MEDIA NOTEBOOK
A curation of news items about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago.
Media Notebook returns on July 12.
Friday, July 05, 2024
Thursday, July 04, 2024
20 Years: South Africa & Soccer
This week I'm in Berlin watching the European Cup Championships. It's not the first time I've travelled a long distance to witness soccer. In 2010, we went to South Africa for the World Cup. There are many stories from that trip, including this one below, which was initially published as a Father Knows Nothing column in Shore Magazine.
My brother Peter, my sister Cindy, and I (along with our cousin Martina)
just spent two weeks together in Africa–just the four of us–and we spent nearly
every moment with each other during that time.
We didn’t just go the World
Cup games and the
Safari together (click on the links for those stories and pictures). We
shared hotel rooms.
Peter and I hadn’t shared a room since 1977. But there was one big
difference back in 1977 (other than the fact that I was 14 and he 7 back then).
In 1977 we had bunk beds. In Africa, our “double room,” which we believed meant
two beds, actually meant one (very small) “double bed.” Two grown men in their
40s with expanding waistlines sharing a bed that my kids wouldn’t share because
it wasn’t big enough.
Needless to say, it was a little cramped. And have I mentioned that both of
us snore? Good times. I think neither of us had a good night sleep the entire
time there.
My sister Cindy and my cousin Martina were going through the same thing in
their room, but somehow the double bed situation didn’t bother them as much.
They did, however, share our discomfort with something even more awkward.
Let me tell you about an interesting little feature of our African hotel
room bathroom: See-through doors.
That’s right, see-through doors. As in, you can see right in just by looking
at the door.
And the toilet is the first thing you see.
And the bathroom door is the first thing you see when you open the hotel
room door.
Let me run a quick scenario by you, just in case your brain hasn’t already
gone there…
Knock, knock. “Housekeeping.”
“No, don’t come in, I’m…”
“Oh, hello sir. I see you sitting there. I’ll come back. How much time do
you need?”
I’m still stumped trying to figure out what they were thinking when they
designed those doors. I know they probably envisioned a couple sharing this
room (instead of two aging brothers), but even if you’re young lovers on your
honeymoon, do you really want to see your significant other sitting on the
john?
We did manage to have some fun with this weirdness. Peter and I instituted
what we called “The Privacy Zone.” When one of us had to go in the bathroom for
whatever reason (and by the way, have I mentioned that it was also a
see-through shower door?), we erected an invisible “Privacy Shield” that could
not be penetrated by mortal man. The non-bathroom attendee had to stay around
the corner, with no visual contact of the see-through door.
Peter even took this one step further. He discovered that the Hyatt next
door to our hotel had plush public bathrooms with non-see-through doors, and he
started going there. It became a running joke. The phrase “I have to go to the
Hyatt” will always make me laugh.
But if you think about it, we were actually lucky.
Who could have handled this odd privacy situation better than siblings? We
grew up in the same house, raised by the same parents. We knew each other’s
quirks intimately, and had already been forced to accept them. In our case, we
had even traveled around the world with each other many times before (my father
worked for the Department of Defense), and experienced the inevitable cultural
oddities together. After you’ve tackled a Romanian bathroom, which we did in
the 70s when Romania didn’t have running water, this see-through African one
was like the Taj Mahal.
And here’s probably the best thing about the whole trip. We got along just
fine. No fights. No arguments. No bickering.
Our parents would have killed for that in 1977.
***
A few more pieces about South Africa/Soccer...
What Soccer Means to Me***
Also, as a bonus, during the Cubs season I've always got some Cubs stories that happened this week in history. Here are a few if you're interested...
June 30, 1880—Birthdate of Kangaroo Davy Jones, wacky Cub
July 1, 1919—Prohibition begins in Chicago. How did the Cubs handle that?
July 6, 1932—Billy Jurges shot:
Wednesday, July 03, 2024
Studio Walls--July 3, 2024
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.
Here are a few from the archives...
June 30, 1959—Two balls in play at once at Cubs game
=We have the audio of that totally confusing play-by-play
June 30—Mike Tyson birthday
=Dan Frischman of the show Head of the Class has a great story about his brush with Mike Tyson. He told it to us in this episode of Minutia Men.
***
July 1—Release of the New York Times bestseller The Lie by William Dameron
=He appeared in this episode of Minutia Men Celebrity Interview.
July 1—Canada Day
=Mr. Zero, one of the leaders of the Canadian Band The Kings appeared on Minutia Men.
=Felix Cavaliere from the Rascals talked to us about his inexplicable popularity in Canada.
=Canadian journalist Paul Saltzman told us a story about Beatles making fun of Canada.
***
July 3--Tom Cruise birthday
=I told my Tom Cruise story in this episode of Minutia Men.
July 3, 1971—Don Kessinger hits an inside the park homer
=We have the audio.
July 3, 2020—Rick appears on Phil Manicki show on WGN
=We talked about the media business, including our show Minutia Men. You can hear it here.
***
July 4, 1954—West Germany beats Hungary 3-2 to win the World Cup
=Just another reminder to listen to Free Kicks.
July 4—Bill Schnee birthday
=The famous recording engineer/producer has some incredible rock and roll stories. A great sampling of them are in this interview.
***
July 5, 1970—Leo Durocher starts a brawl
=We have the play-by-play audio.
July 6, 1970—Ron Santo hits 3 homers
=We play the play-by-play audio.
July 6--Robert Loerzel birthday
=The Chicago historian tells us all about the 1919 race riots in Chicago.
July 6—Burt Ward birthday
=Mike Toomey has a story about dealing with Robin.
July 6—Nick Digilio birthday
=Nick came on the Minutia Men show shortly before debuting his Radio Misfits podcast.
Tuesday, July 02, 2024
Publishing Portal--July 2, 2024
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!
=Will Wagner celebrated a birthday this past weekend (June 28). Will wrote the wonderful novel imagining what happened to Pete Townsend's guitar after he tossed it into the crowd at Woodstock.
=Former Eckhartz Press author Mark Taylor is celebrating a birthday this week (July 4). Mark wrote the book Hospital Heal Thyself. How good was his book? An international publisher swooped in and bought the rights to it. Congrats again to Mark. He's killing it.
=Thanks to everyone who came out to Blue Island Brewing Company this past weekend to meet Last Comiskey author Ken Smoller. The owner of the joint, Alan Cromwell, is always a great host to our authors. Thanks Alan!
=Mark your calendars, Vicki Atkinson has an event July 30th in Woodstock.
Everything I Know I learned from Rock Stars
=This week in 2017, Bill Paige was making the rounds because his book Everything I Know I Learned from Rock Stars was released (July 1). Needless to say, Bill was thrilled. Here's a photo of the day he got the first copy of the book...
=July 1 is also the birthday of Bill's cover-girl, Debbie Harry.
=Bill was in town for the book release, and took advantage, by returning an album he had taken out of the Arlington Heights library a measly 30 years earlier. It caught the attention of the Daily Herald
=This week in 2019 (July 1) was also the release of Deb Tokarz's book I Cu Copper. What is that book about? Here's a Q&A with Deb. You have to admit, it's one of our coolest covers ever.
=This week in 2013 (July 2), Eckhartz Press released our first children's book. It was written by Scott Redman, a sing-along story he created for his kid. The book includes a series of original photos by photographer Ray Nilsen.
=This week in 2017, Lee Kingsmill got the very first copy of his book Safe Inside. It would be a few more weeks before the book's official release, but Lee was very excited...
=Eckhartz Press author Roger Badesch will be performing on stage soon. Mark your calendars. He notes: It’s been a ‘Covid-minute’ since I had the honor and pleasure of joining my fellow SAG-AFTRA Chicago Radio Players in a live performance of classic old-time-radio (OTR) programs. So I’m happy to announce that we’re on stage again at the Chicago Cultural Center (old main Chicago library) downtown July 14th at 1:30pm. Two shows FREE - Call Northside 777 (I’m the narrator) and My Favorite Husband. Make plans now!
=This week in 2014 (July 1), Bruce Bohrer was making the rounds promoting his Diary of a Wrigley Field Usher. One of the stops was WGN Radio. He appeared on Bob Sirott & Marianne Murciano's show...
=Two years later (6/30/16), when the Cubs were actually good, Daily Herald columnist Burt Constable sought out Bruce again to see if he had any regrets about leaving the job before the team hit it big.
Three of the sports titans featured in Randy Merkin's book are celebrating birthdays this week. The late George Steinbrenner was born on July 4. The story of booking him as a radio guest is one of the best stories in Randy's book. Former slugger Jose Canseco is another birthday boy this week (July 2), and so is one of the greatest boxers of all-time, Mike Tyson (June 30)
Records Truly Is My Middle Name
=Two people featured in John Landecker's book are celebrating birthdays this week. Sly Stallone (July 6) turned John's interview with him into national publicity. Check out Rick's blog from Thursday if you want to read it. July 1 is also Dan Ackroyd's birthday. Danny and John Belushi stopped by the WLS studios to visit Landecker while they were filming The Blues Brothers.
=Goose Gossage wrote the foreword to Chili-Dog MVP, and the Hall of Famer is celebrating a birthday this week (July 5). Author David Fletcher explained how he managed to convince Goose to write that in this podcast interview. Since Chili Dog MVP is about the 1972 White Sox, we would be remiss if we didn't also mention two other key players in the book. Chuck Tanner (July 4) was the manager of that team, and Dave Lemonds.(July 5)
Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind
=On July 1, 1863, the First National Bank of Chicago opened. Seems like the perfect day to remind you about Vicki Quade's great book about her personal encounters with Chicagoans. She spends an entire chapter telling stories about her encounters in banks. Very funny stuff.
=One of the great basketball announcers is the former basketball superstar Clark Kellogg. Chuck Swirsky is in that same broadcast fraternity, and features this photograph of the two men in his book Always a Pleasure. Clark's birthday is July 1.
=Paul Banks wrote a book about soccer in America and how our players are becoming popular worldwide. That's especially true of our women. Birthday girl Alex Morgan (July 2) is at the top of that list. This photo is from Paul's book...
=One of the most beloved people who ever worked at the Loop (WLUP Radio) was promotions director Sandy Stahl. This week in 2008 (July 3) she died unexpectedly at the much too young age of 58. When Rick Kaempfer wrote The Loop Files about the history of that radio station, he dedicated the book to Sandy. Here is a photo of her from the book...
=The great Robbie Robertson was born this week (July 5) in 1943. Robbie passed away in 2023, but will live on forever in the pages of Bobby Skafish's rock and roll interview book We Have Company.
=Rich King's latest book is about the great working relationship he had with his cameraman Ike. The Black and White team made it work for more than 20 years. But when Rich got invited to the White House as part of the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup celebration, it was another distinguished Chicago journalist who was there with him. His colleague from Channel 7 in Chicago, Jim Rose. Rose is celebrating a birthday this week (July 5)
=The second book ever released by Eckhartz Press was Kim Strickland's Down at the Golden Coin. Windy City Live's Paige Wiser was one of the novel's biggest fans. (Her birthday is this week too--July 6). Here is what she said about Kim's book...
“Down at the Golden Coin” couldn’t be more timely or original, with the most eccentric spiritual guide since Clarence the Angel. Prepare to set your set your brain to spin-cycle.
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