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".
=This is a big month for our recently published book about the Shoeless Joe trial. That trial took place exactly 100 years ago this month, and until we published the transcript last year, it had been out of the public eye for nearly a century. Learn more about it here.
*The Loop Files
=I’ve
been blown away by the great reviews of my latest book The Loop Files. This may be my favorite one. Thanks so much, Christopher Sutter.
=The publicity tour continued last week with an appearance on The Average Joe podcast. I'll post a link when I get it.
=I'll be out and about for another book signing on January 21st. Really looking forward to this one. I'll be at the Chicagoland Record show from 10am--2pm.
*Leaving Glory for Greatness
=Lou Macaluso will be signing and selling his Eckhartz Press book Leaving Glory for Greatness at the Thornton Distillery Book Fair, 400 E. Margaret Street, Thornton, IL on February 4th from Noon to 5pm. Mark it on your calendar now.
*Surviving Sue
=Author Vicki Atkinson is now part of the CWA Speaker's Bureau. To find out what her presentation is all about, click here.
=She is also appearing at a virtual event. Register here. Details below.
*Righteous Might
=In 2020 Eckhartz Press published the debut novel of Keith Conrad, Righteous Might. It's a science fiction exploration of the Pearl Harbor attack. Well, Keith has a new audio project to share, Dimension of the Lost. Here's the description.
Pop culture over the past twenty years or so is riddled with stories about pioneering scientists visiting new worlds. In the 1990’s there was Sliders, there was also Stargate SG-1 with a different planet every week. In this week’s story "Dimension of the Lost," three scientists visit three different dimensions. Two of them have life-changing experiences, while the third ends up solving a mystery that has haunted humanity for generations.
=Rod Stewart is celebrating a birthday this week. You may not realize that Doin The Cruise author Mitch Michaels played a key role in Rod's song "Maggie Mae" becoming a big hit. He tells that story in the book. (That's Mitch in the middle of the pic below)
*We Have Company
=Bobby Skafish's 2016 Eckhartz Press book We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters is a rock and roll lover's dream. Bobby has met and interviewed them all. Two of them have birthdays this week; the late David Bowie and Dave Matthews. Their stories (and these photos) are in the book.
*Behind the Glass
=Randy Merkin's 2021 book Behind the Glass: Stories from a Sports Radio Producer is the sports equivalent of Bobby's book. For instance, three Hall of Famers who were born this week in history, Bruce Sutter, Bart Starr and Dick Enberg, are featured.
*Monkey in the Middle
=Dobie Maxwell's gripping personal story about a bank robbery was reviewed this week in 2017. Dobie's book remains one of our best sellers.
*Records Truly Is My Middle Name
=John Records Landecker's book was a finalist for CWA Book of the Year in 2013. When John was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2017, we re-released the book with additional stories and photos. Among the new photos...this one of John and his daughter Amy with the richest man in the world (at the time), who happens to be celebrating a birthday this week.
*Back in the DDR
=My latest novel came out for Christmas of 2022. This week in 2023 (that was already a year ago?) I made my first book club appearance. Excellent snacks, if I recall correctly.
*The Balding Handbook
=We sold out of the book, but before it went out of print, The Balding Handbook helped countless balding souls. Eleven years ago this week author David Stern was on Mancow's television show talking about it.
*The Living Wills
=12 years ago this week, Rick and Brendan discuss the tricky collaboration that led to the first Eckhartz Press book, The Living Wills.
*Truffle Hunt
=Eckhartz Press author Brent Peterson is now a podcasting star...
=The changes announced last month by Spotify have enraged the music industry. Here’s one star’s reaction. Dee
Snider from Twisted Sister: “That
guy from Spotify. I wanna tell you, he should be taken out and shot. When he
heard that artists were complaining about how little we get paid, his response
was ‘make more music.’ Like we’re producing cans of Coke!”
=At first it was only on during the daytime hours at 820 AM. It
later migrated to 1160 AM, before landing in it’s current location at 670 AM.
The first all-sports-talk station in Chicago was a bold experiment at the time
of its debut. Now every market in America has at least one sports-talk station.
*January 3--Rick Gieser birthday
=Rick was one of the originals at the Score. He was the first
executive producer of the morning show. Tom Shaer was the morning show
host. Tom Webb was the newsman. Dawn Shuneman DeSart was the
traffic reporter. Henry Henderson was the associate producer.
*January 3--Tanya Maher birthday
=Tanya is a gifted voice over artist who also did traffic
reports in Chicago for years.
*January 3, 2016/Barry O’Keefe’s death
=The longtime newsman at WTMX passed away this week eight years
ago. I interviewed him back in 2008 shortly after he left the Eric and Kathy
show.
*January
3, 1998/Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me debuts
=The
announcer for the NPR/WBEZ classic is Bill Kurtis.I interviewed him about that (and
many other things) for my podcast a few years ago.
*January
4--Dave Kerner birthday
=Before
retiring last year, Dave did radio for more than four decades including WBBM-AM
(2004-2023). He previously worked at the Score.
*January
4, 1927/John Drury birthday
=The
legendary Channel 9 and Channel 7 anchorman was simply one of the most
respected journalists in Chicago history. The high school radio awards were
named after Drury posthumously (he died in 2007). Drury also had small roles in
the films Richie Rich, Baby’s Day Out and Rent-a-Cop.
Drury’s long-time producer Alex Burkholder wrote a book for Eckhartz
Press in 2018 called Death
of the Angels.
*January
4, 1963/Randy Salerno birthday
=Salerno
was a reporter/anchor at WBBM-Channel 2 when he died in a tragic snowmobiling
accident in late January 2008. He previously worked at WGN-TV.
*January
4, 1966/WFLD-TV debuts
=They
began broadcasting from their original studios in Marina City this week 58
years ago. Their studios are now on Michigan Avenue just south of the river.
=Judd
started in Chicago radio as a producer at the Score. He later went on to do
Cubs and Blackhawks pre- and post-game shows and play-by-play for the Chicago
Wolves. Judd is now the radio voice of the Boston Bruins. (His uncle is WGN
morning man Bob Sirott)I
interviewed Judd back in 2011, shortly before he
made the move east.
=The Catchy Comedy Network is featuring a Happy Days marathon to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary. It begins on January 13th at 10am and runs until January 15th at 5am. 86 back-to-back episodes.
=I
don’t know either of these guys personally, but there’s clearly one good guy
here and one bad guy. Hint: the bad guy is a quarterback. I’m probably being
too subtle. The bad guy is Aaron Rogers.
Jimmy Kimmel tells Aaron Rodgers he'll see him in court if he keeps up 'reckless' Jeffrey Epstein claims https://t.co/syqBv81hgL
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.
This year marks my 20th year as a professional writer. Over the course of 2024, I'll be sharing a few of those offerings you may have missed along the way...
I wrote this piece for Shore Magazine in 2012. My regular column for the magazine was called "A Fine Mess". This piece was about one of my brushes with Beatles greatness. George Martin's birthday would have been this week...
Sir George Martin is an icon in the music business. If he had done nothing else in his career, the fact that he was the producer of every Beatles album except “Let it Be” would have been enough to cement his place in rock and roll history.He was their mentor, and they were my heroes.
When I received a phone call in December of 1995 alerting me to George Martin’s availability for radio interviews to promote the Beatles Anthology project, I was speechless for a moment. I cleared my throat, booked the interview, and bounced off the walls for twenty minutes or so before I told the host of the show—John Landecker. I wasn’t prepared for John’s reaction.
“Youshould interview him,” he said.
“Why me?” I asked. “It’s your show.”
“Because you’re the Beatles fanatic,” he said. “I want you to do it.”
I didn’t know it at the time, but John had a master plan. He figured his normally unflappable German producer would turn into a stuttering, stammering fool if he was forced to interview one of his heroes. In John's mind, that had much more potential than a straight interview.When he started promoting the interview a few days later, he laid it on pretty thick to make me even more nervous.
“Don’t blow this Rick,” he said. “There are millions of Beatles fans in Chicago, and since we’re the only station that gets to interview him, you have to speak for all of them.”
Gulp.
Outwardly I wasn’t showing it, but it was getting to me. I called all of my Beatles friends across the country and asked them to submit questions to me. I carefully considered each of them, crossed off the ones that seemed “too inside” or “too geeky,” and prepared diligently. I knew we only had ten minutes with him, so I couldn’t waste a moment with frivolous questions.
The morning of the interview I came to the studio with a list of questions in my cold sweaty hands.When the hot-line rang to alert us that Mr. Martin was standing by at his microphone in London, the color left my face.
“Look at Rick,” John joked. “He’s white as a ghost.”
“Am not,” I said. My voice cracked.
John couldn’t stop laughing. “Maybe I better start the interview,” he said. “Sir George…are you with us?”
We couldn’t hear anything for a moment and then there he was. His lovely British accent responded: “Hello, John. How are you this morning?”
“I’m great,” John said. “I hope you don’t mind, but we’re going to do something a little different this morning. My producer Rick is a gigantic Beatles fan, and he badgered me to let him do this interview, so I’m turning it over to him now. This will be fun--Producer interviewing Producer. Sir George Martin, this is Rick.”
He was silent for a moment again before answering politely: “Hello Rick.”
I almost fainted. I realize how pathetic this sounds in retrospect, but I don’t think I can find the proper words to explain how excited and nervous I was to be speaking with this man.
George Martin was the producer of the Beatles! He had been sitting across the glass from John Lennon when he sang “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Hell, he pieced that song together for Lennon, and made suggestions, and…oh my God…I could barely breathe.
It didn’t help that John Landecker was rolling on the floor laughing at me, but I ventured on. I knew I would impress Sir George with my knowledge of the Beatles. I knew he would warm to me instantly when he heard my insightful questions. So I launched right into them.
That’s the last thing I remember.
No, actually, that’s not entirely true. I do remember his response to my first question—even though I don’t remember the question itself.
Total silence.
That’s when I started flop-sweating. I lost all my confidence instantly. If I had my wits about me I would have realized that his silence was caused by the slight satellite delay, but I was too far gone by then. I was sure he was rolling his eyes at me from across the pond. He eventually answered me, but I didn’t even listen to his answer. After my second or third question, Landecker was forced to jump in to rescue me. I completely and utterly failed.
John loved every second of the experience. I needed an IV to replenish my fluids.
That happened seventeen years ago, and I can finally laugh about it now. It’s not easy coming to grips with the fact that you’re the Bill Buckner of Beatles interviewers.
Here are a few others you might have missed...
*January 1, 2020—Former NBA Comish Stern dies. He missed his chance a few years earlier. Dave’s letter to help him was featured in a column I wrote at the time called Half Empty.
*January 2, 1970—This is the year “No shoes, no shirt, no service”
signs began to become popular to protect stores from hippies. I wrote a piece for Shore Magazine about dress codes called Fashion Faux Pas of the Fashionably Criminally Insane
*January 4—Kris Bryant birthday. I was a little upset the year they traded Bryant. (less upset now). In that year's edition of EveryCubEver I wrote a little poem about the trade...
A thank you poem for
Kris Bryant…
On a rainy Wednesday night in
2016,
Kris gave us something no living
Cub fan had seen,
With a smile on his face, his
throw firmly stamped,
The 2016 Cubs, World Series
Champs,
For that we’ll always remember
Kris Bryant,
Even though some numnut traded
him to the Giants.
--Rick
Kaempfer
*January 5 is International Bird Day. I have previously written why this day means a lot to me. Two birds are named after a fellow Kaempfer (Kaempfer’s Tody Tyrant and Kaempfer’s Woodpecker)
A weekly update/preview of my latest podcasts, and a look back at some of my previous audio work from this week in history over the past 40+ years.
Podcasting preview/update
Minutia Men. Minutia Men Celebrity Interview, and Free Kicks with Adam and Rick are currently on a holiday break. They will return with new episodes beginning next week.
*January 3,
2012—Republican Iowa Caucuses were held. Among the candidates was the first openly gay man to run for President, Fred Karger. He told Dave and I that fascinating story.
January 6, 1973—Schoolhouse Rock debuts on ABC. One of the singers from that series was Essra Mohawk. We chatted with her about five years ago and she has some great stories.
And finally...this week in 1878, a frequent topic of discussion on Free Kicks, Everton F.C. was founded. Happy birthday/anniversary to the Blues in Liverpool.
*One of the questions I got asked quite often during my recent publicity tour: How do you choose the books you publish? We are a Chicago-based publisher, so we are looking for Chicago stories and/or Chicago authors. Our submission guidelines are posted on the website.
This Week in Eckhartz Press history
This week's look back at Eckhartz Press history gives some good examples of the type of stories and authors that we look for...
*In 2022, one of our top selling books was Chili Dog MVP, a look back at the magical 1972 White Sox season that featured the heroics of the great slugger Dick Allen. It was honored at the Book of the Year awards by the Chicago Writers Association that year.
*One of the other players featured in the book, the late Bart Johnson, was born this week in 1950.
*In 2012 we were a brand new company pushing our very first book. The Living Wills was a collaborative novel written by Brendan Sullivan and Rick Kaempfer using techniques we learned from the world of improv.
*This week the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame celebrates its 10th year as a 501c3 Not For Profit. It's a great organization and we're proud to have the president and founder of the CLHOF as part of the Eckhartz Press stable of authors. Donald G. Evans wrote a wonderful collection of short stories called An Off-White Christmas.
*The notorious Chicago gangster Joey "the Clown" Lombardo was born on January 1st. Lombardo is featured in the pages of Mob Adjacent by Jeffrey and Michael Gentile. The Eckhartz Press book was a finalist for CWA Book of the Year in 2020.
*The former Chicago Daily News arts reporter (and Northwestern University professor) Jack Hafferkamp released his novel Sepsis via Eckhartz Press this week in 2017.
*In 2022, Eckhartz Press released Chuck Swirsky's memoir Always a Pleasure. It features some great stories about his life as a sportscaster, and some memorable photos as well. Here he is with this week's birthday boy Lou Holtz.
*In 2018, Eckhartz Press released the final book from another great Chicago sportscaster, Chet Coppock. Your Dime My Dance Floor is a tour through the history of Chicago sports, told by someone who had a front row seat. This photo from the book features Chet with this week's birthday boy, former White Sox slugger Ron Kittle.
*In 2021 we released a book about all the American soccer players who had gone to play professionally in the Premier League. It's called Transatlantic Passage, and was written by Paul Banks. Here's what this week's birthday boy Dave Kerner had to say about it...
“You’ll love reading about what it’s like to be a soccer (always going to be football to me!) fan from multiple perspectives. Thanks to Paul and this in depth look at the evolution of international soccer in the United States, in some ways negative for the men’s game, and in some ways positive for the women’s game.”
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