Meet Kevin Wilkerson, The Nightlife Blogger

Covering Bars, Nightlife & Travel The Only Way I Know How—By Being There

People occasionally ask, “Who is this Nightlife Blogger guy anyway?” Fair question. I’m Kevin Wilkerson, founder of PubClub.com, an award-winning journalist and someone who’s spent more than two decades covering bars, nightlife, travel and events the only way I know how: by showing up. Here’s my story.

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Editor & Publisher

Okay, so I know you are asking when you see and read PubClub.com, “so who IS this dude?”

Well, I’m going to tell you.

I am the founder, editor & publisher of PubClub.com, a website I founded in 1999. I am have covered travel and events in dozens of destinations around the world and articles are based on first-hand “boots on the ground” experiences. I began my writing career as a newspaper reporter where I won an AP award for investigative journalism. To add a newspaper element to the website, I created a first-person column – or blog post within the site – which I call The Nightlife Blogger.

Award-winning journalist. Founder of PubClub.com. Creator of The Nightlife Blogger. Covering bars, nightlife, travel and events firsthand since 1999.

How PubClub.com Began

There’s actually two “how it began” stories here. One starts in Amsterdam. I was there with my friend who knew the city so well I started calling him Mr. Amsterdam.  He knew the bars, how to get in good with the doormen, the reasoning behind the small beers that were “tiny Hineys” to me. But then on a Sunday afternoon, he could find nothing happening in town. We went everwhere, only to arrive at Cafe Luxenburg as the staff was cleaning up the floor.

I can still hear the sounds of broken glass being swept up by a broom. We had just missed a big party! That started the wheels turning for creating some type of “where’s where you need to be and when to be there” guide. A few months later I was in Toronto for a client. It was a Tuesday and I walked into a happening bar at around 5 p.m,, but then everyone soon left. I asked a guy why and he said, “oh we just start here. Then we go to such-and-such bar and after than some who don’t have to get up for work then go to aother bar.”

Ahh, the routine! I then asked him “so where to go on Wednesday? On Thursday…” Soon, I had an the information for a complete bar and nightlife guide to Toronto. The internet was just in its infancy – this was back in 1999– but I knew someone who had started an on-line newspaper and he showed me how to get started with PubClub.

Today PubClub.com has more than 8,000 articles from around the world.

Journalism Background

My journalism history began at the University of Alabama where I was a sportswriter on The Crimson White, which was annually regarded as one of the top student papers in the country. I covered the major sports, including the tradition-rich Alabama football team. Press boxes became my office, something that set me up well for mobile writing that still is in play today. My senior year I became sports editor of the yearbook.

After college, I worked as a sportswriter for the Dothan Eagle, a twice-daily newspaper in southern Alabama. There, I covered Alabama and Auburn football, Auburn basketball, local events and high school sports. The latter is reporting at its most basic. Unlike at the college level, there is no staff to provide you with game stats, a running play-by-play, pre-game notes and post-game quotes from both locker rooms. I had to do all this myself. I was fortunate to have an excellent mentor, Sports Editor Ron Ingram, who helped guide me through the process.

In addition to being a writer, I often had to serve as the paper’s photographer at events and even go into the darkroom, develop the film and print the photo to be used in the story. Additionally, I often worked on “the desk” which is laying out the sports section and seeing it through the process of getting it ready to hit the printing press. The excellent School of Journalism at the University of Alabama had prepared me for that task.

After a couple of years, I landed a job at the Savannah News-Press in Georgia. There, I covered a lot of high school sports and became the lead preps reporter. I was also the Clemson and South Carolina football beat writer for the paper and would travel to Clemson and Columbia to cover their home games, as well as the Women’s Tennis Assocation and PGA Tour’s stops in Hilton Head. My proudest moment came when I was awared an Associated Press award for investigative journalism for my series of articles on a local high school team that was recruiting players from other schools.

The Move To Public Relations

After nearly five years there, I made a bold move. Frustrated with a lack of career progress in a stagnant town that did not like change, I packed my car and drove to Los Angeles. Using my leveage as member the US Tennis Writer’s Association, I landed a job in public relations as a company that put on a Virginia Slims tournament as well as other sports events sponsored by primary client Philip Morris.

After nine months there, I moved onto a bigger agency where, because of my sports background, I was assigned to PR motorsports events for clients Nissan and Yokohama tires, as well as heading up PR for the national jet ski tour.

This led to me landing a job as the Advance Public Relations Representative of the PPG IndyCar World Series, where I traveled to races throughout the USA and Canada to get media coverage prior to and during race weekends. This involved setting up media days with drivers – including Michael Andretti, Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon, as well as working with the legendary Mario Andretti – coordinating with local event promoters and team PR representatives.

Why I Still Visit The Bars