Friday, January 30, 2015

Getting to the Bottom of Deflate-Gate

A Simpler Time

Album covers from the 60s and 70s, presented without comment...


But Your Honor, I Was Negotiating With Iran

Secretary of State John Kerry was hit with $50 fine for not shoveling his sidewalk in Boston.

I don't know why this story cracks me up, but it does. Boston Strong. "I don't caaaare if Jesus himself asked you to leave town. Shovel your waaaaalk."

George Will on Mr. Cub

Katy Perry

You don't have to admire Katy Perry's music to admire her. The girl is an absolute marketing genius (or has marketing geniuses on staff). She is performing at halftime of the SuperBowl--likely the biggest audience she will ever have--and she's using the opportunity to sell her stuff on YouTube, Twitter, and more.

Variety has the details.

You can't go into a store for girls without running into Katy's merchandise. We even saw it when we were in Switzerland last summer.

The Loop Morning Show

The Loop has been without a morning show for months now as they do a search for their new morning guy (or guys or gal or gals). During February they will be trying people out live on the air. Here's their announcement from the website...

Hey Loopers! Hear personalities try out for the morning shift on The Loop. Starting Monday February 2nd, tune in, turn up and sound off. Listen from 6:00 am to 9:00 am then plan to give feedback here at WLUP.com. Just think, you might be the first to hear the next big thing … or the first to say, “ahh, next!”

Each week you’ll hear a new personality trying-out. Listen each weekday morning in February and tell us what you really think. The Loop has been around this long, because Loopers have been telling us what to do since 1977.

It’s a morning radio casting call!

Here’s what we’re asking: listen to 97-9 The Loop every morning through the whole month of February. Each week you’ll hear a new personality vying for the gig. At the end of the week, take a few minutes on WLUP.com to share your opinion. What’s that saying, “if you don’t vote you can’t bitch?” Loopers may not care what others think, but we care what you think. Thanks for participating in this great radio experiment.

First up is Abe Kanan. Abe hosts a show on Sirius XM. Liz Wilde will also be doing a week...according to her Facebook page.

Not sure who the other two will be. Robert Feder speculates it could be Dan McNeil, Richard Roeper, and/or Mancow.

I worked in this shift at this station a couple of times when it was owned by two different companies. It's now owned (or leased) by Cumulus. They are a completely different animal. I have no idea which direction they will go.


Thursday, January 29, 2015

Barack Obama Singing Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson (ft. Bruno Mars)

Incredible editing job...

Dylan Gardner at Sundance

The youngster is the son of former Landecker & the Legends guitarist Mark Gardner, and is incredibly talented. He's 18 years old now and signed to a record deal with a major label.

This week they've got him at Sundance, and he was interviewed by culturecollide.com. A small taste of the interview...

Throughout Sundance, we'll be reporting on all the best in film and music. Today, we highlight Dylan Gardner. A songwriter and multi-instrumentalist since age 12, Gardner showcases a polished, bubblegum but genuine sound. Soaking up the music of his pop rock forefathers, Gardner brandishes licks and production that call to mind Vampire Weekend and The Killers.

Where are you from? I am from Plainfield, Illinois. More specifically I am from Sandra and Mark Gardner.

What city do you currently call home? Los Angeles! And quite the great home it is.

Describe the perfect Los Angeles day. A perfect day in Los Angeles is me not going outside because I'm demoing songs in my bedroom, only to step out of the house to finish my Elvis Costello/XTC record collection I've been compiling as of late.

What’s your favorite spot for happy hour? Chuck E. Cheese.

Dylan is a great kid. He got his first taste of being on stage with the Legends (when he was still a pre-teen), but has obviously gone on to bigger and better things. All of us are incredibly proud of him. Here's his latest song...

Phoenix Weatherman Just Goes With It

The graphics are completely messed up, but the weatherman makes the best of it...

Rare, unusual Beatles and Rolling Stones photos surface via eBay sale

The LA Times has the story and a few awesome photos I've never seen. You can see them here.

This is the story of the photos origin...

These are images from a trove of 3,500 previously unpublished photos of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones shot from 1964 to 1966 by their road manager, Bob Bonis.

More than 200 are set to surface in a series of limited-edition fine-art prints to be sold over eBay starting Feb. 2, making most of them accessible to the Beatles and Stones fans for the first time. The first batch going up for sale Feb. 2 includes 30 images — 15 of the Beatles, 15 of the Rolling Stones.

This is from an era when both bands looked incredibly clean cut. Mick's face isn't bedraggled. Keith looks alive. The Beatles look like they still like each other. Great stuff.

Andrew Sullivan is Giving up Blogging

Sullivan is probably the biggest blogging star of all-time. His blog, the Dish, has had more readers than any other blog, and he's been doing it for 15 years. Yesterday he announced he would be ending the blog soon. I saw a funny quote about him last night. One fan said: "When he began, older people had no idea what a blog was. As he ends it, young people have no idea what a blog is."

The sheer volume and quality of his posts has been something I've marvelled at over the years. Just doing my little piddly handful of posts every day has taken me more hours than I care to admit, so I have a pretty good idea of how hard Sullivan worked at his craft. Other than taking off the month of August every year, he continued to crank out ten, fifteen, twenty great posts every single day. For 15 years!

Incredible accomplishment. I tip my cap to him.

We're #1


ESPN's baseball expert Keith Law just ranked all of the farm systems in baseball.

The Cubs are #1.

Of all the teams in baseball, the Cubs have the best minor league talent of anyone. That has never happened before. Must. Stay. Calm.

RIP Sue Daly

Dave and I had breakfast with Joel last week and he told us that his wife Sue was in hospice care, and that she didn't have much time left. She passed away only a few hours later. Sad news. They were married for 57 years.

The Sun Times obituary about Sue was actually wonderfully written by Maureen O'Donnell. Here's a short excerpt...

When Joel Daley prepared to ship out to Panama, he proposed in a letter that said, “I’m going overseas and I don’t want to be without you.” To bolster his case, he added some math on Army benefits: “ ‘I make $76 a month, but you as a dependent would make $125.’ I laid it out like a businessman, and ‘Panama is supposed to be a pretty nice place to go.’ ” As for his pragmatic computations, “She kidded me about it a little bit,” he said. “Somewhere in this house is a box full of every letter I ever wrote” her.

She returned home to have their first child, Doug, in Rock Island. Then it was off to Cleveland, where her husband had landed a job at WGAR radio. Next he joined WLS in Chicago, paired with anchor Fahey Flynn. Mrs. Daly wasn’t sure about it. “A father-son Irish team, it’ll never work,” she told her husband. “That’s the only time she was ever wrong, and we let her know about it once in a while,” he said. The Flynn-Daly partnership lasted 18 years.

He got to be with the kids when they came home for lunch, but “it was tough, because I did the 10 o’clock news and I wouldn’t get home till 11:30 or a quarter to 12 and she’d be in bed,” he said. “Pretty much all of the weight was on her shoulders.”

In addition to caring for their three children, she took in 25 or so foster babies over the years, said their daughter, Kelly. Some were African-American, which raised eyebrows in the 1960s when Mrs. Daly went to the grocery store, she said. “It didn’t matter. If you ever saw ‘Steel Magnolias,’ she was Shirley MacLaine. She’d wear overalls with a mink, and never cared what people thought. That was part of her charm.

Working with Joel on his book "The Daly News" has been one of the great joys of my time running Eckhartz Press. He's such a kind and wonderful man. And he was deeply devoted to his wife. We never met her because she was already quite ill when Joel was promoting the book, but it sure sounds like she was every bit as kind and wonderful as Joel.

May she rest in peace.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

A Valentine's Day Present?

Happy Valentine's Day! Honey, why are you mad? He's a millionaire industrialist, AND he's super soft and cuddly. Look at those cute little handcuffs. What's the matter? Where are you going? Don't slam the (SLAM)...door. Sheesh. Well, excuuuuse me for trying to be literary.

Fox News is #1 for 13th year

Fox News has revolutionized the news business, created an entire new genre (activist journalism, or talk-show-host journalism), super-served their audience by telling them exactly what they want to hear in exactly the angry tone of voice they want to hear it, and transformed your formerly civil family gatherings into tense powder kegs. And you've got to hand it to them--they've done it very well. Fox News has been #1 now for 13 years. Conservative talk-radio (which inspired the creation of Fox News) may be in trouble, but Fox News just keeps rolling. Granted, my generation is the last generation watching, but that's true of television in general, not just Fox News.

A New Morning Show in Chicago

WGCI has a new morning show. The RAMP newsletter has the details...

The station just announced that Kyle Santillian and Kendra G will join existing wake-up host Leon Rogers, starting tomorrow, January 29. "We've signed Chicago's next big morning show," said Derrick Brown, Director of Urban Programming for iHeartMedia Chicago. "Listeners can expect non-stop fun, comedy, entertainment features and the best hip-hop & R&B to get you moving in the morning. Kyle, Kendra and Leon are one-of-a-kind entertainers, but most importantly, they have a heart for the community. They won't hesitate to tackle tough issues our listeners confront or step in to lend a helping hand." Santillian most recently did mornings on Entercom Urban WJMH (102 Jamz)/Greensboro; Kendra G formerly co-hosted mornings across the street at Urban rival WPWX (Power 92) and WVEE (V103)/Atlanta. Rogers (left) has been flying solo since early December, when the station parted ways with the other 2/3 of the former Morning Riot -- Tony Sculfield and Nina Chantele. "I'm excited to have Kyle and Kendra G join the team," said Rogers. "Time to dominate!"

Our Tribute Shirt



Just One Bad Century's tribute to four beloved greats from Cubs lore. All are missed tremendously. A portion of the proceeds from every shirt will be donated to Cubs Charities in honor of Ernie, Ronnie, Jack, and Harry. It's right here at JOBC, if you're interested.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Father Knows Nothing

Round 2 of interviews for Father Knows Nothing coming soon. Here are some highlights from Round One--compiled by my son Tommy.

Great Idea

Thanks "AK" for this one...

The "My Sweet Lord" of this generation

A judge ruled that Sam Smyth's song "Stay with Me" is too similar to Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down". Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne (the composers of "I Won't Back Down") are now listed as co-writers of the song, and will receive royalties.

Judge for yourself. It's a different tempo and feel, but the notes in the chorus do appear to be the same...





I do believe Smyth when he says he didn't do intentionally. I also believed George Harrison during the "My Sweet Lord" lawsuit. When you're creating something, you don't even realize sometimes that the inspiration comes from someone else. Honestly, it could happen to anyone.

Happy Birthday Wolfy

My father's favorite composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is a mere 259 years old today. I grew up hearing tales of Mozart's greatness ("You can't even tie your shoes? When Mozart was your age, he was composing concertos!"). Nevertheless, I do love his music, and I also love the movie made about him--"Amadeus". I saw it the day it came out in Champaign Illinois at the Coed Theater (which no longer exists). Sitting right behind me in the theater that day was King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew.

Dick Biondi update


Robert Feder chatted with Dick yesterday and it sounds like Biondi is on the mend and should be returning to the airwaves very soon. Glad to hear it!

Public Radio Contributions Up

For all the talk about ending funding to NPR (remember that hubub?), public radio is doing quite well thanks to contributions from their listeners. From this morning's Tom Taylor column...

Not only are some prominent public radio stations regularly scoring the #1, #2 or #3 positions in some very large Nielsen markets – they’re also scoring with the pocketbooks of their P1 fans. A new Corporation for Public Broadcasting study finds that while the number of individual financial contributors to public TV dropped from 3.9 million to 3,030,000 between 2003 and 2013 – the comparable category for public radio shows growth, from 2,520,000 to 2,850,000. And the average amount per contributor is now slightly higher for radio than for TV. Public TV’s getting $134 per person in response to those late-night pledge-a-thons and oldies concerts. Public radio’s harvesting $137. Total support for public radio in 2013 was $1.08 billion, with public TV at $1.69 billion.

Ernie's Memorial Service

The Cubs released the information about Ernie's memorial service. For those of you in town who are thinking of going, it will be held at the church across the street from the Hancock...

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015
12 P.M.-8 P.M.

PUBLIC VISITATION
FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
EAST CHESTNUT STREET (AT NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE)
126 EAST CHESTNUT STREET
CHICAGO, IL 60611

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015
10 A.M.

MEMORIAL SERVICES FOR ERNIE BANKS (LIMITED PUBLIC SEATING AVAILABLE)
FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
EAST CHESTNUT STREET (AT NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE)
126 EAST CHESTNUT STREET
CHICAGO, IL 60611

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Ernie’s memory to Cubs Charities at the below address or by visiting www.cubs.com/give and clicking on “Donate Now”.

Cubs Charities
In Memory of Ernie Banks
Wrigley Field
1060 West Addison
Chicago, IL 60613

Monday, January 26, 2015

And it's not even as cold as it could be in January

Rolling Stone Reviews Louis CK's Stand Up


I saw this show when he came to the Chicago Theater, and I agree with the assessment of the reviewer--Matthew Love.

Louis is always incredibly funny, but his previous specials were a little funnier. Almost not fair to him--he set the bar very very high.

Ernie's son


Ernie's son talks about what it was like to have Ernie as a dad.

Nice piece in today's Tribune.

The Pearly Gates

MLB posted this on their facebook page...



As my buddy BH points out to me...this cartoon got one big detail wrong. It should have been Brickhouse and not Harry welcoming him. Brick was the announcer during Ernie's era, not Harry.

New Back Door Plan Regarding Net Neutrality

I've got to hand it to the Republicans in Congress. They are drafting a bill regarding Net Neutrality, and as always, they have included just enough language to make it appear they are on the side of the people. From this morning's Variety...

The bill would ban Internet providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or from charging for speedier delivery of content to their subscribers. But at a series of hearings this week, Democrats who have called for robust net neutrality rules criticized the legislation because it would place limits on the FCC’s authority over Internet providers, making it more difficult for the agency to respond to consumer complaints.

Sneaky eh? Give the people what they want now, but change the rules so that they are powerless from stopping the next move--and there's always a next move. They say it's to ensure that regulators don't stifle innovation...but the only innovation it has any chance of impeding are the innovative new ways the two or three corporate telecom giants can reach their hands into your pocketbooks. I guarantee they already have a plan for what to do next.

Leslie Keiling out at WGN

Robert Feder posted the news late last night...

Keiling, known to fans of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier in the 1980s as “Lane Closure,” delivered traffic on almost every radio station in town over the past three decades and has been heard exclusively on WGN since 2004. On Sunday she tweeted: “Looks like I’m going to have some free time. Will miss my WGN family.”

Todd Manley, vice president of content and programming at WGN, thanked Keiling for her “always tenacious talents” and her service to the station.

Bummer for Leslie. She's an old pal of mine. We worked together twice before--with Steve & Garry in the late 80s/early 90s and John Landecker in the late 90s/early 00s. I consider her the best traffic reporter in Chicago. Someone will/should snap her up very quickly.