The date was March 12, 1998.
The headline on the Chicago Sun Times front page: “Cicero deal halts Rally by Klan”
The headline on the Chicago Tribune front page: “Clinton plans to join Ulster peace talks”
The headline on the Daily Herald front page: “Clinton refuses to say whether he will testify to grand jury”
The headline on the New York Times front page: “The World of Paula Jones”
But the biggest story was happening in Mt. Prospect, and only one reporter was on hand to break the story....Me. I called into the John Landecker show that morning to report the news flash. The cast of characters included John Landecker, sidekick Catherine Johns, and newsman Richard Cantu.
The following is a transcript of that important phone call.
John: Oldies 104.3, John Records Landecker, it’s 8:27, and joining us on the phone from the maternity ward is the producer of the program, Rick the German Boy Kaempfer. Good morning, Rick.
Rick: Good morning.
John: Rick, tell us what’s going on.
Rick: Well as long as we’re plugging our kids (John had just plugged his daughter’s play), I’ve got a new one to plug.
John: Aaaawwwwright!
Rick: Last night around eleven thirty Bridget’s water broke and we didn’t even have time to make it to the hospital downtown, so we went to the one out here.
Catherine: Oh, is that right?
Rick: And we have a new baby boy!
(Cheering and clapping in the studio)
Richard: Whoo Hooo! Congratulations. Two knucklehead boys!
Rick: And it’s a big one too.
Catherine: How big?
Rick: 8 pounds, 6 ounces.
Catherine: That is pretty big. How’s Bridget doing?
Rick: She’s doing real well. I’m at home now. I came home to check on Tommy...
John: Wait a doggone minute! You went home to check on your other child before you called the show? Where are your priorities?
Rick: Sorry, forgive me. I’m hopelessly out of whack.
John: OK, 8 pounds. How long was it?
Rick: 21 inches...if you know what I’m saying.
Catherine: We know what you’re saying.
John: No, how long was the baby?
Rick: Oh, the baby?
Richard: Once more into the gutter.
John: So what time was this kid born?
Rick: Two o’clock in the morning. They kicked me out of the hospital at 4:00, because Bridget has to share a room, and I came home and got a little sleep, and Tommy just woke me up, so I’m calling you right away.
John: So you’ve called all your family I hope.
Rick: Bridget called them.
John: But she had the baby.
Rick: Yeah, she had the baby in about two hours. It wasn’t that bad, although that’s easy for me to say. She was fine, what a trooper.
Catherine: And she wanted to chat, right?
Rick: Exactly.
Catherine: Now I want to know something. Does this child have a name?
Rick: Oh yes he does. His name is John Richard Kaempfer.
John: Wow.
Richard: You honor us, Sir.
John: Was he named after anyone?
Rick: Well, my favorite Beatle is John.
John: John Lennon.
Rick: And of course, my favorite DJ....
John: Really?
Rick: Yup. John Brandmeier.
(Everyone laughs)
John: OK, you got me.
(Call waiting clicks)
Rick: And actually John is also a name in Bridget’s family. Her grandfather was named John. And so is her brother.
(Call waiting clicks again)
John: I see you got baby waiting there.
Rick: Yeah, I think I may be popular today.
John: Well, we’ll let you go. Congratulations on the big news! So you’ll be back to work tomorrow, right?
Rick: Uh...well...
Catherine: John!
John: Just kidding, just kidding.
Rick: See you later.
John: There he goes. Proud papa.
(Click)
John: Oh wait! Darnit! I forgot to ask him if he taped it.
Richard: Are you kidding? Of course he did.
John: Because if there was ever a disc jockey who knows how to exploit a child, it’s....
2 year old Tommy Kaempfer singing the jingle: John Records Landecker, Oldies 104.3.
Of course, I did tape it, by the way. It aired the next day. Friday the 13th.
By the time Johnny was three he was doing movie reviews and jokes on the radio. He also accompanied the show to the Dominican Republic for a live broadcast.I kept a diary about the boys when they were babies. This is what I wrote about Johnny's birth...
3/12/98
The baby was already a week late, but it seemed like a month late. Bridget and I had been expecting the arrival two weeks before the due date (3/5) because her doctor said that he thought the baby was going to be early. The wait had become unbearable. We finally gave in and decided to schedule the inducement for Friday. This freaked me out because it was Friday the 13th. It would have been one thing to just have the baby on the 13th. I felt like it was tempting fate to actually schedule the birth to occur on the 13th. As it turned out, it didn’t happen.
It was Wednesday night, and we were all packed up. I wrote the outline of the show for Thursday knowing that it would be the last show before I took a leave of absence. I knew that I didn’t have to worry about getting a good night’s sleep, so at around 11:30PM I was in the basement listening to the Beatles “Rubber Soul” CD, when Bridget came bounding down the stairs.
“WE HAVE TO GO. MY WATER BROKE”.
This time I was much more relaxed than I was with Tommy. I didn’t go into a sitcom panic right away. Instead, I calmly called Cindy (my sister) on the phone. She was the ordained person to watch Tommy while we headed to the hospital. Her phone rang twice and the answering machine picked up. Uh oh. I called again. Same thing. I realized that everyone’s guard was down because we had scheduled the inducement. Nobody is on alert! Now I went into my sitcom panic.
I couldn’t call my Mom because she had a bad cold, and therefore couldn’t watch Tommy. We had to drive all the way into Chicago, and we were losing valuable time looking for someone. On a lark, I called Gerty (my aunt). Martina (my cousin) just happened to be home and I asked her to come over as soon as she could. Meanwhile, Bridget was starting to have contractions at a very rapid interval. We called her doctor, and he said not to worry--there is plenty of time to still come downtown. However, as we waited for Martina to show up, Bridget’s contractions intensified and came at even closer intervals. We called her doctor again, and he said to go the nearest hospital first and have them check if it was OK to make it all the way downtown. (I was envisioning a tollbooth birth)
Cindy and Martina showed up around the same time, and we headed over to Northwest Community Hospital. By now Bridget was screaming in pain. A sailor would have blushed at the words coming out of the dainty mouth of my little woman. Martina and Cindy looked on in horror. (Martina later said that was the closest she ever wanted to get to labor).
When we got to the hospital, we had to fill out some forms. We weren’t pre-registered, you see. After about ten seconds of Bridget’s screaming, they took her in the emergency room and had me continue to fill out the forms. Bridget looked at the nurse and asked if she could get some drugs for the pain. The nurse couldn’t look her in the eye and said the doctor would have to answer that question. We knew the answer. When I got back to the emergency room, the doctors said it was time for Bridget to start pushing. Whoa. I guess we’re not going downtown tonight after all.
The labor itself was quick. Two hours after the first contractions started, we had a brand new bouncing baby boy. Once again, we didn’t have a name picked out. We had the name “Grace Anne” chosen for the girl’s name, but we had about five names on the boy’s list. Since I had chosen Tommy, I let Bridget pick this name. Of course, after squonking out a baby, you really aren’t in the mood to make any major decisions.
I helped the process along. Soon, we had it down to two choices….James and John. Bridget liked the name James better, but she wanted to call him “Jamie”. I couldn’t stand that for a boy, but I agreed to call him “James” or “Jim”. Neither one satisfied her, so went back to the name John. We had the same trouble with the middle name. We liked the name “Stuart” as the middle name for James, but nothing seemed to sound right with John. We almost went back to James, until she came up with the middle name Richard.
That was it. Our second born child was born on March 12th at 2:00 on the nose. He was 21 inches long, weighed 8 pounds and 6 ounces and was named…JOHN RICHARD KAEMPFER.
We were both exhausted because it was so early in the morning, and I went home because Bridget had to share a room. I got home around 4AM, woke up at 7:30 with Tommy, and called the radio show at 8:30. (We have that phone call on tape). I called all of my relatives, Bridget called all of hers, and just about everyone else heard it on the radio. At about 9:30, Martina woke up. She was the last one to officially hear the news, because she slept through all of the excitement on the couch in our living room.
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