At the Ballpark

Had a good time yesterday despite the result.

Cubs author day in the bleachers...Donald G Evans and George Rawlinson (Cubbie Blues), Randy Richardson (Cubsessions), and me (Everycubever)

Ray Davies

Today is Ray Davies' birthday. He's 75 years old. Yikes.

I love the Kinks, and this is my favorite Kinks song. Spinning it today in honor of Ray.

Trump to appear on Meet the Press

I'm not quite sure who is advising President Trump to step outside his conservative media bubble, but he'll be doing it again this weekend--appearing on Meet the Press for the first time since he was elected.

The ABC interview he did last week got him a week's worth of bad headlines. This is likely to do the same. He's not used to being asked legitimate questions with follow ups that poke through his BS. It makes him angry.

Cub Book Night

Had a great time last night in Naperville. It was a Cubs book club night. A bunch of friends gathered to watch the Cubs game on TV, and invited me to come out with a few boxes of "EveryCubEver" and sign/sell them. Great fun. Met some entertaining people. Lots of fun Cubs stories flying around. If you'd like me to come out to your pad for a similar bash, let me know. I'm always willing.

A Good Summary

When the Mueller report came out, I was in the midst of a self-imposed vacation from cable news (I gave it up for Lent). Because of this, I didn't watch any of the coverage. Instead, I read the report. It's out there. It took me about two full weeks to read it, but my mind was blown.

I now know immediately if a person who is talking about the report has read it or not. To read it, is to know with total certainty that our president is guilty of everything. Trump may not be able to be indicted because he's currently the president (and that's in the report too), and there may not be enough proof of a criminal conspiracy with Russia (the only thing he was officially cleared of), but there is without a doubt proof of collusion. Tons of it. And at least a half dozen crimes (crimes!) that the president committed covering it up--or attempting to cover it up.

This sums it up pretty well...

Exclusive: De Niro, @robreiner, @SophiaBush, @StephenKing, @jvn, and more are cutting through the Trump administration’s lies about the Mueller report pic.twitter.com/VpJhIGBbv0

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) June 20, 2019

Missed this anniversary yesterday

35 years ago today, with the 3rd overall pick, the Bulls drafted a 6’6" guard from UNC 🐐 pic.twitter.com/YlSJkN0QhG

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) June 19, 2019

ECE is everywhere

If you walk into a Chicagoland non-literary establishment and you think you see "EveryCubEver" for sale there--you aren't imagining things. We like selling it in places that don't normally sell books--like Finom Coffee (4200 W. Irving Park Rd) and the famous Smoque BBQ (3800 N. Pulaski). If you'd like to sell it at your place of business, drop my co-publisher Dave a line (david@eckhartzpress.com).


It's even on the south side...

Little League

One of my great joys of parenthood was watching my son Sean play baseball. He was a scrappy player who liked to get his uniform dirty, and was a menace on the basepaths (he stole home seven times). Unfortunately, the other players got too big--and Sean couldn't catch up to their fastballs anymore. (You can't steal first).

So, I miss watching him play (he hung up his spikes freshman year of high school), but I absolutely do NOT miss some of the parents at Little League games. More than once I would turn around to remind them something like "these are nine year olds" or something similar to that. Dads and Moms. Screaming at their own kids. Screaming at the other kids. And worst of all, screaming at the parents on the other team. There were several times it felt like we were one step away from a ridiculous confrontation.

Like this, for instance...

A brawl broke out at a children's baseball game near Denver. pic.twitter.com/QfJ1ltnQmn

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) June 19, 2019

For the record, you get this in all sports, but it seems worse in baseball for some reason. It never quite reached levels like this at the hundreds of youth soccer games I've attended and coached.

Marc Vernon

Nice mention today in Robert Feder's column about my old college friend (WPGU) Marc Vernon, now once again of colleague of mine at the Radio Misfits Podcast Network...

Former Chicago radio host Marc Vernon has launched “The Car Guys Report,” a weekly podcast on all things automotive, for Radio Misfits Podcast Network. His co-host is Lou Costabile, whose YouTube channel “My Car Story with Lou” has more than 56,000 followers. “The ability to run free-form without the rigidity of corporate radio has been very enjoyable, and being able to talk about my lifelong passion of cars is a dream come true,” Vernon said. In December he ended a 12-year run at Hubbard Radio classic rock WDRV 97.1-FM when his job was eliminated.

Kevin Robinson

My former program director at WJMK is back in the radio news. From this morning's RAMP Newsletter...

It's a corporate homecoming for veteran programmer/consultant Kevin Robinson, founder of Robinson Media, who has rejoined Audience Development Group as Senior Partner. Robinson previously served as a partner with Audience Development Group from 2006 to 2008. Robinson's extensive programming experience includes success in Chicago, St. Louis, Buffalo, NY and Lansing, MI. He also served as VP of Hot AC Programming for CBS Radio, overseeing 15 stations, and he consulted Westwood One.

Tim Moore, Managing Partner of Audience Development Group, remarked, "I can't envision a better fit as a colleague or a friend. We've kept in touch with Kevin throughout the past decade and have monitored his record-setting success. His programming skills across multiple formats make him a quintessential fit for our firm, but that's just the beginning. Kevin brings intelligence, character, collaboration, and a lot of excitement whenever he engages a challenge. He's one of the most cerebral media minds I've known, and we're extremely happy he's a member of our team."

Robinson said, "Audience Development Group has set the industry standard for custom cluster strategic and tactical success. Tim Moore is known throughout our industry, operating with impeccable character and tremendous integrity. It's with great pride to carry the Audience Development Group name into my clients as they know they are receiving the best custom services in America." Robinson is based in Indianapolis and can be reached at 314-882-2148 or Kevin@RobinsonMedia.fm.

Cubs/Sox

This is a few years old but I still enjoy the Cubs/Sox banter as we head into another Cubs-Sox series...

Happy birthday Sir Paul

Today is his 77th birthday. Amazing. The single greatest songwriter of my lifetime has contributed an untold number of great songs, but if I had to pick one as his greatest, this is my choice. (Ask me next week and it could be something else). This is a perfect song.

Patti Vasquez

The host of the 10pm--1am show on WGN Radio, Patti Vasquez, has been fired by WGN Radio. According to Robert Feder it was over the inadvertant airing of an F-bomb. Should be interesting to see what they do with that time slot. The leading candidate is probably Pete McMurray, but we'll have to wait and see.

And no, they haven't called Minutia Men.

Trump Ratings

He's still very popular with his base, but the President has really hit the skids with everyone else. The blockbuster ABC interview that produced dozens of front page stories was a ratings bomb.

60% of America is absolutely sick of this guy. It's not Trump Derangement Syndrome. It's Trump Fatigue.

Fathers Day with EveryCubEver

Thanks to all the moms and kids who bought EveryCubEver for the dads of Chicagoland. A few of them sent pictures of Dad holding a copy of the book. (If you missed Fathers Day, remember Dad has a birthday--and isn't mom a Cubs fan too?)

I Had An Upset Stomach

That moment when the author gets his first copy of his new book is one of our favorites. Here's Tom Latourette (with his brother Bill) and Eckhartz Press co-publisher David Stern with Tom's latest book "I had an upset stomach", available very soon via Eckhartz Press.

Dad

My dad Eckhard would have been 84 years old today. Dad has been gone for 30 years, and I still think about him all the time.

I even named my company after him, so now his name (or a version of it) is on more than 50 different books. (Eckhartz is a combination of my dad's name, and Dave Stern's dad Fritz). Truth is, because Dad's name is on every one of our books, it forces me to be very picky about who we publish. They have to live up to a very high standard in my mind. There is no one I respected more than my dad.

The DJ's DJ

This piece was published last week in Radio Ink. The author of the piece is radio's best friend, Art Vuolo. This is an excerpt. If you want to read the whole thing, click here...

When your middle name really is Records, you know you were destined to be on the radio. Back in the ’90s, radio talent coach Dan O’Day proclaimed that “more young guys were influenced to become radio DJs by John Records Landecker than anyone else in the business.”

John Landecker’s home town is Ann Arbor, Michigan, and it was in 1966 when I first met him at a small station, WOIA 102.9 FM, on a dirt road across from a dairy farm located just outside the famed college town. He said, “Local talk show host Ted Heusel hired me at a staggering $1.15 per hour.” He joined Tom O’Brien, who did a Saturday morning show called The Music Shop. John did the news from an adjacent studio with cardboard egg cartons on the walls for “proper acoustics.” Even at the age of 16, Landecker had “the pipes.” That was “Only the Beginning,” a song later made famous by the rock group Chicago.

John Records Landecker is best known for his many years at Chicago’s legendary 50,000-watt monster WLS AM 890, where his nighttime show blasted out the hits over nearly 40 states, and made him a radio god to millions of young people across the country. It was at WLS that he created one of the first interactive phone features on Top 40 radio, known as “Boogie-Check.”

His middle name was his mother’s last name — Marjorie Records — from Indiana. Ironically, today John lives in Michigan City, Indiana. John said, “I’ve told the story about my name so many times that in 2015 I authored a book entitled Records Truly is My Middle Name. So, don’t put quotation marks on Records.”

Prior to landing in the Windy City, John paid his dues working at a handful of Michigan stations like WTRX/Flint, WERX/Grand Rapids (where his daughter Tracy was born), and later, while a student at Michigan State, he became the “John Records Landecker Radio Leviathon“ on Lansing’s 1320/WILS. As a promo, WILS put Landecker’s draft card — with Records as his middle name — on the back of a music survey. He was just one semester from graduating from MSU when a tempting job offer came from Philadelphia’s iconic WIBG Radio 99. Surprise!

When he got to WIBG he was given the name Scott Walker. After a few months, the station was sold to Buckley who fired the PD, Paul Drew. As he left, Drew asked him: “What do you want to do?” John said, ”I want to go back on the air as John Records Landecker.” Drew said, ”You’ll never be a success using that name.” Sometimes the PD is wrong. While at WIBG, Landecker’s second daughter, Amy, was born. Today, John’s eldest daughter Tracy is the lead singer of an LA punk band called The Walker Brigade, and Amy is an actress in LA with an ever-growing list of credits to her name. It was while John was at WIBG that his on-air work caught the attention of WLS, and that’s when his star really began to shine.

After an incredible run at The Big 89 from 1972 through 1981, he was lured away to do mornings in Toronto at CFTR 680 AM, for more money and a new challenge. Then it was back to Chicago, with stops at The Loop, WCKG, and again at WLS. In 1989, The Big 89 flipped to talk, so Landecker went to Cleveland for mornings on Power 108. After that it was a third return to Chicago and a 10-year run doing mornings on WJMK 104.3 FM, while teamed with Catherine Johns — two johns…no waiting! When his contract was not renewed, John did some talk radio at WGN with PD Mary June Rose, and at WLS with PD Kipper McGee, followed by afternoons on The True Oldies Channel and nights on 94.7 WLS-FM. In 2007 and 2008, McGee orchestrated a Music Radio 89 throwback called the WLS Rewind on Memorial Day, and John recalls, “I was there for both of them. Truly a fun time. What an amazing event!”

Not enjoying what radio had become, John quit in 2015. He said, “that’s quit, not retired.

Of course, the full John Landecker story is in his book "Records Truly Is My Middle Name" which is one of the crown jewels of the Eckhartz Press catalogue.

Pick up your copy today.

Good in Chicago

New video series produced by Tony Lossano. Check it out...

OJ is on Twitter

Just what we needed. The unfiltered ramblings of America's favorite acquited killer. In his first video post he said he's got some "getting even" to do.

The saddest thing about this story is that he got a half million followers in one day.

I'm starting to wonder if America is the greatest country in the world or not. The evidence seems to be mounting in the wrong direction these past few years.

No More Gender Stereotypes?

This doesn't seem like a real story, but it is. The New York Times reports that England has banned "gender stereotypes" in advertisements. No more dumb dads. No more fixation on hot women.

Hmmm. On the one hand, that sounds like a very forward thinking way of approaching things. On the other hand, I wrote a book called "Father Knows Nothing."

I'm torn.