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".
=In 2002, John Landecker's dad had just passed away, so John brought his ashes to work on Take Your Parents to Work Day. It was a memorably hilarious moment.
=If it happened in the 90s, I wrote a parody song about it. Our Landecker and the Legends song that election was called "Big Macarena." Will we play it on this week's show?
November
6, 2001—Mickey’s Magical Christmas released
=Johnny Kaempfer (age 3) memorably reviewed the film on the air. Will we play it on this week's show?
November
8, 2006—First Chick Fil A opens in San Diego.
Birthed by Chicago natives Carl and Larry Rosenbaum, “The Flip Side” grew from an idea into a store and then into a chain. Somewhere along the way, those stores sprouted an entire second identity as Chicago’s premier concert promoter, putting on some of the biggest rock shows Chicago saw in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
In so many ways, Flip Side defined music for hundreds of thousands of Chicagoland music fans.
The Flip Side: Where Chicago Rocked takes you through the lifespans of both the record store chain as well as their concert business. We’ll give you a look ‘behind the counter’ and show you how everything was built, how it all lived and breathed, and we’ll share many of the fun and not-so-fun stories that took place. More than that, we’ll give you a warm look back and a chance to revisit what was a great time in Chicago and an even better time in rock and roll.
As Emerson, Lake & Palmer so famously once said, welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. We’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside…
=Don't forget to mark your calendar for the upcoming book launch party for Eric Litt's Worth a Second Look. He'll be at Sketchbook in Skokie (4901 Main Street, Skokie) on Tuesday night November 12th at 7:30pm. Sketchbook is a great local brewery and tap room with a biergarten, live music, and visiting food trucks.
=In addition, this week in 1995 (November 3), the Toronto Raptors played their first game in franchise history. The man behind the play-by-play microphone was Chuck Swirsky. He talked about that story in this podcast.
=And finally, this week is the birthday (November 5) of the late great basketball titan, Bill Walton. Chuck wrote about him in his book as well.
=This week in 2022 (November 4), Rick Kaempfer kicked off the publicity campaign to his coming-of-age spy novel Back in the DDR with an interview on WGN Radio. That interview is here.
=It's not a coincidence that the book came out the same week the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 (November 9). Rick took this first photo of the wall in 1976, the year the book takes place. It appears on the back cover of the book. The second photo was taken just a few weeks after the wall came down. That's Rick and his brother Peter. Lots of stretches like this still existed. It's completely gone now. The third photo is from this summer. Rick is standing outside the East German secret police headquarters (STASI), which has been turned into a museum.
=This week in 2021, Grammar Moses author Jim Baumann was making the rounds promoting his book. He appeared on this podcast with Steve Cochran (November 3), and the Minutia Men Celebrity Interview the next day (November 4). Two days later he was in Elgin, signing and selling copies of Grammar Moses. The pandemic was still raging, and our intrepid author was out there fully masked.
=This week in 2016, Bobby Skafish made two public appearances selling and promoting his book. The first stop was in Des Plaines, Il (November 7). The second stop (November 9) was at the legendary Red Lion pub on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.
=This week in 1882, the Dow Jones was founded. Not many people know this, but early in his career, John Landecker actually went by the name Dow Jones on the air. This is the only known picture of Dow Jones, taken outside the radio station in Michigan.
=This week in 2013, John Landecker appeared on Pete McMurray's show on WGN Radio to talk about the book.
=This week in 2017, John was on the air at WBEZ Radio, and WGN-TV talking about the new Hall of Fame edition of the book. His daughter Amy joined him on the WGN TV set.
=One of the contributors to Records Truly Is My Middle Name, Catherine Johns, is celebrating a birthday this week (November 3). She tells a few very memorable stories about Landecker in the book.
=One of the joys of the book Mob Adjacent is the way it intersects the world of the mafia with the world of Hollywood. One of the big stars of the era who is discussed in the book, Art Carney, was born this week in 1918 (November
4).
=This week in 2018 (November 5), Chet Coppock had the single-biggest-selling day in the life of his book. He spoke at the Polish American Alliance in Westmont, and every single attendee (over 200) bought a copy of the book. Chet was in rare form that day.
=The Eckhartz Press book Righteous Might takes place on the USS Gerald R. Ford. Now, if you happen to go on that ship, you can read Righteous Might in the ship's library. We got a letter this week (November 6) in 2020 from the ship's Captain. What an honor. Congrats to author Keith Conrad!
=This week in 2016, Eckhartz Press author Mark Gelinas was featured on a local television station in Atlanta (WSB-TV). Mark passed away a few years later, but this interview, and the book lives on. Mark's story will always remain an inspiration.
=This week in 2014 (November 4), Rick Kaempfer was out and about promoting his humor book Father Knows Nothing. As a bonus for the readers of the book, he released these bonus audio tracks on our website. Two of the boys featured in the book (Tommy & Johnny) come to life via these timeless audio clips.
=This week in 2018 (November 9), Windy City Reviews came out with a review of the Eckhartz Press book Cameo. Here's what they had to say about the book....
Cameo, by Beth Jacobellis, is an interweaving of the past, its impact on the present, and how our feelings can get in the way of understanding what is pulling us through to the future. The book begins in the present, but we are quickly transported to the cameo’s present life in 1994 and then again through vignettes from 1885, 1976 and 1989. Cameo is a charming story to read. It is not a long book, but this type of love story, with layers of the past all playing out at the same time, draws us into Samantha’s quest and carries us through a briskly-paced read. I enjoyed this book for its clear storytelling and mysterious overtones. I also found it refreshing that the past is not always looking to punish but merely to resolve.
=This week in 2021, during the height of the pandemic, Bob Boone gave a talk about his collection of short stories, City U, via zoom. The virtual author event actually took place in Glencoe, but this was around the time we started figuring out that we are no longer confined by our location.
=This week in 2023, two of the stars from the book Grun Weiss Vor! were inducted into the Illinois Soccer Hall of Fame. Marcus Laxgang was a Herman Award Winner as the best college soccer player in America, and Joe Filian played along the likes of Franz Beckenbauer on the New York Cosmos. Both players got their start at Green White Soccer Club.
A curation of news items
about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago.
RADIO/PODCASTS
*Chicago Radio Ratings
=The October numbers are in, and here are the top ten rated radio stations in Chicago (6+, M-Sun,
6am-Mid)
WBBM-AM (6.3)
WDRV (6.0)
WVAZ (5.4)
WLIT (4.8)
WLS-FM (4.5)
WXRT (4.5)
WOJO (3.8)
WUSN (3.8)
WRME (3.5)
WKSC (3.0)
=The three stations who had
the biggest jump this month were WTMX, which rebounded to just outside the top
ten (+0.6), Spanish Language WPPM (+0.3), and news/talk WGN (+0.6). They find
themselves in 11th, 12th and 16th place
respectively.
=The biggest drops belong
to WXRT (-0.5) and WVAZ (-0.4), but both stations still performed well.
*Dan McNeil
=What has former Sports-talker (The Score, ESPN, WDRV, The Loop) Dan McNeil been working on lately? Turns out Danny Mac has been hard at work writing a book about his beloved Bears. That's why Dan and the Bears are the
subject of my latest Illinois Entertainer column. You can read it here. (Dan’s
book is an Eckhartz Press release)
*It’s Christmas Music Time
=Halloween was yesterday.
You know what means at WLIT. It’s Christmas time in the city. Ring a ling. The tunes begin at 1pm today.
=My tribute to Teri
Garr is later in this column, but do you remember her ties to WLIT in
Chicago? She did this commercial…
=His three decade run at 720AM will continue. Lou’s Fix-It show airs Saturday mornings from 6am—10am. He also
does weekly appearances on the air with Bob Sirott, Lisa Dent, and
John Williams.
*Mitch Rosen’s Letter to
the Editor
=Gotta give Mitch credit for this one. With all the
uncertainty surrounding the Bulls TV broadcasts, he sent The Chicago Sun
Times a letter to the editor, reminding everyone that the Bulls games are
easily found on the radio. Mitch is VP at the Score. Here’s a small excerpt…
Play-by-play on the
radio has been a choice for fans for generations. By listening to the call of
the game, fans develop a bond with their favorite team and its announcers,
taking advantage of the intimacy offered by radio that can be heard at home,
the office, the car or anywhere else fans want to tune in. Fans can literally
take the games anywhere in this modern age using a cellphone, free apps such as
the Audacy app, smart speakers, smart televisions and other devices…Chuck
Swirsky, our Bulls play-by-play voice, is one of the best in the business. Next
to him is analyst Bill Wennington, a member of three of the ‘90s championship
teams. Postgame host Alyssa Bergamini, who hails from Chicago’s South Side,
offers sharp insight, as she knows the game very well.
*Faith Rock and Roll
=Hosted by former WXRT
General Manager Paul Agase…
*Podcast Corner
=The Signal Award winners
for podcasts were announced this week. Among the winners: Kara Swisher,
George Clinton, Anderson Cooper, Abby Wambach, Trevor Noah, and Jon
Lovett. See the full list here.
Detroit radio legend. Inspired
future Chicago jocks like Joel Sebastian, John Landecker, and more. He was 90.
MEDIA
BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES
*October 27-- Liz
Wilde birthday
=She worked at the Loop in
Chicago in the mid-90s, but has also been on the air in Miami, Boston,
Cleveland, Dallas and more. Liz passed away a few weeks ago. She was only 52.
*October 28--Bill
Zehme birthday
=The great media writer
passed away in March of 2023.
*October
30, 1938
=Orson Welles broadcasts "The War of the Worlds"
radio hoax, causing mass panic in US.
*October
30—Jim Volkman birthday
=Best
known for his spot-on Harry Caray impersonation.
*October 31—Jim Shorts birthday
=The (totally real) sportscaster was born on Halloween. (I've
interviewed him in English, and German, The German one is here, if you'd like to hear it.)
*October 31-- Jane Pauley birthday
=She obviously went on to bigger and better things, but she did a stint
here locally at WMAQ-TV, Channel 5.
=The late great comic actor also hosted a radio show that aired on AM
1000 back in the day. It was called Radio Candy.
*November 1-- Tom Sochowski birthday
=Former radio producer/host (WJMK, WCKG, ESPN, The Fish).
*November 1-- Judy Pielach birthday
=Former WGN & WLS newscaster
*November 2—Ron
Gleason birthday
=Former
program director of The Score and NewsRadio WBBM.
TV/STREAMING
*Brad
Edwards Leaves Journalism
=A few months
ago I reported that Brad had left Channel 2. The station never made an official
announcement, and neither did Brad. Until this week. He talked to Justin
Kaufmann at Axiosabout his new plans.
=The 72-year-old made the announcement yesterday that he will be retiring as a play-by-play man. He'll still be working in television, and most likely in sports, but his play-by-play days are over. Remember his days with the Bulls?
= Jon
Stewart signs for another year. He made the announcement on The Daily
Show Monday night. That was his last Daily Show before the election,
but he’ll be on board now through the end of 2025.
=I don’t think
Geraldo Rivera (self-proclaimed JewRican) is on board with his good
friend Donald Trump this time around. Just a feeling I get…
Latino men, for the love of your parents and children, for your pride and your honor tell this little gringo shit to go fuck himself. https://t.co/ClpvYzsGQU
One of my
all-time favorite comic actresses. She was 79. I will always remember her
fondly for her performance in the classic Young Frankenstein.
DIGITAL/PRINT
*Continued
Fallout at Washington Post
=A day after
receiving a Pulitzer Prize, David Hoffman stepped down from the
editorial board of the Washington Post. The reason is Jeff Bezos’s
decision not to endorse a presidential candidate.
=Jeff Bezos
wrote an op-ed on Tuesday explaining his decision. It didn’t exactly calm down
his staff or his readers. Over 250,000 readers have cancelled their
subscriptions.
*TikTok introduces Access Hollywood Tape to Generation Z
=They were too young to be aware of it when it came out eight years ago, but after Trump's comments this week about protecting women "if they want it or not", his Access Hollywood tape re-emerged on Tiktok, and has gone viral. The Washington Post has more.
*On Elon
Musk’s X, Republicans go Viral while Democrats Disappear
=That’s the
headline in the Washington Post this week after analyzing tweets on the social
media platform. Full analysis is here.
=Here’s the analysis from CNN.com. Misinformation is pumping out on X at a level that can’t
be counteracted by election officials.
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.
