Musings, observations, and written works from the publisher of Eckhartz Press, the media critic for the Illinois Entertainer, co-host of Minutia Men, Minutia Men Celebrity Interview and Free Kicks, and the author of "The Loop Files", "Back in the D.D.R", "EveryCubEver", "The Living Wills", "$everance," "Father Knows Nothing," "The Radio Producer's Handbook," "Records Truly Is My Middle Name", and "Gruen Weiss Vor".
The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
Happy Birthday!
Two Eckhartz Press authors are celebrating a birthday this week. Happy birthday Rich King (March 18) and Mitch Michaels (March 20)
Happy Anniversary!
Two Eckhartz Press books had book launch parties this week, Cameo by Beth Jacobellis (2018) and Nose Over Toes by Janet Sutherland (2019). Photos from those book launch parties are below. By the way, this is 20th anniversary of Janet's aneurysm (which is what the book is about). She is still going strong.
=St Patrick's Day has always been a big day for Eckhartz Press. Our Irish cup runneth over. Joel Daly (The Daly News) covered the parade for Channel 7 for 40 years. John Landecker been has going to the parade since the 1970s (photo below with Bob Sirott) and Brendan Sullivan (The Living Wills) wrote a piece for us about what it means to grow up South Side Irish. It's all here.
=In 2023, Windy City Reviews dropped an incredible review of Rick Kaempfer's novel Back in the DDR...
“For those reminiscing on or wishing they could have visited Cold War Europe, this reviewer has the next best alternative for you, in the form of Rick Kaempfer’s fascinating new novel Back in the D.D.R. In his highly polished and breezy writing style, Kaempfer takes the reader on a literary adventure of a lifetime, back to Checkpoint Charlie and the whispers of espionage.
Having an understanding of the geography, when added to Kaempfer’s descriptive and detailed writing, helps to transport the reader to these locations. Indeed, the reader may begin to feel as if they are physically accompanying Rudi and his family as they travel.
This fantastic story ends on a triumphal note for thirteen-year-old Rudi, who is forced to mature in a short time. Emblematic of this dawning maturity is when Rudi states, “In Chicago I always felt like a German boy pretending to be American, in Germany I discovered that I was not pretending.”
Charles Kuner, Windy City Reviews
=Also, coming later this week to Rick's blog, a free excerpt from the book. On March 20, 1976, Patty Hearst was convicted, an event woven
into the pages of Back in the DDR. That portion of the book will be posted on Thursday.
=Two of the contributors toCubsessionsare celebrating birthdays this week, actor Gary Sinese (March 17) and Shawon Dunston (March 21). Dunston himself doesn't appear in the book, but the man who created the Shawon-O-Meter (Dave Cilha) does. That's Dave (on the far right) at one of the Cubsessions book signings. Others in the photo--author Randy Richardson, former Cubs ball girl Kathy Wolter, and Ronnie Woo Woo.
=This week in 1989, Steve Dahl got his vasectomy live on the radio, and Garry Meier had to describe it. That story is told in the pages of The Loop Files.
=When the Eagles came to Chicago a few weeks ago, Joe Walsh mentioned Steve & Garry on stage...
=This week in 1861, Benedictine Sisters of Chicago founded. Eckhartz Press author Vicki Quade is a huge supporter of the organization, and they, in turn, are huge supporters of Vicki...
“Vicki Quade’s new book reminds me of Martin Buber’s quote which was always a favorite of mine: All real living is meeting. Anyone who loves or wants to know Chicago will enjoy Vicki’s keen humor and vivid memories. They invite us to find new ways to live and laugh, especially during this pandemic isolation. Maybe it will encourage some to write their own memories of human encounters!”
Sister Patricia Crowley, O.S.B., Benedictine Sisters of Chicago
A curation of news items
about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago.
RADIO/PODCASTS
*Changes at the Drive
=You may have noticed some changes at the Drive this week. Bob Stroud
is expanding his role in the midday hours. The 10am-1pm shift is essentially
his now. In addition to continuing his feature 10 at 10, he told me, “I’m
writing and recording vignettes pertaining to certain artists that will run
twice an hour, M-F in the 11AM and Noon hours.”
=Janda Lane is now in the 1-6pm slot, and the syndicated Alice’s Attic with Alice Cooperis on in the evenings. Drive jocks Byrd and Tim
Spencer move to weekends and fill-ins along with Dave Mazur.
*Scotty Kay
=The Academy of Country Music came out with their list of 2024 award nominees. Nominated in the major-market personality category was US-99's afternoon man Scotty Kay.
=Checked in with retired traffic reporter Bart Shore, who
has been appearing on the air again. He reports: “Still retired- but still doing fill in work on our local
radio station here WSQL Brevard and this week I started voice tracking for an
internet radio station . Beach Radio - playing nothing but beach
music. an interesting niche. They have me on in the mornings 6-Noon, then
play my Time Warp Song of the Day from my web site.”
=The native Chicagoan
(south suburbs) was a local television star for three decades, first at
WBBM-Channel 2, and then for many years at WFLD-Channel 32. Corey retired last year.
*March 10—Dan Jiggetts birthday
=The former Chicago Bears
offensive lineman was also a sports radio pioneer during the early years of the
Score, co-hosting the midday show with Mike North. He’s also done sports for
Chicago television (Channel 2). His daughter Lauren is a local television star
in her own right at WGN-TV. (Photo: Dan with Cheryl Raye Stout, and Jim
O’Donnell at the Chet Coppock tribute event)
=Valerie continues to work
at Channel 7. She was also the co-host of Windy City Live at Channel 7 for ten
years. This photo was taken on the Windy City Live set, along with the guest of
the show that day, Joel Daly.
*March 11—Phil Schwarz
=The long-time Channel 7
weatherman retired last year.
*March 12--Rich Koz birthday
=The great Svengoolie is no longer just a
Chicago treasure. Thanks to Me-TV, he’s nationwide. I interviewed Rich about that last year. I also had a fun
chat with him on my podcast a few years ago. For a really deep dive into Koz’s
career, check out this piece from 2009. We talk about his beginnings in
radio, including his time working with Dick Orkin and Jerry
G. Bishop.
*March 12—Kevin Matthews Birthday
= Kev remains one of the
most gifted radio performers in Chicago history. I featured him in Illinois Entertainer in 2016 and interviewed him for my podcast in 2021. The podcast interview ends with another interview I did
live on Kevin’s show on the Loop back in 1993. He insisted I do it in German. (Jim
Shorts supposedly spoke German). He’s currently working on a
documentary about his book Broken Mary and recently completed another documentary about his
band Ed Zeppelin, which debuted last October (Full disclosure: I’m the director of that film, and
my son Tommy is the editor. Photo of Kev below by Paul Natkin)
*March 12—Mary DeBaggis birthday
=Mary has done traffic reports on virtually every radio
station in Chicago over the years.
*March 12—Dave Juday birthday
=Dave was a longtime sports reporter/anchor for ESPN Radio
in Chicago. He now resides in the Phoenix area.
*March 13—Adam Delevitt birthday
=Adam was the executive producer of the Mac, Jurko
& Harry show, and later became program director of ESPN Radio in
Chicago. I interviewed him for Chicago Radio Spotlight in 2012.
He is now Director of Broadcast and Streaming Media at Rush Street
Interactive/Bet Rivers.
*March 14—Steve Cochran birthday
=The current morning man at WLS (890-AM) has been a big
part of the Chicago radio landscape for more than thirty years, with stints at
WCKG, WLUP-AM, WPNT, WIND, and of course, WGN Radio. A great interview
subject. Here’s one from 2009 (for Chicago Radio Spotlight),
and another from 2017 (for
Illinois Entertainer).
=Pat has been the Chicago Blackhawks host and
anchor/reporter at NBC-Sports Chicago for years now.
*March 14—Chris Rongey birthday
=Rongey was associated closely with the White Sox during
his time in Chicago media. He was the radio in-studio host for the White Sox
and occasionally filled in as play-by-play man. He also wrote about the White
Sox for the Daily Herald. Chris is now in St. Louis, working for the legendary
KMOX.
*March 14—Jerry Taft birthday
=Taft was one of the most popular weathermen in Chicago
television history, first at Channel 5 and later at Channel 7. That run at
Channel 7 lasted 33 years. Jerry retired from the business in 2018 and passed away in 2020.
*March 15, 1960—WSBC signs on the air
=When the station began broadcasting in 1960, WSBC-FM
carried a variety of musical programming including classical, jazz, and folk.
In 1971, it moved into a new location at 4949 W. Belmont and changed the call
letters to WXRT. In 1972, the progressive rock format was introduced by Don
Bridges, Mitch Michaels, John Platt, Bob Schulman and Seth
Mason. It’s still going strong today, 52 years later.
*March 15, 1976—WCFL signs off as a Top-40 station
=The new format was beautiful music. One of the tragic days
in Chicago radio history. I still maintain that the old WCFL jingles from the
late 60s were the greatest jingles in radio history.
*March 15—Ben Hollis birthday
=Ben was the host of WTTW’s “Wild Chicago” which was a
groundbreaking program back in it’s day. Rick Kogan wrote about Ben and that show
a few years ago in the Chicago Tribune.
*March 16—Scott Simon birthday
=The host of NPR’s Weekend Edition and
Special Contributor at CBS Sunday Morning grew up in Chicago
and has strong attachments to the city despite living in the DC area for many
years. He wrote a book about his love of the Cubs (My Cubs: A Love Story), contributed to the bookCubsessions,
and also to the John Landecker book Records Truly Is My Middle Name.
=A rare moment
of introspection and accurate reporting from Tucker Carlsonon NewsNation this week.
*March
Madness Coming Soon
=This will be
the first year without Jim Nance, but we learned this week, CBS also
won’t have Greg Gumbel anchoring the studio show. This will be the first
March Madness he has missed since 1998. The reason is family health problems.
*Taylor
Tomlinson is Perfect Late-Night Host for the Tik-Tok Era
=The
opposition to TikTok is bipartisan. The bill to force American ownership of the
video sharing site passed the House this week.
=Donald
Trump who tried to ban TikTok via executive order when he was president, is
suddenly on TikTok’s side after meeting with their billionaire owner. I’m sure
it has nothing to do with the $500 million Trump has to come up with by the end
of this month.
As always, if you have any media story you’d like to share or think that I might be interested in sharing, drop me a line at rick@eckhartzpress.com or amishrick@yahoo.com. If you're in Chicago media and wondering why I didn't mention your birthday, it's probably because I don't know it. Drop me a line and let me know and I'll put you on my calendar.