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My radio chats with the major gubernatorial candidates for 2019

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Here are my most recent WHAS Radio interviews with the 2019 candidates for Kentucky governor.

This November, incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin will take on the winner of the May primary between Democrat hopefuls Attorney General Andy Beshear, Senate Minority Leader Rocky Adkins, and former Kentucky Auditor Adam Edelen.

All candidates are offered the choice of appearing in the radio studio with me or to join me via phone. We start with Governor Bevin on the phone last month.

Gov. Matt Bevin and Terry Meiners, WHAS studio

Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear

Andy Beshear fist bumps a Kentucky teacher in a campaign photo

Political activist and former Kentucky auditor Adam Edelen

Adam Edelen, campaign photo

Kentucky Senate Minority Leader Rocky Adkins

Sen. Rocky Adkins

All of them are scheduled for return visits on my WHAS Radio afternoon show. For an additional Republican perspective on the 2019 general assembly, here’s my conversation with Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, photo: Kentucky Today

Gov Matt Bevin on marijuana, sports betting, happy dancing Dems, and why he’s still the best person to be governor in Ky

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đŸ“» Here’s Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin on the phone with me. It’s our annual year-end summation interview wrapped up with a Christmas message for all.

His staff promised me 20 minutes on the phone but the governor got rolling and we went a full half hour. Of course, Matt Bevin was extremely frustrated after this week’s aimless special session, plus he sustained a recent unanimous rejection by the Kentucky Supreme Court on the pension issue.

What do we learn? He’s definitely running for reelection, encourages others to challenge him, takes a hard pass at marijuana & sports betting, and paints attorney general Andy Beshear with dereliction of duty. I also asked who will be the next Lt. Gov, if the 2019 legislature agenda will swerve away from him, and why Ky Democrats are happy dancing to this week’s hapless special session. He closes with a strong Merry Christmas message for all. 🎙 #KYpolitics

by Joel Pett, Lexington Herald Leader, December 23, 2018

Lexington Herald Leader cartoonist Joel Pett echoes Gov. Bevin’s claim that his polling numbers are perpetually anemic. Bevin says in the interview that he is the best candidate to negotiate deals and to navigate Kentucky’s financial headwinds.

Ky Governor Matt Bevin with Lt. Governor Jeanine Hampton

Geeking on the Sneakin’ Deacon

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â€ȘFormer U.S. Secret Service agent Greg Gitschier tells his incredible story in “Sneakin Deacon.” He details wild career adventures, global security insights, danger, compassion, personal protection of luminaries, plus his transition to becoming a deacon in the Archdiocese of Louisville.

The opening chapter takes you along with a 21-year-old rookie cop into a harrowing situation where Gitschier has to quickly decide whether to shoot a rapist who burst into a woman’s apartment.

Sneaking’ Deacon takes you around the world into turbulent hotspots and gentle encounters that show the delicate work of law enforcement and protection. This book grows even more heartfelt appreciation for the men and women who quietly protect America and its leaders.

Order it 🌎 via butlerbooks.com‬ or pick it up at Carmichael Bookstores.

840WHAS interview 🎙
đŸ“ș WHAS-11 TV interview

Jennifer Lawrence wrote the foreword in Greg’s book. Gitschier has provided her security for many events over the years.

Gitschier visiting the WHAS radio studio with me, December 18, 2018.

She’s a dear with headlights

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There are three boobs in this photograph. Two of them are in some serious trouble.

That’s me with 2014’s Miss Kentucky and we have our clothes on. Ramsey Carpenter visited my radio show twice during her reign as the commonwealth’s crowned head. She seemed nice, bragged about her love of the Kentucky Wildcats, and never asked if I wanted to see her naked.

Here’s a picture of Ramsey yesterday. It’s her mugshot.

ramsey bethann carpenter bearse, december 2018

Whoa! That’s a hot cup of coffee in the lap. What in the name of hoobastank is a-going on here?

After she realized I was already taken, Ramsey married a rich guy named Charles “Chas” Bearse two years ago. He’s part of the family that owns Massey Coal Company. I’m a Meiners. Maybe that’s the connective tissue.

In spite of the Bearse family’s financial security, the former beauty queen is, or was, an 8th grade teacher in West Virginia. I’m guessing she’s pretty fired by now.

A 15-year-old boy’s mom found some topless photos of Ramsey on her son’s phone. He was once her student. Schools don’t tend to like that sort of behavior out of their teachers. Nor does society.

Sexting minors? Yeah, no. She’s out on bond now but will have a tough time taking back her admission that she sent four photos of her breast/chest area to a kid.

Ramsey Carpenter competing in Miss America 2014

If found guilty, Ramsey Carpenter Bearse could get 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

If she’d only shown her boobs in a Texas Roadhouse restaurant, none of these legal problems would have arisen.

And hey, Busted Coverage, why are you cropping me out of this glorious moment?

Dude, they totally cropped me out of this important news story. FAKE NEWS!

That hurts. I’m with a crazy beauty queen and all I get is a sliver of my face on a big time website. It burrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnsssssss! But my prestigious sweater from Augusta National made the cut. That’s a spectacle we can all enjoy.

Call the repo man to collect that sash. Ramsey’s glory days in Big Boob Nation are over.

official statement from the Miss Kentucky Scholarship Organization

St. Stephen Martyr football: we were champs 50 years ago

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My St. Stephen Martyr boys were perfect. We didn’t all get straight As. Some of us sassed teachers and earned detention. Others screwed up in their personal lives but when it came to football, we were dialed in.

We practiced hard every afternoon. If Coach Don Kalbhin thought we were slouching, he’d order our dads to line up their cars and turn on the headlights so we could keep practicing after sunset. Our dads deferred to the coach’s wishes.

The reward unfolded through the course of the season. Our little football team was perfect in 1968. We beat all challengers, including the Holy Family team listed below to win the Toy Bowl.

It would be the only championship experience many of us would ever embrace. At least four of the St. Stephen Martyr guys have died, one by his own hand. Another teammate spent time in prison. Several have struggled with chemical dependency or mental illness.

When I bump into a teammate by happenstance, I ask for an update and always hear great things about their current status. It delights me to see any of my teammates enjoying life so many years away from our innocent grade school days.

Plenty of us seem to be doing great or something close to it. Dr. Henry Sadlo (pictured on the far right of the front row) is still my best friend. Ted Schaefer (#42 in the middle row) and I just met for lunch last week. My brother Tim’s (#12) successful business is right down the street from my radio station. I saw Don Brumleve (center of the front row holding a football) a few days ago.

Dr. Henry Sadlo and I communicate almost daily and always end phone calls by telling each other “I love you.” We could never have imagined exchanges like that when we were kids.

I miss Mike Kremer (#42 in the back row), my college roommate who passed a few years ago from medical complications. When we were at UK, we actually made a pact about things we’d like the other to do if one of us died young. It’s not fair but we celebrated life while we had it.

We, the St. Stephen teammates, constantly laughed, teased each other, worked hard, celebrated our triumphs, and consoled each other through challenges.

Great guys, one and all. God bless all of these men. No matter what obstacles confront us, we can always reflect on that perfect year.

The team photo will appear in this year’s Catholic School Athletic Association Toy Bowl program with the following copy:

HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR ST. STEPHEN MARTYR TOY BOWL VICTORY

[PLACE PHOTO HERE]

Led by Coach Don “Rock” Kalbhin, these gallant St. Stephen Martyr 5th and 6th grade teammates hammered Holy Family 28-7 to win the 1968 Toy Bowl. Neighbors danced in the streets for days. Germantown barkeeps poured free brews for everyone who was at least 15 years old. Fearing that the victory was a sign of the Apocalypse, many spiritually adrift adults returned to church and put money in the collection basket for the first time.

Since a Google search rendered no game stats, the trio of Terry Meiners (10), Tim Meiners (12), and Henry Sadlo (front row, far right) humbly remind historians that they scored ALL of the points, made ALL of the tackles, kissed ALL of the cheerleaders, and used ALL their First Communion money to hire Steppenwolf for a victory concert in the school cafeteria.

And that is truly how it happened 50 years ago. Happy anniversary, teammates. If your memories are slightly different, please email your game recap to terrymeiners@iheartmedia.com

Go CSAA Louisville football — the best game in America!

Does the Pitino lawsuit create ongoing strife for the school and its fan base?

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Rick Pitino is mad at me again. The former University of Louisville basketball coach and I are longtime friends but he has thrown hissy fits when I’ve publicly questioned him about sensitive issues. He even dropped me as co-host of his TV show for two years over tensions surrounding coverage of his affair with sketchy doughnut seller Karen Sypher.

Then there was the time I asked him if mounting evidence of strippers offering sex to his players and recruits would make him consider resigning. Pitino didn’t speak to me for a year and even avoided looking at me when we crossed paths in our St. Matthews neighborhood.

Terry Meiners with Bob Ley on Outside the Lines, ESPN, October 2017

Of course, I’ve gone on national TV and newspapers of record to defend Pitino over the years. I told what I know to be the truth and was never prompted to do it.

I know what I know and am not afraid to share it. Pitino stupidly got himself into the Sypher mess, was clueless about Andre McGee bringing strippers to the dorm, and made an adidas deal that benefitted him (and Tom Jurich) but it shackled the school from getting top level recruits.

Thems the facts through my lens.

The latest upheaval stems from Rachel Platt and me inviting WHAS Radio host Tony Vanetti onto WHAS-TV’s Great Day Live to talk about Rick Pitino’s forthcoming book and the drama surrounding the ongoing lawsuit.

A WHAS-TV viewer poll indicates that an overwhelming number of fans will avoid reading Pitino’s book.

Pitino watched the segment and texted me to suggest that there is “no need to have me on your show” if I am discussing fan fatigue related to him.

Wait, what?

In June 2017, Pitino contacted me to get on the air and tell the story of how snaring Brian Bowen “is the luckiest” Pitino has been in his 40 years of coaching.

Some would say today that maybe it wasn’t all about luck.

I believe Pitino when he talks about not knowing about the dorm strippers and that Governor Matt Bevin’s buddies David Grissom and “Papa John” Schnatter used their influence to push Pitino over the cliff at UofL.

Last week, Pitino asked to appear (“U want me to go on the record”) on my WHAS Radio show to answer UofL’s legal filings that claim he knew about payments to recruit Brian Bowen’s family.

Pitino will always have a green light to come on the air with me. He’s done it to promote his teams, camps, books, sell tickets to special events, and to brag about recruits.

He has sometimes appeared on competing shows and ignored me to get his message out. That’s OK. Competition keeps us on our toes.

On a personal level, I helped Pitino fund Minardi Hall construction and advised him on charitable donations even with occasional professional disruption between us.

I’ve also spent untold thousands supporting his foundation through golf tournaments and auction packages that were sometimes unfulfilled. So those thousands became donations, too. Again…that’s all good. Charity matters.

He once texted to ask why I had resigned from his Daniel Pitino Foundation board. Unbeknownst to me, I had apparently been removed from the board over some perceived transgression. Pitino had forgotten about it and needed my help with some new obstacle.

I’ve been happy to help Coach Pitino get his messages out over the past 25 years. That’s what I do for all newsmakers. Pitino’s voice is still an important part of an ongoing story.

Asking piercing questions, even of friends, is the very basis of journalism. We search for answers from people who make news.

After the contentious 2015 radio interview, Pitino spoke to the UofL fan base at the tipoff luncheon and declared that I “blindsided” him asking about his potential resignation.

Rick Pitino speaking at the University of Louisville basketball tipoff luncheon, October 2015

He went on to say he understood it was my job to ask him questions. He compared it to 60 Minutes host Steve Kroft asking tough questions of his friend President Barack Obama.

Even with that explanation, Pitino would not speak to me or even look at me for over a year. That’s how overly emotional people like Rick behave.

People complain to me nearly every day that they are tired of hearing about Rick Pitino or seeing references to him on newscasts because “we need to get on with Chris Mack’s team” and the future of University of Louisville basketball.

I agree that we need to fully support Coach Mack and his team but I disagree on the sentiment to ignore the newsworthiness of Pitino’s story. Millions of public dollars are at stake in the Pitino lawsuit against UofL. It’s a story we will all continue to update until the money issues are resolved.

Now steering his information elsewhere, Pitino is telling a local newspaper columnist that he plans to launch a podcast and will open a Twitter account.

Sensitivity to criticism is a problem for Rick Pitino. Hosting his own podcast will keep anyone from asking tough questions. If he actually opens a legitimate Twitter account, he will soon find that “fatigue” is the gentlest term lobbed at him.

Just read the comment thread beneath this Jay Bilas tweet.

People have moved on. The lawsuit with UofL will end. Rick Pitino and Louisville will go their separate ways forever. It’s a sad end for a mostly brilliant career.

Great Day Live, October 2014

Mitch McConnell dropped by to chat, Trump had a contrary view on border wall funding and government shutdown options

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They’re throwing shade at Mitch McConnell from all over the political map.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dropped by my radio studio on Friday to talk about a myriad of subjects.

Mitch McConnell & Terry Meiners, February 2014

Washington Examiner

We talked about Wednesday’s meeting between the President, Sen. McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, where it was understood that compromises were made to expedite the passage of spending bills, including the notion of delaying funding for Trump’s border wall.

I asked Senator McConnell if there was a looming government shutdown ahead of the November midterm elections. “That’s not going to happen,” he snapped back.

Not long thereafter, President Donald Trump weighed in with a differing view of some of Sen. McConnell’s specifics. Big Donnie ain’t having it.

I am a host. Not a very good party host, but a radio host.

In my radio interview, Sen. McConnell also talked about people harassing him outside restaurants.

from WHAS interview, July 27, 2018

We also talked about the staggering number of arrests made by ICE, the oddity of Trump inviting Vladimir Putin to the White House, socialists as recurring media darlings, and McConnell’s bromance with Democrat Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer. AUDIO HERE

The very bad week of Papa John Schnatter

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2009 photo: Lachlan McLean, Terry Meiners, Papa John Schnatter

The founder of Papa John’s pizza company admitted using the N-word during a recent media training exercise. The slur was reported on Forbes.com and “Papa John” Schnatter was quickly removed as chairman of the Louisville-based company.

The University of Louisville then removed Schnatter from its board of trustees, scrubbed his name from the business school, and Papa John’s pizza no longer retains naming rights to the Louisville football stadium. Papa John’s immediately bleached Schnatter’s image from all of its marketing materials.

The University of Kentucky then announced it would remove the Schnatter name from its business school, and Schnatter’s alma mater Jeffersonville High School scraped his name off the field house where the pizza baron donated $800,000 for upgrades.

At the end of his brutal week, John Schnatter spoke exclusively with me in a 28 minute freewheeling interview.

Deadspin.com ripped Schnatter’s entire appearance.

Schnatter claimed that he “was pushed” to say the N-word by the company conducting the training exercise. “I should have been more sensitive. I wasn’t raised that way. I did it. I own it. And I’m sick about it.” He added that he feels “horrible” for the Papa John’s “employees and franchisees who did nothing wrong.”

AD WEEK

In response to our interview, Papa John’s directors are demanding that Schnatter cease all media appearances. They even took the extraordinary step of preventing him from using his office space within the company headquarters.

Schnatter then wrote a letter to the board saying it was a mistake to resign his chairman position.

Reinstatement? Crickets.

In our WHAS Radio interview, Schnatter also claimed that Papa John’s “fired” the NFL, not the other way around, after his 2017 comments complaining about African American players protesting the national anthem. Rival chain Pizza Hut is now the official pizza of the NFL.

The WHAS interview also delved into Schnatter’s role in the firings of University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino and athletics director Tom Jurich.

Schnatter chafed at the question about whether his family would continue living in the Louisville area or would flee the hot cauldron of controversy.

In a subsequent interview with WLKY-TV, Schnatter claimed that the Laundry Service marketing firm that conducted the media training tried to extort him “to make it go away.” The firm originally asked for $1 million for services then upped the price to $6 million. Schnatter claims a Laundry Service exec said “If I don’t get my f-ing money, I’m going to bury the founder.”

When I asked John Schnatter if he would sue the marketing firm that leaked his racist gaffe to media, he didn’t mention extortion. “I don’t like litigation. I don’t like lawyers. I don’t like what (Laundry Service marketing) did.”

Papa John’s was also dropped by marketing partner Olson Engage.

Now Major League Baseball execs urged Schnatter to stay away from Tuesday’s MLB All-Star game. Multiple teams have suspended or ceased their promotional deals with Papa John’s, and the MLB league-wide promotion of Papa Slams has been shelved.

Others think he needs to disappear entirely.

New York Post, July 13, 2018

COURIER-JOURNAL: The Rise & Fall of Papa John Schnatter

DEADSPIN: Pizza Dipshit John Schnatter Claims Victimhood in Strange Strange Radio Interview

AD WEEK: Ad Agency “Pressured” Schnatter into Using N-Word

For his part, Schnatter tells me he is focusing on the philanthropic work he has done and he plans to continue working for the betterment of his community.

One day after our radio chat, Schnatter wrote an impassioned letter to the Papa John’s board to recap his claim that he was coerced into the N-word discussion, the makings of an extortion attempt, and that he shouldn’t have resigned before the board conducted a complete investigation.

He’s now hired Los Angeles attorney Patricia Glaser, who has managed cases for Harvey Weinstein and Paula Deen, to handle his forced departure from Papa John’s. She has declared that Schnatter will not go quietly.

Happy 242nd birthday, America

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Here are many of our iHeart Radio broadcast voices reciting the Declaration of Independence. Have a wonderful birthday, Americans! Celebrate freedom.

Listen to “iHeart Louisville's Rendition of the Declaration of Independence” on Spreaker.

And our apologies for one of our guys mispronouncing the word tyranny. Oops!