if you do the css, couldnt you do a:

elgg get context, deal in the start for the extend view, so it will only apply the "none" for the wire?

suggestions @above are worth 'code-gold' follow those well and you'll find all the code,, but remember it's 'not just ' a page and/or a call '  ;-( code trail goes deeper - thru several many steps.. into elgg core (thewire plugin is not enough..) - that's not q. for agree or disagree. that's where the code you want to help you - is to be found. the core can be extended or overriden - that's what i said above - not 'hack'.

costakisc, that is a great solution.  Thanks very much for that idea.  I ended up implementing a different way, but that led me to the solution I ended up using.  Essentially I did this in the copy of the mod's everyone.php (my changes in red):

$body = "<style type=\"text/css\">
.elgg-menu-filter {
display: none;
";>
$body .= elgg_view_layout('content', array(
'filter_context' => 'all',
'content' => $content,
'title' => $title,
'sidebar' => elgg_view('kabannounce/sidebar'),
));