Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Three to Watch: Outdoor festival visionary, would-be Strip resort mogul and Las Vegas radio star

City of Rock Unveils Rock Street

Steve Marcus

Rock in Rio CEO Luis Justo listens to Chris Baldizan, senior vice president of entertainment for MGM Resorts, during a Rock in Rio news conference Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. The event was held to unveil a mock-up of Rock Street, one of three thematic streets inside the City of Rock.

Updated Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015 | 1 p.m.

Ever since 2011, we have compiled and shared a Three to Watch list of newsmakers for the upcoming year. Jonathan Segal, Myron Martin, Jeri Crawford and Mayor Oscar Goodman have been past subjects. So has a nonliving entertainment legend existing mostly in our memories and also as a hologram.

As this is the first week of 2015, we’ll again fire up one of our favorite annual columns. But first, let’s take a look at the three newsmakers who were the focus of the 2014 Three to Watch list:

Derek Stevens, owner of The D Las Vegas and Golden Gate resorts in downtown Las Vegas: Stevens followed through with his plans to develop the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, booking Sammy Hagar and Lady Antebellum on the 2.74-acre parcel at Third Street and Carson Avenue that was once home to Clark County Courthouse. Stevens is a throwback character, sporting what has become a trademark look — long trench coats emblazoned with his name and hotel brands. He’s a fixture at The D’s Long Bar, where he rightfully acts like he owns the place.

Tina Kunzer-Murphy, UNLV athletic director: In her first full year as the school’s AD, Kunzer-Murphy presided over the release of head football coach Bobby Hauck in favor of Bishop Gorman High School coach Tony Sanchez, a firebrand practitioner backed by powerful Gorman alumni Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta. There is but one direction for the Rebels’ grid program (that being “up”), and building a suitable stadium to help engender a winning program remains a high priority at UNLV.

The year ended with a big win by the Runnin’ Rebels basketball team over No. 3-ranked Arizona at the Thomas & Mack Center, but the new football hierarchy is the topic du intrigue at the university. Coming off a year when the most noteworthy performance by anyone related to the UNLV football team was former Rebel Ickey Woods spiking cold cuts in a Geico commercial, this is a positive development.

Liberace: A sampling of his costumes and jewelry have been hauled out of the Cosmopolitan (though his crystal-encrusted roadster remains in place) near the Strip-side entrance. But Liberace, in our view the greatest headliner ever in Las Vegas, is now to be depicted in hologram form, taking shape in the same manner in which Michael Jackson is resurrected at “Michael Jackson One” in Mandalay Bay. The future of the museum collection has yet to be determined, more than four years after the Liberace Museum itself closed on East Tropicana Avenue. But we can expect news of any sort from Liberace, who leaves behind an indelible image amid feather-and-rhinestone-covered costumes, giant baubles and mirrored Baldwins.

And now, the Three to Watch in 2015:

Chris Baldizan, MGM Resorts' senior vice president of entertainment: Yes, he’s been getting a lot of attention, sentence-wise, but there is a reason. Baldizan lords over the acts performing at two of the Strip’s grandest outdoor entertainment venues. He’s helped build the temporary community at MGM Resorts Village on the Strip, just across from Mandalay Bay and Luxor. What was once a giant sandlot is now a 20,000-capacity home to multiple annual festivals of music, food, beer and wine, and even a water slide. The iHeartRadio Music Festival, the country-music Route 91 Harvest and Rock ’n Roll Wine Amplified Festival were the big draws, but expect more activity at that space in ’15.

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KT Lim, chairman/CEO of the Genting Group waits to speak during a news conference at Steelman Design Monday, March 4, 2013. The Genting Group announced plans for Resorts World Las Vegas, a multi-billion dollar resort to be built on the site of the stalled Echelon project.

At MGM Resorts Festival Grounds at Sahara and the Strip, Baldizan also is reeling in the largest multiple-day music event ever with Rock in Rio USA over two weekends in May. I’ve been saying for months that the fall will be fascinating — meaning the season, not the imminent decline — at Festival Grounds. Without knowing specifically what is planned, upward of 500,000 people will attend events at those spaces in ’15.

K.T. Lim, CEO of Genting Berhad: He’s not a Las Vegan, but he visits the city frequently and is a favored guest at Wynn and Encore. He’s the man behind the plans for Resorts World Las Vegas. Lim is chief of the parent company of Genting Group of Malaysia, which has announced plans to spend $4 billion on the sprawling resort where Stardust once stood and where the skeleton of Echelon loomed over the Strip for a half-dozen years. The project was originally to break ground by the end of 2014. Note the scarcity of equipment. There is a sense that Lim is awaiting the right time to start work on the first phase and more than 3,000 hotel rooms. This is the plan in a city where some high-level resort execs are wondering whether we need even one more hotel room. Traffic continues to cross Resorts World Way, which was once Echelon Way. Nonetheless, at this moment there is no end — or beginning — in sight for the strategy at Resorts World Las Vegas.

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Mercedes Martinez is a morning co-host at Mix 94.1 radio station.

Mercedes Martinez, KXMB 94.1 “The Mix” radio personality: The year ended with an unexpected shakeup in Las Vegas airwaves, with the ratings-dominant team of “Mark & Mercedes in the Morning” splitting when Mark DiCiero announced Dec. 18 that he had left the show. His final show was Dec. 17; he did not issue a formal, on-air announcement that he was leaving but sent word via Facebook that he was off to some unspecified new opportunity.

Collectively, the “Mark & Mercedes” partnership was reportedly pulling in more than a $500,000 a year. How one willfully walks away from that sort of salary is a puzzle that might be solved when DiCiero returns to broadcasting.

Martinez is still in the Mix booth, her popularity as strong as ever. She is joined by longtime “Mark & Mercedes” producer J.C. Fernandez in a show now titled “Mercedes in the Morning.” The Martinez-Fernandez pairing’s airing is weekday mornings from 5:30 to 10 a.m. The shakeup at Mix, at the start of the year, should open up a lively battle for ratings in an already kinetic radio market.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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