Publishing Portal--August 25, 2025

The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.

This fall is going to be huge for Eckhartz Press. Lots of places to meet and greet Eckhartz Press authors coming in September and October. Dates are in red.

Cantigny Park

=The iconic Wheaton, Illinois landmark will once again host an Eckhartz Press author.

=September 4, 6:30-7:30 in the Cantigny Visitor's Center Theatre, A book talk by Jeff Reiter about The Best of Words on Birds. Register here.

Printer's Row Litfest

=The 40th anniversary Printer's Row Litfest will be quite the literary event. You can meet up to eight different Eckhartz Press authors. 

Saturday September 6

=From 10am--12:30pm, Eric Litt will be signing and selling copies of his Eckhartz Press books Oscars Biggest Mistakes and Worth a Second Look. He will be in the Chicago Writers Association tent.

=From Noon-1pm, Mark Wukas will be on the center-stage discussing his novel The Kiss of Night along with other Chicago authors James Stewart III, Defiant Acts, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., The El in conversation with Vincent Francone.

=From 12:30-3pm, Larry Rosenbaum will be signing and selling copies of his book The Flip Side. He will be in the Chicago Writers Association tent.

Sunday September 7

=From 10am--2pm, Jeff Reiter will be signing and selling copies of his book The Best of Words on Birds. He will be in the Chicago Writers Association tent.

=From 2pm-6pm, Mark Wukas will be signing and selling copies of his book The Kiss of Night. He will be in the Chicago Writers Association tent

=There are several other Eckhartz Press authors you might bump into this weekend, including Randy Richardson (Lost in the Ivy, Cheeseland, Cubsessions), Donald G. Evans (An Off-White Christmas), and Eckhartz Press publishers Rick Kaempfer and David Stern. Randy is the president of the Chicago Writers Association and Don is the head of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Rick will be there on Saturday. Dave will be there on Sunday.

Urban Birding Festival

=This is a new event for Eckhartz Press, but we're confident the right Eckhartz Press author will be there...

=September 12-14, Jeff Reiter (The Best of Words on Birds) will be manning a table, signing and selling copies of his book.

Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

=At previous ceremonies, Eckhartz Press author John Records Landecker (Records Truly is My Middle Name) has been recognized. This year, Eckhartz Press will be on stage once again.

=September 14, 5pm at the Rialto Theater in Joliet, Mitch Michaels (Doin the Cruise) and Bob Stroud (contributer to The Loop Files) are being inducted into the Hall of Fame in the radio personality category. Records Truly is My Middle Name contributor Bob Sirott will serve as the emcee. Rick Kaempfer (EveryCubEver) will be part of the "Go Cubs Go" sing-a-long during the Steve Goodman induction.

=A few other notable celebrities will be on hand as well, including the Smashing Pumpkins, Disturbed, Skip Griparis, Suzy Bogguss, and Richard Marx. Get your tickets here.

Naperville Irish Fest

=What's the use of having an Irish author if you can't appear at the Irish Fest?

=Saturday September 19-20, Eckhartz Press author Bob Conlon will be on hand in the author tent, signing and selling copies of his book Celtic Knot.

The Steppenwolf

=Looks like our newest author Tony Fitzpatrick (book available for pre-order soon) is going to help us class up the joint.

=We will get the exact dates of Tony's run in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here's what it's about...Tony Fitzpatrick returns to Steppenwolf for an event in celebration of the publication of his latest book of dispatches, poems, etchings, drawings and collages. This event incorporates music, spoken word, conversation and projection, navigating Tony's life as an artist and appreciator of nature, dogs, birds, people and the city of Chicago.

This event is like the best kind of road trip, with landmarks and rest stops appearing as poems, dispatches and works of art which explore Tony's childhood as a "no-goodnik" in suburban Chicago, to discovering comics, poetry and an appreciation for nature and finding sobriety and community with some of America's greatest musicians, artists and poets along the way.

Tony will be joined by a small, rotating group of actors, artists, filmmakers and musicians, live and/or in voice-over; these friends, family members and guest artists serve as memory, prompting Tony with a haiku, question or story of their own.

The performance also includes short musical interludes, concluding with a book signing with the artist. Some of Fitzpatrick's latest etchings, drawings, collages and prints will be available for purchase, following the show.

This production follows the publication of Tony's newest book, The Sun at the End of the Road: Dispatches From an American Life, a collection of dispatches, haiku, poetry, collages, etchings and drawings, edited by Marika Mashburn, designed by Danny Torres and published by Eckhartz Press in Chicago, Illinois.

There are a few more events already scheduled for October. Keep an eye on this space for upcoming information.

The Flip Side

=This week in 1976, Boston released their iconic debut album. Naturally they made an appearance at The Flip Side.

=Larry Rosenbaum is one of the famous brothers who owned the legendary Flip Side Records locations in Chicago.  His birthday is this week (August 25). Have a great birthday Larry!

I Bear Witness

=Another Eckhartz Press author is celebrating a birthday this week (August 27). Happy birthday to I Bear Witness author Dan McNeil.

Tom Shaer

=Although Tom hasn't technically written a book for us, he has been a very valuable editor on several projects. Tom was instrumental in editing three Eckhartz Press books: Last Comiskey (where he also served as emcee at the launch party), Chili Dog MVP, and Ike and Me. Tom is also celebrating a birthday this week (August 27).

The Kiss of Night

=Another short audio clip featuring Mark Wukas from his interview at Max and Benny's in Northbrook. In this clip, Mark talks about his favorite writer, James T. Farrell.

=This week Windy City Reviews posted their excellent review of Mark's book. Full review is here. This is a short excerpt...

    This book is not a who-done-it type of mystery novel, nor is it meant for a quick summer beach-read. This is a thoughtful novel that challenges the reader to think about important issues, like whether the ends justify the means, and if so, when. If you enjoy the literary fiction genre, this book is for you.   

Celtic Knot

=This Friday (August 29) Celtic Knot author Bob Conlon will appear on the Sharing the Heart of the Matter podcast with Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon. We will post the link on our facebook page when the interview goes live.

Surviving Sue

=South African poet Maggie Watson reviewed the Eckhartz Press memoir Surviving Sue this week, and she did in poetic form...

Vicki’s courage and strength shine throughout this book,

and I could sense empathy for her mother despite what she suffered.

All mental illness has a root cause, I believe, and often requires

a deeper level of understanding

I applaud Vicki for writing this book with grace and sprinkles of humour, too.

These things are not easy to survive, but somehow we find the strength

to do so, and sharing our story is part of the healing.

Last Comiskey

=What a great night at the Arlington Heights Library this week, last year. Thank you to everyone who came out, including former White Sox pitcher Don Pall, filmmaker Matt Flesch, former White Sox organist Nancy Faust, and of course, author Ken Smoller.

Cubsessions

=This week in 2019 (August 29), Cubsessions co-authors Randy Richardson and Becky Sarwate were featured by the Chicago Writers Association. Here's Becky. Here's Randy. Here's what they look like in the wild...

=One of the stars of the book, former Cubs ball girl Kathy Wolter Mondelli, is also celebrating a birthday this week (August 25). She came out to the Cubsessions launch party at Murphy's.

Joe Jackson vs. Chicago American League Baseball Club

=This week in 2023, David Fletcher was making the rounds talking about his new book Joe Jackson v. Chicago American League Baseball Club. The book is a trial transcript of the Shoeless Joe trial in Milwaukee from 1924. Amazing historical document. One of the shows he appeared on was the Baseball Talk podcast.

The Loop Files

=This week in 2006, author Rick Kaempfer wrote about his time as Steve & Garry's producer for the first time ever. A few of these stories later made it into the book The Loop Files. 

Transatlantic Passage

=This week in 2021 (August 29), Paul Banks made an appearance at the Manchester United fan club meeting at Fado's in Chicago. Everyone watched the Man United game, and at halftime Paul spoke to them about his book Transatlantic Passage. It was the earliest Guinness that Eckhartz Press publishers Rick and Dave ever consumed (well before noon).

Selling Dead People's Things

=This week in 1994 (August 25), the Oliver Stone film Natural Born Killers (with Woody Harrelson) was released. Part of that movie was filmed in Chicago, and the director solicited the help of Selling Dead People's Things author Duane Scott Cerny to acquire a few real oddities. Duane tells that story in this podcast episode. 

EveryCubEver

=This week in 2019 (August 25), Rick Kaempfer appeared on Rick Kogan's WGN Radio show to talk about his book EveryCubEver. At the time, Roger Badesch was working as Kogan's newsman. It was during this show that Roger announced he too was working on a book for Eckhartz Press. That would later turn into The Unplanned Life. (Photo: Rick Kaempfer, Roger Badesch, Rick Kogan)

=This week in 2018, Rick and fellow Eckhartz Press author Bobby Skafish (We Have Company) were invited up to the Score Radio booth during a Cubs game. It was a thrill neither of them will forget.

Chili Dog MVP

=Every member of the 1972 White Sox is featured in the Eckhartz Press book Chili Dog MVP. One of them was born this week (August 27) in 1946, former catcher Ed Herrmann. Unfortunately Big Ed passed away in 2013.

Safe Inside

=This week in 2017, Lee Kingsmill's book Safe Inside was officially released by Eckhartz Press. We took that opportunity to do a Q&A with Lee. You can read that here. Lee's book later was named an honorable mention winner for the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year. 

The Write City Review

=Eckhartz Press was asked to publish the literary journal of the Chicago Writers Association, and we  have done so four times now. This week in 2023 (August 29), the 4th volume of the book came out. That book will also be available in the Chicago Writers Association tent for Printer's Row Litfest.

=One of the contributors to the first volume is celebrating a birthday this week. Happy birthday to NY Times Best Selling author James Finn Garner (August 29)

Media Notebook--9-16-22

MEDIA NOTEBOOK

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

RADIO/PODCASTS

 

*Rest in Peace

Lost a few broadcasting icons this week...

=Ramsey Lewis

The all-time jazz great leaves behind a tremendous legacy. His biggest hit (The “In” Crowd), three Grammys, and 80 albums will always be remembered, but in Chicago we were also lucky enough to have him as a daily companion during his days as the morning host at WNUA. He also hosted a nationally syndicated show called “Legends of Jazz.” Jazz was obviously his life, and Chicago played an important role. This is a quote he gave to Neal Samors in an interview from many years ago…

”In Chicago, unlike New York City, a jazz musician could allow himself to be influenced by a wide variety of music and play whatever appealed to him, including gospel music, which has always been important to me. So, growing up in that atmosphere and then, coming from a family that encouraged me to be whoever I was, musically, I enjoyed that freedom as I still do. The environment in Chicago is still one of quite a bit of musical freedom.”

=Jim Russell

Russell was an NPR staple. He created the show Marketplace. Talking Biz News has more information about Russell’s impressive life.

=Lowry Mays

He was definitely a broadcasting pioneer. Radio Ink has a very positive obituary about him.  Inside Radio does as well. Pieces like these focus on him as a “tough competitor” or “shrewd businessman”. He was that. On the other hand, one thing they gloss over, or even put a positive spin on, is something that was definitely not a positive for the radio business. It was Mays who led the consolidation charge after the 1996 telecom deregulation as the CEO of Clear Channel.  Mays was insatiable when it came to acquisitions. He bought Jacor and AMFM, both of whom were big companies who had gobbled up hundreds of radio stations themselves. At one point Clear Channel owned over 1200 radio stations. In some smaller markets, they owned every single station in town. Jobs were cut, formats were genericized, and an unprecedented number of commercials flooded the airwaves. Mays and a handful of others acquired massive personal wealth in the process, but they left wreckage in their wake. The entire industy was hollowed out and hasn't remotely recovered. It wasn't just Lowry Mays. But he was one of the main architects.

 

 

*Chicago Rock Radio Documentary

=This film is an interesting find. It’s called “Static” and it tells the tale of rock radio in Chicago, mostly focused on the hard rock world (The old Loop, WMET, Z-Rock, etc). Former Loop jock Pat Capone is one of the people interviewed on camera.

 

*Rush Limbaugh book

=A new book about Rush is coming out in October. It will be called Radio’s Greatest of All-Time, a title that Rush himself could have proclaimed. It’s a compilation of radio commentary by Rush. His widow and brother are involved in curating the info. .

 

*Smashing Pumpkins on Q-101

=If you’ve been listening to Q-101 this week you might have noticed a bit of a Smashing Pumpkins motif. The station is all in on a big promotion with Smashing Pumpkins and the Metro, which is celebrating its 40^th anniversary with a live Pumpkins show. The brand new Smashing Pumpkins single will debut on Q-101 the same day. The station will also be selling t-shirts at the event (September 20) which will raise money for Highland Park Community Foundation’s 4^th of July Highland Park Shooting Response Fund.

 

*Podcast Corner

=Edison Research came out with the list of the top ten most listened to podcast networks this week. Not a lot of surprises here: Spotify, SXM Media, iHeartRadio, Audioboom, NPR, New York Times, Audacy, Wondery, Cumulus Podcast Network, and PRX.

=Charlie Meyerson from Chicago Public Square posted a great podcast this week, interviewing Axios Chicago’s Justin Kaufman and Monica Eng. The audio is here. The unedited YouTube video is here. There’s even a transcript. And, now Justin and Monica also host their own podcast. You can listen to the latest episode here.

=Anderson Cooper has a new podcast out, and it deals with the subject of grieving. He starts the recording while he is packing up the belongings of his late mother, Gloria Vanderbilt.

=The New York Times posted a recommendation of their Top 6 TV Recap podcasts. These are podcasts that focus on a single television series and hyper analyze the shows.

=Sportswriter Jeff Pearlman has a great podcast called Two Writers Slinging Yang. Pearlman made news this week when he disavowed his book about Bret Favre after hearing the news that Favre knowingly accepted money from a Mississippi welfare fund to help out his daughter’s college volleyball team. Pearlman’s tweet-storm is worth a read.

 

MEDIA MILESTONES/BIRTHDAYS

Lots of them this week…

 

*Former Chicago radio and television sportscaster Bruce Wolf’s birthday was September 11. I interviewed Bruce for Illinois Entertainerback in 2014.

 

*Maura Myles’ birthday was also September 11. I chatted with Maura back in 2009 for Chicago Radio Spotlight.

 

*September 12, 2014, Tommy Edwards announced his retirement from radio. I interviewed Tommy a few times over the years, most recently in 2011.

 

*The Drive’s Janda Lane celebrated a birthday on September 12. The Marconi-nominated broadcaster/podcaster was my featured interview in this summer’s June issue of Illinois Entertainer.

 

*The great Rick Kogan’s birthday was September 13^th. It’s always a pleasure speaking to Mr. Chicago. I last interviewed him for Illinois Entertainer in 2019.

 

*The legendary Dick Biondi turned 90 years old September 13. I worked with Dick for ten years at WJMK and I’ve done a few radio shows and podcasts with him over the years (the photo here is from 2014—on Lossano & Friends). Nobody in the world has better stories than Dick Biondi.  I have tried many times to talk Dick into writing his memoirs, but I could never convince him.

 

*Brian “Whip” Paruch shares a birthday with Kogan and Biondi. I interviewed the WTMX morning show team member during the pandemic in 2020. None of the news about Eric had broken yet.

 

*He may be officially retired these days, but former WLS Newsman John Dempsey is still beloved by his former co-workers in the business. I got a chance to speak with him for Illinois Entertainer in 2015. John’s birthday was September 14.

 

*September 14, 1993, Steve & Garry broke up. Nobody believed the break up would last, but it obviously did.  Except for one glorious day on the beach more than a decade later when Garry showed up unannounced to a live Steve Dahl remote.

 

*September 17 is Bobby Skafish’s birthday. Bobby was my very first interview for Illinois Entertainer back in 2013. He later authored a book for my publishing company Eckhartz Press called We Have Company.

 

*September 17 is also Score co-host Matt Spiegel’s birthday. Spiegel got the Chicago Radio Spotlight treatment back in 2010.

 

*September 17 is Randy Merkin’s birthday as well. The ESPN producer is also an author now, having published Behind The Glass for Eckhartz Press in 2021.

 

TV/STREAMING

 

*Svengoolie Interview Tease

=My next interview for Illinois Entertainer will be posted on October 1^st. This month I spoke to Rich Koz, the great Svengoolie. Here’s a little bonus quote from Rich that didn’t make the final cut of the article…

            I went to WCIU when Neal Sabin made Channel 26 a true independent, and then it just progressed from there. They got the national Me-TV network and decided to put me on there, and now it’s become this pretty amazing thing. We basically have our own studio. It’s a permanent set up now. We used to have to fold up the set so that other things could go in front of it, but now we have the lights set up permanently, and our set is there permanently, so every time we need to go in there, everything is ready. For a national show we do have a pretty small staff. There’s me, and I’m writing and playing Sven and helping out with various production elements, and we have Chris Faulkner who is our director and also our chief editor, and Jim Roche is the executive producer and helps out in all sorts of ways, and then there’s our audio guy Chris DeQuick, and that’s our main group. We also have a floor director and somebody to run teleprompter, but other than that, it’s just us. That’s a small number of people to be putting out a national show.

 

*Sean Compton interview

=The man leading NexStar (owner of WGN in Chicago, among other media outlets) sat down for an interview with Media Village. Among the many topics of conversation, NewsNation.

 

*Franmil & Whitney

=A fun moment from Sunday night’s Cubs telecast on ESPN-TV. Who knew that Cubs DH Franmil Reyes could sing?

 

*High School Football Returns to WCIU

=The High School Game of the Week, a staple over the past few years at WCIU, returns Friday September 23^rd. "Once again this season, our viewers will get best of prep football, boys soccer and boys and girls basketball on The U and CW26, with the ‘Game of the Week’ and IHSA Championship broadcasts,” said Steven Farber, Weigel Broadcasting Senior Vice President of Operations.

 

*The Emmy Awards

There are a few stories coming out of Sunday night’s Emmy Awards broadcast.

=The full list of winners.

=The ratings were the lowest of all-time.

=A bit that Jimmy Kimmel did during the broadcast caused him to apologize and invite Quinta Brunson on his show.

 

*TV Ratings

=Why is the NFL considered a goldmine? In an age when there is no such thing as appointment television, football is the only thing that unites us as a nation. Of the top ten shows in the ratings last week, nine of them were football related.

 

*Cable-News corner

=A Q&A with the new host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. Also at Fox News, national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has been signed to a long-term deal.

=CNN’s new direction continues to get attention and scrutiny. Slate.com examines “the poisonous side effects of false balance.”

=CNN is moving Don Lemon to the morning show, along with Kaitlin Collins and Poppy Harlow.

 

*Gayle King

=Oprah’s best friend gets recognized for her journalism…

Congratulations to our @GayleKing, who is being honored with @ASU’s prestigious Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism! pic.twitter.com/6CsPcjQR12

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) September 13, 2022

OTHER MEDIA NEWS

 

*Second City Names a New CEO

=And he comes from Sesame Street. Details in the Hollywood Reporter.

 

*Victory Gardens Theater

=The Chicago institution is no more. They announced this week they will no longer produce shows, and they dismissed their staff. The theater itself will be rented out.

 

*Was there a Chinese spy working at Twitter?

=That appears to be the testimony from the Twitter whistleblower to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Seems like kind of big deal to me.

 

*Jan Wenner profile

=This is a pretty great New York Times piece about the founder of Rolling Stone magazine. 

*MEDIA NOTEBOOK site

I have moved all of the previous Media Notebook columns to it's own site, and will continue to post each of them here. If you'd like to bookmark this page, you can find them all in one place. 

If you have any media stories (Chicago or national) that you think I might like to share in future columns, feel free to drop me a line at rick@eckhartzpress.com or amishrick@yahoo.com