Bette Takes Top Honors For Area Concerts

It’s time to pick the top concerts of 1996 in the Inland Northwest, and for me, the task is laughably easy.

That’s because of Bette Midler.

This Opera House show was almost illegally enjoyable. This concert went far beyond music and into full-fledged Broadway spectacle, with heavy doses of comedy, vaudeville and burlesque. In fact it made the general run of concerts seem mundane: You mean all they do is play music?

However, when it comes to pure inspired music, I would declare the runner-up to be the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Arena.

I also consulted with our other two rock-pop reviewers, Don Adair and Joe Ehrbar, and they each independently came up with the same top pick: Neil Young and Patti Smith at The Gorge.

“Patti spews poetry, hawks loogies; Neil lurches, cranks, yowls; thousands play air guitar in the rain,” said Adair.

However, both Adair and Ehrbar had different runners-up. Ehrbar picked the Chris Isaak concert at Riverfront Park, a memorable mid-summer event. Adair picked the Michelle Shocked show at The Met.

Looking back, it was a good year for live shows in Spokane. The Arena’s big events included

Neil Diamond (in a show that sold out almost instantly), plus Hootie and the Blowfish, Phish, Melissa Etheridge, and most over-the-top of all, Kiss.

The biggest country concerts included George Strait (another instant sellout), Tim McGraw and John Michael Montgomery.

The Gorge had a long list of highlights, including Alanis Morissette and Jimmy Buffett.

If you factor in the Gorge and the Arena together, we had five of the Top Ten grossing tours of the year (Kiss, Diamond, Morissette, Strait and Buffett).

The Nielsen report

The November sweeps results are in, and the numbers look very good for KHQ-6’s local news.

KHQ-6 wins every news time slot except 5 p.m., and even then it is only one ratings point behind perennial leader KREM-2.

These ratings have been affected by two unusual events, the first being the big ice storm, which caused overall TV ratings to drop due to the fact that people were huddled around transistor radios instead of TVs. However, it may not have affected the relative rank of the stations too much, since each station was affected equally.

The other unusual event was the mid-sweeps departure of an anchor. Barry Judge left KXLY in the middle of the month, and was replaced by Mark Wright. You’re guess is as good as mine as to whether this made any difference in the ratings.

Here are the November sweeps ratings, Mondays through Fridays, with the rating number (the percent of all households tuned in to that station), followed by the share number (the percent of all households with TVs in use at that time tuned to that station):

6 a.m.

KHQ: 4 rating, 25 share.

KXLY: 4, 24.

KREM: 1, 8. 5 p.m.

KREM: 12, 25.

KHQ: 11, 24.

KXLY: 8, 17. 6 p.m.

KHQ: 10, 19.

KREM: 9, 16.

KXLY: 7, 14. 11 p.m.

KHQ: 8, 32.

KREM: 5, 21.

KXLY: 5, 19.

When compared to the November sweeps numbers of last year, the most remarkable change is the big lead that KHQ has built at 11 p.m. Last year, 11 p.m. was practically a three-way tie.

“Dante’s Peak” set to erupt

“Dante’s Peak,” the big-budget Pierce Brosnan movie, is scheduled to open Feb. 7 around the country.

Wallace, Idaho, may get to see the movie even before that. Word has it that Wallace may get a premiere screening, as will the movie’s other main production site, a little burg called Los Angeles.

“Dante’s Peak” is the volcano movie that transformed Wallace into an ash-covered heap for part of the summer.

Keep an eye on Spotlight for more details as the premiere plan is ironed out. By the way, to see some scenes of Wallace, check out the movie’s website, www.dantespeak.com.

Speaking of movies …

It’s still too early to tell whether Metaline Falls and vicinity will be chosen as a location for the Kevin Costner movie, “The Postman” this summer.

Even if it does, it now looks as if it will get only a small part of it. Nevada and/or Oregon will more likely get the bulk of it.

Those Mica Peak blues

The radio stations with transmitters on Mica Peak are continuing to have big problems with power outages.

KPBX-FM (Spokane Public Radio) was off the air for a good part of Christmas Day and the day after, and so was KNFR-FM (The Frog) and KMBI-FM, a Christian station. KDRK-FM (New Country) was also off for a while, but it was able to get back on the air with a lower-power backup transmitter which is not on the same mountain.

The problem, which has plagued all four of these stations since November, is that Mica Peak is at 5,200 feet, more than 1,500 feet higher than, for instance, Tower Mountain.

Mica Peak has been smacked particularly hard by the ice and snow, and sometimes it has been difficult for WWP crews to even get up to it. Mica Peak is just south of Liberty Lake.

KPBX-FM is launching a money-raising campaign to buy a generator, which would cost around $38,000.

Even KNFR-FM and KDRK-FM, rivals most of the time, are kicking around the idea of going in together on a big generator.

Make an odyssey to ‘Treasures’

This is your final notice: Get yourself over to the Cheney Cowles Museum to see “Treasures of Antiquities: Greek and Roman Art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.”

This fine exhibit closes at 5 p.m. Tuesday, and all of these treasures will be crated up and shipped back to Boston. The museum is open today from 1 to 5 p.m., and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More than 32,000 people have already paid a visit to Nike, Aphrodite, and their pals.

Kudos to ‘Sit and Be Fit’

Mary Ann Wilson, the force behind the nationally televised “Sit and Be Fit” exercise program out of Spokane, recently branched out into kids’ exercise with a workout tape called “The Kids’ Workout.” It encourages kids and grandparents to exercise together.

Now comes word that the video has won a Parents’ Choice award. Call 448-9438 for information on how to order.

Most-played artists

The Airplay Monitor, a radio magazine, compiled a list of the 50 most-played artists on radio during 1996.

Here are the Top Ten: 1. Alanis Morissette, 2. George Strait, 3. Garth Brooks, 4. Hootie & The Blowfish, 5. Mariah Carey, 6. Alan Jackson, 7. Brooks & Dunn, 8. Smashing Pumpkins, 9. Pearl Jam, 10. Tracy Lawrence.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review