Sports Talk Empire Builder

From playboy to Playboy Club proprietor. From reluctant car dealer to banker and rental car mogul. He's moved with the makers and shakers of the KC business world, yet few outside Kansas City business circles ever heard of Jerry Green until he spearheaded a move to buy the Royals. Although that effort didn't succeed, it is credited for kicking the selling process into high gear and bringing Green the fruits of a lifelong passion -- getting a solid foothold in the world of media.

A few years after purchasing a tiny, daytime-only AM radio station, KCTE 1510, Green has parlayed that media property into the largest all-sports radio station in the country, WHB 810. Attracting talent through his loose-rein management philosophy, Green's station is one of fun, controversy, passion, and risk-taking while challenging the corporate giants of the world, such as Entercom and the Chiefs. In short, WHB is a reflection of its maverick owner, and Jerry Green is having the time of his life.

Not your usual banker
Green's office at Union Bank, which he owns, isn't the stereotypical banker's haven -- a cold, sparsely decorated room of intimidation, populated by a gray-haired stiff in a thousand-dollar suit. The Green image is different. He's likely to be sitting behind his desk sporting casual slacks and a nice T-shirt. Looking younger than his 69 years, thanks to a trim physique and a neat toupee, Green isn't worried about impressing anybody except himself. Money is no longer a status symbol, but a way to afford such things as good cigars and his cherished Ferrari. His sons by his first marriage -- Donald Atha, who lives in Arizona, and Alan Atha, a local architect -- and Green's stepson, Justin Orendorff, in retail sales in Chicago, are all on their own and out of the house, leaving Green to enjoy life with his second wife, Betsy.

The pictures on his office wall are snapshots of his life, pointing to why Green doesn't fit into a nice, neat box of those easily recognizable traits attached to most businessmen. There's a photo of Green as a child with his parents in front of a '38 Ford from his father's Kansas City car dealership. Another photo presents Green with his graduating class of 1952 at Yale. Another photo is of Betsy and Princess Diana. There's Sylvester Stallone posing with one of Green's sons, and there's a photo of Green with George Bush and Alexander Haig. Eye-catching is the autographed portrait of Ted Kennedy.

"Ted Kennedy came to town to dedicate the Martin Luther King Hospital sometime in the late '60s," Green says. "I got a call asking if I'd like to have a houseguest. They said it was Ted Kennedy and that he'd hurt himself in a plane accident and needed to swim. (Green's house had a pool.) If it rained, he wasn't supposed to come.

"I woke up and it was raining. Then I got a call saying he would be here in an hour and a half. I woke up my wife and she tried to clean the house. He came and was very nice. First thing, he called Bess Truman, (then) swam. The house was a mess and he came in saying, 'I'm wet, can I walk through? My mom would be pretty upset if she knew I was doing this.' He was very nice."

Green counts as his friends Republicans and Democrats, and he likes both President Clinton and Missouri U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft. His political connections can address Green's weariness with the dogma he sees in politics and the media these days.

"I talked to John Ashcroft and gave him some money," says Green. "I told him we didn't want Clinton impeached, we were all sick of it. (U.S. Rep.) Henry Hyde became a fool. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. There's all this anti-everything, guys like (Rep.) Tom Delay, Jerry Falwell, and worse, Pat Robertson."

An easy life gets a little less easy
Life wasn't too hard for Green when he was growing up: high school at Pembroke Hill, carefree summers, and a liberal arts degree from Yale with nary a business course on his transcript. But two events brought change to Green: going into military service, where money no longer meant status, and the death of his father while Green was stationed in Korea.

"I went through basic training, which makes you grow up," says Green. "Nobody cares if you went to Yale. I liked the Air Force; everybody knew what you made and there was no economic status -- it was all by rank.

"My dad died while I was in Korea, and the guys were wonderful. They packed my bags for me. When something bad happens, they really rally around you. As an only child, I got a hardship discharge and came home to take over the car business."

Green found himself the youngest car dealer in America and having to straighten out problems that had begun to plague the business. That meant having the awkward responsibility of being a 25-year-old getting rid of "dead weight" by firing people, some of whom had been with the business for years. It was that or face the possibility of Detroit's stopping new-car shipments.