Fey Cancels Dad’s Day Fest

There’s one less thing to do in Denver if you’re Dad.

The plethora of Father’s Day-themed concerts originally scheduled in and around the Mile High City and the failure of one radio station to advertise “A Salute To Dad,” scheduled June 18th at Invesco Field at Mile High, are being blamed for the show’s cancellation by Barry Fey.

The veteran concert promoter is accusing Denver oldies station KOOL-FM of refusing to sell him advertising spots on the station for his Father’s Day salute, which would have featured Little Anthony & The Imperials, the Temptations Revue,Three Dog Night, Endless Summer Band starring Al Jardine, and The Turtles at the 76,000-capacity football stadium.

In fact, Fey took the station and its parent companies, Infinity Radio and Viacom, to U.S. District Court in Denver, seeking a temporary restraining order that would have forced KOOL to sell the spots, according to local reports.

KOOL countered that, among other things, it was sponsoring its own Kool Koncert on July 2nd with Fey’s former employer House of Blues Concerts promoting. That show, at Coors Amphitheatre, features B.J. Thomas, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Little Richard, The Boxtops featuring Alex Chilton, and topped by the first reunion of the original Raspberries since 1975.

On top of that, HoB is also promoting the Jammin’ 92.5 Father’s Day Funkfest, co-starring The Commodores, Kool & The Gang, andMorris Day & The Time, at Coors Amphitheatre June 19th – the day after Fey’s ill-fated concert.

A federal judge dismissed Fey’s injunction request “without prejudice,” leaving it open for refiling. But it was too late; at $3.50 a pop for tickets, Fey needed to sell at least 40,000 ducats to break even, and a month after the on-sale, had only shifted about 14,000 of them, Fey told Denver’s Westword newspaper. The concert was canceled shortly after.

Fey blamed part of his inability to sell tickets on KOOL’s failure to advertise to the show’s target demographic – dads or, perhaps, granddads.

“In 37 years in the business, no one ever refused to take my ads before,” Fey told the weekly. “Even when I was advertising massage parlors, they would take them – and this isn’t a massage parlor.”