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=auto&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

September 15, 2021 Noon News

September 15, 2021 Morning Sports

September 15, 2021 Morning News

September 14, 2021 5 p.m. News

September 14, 2021 Afternoon Sports

State Fair needs more volunteers, Cosmosphere praised by those on TripAdvisor, plus more from Hutch Post.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1601052662830.jpeg" alt="" />
                        <figcaption></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>State Fair needs more volunteers, Cosmosphere praised by those on TripAdvisor, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="12 noon news for Sept. 14" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=y8z5y-10dd191-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

September 14, 2021 Noon News

September 14, 2021 Morning Sports

Hospital gives weekly COVID stats, Nicholas visits Texas, plus more from Hutch Post.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1601052662830.jpeg" alt="" />
                        <figcaption></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>Hospital gives weekly COVID stats, Nicholas visits Texas, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="September 14, 2021 Morning News" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=dtc2w-10dcbdd-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=auto&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

September 14, 2021 Morning News

September 13, 2021 5 p.m. News

September 13, 2021 Noon News

Biden headed west, New GM sees fair going well so far, plus more from Hutch Post.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1601052662830.jpeg" alt="" />
                        <figcaption></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>Biden headed west, New GM sees fair going well so far, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="September 13, 2021 Morning News" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=yztz7-10db051-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

September 13, 2021 Morning News

Former State Fair staffer reflects on 9-11, Kansas seeing more Texans coming for abortions, iconic photo and camera at the Cosmosphere, plus more from Hutch Post.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1601052662830.jpeg" alt="" />
                        <figcaption></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>Former State Fair staffer reflects on 9-11, Kansas seeing more Texans coming for abortions, iconic photo and camera at the Cosmosphere, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="September 11, 2021 Saturday News" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=sa6ze-10d8fcf-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

September 11, 2021 Saturday News


HUTCHINSON,
Kan. — On the morning of September 11, 2001, Kansas State Fair Assistant General Manager Denny Stoecklein had a problem on the fairgrounds he was working to fix.

"I think it was on the opening night of the fair, it might have been on the Saturday, I got a call, I got an anonymous phone call," Stoecklein said. "Somebody said, you've got some people working at one of your gates, actually two of your gates that are stealing from you. The fair hires 500 to 600 seasonal folks and a lot of them had been there for many, many years. The people they were saying were doing this were veteran employees."

After auditing tickets for a couple of days, it was time to see if they could catch anyone.

"Lt. Randy Moon with the Highway Patrol, Randy was officed on the Fairgrounds at that time," Stoecklein said. "The lieutenant in that office is typically the one who is kind of over the Fair for the Highway Patrol on site and we're talking about this and making the plan that we're going to park a horse trailer right next to this gate and put some troopers in the back with cameras and film the goings on and see if we can pick up on anything."

"His pager goes off and he looks down at it and he says, a plane just hit the World Trade Center," Stoecklein said. "We kind of commented that, you know, tragic accident, you know, and we get back to our meeting and we're planning and doing some things. The pager goes off again. Randy looks at it. He goes, another plane just hit the World Trade Center and then you knew. This is not an accident."

Given that everyone wanted information more than anything at the time and smartphones weren't in every pocket, the next question for the fair was easy to figure out, but hard to answer.

"What do we do now, do we keep having a fair, what's going on?" Stoecklein said. "I would say, within 60 to 90 minutes, we were gathered on the Fairgrounds with Highway Patrol, city police, emergency management, you name it. Every emergency management, certainly at the local level and they were in touch with people at the state and federal level, trying to get a better understanding of, what are we dealing with? From that, we kind of just started to make plans as to what we wanted to do and tried to figure out, how do we continue, if we continue?"

Any decision involving the fair involves the Governor's office.

"Bill Graves was the governor at that time," Stoecklein said. "It just so happened that the governor, on that day, was in Wichita. Wichita was hosting what was called a midwest U.S.-Japan association conference. There were people from a number of states as well as Japan in Wichita. We were able to get in touch with the governor, because, as you would imagine, that conference was canceled. Now you've got people with a lot of anxiety at this conference that just want to get home, some of them to Japan, but there's no air travel."

Since getting from Wichita to Hutchinson on the ground wasn't an issue, Graves was able to visit.

"The governor came over to Hutch, met with the board and management of the fair and talked to law enforcement and the decision was made that we're going to continue," Stoecklein said. "We're going to have the fair. I don't remember all of the pros and cons and things we talked about, but, you know, one of the things that was commonly mentioned by all of us was, you know, if we shut the doors then, whoever is doing this, they win."

The crowd that day was understandably somber.

"One of the probably most visited booths at the fair, right in the heart of the fairgrounds is the KWCH booth," Stoecklein said. "They have all those windows open and they had TVs in there and you can imagine what the TVs were tuned to. People were just gathered around that en masse, trying to understand what was going on and learning everything we could. Obviously, we increased the security at the gates significantly, but decided we were going to continue through the rest of the fair."

"Blessid Union of Souls was scheduled to perform that night," Stoecklein said. "They likely were on the Fairgrounds and had arrived. I don't know that they were flying in that day, but, even if they were there, probably having a concert that night wasn't the appropriate thing to do. They did not perform."

There was another change to the lineup at the last minute.

"Lee Ann Womack was supposed to perform, I think with Keith Urban," Stoecklein said. "She couldn't get there. The group Lonestar, I think, was traveling back to Nashville. I want to say they'd been out west. Maybe they'd been in Utah. The Utah State Fair runs the same time as the Kansas State Fair, which would make sense. Our agency got in touch with them and said, hey, do you want to make a pit stop in Hutch and do a show, which they did."

Stoecklein's favorite memory surrounds another grandstand act that year.

"The group Styx was scheduled to perform on September 15th," Stoecklein said. "I don't recall where they were. For some reason, I think that they were maybe on a little break and they were all going to meet up again in Hutch. They weren't on tour buses or anything. I think they were going to fly into Wichita for the show. Obviously, airfare being shut down put a stop to that, but they were determined not to miss the show. They felt it was important to get there. 

"It would have been their first performance since the events of 9-11. They got rental cars, any way, any how that they could get to Hutchinson, Kansas. They found a way to do it and put on just an incredible show. We had a gentleman that worked for the agency that the fair used to book talent, Romeo Entertainment Group. His name was Steve Bogdanovich. We called him Bogie. Bogie was our guy backstage and his favorite saying, no matter what the situation, he would just look at you and his glasses always rode low on his nose and he'd look over the top of them and say, it's all good. It's all good. 

"Bogie called me early that day and he said, boss, I need a flag on a pole. An American flag on a pole. I said okay, what do you need that for, Bogie? He said, Styx wants it. I said okay. We rounded up a long wooden pole and a flag. I got with our carpenter and he put the screws through the grommets and got it affixed to the pole and I took it down to the grandstand and gave it to Bogie. I didn't think much of it until that night. I go down to check on the show. Bogie and I are near the back of the stage and I see this flag rolled up and it's back behind the drum kit, while the show is going on.

"Styx does their set. They walk off and we're waiting for the encore. People are getting worked up and getting excited and ready for them to come back. Twenty years ago, and I'm not as young as I once was, but I'm pretty sure I remember this pretty closely to how it happened. One of the members of Styx walks back to that flag and grabs it and then they all just walked to the front of the stage and lifted it up as high as they could. I have never been in a place so loud as it was when they did that. It just about blew the roof off the grandstand."

Stoecklein got the band to sign a photo of them with the flag when they returned later in their careers and he has that photo at home.

"There's never been a moment when I looked back and thought, did we make the right call?" Stoecklein said. "I never doubted that continuing with it was the right thing to do and the appropriate and safe thing to do. When you look at the history of the fair, it was there through the Great Depression, through two world wars, how many other conflicts and then 9-11."

Stoecklein currently serves as Director of Marketing and Public Relations. He was with the fair until 2015 before going to the college.

Below is the full podcast with Stoecklein on his memories...

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1631304052382.jpeg" alt="STYX 2001 Kansas State Fair-Courtesy Denny Stoecklein" />
                        <figcaption>STYX 2001 Kansas State Fair-Courtesy Denny Stoecklein</figcaption>
                    </figure><p>
By
NICK GOSNELL</p><p>
<i>Hutch
Post</i></p><p>
HUTCHINSON,
Kan. — On the morning of September 11, 2001, Kansas State Fair Assistant General Manager Denny Stoecklein had a problem on the fairgrounds he was working to fix.</p><p>"I think it was on the opening night of the fair, it might have been on the Saturday, I got a call, I got an anonymous phone call," Stoecklein said. "Somebody said, you've got some people working at one of your gates, actually two of your gates that are stealing from you. The fair hires 500 to 600 seasonal folks and a lot of them had been there for many, many years. The people they were saying were doing this were veteran employees."</p><p>After auditing tickets for a couple of days, it was time to see if they could catch anyone.</p><p>"Lt. Randy Moon with the Highway Patrol, Randy was officed on the Fairgrounds at that time," Stoecklein said. "The lieutenant in that office is typically the one who is kind of over the Fair for the Highway Patrol on site and we're talking about this and making the plan that we're going to park a horse trailer right next to this gate and put some troopers in the back with cameras and film the goings on and see if we can pick up on anything."</p><p>Lieutenant Moon had a pager on his hip.</p><p>"His pager goes off and he looks down at it and he says, a plane just hit the World Trade Center," Stoecklein said. "We kind of commented that, you know, tragic accident, you know, and we get back to our meeting and we're planning and doing some things. The pager goes off again. Randy looks at it. He goes, another plane just hit the World Trade Center and then you knew. This is not an accident."</p><p>Given that everyone wanted information more than anything at the time and smartphones weren't in every pocket, the next question for the fair was easy to figure out, but hard to answer.</p><p>"What do we do now, do we keep having a fair, what's going on?" Stoecklein said. "I would say, within 60 to 90 minutes, we were gathered on the Fairgrounds with Highway Patrol, city police, emergency management, you name it. Every emergency management, certainly at the local level and they were in touch with people at the state and federal level, trying to get a better understanding of, what are we dealing with? From that, we kind of just started to make plans as to what we wanted to do and tried to figure out, how do we continue, if we continue?"</p><p>Any decision involving the fair involves the Governor's office.</p><p>"Bill Graves was the governor at that time," Stoecklein said. "It just so happened that the governor, on that day, was in Wichita. Wichita was hosting what was called a midwest U.S.-Japan association conference. There were people from a number of states as well as Japan in Wichita. We were able to get in touch with the governor, because, as you would imagine, that conference was canceled. Now you've got people with a lot of anxiety at this conference that just want to get home, some of them to Japan, but there's no air travel."</p><p>Since getting from Wichita to Hutchinson on the ground wasn't an issue, Graves was able to visit.</p><p>"The governor came over to Hutch, met with the board and management of the fair and talked to law enforcement and the decision was made that we're going to continue," Stoecklein said. "We're going to have the fair. I don't remember all of the pros and cons and things we talked about, but, you know, one of the things that was commonly mentioned by all of us was, you know, if we shut the doors then, whoever is doing this, they win."</p><p>The crowd that day was understandably somber.</p><p>"One of the probably most visited booths at the fair, right in the heart of the fairgrounds is the KWCH booth," Stoecklein said. "They have all those windows open and they had TVs in there and you can imagine what the TVs were tuned to. People were just gathered around that en masse, trying to understand what was going on and learning everything we could. Obviously, we increased the security at the gates significantly, but decided we were going to continue through the rest of the fair."</p><p>One fair grandstand act did not perform.</p><p>"Blessid Union of Souls was scheduled to perform that night," Stoecklein said. "They likely were on the Fairgrounds and had arrived. I don't know that they were flying in that day, but, even if they were there, probably having a concert that night wasn't the appropriate thing to do. They did not perform."</p><p>There was another change to the lineup at the last minute.</p><p>"Lee Ann Womack was supposed to perform, I think with Keith Urban," Stoecklein said. "She couldn't get there. The group Lonestar, I think, was traveling back to Nashville. I want to say they'd been out west. Maybe they'd been in Utah. The Utah State Fair runs the same time as the Kansas State Fair, which would make sense. Our agency got in touch with them and said, hey, do you want to make a pit stop in Hutch and do a show, which they did."</p><p>Stoecklein's favorite memory surrounds another grandstand act that year.</p><p>"The group Styx was scheduled to perform on September 15th," Stoecklein said. "I don't recall where they were. For some reason, I think that they were maybe on a little break and they were all going to meet up again in Hutch. They weren't on tour buses or anything. I think they were going to fly into Wichita for the show. Obviously, airfare being shut down put a stop to that, but they were determined not to miss the show. They felt it was important to get there. </p><p>"It would have been their first performance since the events of 9-11. They got rental cars, any way, any how that they could get to Hutchinson, Kansas. They found a way to do it and put on just an incredible show. We had a gentleman that worked for the agency that the fair used to book talent, Romeo Entertainment Group. His name was Steve Bogdanovich. We called him Bogie. Bogie was our guy backstage and his favorite saying, no matter what the situation, he would just look at you and his glasses always rode low on his nose and he'd look over the top of them and say, it's all good. It's all good. </p><p>"Bogie called me early that day and he said, boss, I need a flag on a pole. An American flag on a pole. I said okay, what do you need that for, Bogie? He said, Styx wants it. I said okay. We rounded up a long wooden pole and a flag. I got with our carpenter and he put the screws through the grommets and got it affixed to the pole and I took it down to the grandstand and gave it to Bogie. I didn't think much of it until that night. I go down to check on the show. Bogie and I are near the back of the stage and I see this flag rolled up and it's back behind the drum kit, while the show is going on.</p><p>"Styx does their set. They walk off and we're waiting for the encore. People are getting worked up and getting excited and ready for them to come back. Twenty years ago, and I'm not as young as I once was, but I'm pretty sure I remember this pretty closely to how it happened. One of the members of Styx walks back to that flag and grabs it and then they all just walked to the front of the stage and lifted it up as high as they could. I have never been in a place so loud as it was when they did that. It just about blew the roof off the grandstand."</p><p>Stoecklein got the band to sign a photo of them with the flag when they returned later in their careers and he has that photo at home.</p><p>"There's never been a moment when I looked back and thought, did we make the right call?" Stoecklein said. "I never doubted that continuing with it was the right thing to do and the appropriate and safe thing to do. When you look at the history of the fair, it was there through the Great Depression, through two world wars, how many other conflicts and then 9-11."</p><p>Stoecklein currently serves as Director of Marketing and Public Relations. He was with the fair until 2015 before going to the college.</p><p>Below is the full podcast with Stoecklein on his memories...</p><div><iframe title="Denny Stoecklein on 20 years since 9-11" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=ehexr-10d9003-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

Stoecklein: Memories still linger from 2001 Kansas State Fair

September 10, 2021 Noon News

September 10, 2021 Morning Sports

Biden announces sweeping vax mandate, fire at Kuhn Krause Thursday night, Hardwick assigned lawyer in double murder case, Justice Department sues Texas over abortion law, opening day of 2021 State Fair, plus more from Hutch Post.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1601052662830.jpeg" alt="" />
                        <figcaption></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>Biden announces sweeping vax mandate, fire at Kuhn Krause Thursday night, Hardwick assigned lawyer in double murder case, Justice Department sues Texas over abortion law, opening day of 2021 State Fair, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="September 10, 2021 Morning News" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=bc9wn-10d7eec-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

September 10, 2021 Morning News

Hurricane Olaf ready to hit Mexico in summer, South Hutch City Manager happy with bridge project progress, plus more from Hutch Post.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1601052662830.jpeg" alt="" />
                        <figcaption></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>Hurricane Olaf ready to hit Mexico in summer, South Hutch City Manager happy with bridge project progress, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="September 9, 2021 Noon News" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=ds5kj-10d6e77-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

September 9, 2021 Noon News

Local disaster declared for COVID-19 again, smoke alarms go off in the Russian part of the ISS, plus more from Hutch Post.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1601052662830.jpeg" alt="" />
                        <figcaption></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>Local disaster declared for COVID-19 again, smoke alarms go off in the Russian part of the ISS, plus more from Hutch Post.</p><div><iframe title="September 9, 2021 Morning News" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=jqbjg-10d669f-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=&btn-skin=7"></iframe></div>

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