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!
=Eckhartz Press author Bob Boone is celebrating a birthday this week. Bob wrote the wonderful collection of short stories known as City U. Fellow author Richard Reeder captured Boone's talent this way... “Bob Boone has the unique knack of finding the uncommon in so-called common people. The dialogue of his characters always rings true, never mincing words. Boone is a master of twists and turns in his stories, always keeping his readers thoroughly engaged.”
*Joe Jackson vs. Chicago American League Baseball Club
*Hugh Hefner's First Funeral and Other Tales of Life and Death in Chicago
=This week in 2017, the Chicago Writers Association named Pat Colander's Eckhartz Press book as the CWA Book of the Year. This is a photo of Pat the night she accepted the award.
=We are so happy she got to experience that. Less than a year later Pat passed away.
*Out the Door!
=This week in 2018, Eckhartz Press author M.L Collins also accepted her award for CWA Book of the year for the zany/off-beat novel Out the Door! Eckhartz Press publishers Rick and Dave were on hand to help her celebrate.
*Chili Dog MVP
=In 2022, Chili Dog MVP was also honored by the Chicago Writers Association. The book is about the 1972 White Sox and two of them are celebrating their birthdays this week.
*EveryCubEver
=In 2019, the Eckhartz Press book EveryCubEver was also a finalist for CWA Book of the year. People always ask me to guide them to some of the more interesting entries in this voluminous book. There are two Cubs born this week in history that certainly lived memorable lives. Check out the entries for Hank Gornicki and Dizzy Dean.
*The Daly News
=Martin Luther King Jr. was born this week in history. One of our authors not only knew King, he got the opportunity to interview him on television. Joel Daly tells that story in the pages of The Daly News.
*Surviving Sue
=Vicki Atkinson is teaching a course at Harper College, inspired by the experience of writing Surviving Sue. Details are here.
=Don't forget about Vicki Atkinson's upcoming free workshop...
=This week in 2012 the authors of our first book The Living Wills made an appearance on the WGN-TV Midday News. It was the first of many TV appearances by Eckhartz Press authors.
*1001 Train Rides in Chicago
=Rarely has an interviewer and interviewee hit it off as quickly as Eckhartz Press author Richard Reeder and TV personality Rabbi Doug. This interview is from this week in 2019.
*Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind
=Vicki Quade is famous in Chicago for her theater work, but she also penned a witty Eckhartz Press book Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind about her everyday encounters with Chicagoans. I love the way she organized the stories by location. For instance, an entire chapter is about her experiences in the post office. This might be good week to read that chapter. The first U.S Postmaster, Benjamin Franklin, was born on January 17.
*Behind The Glass
=Another Eckhartz Press TV appearance happened this week in 2022. Randy Merkin appeared on ABC-7 in Chicago to talk about his book Behind the Glass.
*Ike and Me
=This week in 2016, TV sportscaster (and Eckhartz Press author) Rich Kingannounced his retirement from television. At the time he had already written two books for Eckhartz Press (My Maggie, Back in the Game). His retirement allowed him to write one more. Ike and Me was a finalist for CWA Book of the Year in 2022.
*Transatlantic Passage
=We have two books about soccer in the Eckhartz Press library. One is called Grun Weiss Vor! and the other is Transatlantic Passage. That second book is about the Premier League in England. Author Paul Banks was lucky enough to get to speak to some legends, including this week's birthday boy Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
=Cubsesessions is a book about celebrity and die-hard Cub fans, and what Cubdom means to them. One of the featured fans was the Bleacher Preacher Jerry Pritikin, seen below at the book launch party with Eckhartz Press publisher David Stern. His birthday is this week.
=Another contributor to the book was Pat Brickhouse, widow of Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack. She not only contributed to the book, she contributed to our website justonebadcentury.com. Unfortunately Pat passed away this week in 2022.
*Safe Inside
=This week in 2017, Dave and I had breakfast with Lee Kingsmill and made the deal to publish his outstanding novel/memoir Safe Inside. Our faith in Lee was rewarded when the book was named as a finalist for CWA Book of the Year in 2018.
=It’s a Chapter 11
restructuring, although it’s not exactly how they worded it in the company release.I don’t speak fluent corporate, so I thought
I’d just quote them here and maybe you can translate for me…
Audacy Reaches
Agreement with a Supermajority of its Debtholders on Balance Sheet Deleveraging
Transaction that Will Equitize Over 80% of the Company’s Debt and Establish a
Robust Capital Structure to Drive Long-Term Growth
=What’s next for Audacy?
That’s the question everyone is asking. This piece provides some insight by
looking at what happened to Cumulus during their similar bankruptcy in 2017.
=In Chicago, Audacy owns
WXRT, WSCR, WBBM AM & FM, WUSN, and WBMX.
=The list of names was
released this week. You can see the full list here. Last year The Loop was
the radio station inducted, and Bob Sirott was the DJ. This year’s DJ
nominees are Bob Stroud, Mitch Michaels, Steve Dahl, Jonathon Brandmeier,
Terri Hemmert, and Herb Kent. This year’s radio station nominees are
WCFL, WVON, WDCB, and WWCT (Peoria).
*NPR’s News Content Found
Highly Trustworthy
=In this study, NPR was
found safest for brand sponsorship opportunities because it handles sensitive
topics more carefully than others.
She worked as a DJ in
Chicago at WSDM before making her way out to Hollywood. Cindy is best
remembered for her portrayal of Lacey Underall in the film Caddyshack. She
was only 69.
=Tom Langmyer was
the GM at WGN Radio for a number of years. I think this analysis he posted on
Facebook of what ails the industry is dead on…
Was interviewed in this story.
It mentions that local radio stations are usually run by
sales executives, but that has been the case for some time.
However, sales
leadership should not be blamed for the woes of the parent companies. The
REASON for the issues at the station level lies not at the station level.
Stations are victims of
the decisions made well above them.
When a station turns OCF
for the parent company, but the parent company overpaid for media assets and is
also way over-leveraged, there’s the real culprit.
So where does the
company get the money to pay for THEIR malfeasance?
They gut the stations
that were providing the OCF!
Visionary product-rooted
and market leadership is less important, when you’ve decided your unique and
popular local restaurant is now a McDonalds.
The problem further
increases when the image of the industry is blamed on the radio stations
themselves.
It’s a bad image for a
good industry.
It’s about poorly run
companies, whose leaders only know how to manage decline.
But they get paid
millions of dollars to run companies into the ground.
=Chicago radio/podcast
producer Keith Conrad has a new project. It’s called Dimension of the
Lost. Listen to it here.
=Lara Trump joins
Salem Media Group. Her podcast is called The Right View. It will be
audio and video and will feature the whole spectrum of political guests…who agree with Trump.
*Sucherman Brothers
Reunion
=Joel is a top executive at
NPR. Todd is the drummer of Styx. Paul is a lecturer at University of
Wisconsin.
=Check out this classic clip
of the same brothers back in 1977. I love this…
=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.
MEDIA
BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES
*January 7, 1944/Jim
Bohannan’s birthday
=He passed away in
November of 2022, but not before leaving behind a National Radio Hall of Fame
career.
*January 8—Jim Turano birthday
=He was known as Elton Jim when he was a part of the Garry
Meier show on WGN Radio (because of the hundreds of times he has seen
Elton John in concert).
*January 8—Jacky Runice birthday
=She’s currently a columnist for USA Today, but
Jacky was once a radio personality in Chicago at WLS, WLUP, and WGN.
=Brendan is part of Steve Dahl’s crew on
the Dahlcast. He was also part of Dahl’s show on WCKG and WLS-AM. Brendan
published a novel on Amazon called The Genius of 1990s Girls.
=Kristyn had a long stint at Channel 2 as a reporter,
before moving on to a similar role in Cincinnati. In May of 2022, she left the station in Cincy, to return to her
hometown of Chicago to pursue options outside of television news.
=Bill is a WGN-TV news writer and a podcast host (Best Song I Ever Wrote). Kissinger is
married to Channel 2’s Dana Kozlov, and his sister Meg is the
author of the highly acclaimed book "While You Are Out: An Intimate Family
Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence." I interviewed her on my podcast late last year.
*January 12—Rabbi Doug
birthday
= His real name is Doug
Zelden, but you may remember him as Rabbi Doug, a regular
contributor to the Steve & Garry show back in the day. (He
also contributed to Brandmeier’s show and John Landecker’s show
on WJMK). Doug has been doing a cable access interview show Taped with
Rabbi Doug for many years now. Tons of Chicago media figures have
appeared on the show.
*January 13—Derrick Brown birthday
=Derrick is the VP/Programming at IHeartMedia Chicago, and the PD
of WVAZ, WGCI, and BIN 640
=Jenny worked at CBS-2 and WGN-TV as a producer, and Fox-32
as a traffic reporter for a few years before moving on to greener pastures and
better weather in San Diego.
*January 14—Joe McArdle birthday
=Joe has been a radio production guru (ESPN, Tribune, WXRT)
in Chicago for more than 30 years.
*January 14—Mike Krauser birthday
=Mike has been an anchor, reporter, producer, writer,
managing editor and a news director in Chicago since 1988.
=Deborah Norville may have
gotten her start here in Chicago at Channel 5, but she has obviously gone on to
greater heights since. This week the Broadcasters Foundation of America
announced that Norville will be receiving their Lifetime Achievement Award.
Details are here.
*CNN anchor’s Cancer
Announcement
=This moving announcement has garnered her support across the media landscape...
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.
