Showing posts with label Jim Volkman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jim Volkman. Show all posts

Friday, January 27, 2023

Media Notebook--1-27-23















MEDIA NOTEBOOK

A curation of news items about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago…



RADIO/PODCASTS


*Chicago Radio Ratings

=The Holiday season numbers are out, and to the surprise of no-one, WLIT is strongly atop the ratings perch. They pulled in an amazing 14.8 rating (12+), which is their best in eight years. Rounding out the top five are…WDRV and WVAZ (tied for second at 5.0), WBBM-AM (4.8) and WTMX (3.7)

=Other stations that brought in respectable numbers this time around include WBEZ (3.4), WOJO (3.3), WLS-FM (3.2), WXRT (3.1).

=Also in the top 15, US-99 (2.9), WKSC (2.9), WGN (2.8), WBMX (2.8), WLEY (2.6), and WGCI (2.3)

=Obviously this isn’t broken down by daypart or other demos, but the numbers are available for all to see at Radio Online.



*Tributes to Lin Brehmer Pouring In

=Chicagoans were reeling all week after WXRT announced the news that Lin Brehmer had passed away. The Marquees at his favorite old concert venues (like the Vic, the Metro, and more) paid tribute to him. Fellow broadcasters from all across the radio dial chimed in with their words of admiration and comfort, and so did music artists like Steve Earle. And, of course, WXRT produced an incredible tribute to him that aired on Monday.  Here are few other tributes you might have missed…

=His congressman Mike Quigley posted this video of him praising Lin on the floor of the US House of Representatives. It’s from ten years ago, but how many other Chicago broadcasters have a similar video?


=His longtime producer Pete Crozier has been writing touching tributes to Lin all week. I recommend going on his facebook page to read them. Beautifully written. This is also the very last Lin’s Bin,courtesy of Pete. 

=I had no idea that Channel 5’s Alex Maragos grew up across the street from Lin.

=This interview Lin did with RadioGirl (Margaret Larkin) was certainly one of his last long form interviews. Worth a listen.

=My own interview with Lin (from 2018) was reposted by the Illinois Entertainer this week and got tons of retweets.

=I also posted this excerpt from the Eckhartz Press book “Cubsessions” that featured an interview with Lin talking about how much the Cubs World Series win meant to him. 

=And finally, I think this might be the tribute that would have meant most to Lin.


 

*The Loop Files

=I’ve been very gratified at the interest this new feature of mine (posted every Tuesday) has been generating on social media. This week I featured my interview with former Brandmeier show producer/writer Brendan Sullivan. Since I posted it, I was sent the audio of a very funny bit Brendan referenced in the piece. Harry Caray (Jim Volkman) and Jerry Lewis (Jeff Hoover) recreating the Royale with Cheese scene from Pulp Fiction. I posted it at the end of the interview.


 

*Sportscaster of the Year

=Congrats to ESPN Radio’s Jonathan Hood for being named Sportscaster of the Year for his work with the UIC Flames. You’ll probably recognize a few of the other faces in this photo.


 

*Chicago-Area Cluster of Radio Stations Sold

=This news comes from Bob Heymann, who brokered the deal. Shaw Local Radio Co, an Illinois corporation, has purchased WALS-FM, WIVQ-FM, WSTQ-FM, WYYS-FM, WGLC-FM, WBZG-FM, WSPL-AM, W253BX98.5FM from Studstill Media and the Studstill family. The stations are licensed in Ogelsby, Spring Valley, Streator, Mendota, and Peru, Illinois. The price tag was $1.8 million.

 


*Job Opening at Audacy

=Whenever I see an opening like this in Chicago, I’ll try to pass it along. Audacy is looking for a Midwest regional promotions director based in Chicago. You can apply right here. That page also lists the job duties and the qualifications necessary to be considered.


 

*Ex-Chicago Radio Corner

=Todd Fooks, who worked at Q-101 in Chicago for six years, was just named the host of the syndicated show Loudwire Nights. He had been hosting the weekend version of the show. Radio Insight has more information.


 

*Podcast Corner

=The top 20 rated podcasts of 2022 are featured in this piece in Radio Ink. Six of them come from the NPR family including the top podcast of the year, NPR News Now.

=George Ofman interviewed Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios this week on his podcast. Worth a listen for sure.


 

*Mike Fowler

=The former General Manager of Rock 103.5 and WJMK Oldies 104.3 is dealing with a major health crisis. He has been diagnosed with ALS. Mike and his daughter announced it publicly this week via his Facebook page. Best wishes to Mike and his family as they go through this. I know his former colleagues (including me) are rooting for him.


 

RIP Jerry Blavat

=Jerry was unknown in Chicago, but he was huge in Philadelphia. John Records Landecker paid tribute to Jerry in his book “Records Truly Is My Middle Name.” He told an abbreviated version of his Blavat story on his Facebook page this week: I just learned that Jerry Blavat died. Shit. Many associate my career with Chicago. That's true. BUT before Chicago I was In Philadelphia at WIBG. It was my big break. I dropped out of my senior year at Michigan State to go there. Philadelphia was more than radio stations. There were HUGE personalities who transcended any individual radio station. Joe Niagra, Hy Lit and Jerry Blavat. I've always thought that one of the cool things about my career was the list of people I worked with. Hy Lit, Joe Niagra, Jerry Blavat, Joey Reynolds, Larry Lujack, Fred Winston, Tommy Edwards, Bob Sirott, Jonathon Brandmeier, Steve and Garry, Joel Sebastian, and more. Jerry was amazing. I worked until 10pm and he would invite me over to his home for some cocktails at an outdoor bar by the pool. Then we would go to the second story of a garage where he had turntables, microphones, a board and a stack of 45's. He would put on a private show. Playing the hits and doing talkovers. Mind you this was not on the air just in a garage. It was something .....RIP

 

 

MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES

 

*January 22--Charlie Meyerson birthday

=I interviewed the editor-in-chief of Chicago Public Square (and former radio guy at places like WXRT, WNUA, WGN) for Illinois Entertainer shortly after he began his excellent newsletter.


*January 23—Jack Quinlan birthday

=Jack was the radio play-by-play man for the Cubs for several years. His life was tragically cut short in a car accident in 1965. Cub geeks like me still look for audio of his work. Here is something from 1962.


*January 23—Dan Walker birthday

=Danger Dan, as he was known on Murphy in the Morning (Q-101), had a long and distinguished career in Chicago radio. I worked with him at WJMK in the 1990s.

 

*January 24—Jack Brickhouse birthday

=Jack has been gone now for more than 20 years, but the Hall of Famer was the soundtrack to our youth (for the 55+ crowd). Luckily there are still lots of samples of Jack’s work out there for us to enjoy. Here’s one.


*January 24—Greg Solk birthday

=Greg has been a Chicago radio executive since he was a very young man. He was the program director of the Loop for many years and has served in the executive suite for companies like Bonneville, Hubbard, and now Auducy. Since 2021 he has been the VP/Programming for Audacy-Chicago. I interviewed Greg for Chicago Radio Spotlight in 2010.

 

*January 25—Cindy Gatziolis birthday

=The former Promotion Director for the Loop went on to work for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events. Gatziolis sadly passed away in 2014 at the way too young age of 56. I interviewed Cindy for Chicago Radio Spotlight shortly after her beloved White Sox won the World Series. She was responsible for putting that victory parade together. (I also wrote this tribute to her after she passed)


*January 25—Joan Esposito birthday

=The WCPT talk-show host is still probably better known in Chicago for her many years as a reporter/anchor on television. I was lucky enough to interview her for Illinois Entertainer in 2021.

 

* January 25—Suzanne Le Mignot birthday

=Suzanne is the weekend morning news anchor for CBS-2Chicago and works as a reporter during the week.


*January 25—Brian Haddad birthday

=The current morning man at Q-101 will be my next feature in Illinois Entertainer. It comes out late next week.

 

*January 26—Tom Barnas birthday

=The WGN-TV staffer has worked on both the midday news and morning news, and is the host of The Chicago Scene


*January 27—Pat Tomasulo birthday

=Sportscaster and comedian, one of the stars of WGN-TV’s morning news. This photo of Pat in action (interviewing Chuck Swirsky about his book Always a Pleasure) is from just a few months ago.


*January 28—Jack Silver birthday

=Jack was the ringmaster at AM 1000 back in the Johnny/Kevin/Steve & Garry heyday. He went on to become a bigshot for CBS Radio and later Audacy in Los Angeles. I interviewed him in 2009.


*January 29—Oprah Winfrey birthday

=It’s hard to remember that Oprah was a complete unknown when she arrived in Chicago in the mid-80s. They didn’t quite know what to do with her, and even used her on the news with Joel Daly.


 

*January 29—Dane Placko birthday

=The top reporter for WFLD-TV (Channel 32) has been there now for over 30 years. He has a closet full of Emmys, and a profile in Illinois Entertainer written by me. This is a fun interview about his forced month-long vacation in England.


*January 29—Tony Lossano birthday

=The former host of the Nude Hippo show and the podcast Lossano & Friends is also a long-time radio producer (WLIT, WLS) and podcast producer (including my podcasts, Minutia Men & Minutia Men Celebrity Interview).

 

 

TV/STREAMING

 

*Larry Potash Rates Chicago TV Anchors in Order of Handsomeness

=Of course, he added the caveat (not named Ponce). You can watch him do his top ten list here.


 

*Paul Deanno Leaves NBC-5

=It seems like half the staff has left over the past few months. Here’s another one.


 

*Streaming Corner

=The list of top streaming programs from 2022 was released yesterday, and there aren't too many surprises on the list. #1 is Stranger Things. #2 is Ozark. The top 15 list is here.



*GM3 Anchor Soap Opera/Controversy Still Unresolved

=This story broke months ago and it still hasn’t been resolved. GM3 anchors T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach have both left their spouses and are engaged in a love affair. When the network (ABC) found out, they weren’t happy about it and took them off the air. It appears that ABC wants them out for good now, but Holmes and Robach are not leaving quietly because they don’t think they violated any workplace rules. The Daily News has the update, which involves the two sides going to mediation. Sounds a bit messy.


 

TV Show Based on Twitter Handle

=I admit it. I’ve been following Super 70s Sports on Twitter for years, and he really is a great follow. But I never would have thought of making his quips into a television show. Jimmy Kimmel is the executive producer of it.


 

*Chip Caray Joins Cardinals TV Booth

=The former Cubs TV play-by-play man has agreed to sit in the booth of the enemy. Naturally he doesn’t look at it that way because his grandfather also did games for the Cardinals.


 

*Cable News Corner

=Fox News is being sued by former head-booker Laura Luhn. The Hollywood Reporter has the details, and it’s about as lurid as anything you’ll ever read. It involves sexual blackmail, oral sex, S&M, and more. Roger Ailes is the culprit.

=In another Fox News lawsuit, NPR and the New YorkTimes have asked a judge to unseal the files in the Dominion case.

=You ever get the feeling you’ve witnessed the making of a star? I got that vibe when I watched this young TikTok comedian make his cable news debut this week on Ari Melber’s show on MSNBC. Best Trump I’ve ever seen.


 

*Academy Award Nominations Announced

=Just in case you haven’t seen the full list yet, it’s here.


 


SOCIAL MEDIA/PRINT MEDIA/DIGITAL MEDIA

 

*It was a rough week in the media world…

=Spotify laid off 6% of their workforce

=Vox Media made massive layoffs

=The Washington Post fired 20 staffers.

=But at least none of them did it quite as heartlessly as Google allegedly did it in New York. Yowza.


 

*The DOJ Files an Anti-Trust Lawsuit Against Google for their Advertising Monopoly

=It’s the second bite of the apple for the government against Google. Seems like they have a pretty good case.


 

*Facebook Letting Trump Back on their Platform

=The company released the news this week via a Nick Clegg blogpost. They promise new guardrails will be in place, and any repeat insurrection talk will not be tolerated.


 

*Ad Spending on Twitter Drops by 70% in December

=I’m guessing the welcoming back to the platform of actual Nazis (that’s not a slur on my part—they call themselves that) isn’t helping the advertising atmosphere. Details here.



*Margaret Sullivan Back on the Media Beat

=She left the Washington Post last year, and it appeared that was the end of her reporting on the media. Guardian USA stepped in this week and lured her back, on a once-a-week basis. They made the announcement this week.


 

*The Last Days of Hollywood’s Most Reviled Reporter

=Nikke Finke of Deadline.com was feared and hated by those she covered. This piece examines her sad final days.


 

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.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023

The Loop Files: Brendan Sullivan


 I'm working on a special project this year about a certain radio station, so I've been going back into my files and pulling out some old interviews with former Loop colleagues and pals. I'll feature one a week here on the blog. This week, it's Brendan Sullivan. Brendan was part of the producing team for the Jonathon Brandmeier Showgram during part of Johnny's Loop years. I interviewed him in 2011 for Chicago Radio Spotlight...



Rick: We met when you started working for Jonathon Brandmeier at the Loop in the early 1990s. How did you meet Johnny and get involved on that show?

Brendan: Blue Velveeta, my improv group, was getting a lot of press at about the time "Johnny B. on the Loose" (TV show, summer of 1991) was being produced at Channel 11 studios for NBC Productions. We'd just won a national improv competition. Johnny hired a group of us including Brian McCann, Andy Richter and Kevin Dorff who all went on to Conan, Jay Leggett who has done very well in LA acting and writing, and me. We generated ideas for the show. When the TV show ended, Johnny invited me to join the radio show, at first part-time, and later full-time.

Rick: Officially I believe you were classified as a producer, but how would you describe your list of job duties during those years?

Brendan: "Producer," I have learned, is a term in radio that can mean everything from getting coffee and answering phones to making big decisions about the nature, direction, tone of the show. I didn't do any of that. And I didn't book guests. And I had no technical experience to run a board. I suggested, researched, created, generated 'bits' for the show. Hey, Johnny, there's a guy in Wyoming with three testicles. Why don't we call him and say that you've only got one. Would he be willing to donate his extra? Very high brow stuff. I also wrote pre-recorded bits that we called 'theater of the mind' and did some character voices live on the show.

Rick: I may be biased because of my heritage, but I always got the biggest kick out of the Nazi Stormtroopers bit that you did with Jeff Hoover. What was the origin of that bit?

Brendan: As I recall, we were on the Loop, and one morning the announcement was made that our AM station, which shared our space, WMVP was either going all-sports, or the all-sports concept was being dumped. It's a blur. But people were getting fired that morning and Johnny painted this picture of Nazi Germany with staffers hiding under their desks and stormtroopers marching down the hallways and cleaning out the offices. He told Hoover and me to 'do something with that.' And so we created Helmut and Wilhelm, who owned the radio stations and ruled with an iron fist. It was really more like Hogan's Heroes. Let me stress that. Helmut and Wilhelm were soulless idiots, and that's where the humor came in. For the biggest promotional error I was ever a part of, some beer company sponsor sent us in 'uniform' to some bar in Morton Grove or Skokie. No one there knew that there was a radio promotion going on. They just thought we were Nazis, and they were not happy. We drank heavily and wrapped it up quickly before the riots broke out.

Rick: Talk about fellow storm trooper Jeff Hoover. He's obviously doing great work these days working as a producer on the WGN-TV Morning News. What was it like working with that nut every single day?

Brendan: Hoover is the funniest guy I know, and by far the most talented voice actor. Tell him that we need a horny, Swedish elf and BAM! he's got the voice and he's got material. He does the legendary Jerry Lewis, from "Laaaady!" all the way to Percodan Jerry, well enough to fool other celebrities on the phone (on the air) who know the real Jerry. Working with him was a riot. I was there first, and Johnny hired Hoover a couple years later. Every day we would brainstorm bits, bounce them around and throw them back to Johnny. Hoover made my stuff better and, I hope, vice versa. We laughed a lot, and when the schrapnel was flying, we had each other's backs. It was a riot. Hoover also happens to have a heart of gold.

Rick: In ten years of working for Brandmeier you saw and did a lot of things. When you look back on those years, what are some of your favorite moments?

Brendan: Wow, there were a lot. Too too many to mention here. My favorites were probably when I cracked Johnny up. I had a bit idea where we recreated a scene from Pulp Fiction. Word for word, we recreated the "Royale with Cheese" scene with John Travolta and Samuel Jackson. Except I had Jim Volkman read Travolta's lines as Harry Caray and Hoover read Jackson's lines as Jerry Lewis. My concept, but Volkman and Hoover (and Jimmy McInerney's audio magic) made it work. Hard to explain why it's so funny unless you know the original and hear the parody. There was also a morning where Johnny's Eddie Abler interviewed a teenager who'd changed his name to Trout Fishing in America after the philosophy book. Well, "Eddie" thought the kid had named himself after a fish. The kid believed he was actually on "Eddie Abler's Good Outdoorsman Show." When "Eddie" found out it wasn't about fish, he said he oughta wrap a 50-pound line around the kid's scrotum and drag him around the lake. I happened to be in the studio with Johnny (Eddie), which was rare, and Johnny was on the ground, laughing so hard he was crying, and trying to hold down the mute button while the kid was profusely apologizing to "Eddie."

Rick: I'm sure you get asked this all the time, but how would you describe the difference between John Brandmeier the person, and John Brandmeier the performer?

Brendan: There is none. I've seen hosts who turn it 'on' and 'off.' The energy, personality, craziness and split-second thought processes that Johnny has on the air, are exactly the same off the air. Anyone else would collapse at that pace. It's not an act.





Brendan and I went on to write a novel together using improv techniques called The Living Wills. It was the first book released by my publishing company (we've published over 80 since). A few years ago I had Brendan on my podcast. He got into a lot more detail about his time at the Loop, if you'd like to hear that. It's in this podcast. Interview begins at the 26:00 mark. And below, is that bit Brendan was talking about with Harry & Jerry.


Next week: Bruce Wolf
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