Mayor Charlie Luken said he wishes he hadn't needed to call last week's citywide curfew and hopes he never has to do it again.

        But he suggested that he's bracing for trouble again next week.

        “When St. X plays Elder, ladies and gentlemen, we may have to call another curfew,” Mr. Luken joked.

        Mr. Luken said he didn't start worrying about the clash between nationally ranked teams until Elder beat La Salle, 39-0, and St. Xavier beat Moeller, 47-0, a week ago.

        Mr. Luken, a Purcell Marian grad, said he's not taking sides in one of the city's hardest-fought football rivalries.

        But he admitted that he sometimes wears purple in Price Hill “and people just assume I'm for Elder.”

        No. 3-ranked St. Xavier will host No. 2 Elder in Tom Ballaban Stadium Oct. 12.

        Buzz off: WDBZ-AM (1260), the African-American-oriented radio station whose bread and butter has been freewheeling discussions of local politics, stopped allowing Cincinnati City Council candidates on its airwaves this week.

        That decision, by Vice President and General Manager Steve Love, comes after candidate Nate Livingston Jr. complained to the Federal Communications Commission that he wasn't being given equal time.

        Mr. Livingston, a former WDBZ talk show host, hasn't been back on since he sued the station in June. He said he was fired after after accusing Mr. Luken of appointing the station's chief executive, Ross Love, to his race relations panel in exchange for kid-glove treatment on the air. The mayor has denied it; the station has not responded, saying it's an internal matter.

        Mr. Livingston said that in the week before his FCC complaint, the station accepted calls from candidates Ken Anderson, William Kirkland, Alicia Reece and John Schlagetter, but twice refused to allow him the same access.

        The station, which calls itself “The Buzz,” has offered to Mr. Livingston two minutes to settle any past inequities. Mr. Livingston, not wanting to spend it all in one place, said he hasn't decided how to use it.

        Soft sell: It's clear that mayoral candidate Courtis Fuller doesn't like asking for money.

        Even in small, intimate fund-raisers, Mr. Fuller talks about his vision for Cincinnati — but leaves it to campaign manager Heather Gadker to do the dirty work of asking for checks.

        And in a fund-raising letter sent out last week, Mr. Fuller doesn't exactly give donors the hard sell.

        “Courtis believes in talking individually with voters, not spending lots of money on fancy fliers or expensive TV commercials,” says the letter — signed not by Mr. Fuller but by Charter Committee director Jeff Cramerding.

“However,” continued the letter, “no one can avoid the fact that campaigns cost money.”

        Mr. Fuller is attempting to seize the momentum of his 15-point primary victory and overcome an 11-to-1 fund-raising advantage by Mr. Luken.

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