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".
Today is the 45th anniversary of Elvis' death. That means it's the 35th anniversary of my snow dome collection. My last article for Lake Magazine (in 2004, before I switched over to Shore Magazine) was about that colleciton. I'm reposting that piece here today...
It started out as a joke. My
buddies and I went to Graceland in 1987 for the tenth anniversary of Elvis’
death just because we wanted to witness the spectacle. Let me tell you; it was
memorable. We felt like we had inadvertently wandered into the capital city of
Tackyland for the coronation of the King. As we passed black velvet Elvis
portrait after black velvet Elvis portrait, a thought occurred to me. I wanted
to bring home the tackiest memento I could find as a tribute to this amazing
weekend.
When
I saw a shelf full of $3 Elvis snow domes at the gift shop across the street
from Graceland, I knew I had a winner. First of all, let’s face it, it was only
three dollars. Secondly, the whole idea of honoring Elvis with a plastic
water-and-fake-snow-filled dome seemed so profound. I had my own intellectual
interpretation; the snow falling on his former home represents the chill the
city of Memphis feels since he left us, and the snow falling on the Lisa Marie
airplane represents the white light that awaited him as he “flew” up to his
final destination.
That was the
interpretation I planned on using when people asked me why I proudly displayed
a Graceland snow dome in my home. I saw this plastic thing as nothing more than
a conversation piece. How was I to know that it would become so much more than
that? It was the beginning of a real problem; a sickness. From that moment on,
whenever I traveled anywhere, I instinctively looked for a snow dome to
commemorate my visit. I now own over a hundred snow domes from locations all
over the world, and while I still mock them and come up with ridiculous kitschy
reasons why a plastic water-and-fake-snow-filled dome is a perfect memento of a
visit, I have to admit that I’ve grown to love these things.
In fact, I now
effortlessly tick off my list of reasons to collect them.
üAffordability:
The price is right. At most, a tourist snow dome will cost you five bucks.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a better value for your collecting dollar.
üConvenience:
There isn’t an airport in the world that doesn’t sell them. Your friends won’t
even mind picking one up for you.
üFun:
Shake one and tell me it doesn’t bring a smile to your face. It’s fun for “kids”
of all ages.
üConversation:
Since 1987 there hasn’t been a single visitor to my home that hasn’t asked me
at least one question about my collection.
Frequently
Asked Questions
What if you travel somewhere it never snows?
This
was the first dilemma I faced when I began to expand my collection. I like to
travel to warm destinations. Luckily, this is shockingly not a problem. Among
the snow domes in my collection: Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hawaii, Arizona,
Acapulco, Cancun, Barbados, St. Kitts, Bermuda, and the Dominican Republic. To
me, these are the crown jewels of my collection because the entire concept is
so ridiculous.
What is your most prized snow dome?
My
favorite has to be the Pope John Paul II snow dome. My brother picked it up for
me when he visited the Vatican. Shake it and watch a submerged Pope get covered
with snow inside a cheap plastic dome. It’s an obvious keepsake for Catholics.
Is this really a worldwide phenomenon?
I
have snow domes from every continent on earth except Antarctica, the snowiest
of the continents. In another ironic twist, the only location I have been
completely unsuccessful finding one is China—where virtually all snow domes are
made. Although I should note that I wasn’t the one who traveled to China; it
was my sister-in-law. She might have just been too humiliated to purchase one.
That happens occasionally.
Which one comes from the furthest location?
I
would have to get out my atlas to check the actual mileage, but I have snow
domes from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
What are your favorites from this country?
I
personally cherish the snow domes from places that have no business producing
snow domes. I have one from Iowa. It features cows. I have one from Harvard
University. That just seems like an odd choice for Harvard, doesn’t it? I also
like the snow domes that commemorate events. The one I bought in Richmond,
Virginia commemorates the Civil War. The one I bought in Atlanta commemorates
the 1996 Summer Olympics. Last but
not least, I have a Las Vegas snow dome that doesn’t have any pizzazz at all. I
just thought that was funny.
Do you have any local snow domes?
I
have one from Chicago, one from Wrigley Field, one from Springfield, Illinois,
one from Indiana, one from Detroit, two from Lake Geneva, and one from
Wisconsin that is exactly the same as my Iowa snow dome. Apparently, they got a
deal on the cow picture. Minnesota and Ohio, by the way, both feature the exact
same duck.
Why don’t you have any fancy snow domes?
I
know there are beautiful glass snow domes on the market, but those don’t really
fit into my personal collection. I pride myself in the cheapness factor.
Do you have any cautionary tales?
Take
it from a father of three boys; a child as young as two years of age can throw
a snow dome up to fifteen feet. While a snow dome may cost only $5, it may cost
a little more to go to Australia to buy it. And if you’re like me, and you have
a three year old little darling who likes to watch a recently deceased Pope fly
through the air, you may have to take drastic measures. My entire collection is
currently in a box in the basement until the kids move out of the house.
That has a tendency to take the fun out of any
collection.
*Bob Shannon's Eckhartz Press book Turn it Up was released on this day in 2017, the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Turn it Up is still available at amazon.
Yesterday afternoon I attended the Rock Radio Revisited fundraiser for the Museum of Broadcast Communications at the Des Plaines Theater. The panelists were John Records Landecker, Tommy Edwards, Bob Stroud, and Dyana Williams. Videotaped contributions from Kris Erik Stevens, Cousin Brucie, and Connie Szerszen were also part of the show. Dave Plier and the gang at the Museum did a very nice job putting this all together.
I thought moderator Wendy Snyder was very adept at keeping the discussion going, and the panelists each provided great stories about the good old days of radio. Landecker wowed the crowd with his tale about John Travolta at Woodfield Mall (and the Emmy Awards). Tommy Edwards did the same with his story about Bill Kurtis from his Topeka, Kansas days, and Bob Stroud shared a great memory about the radio wars between WMET and the Loop in the early 1980s. (And thanks Bob, for mentioning my Illinois Entertainer piece about you on the stage)
I must admit, this event drew a much bigger crowd than I anticipated. Radio geeks one and all. My kind of people. Radio's Best Friend Art Vuolo was there, so I suspect the video will soon be available.
Here are a few photos from the event. (Photos by me, Kevin Wooldrige/who drove all the way in from Ohio, and Scott Childers/who is the premier chronicler of WLS history).
I started my website JustOneBadCentury.com in 2008, on the 100th anniversary of the Cubs last World Series victory. One of the features I did on the site was "This Week in 1908". It was my way of putting that 100 years in perspective. In so doing, I discovered a lot of really fascinating historical stories, and a few that were quite disturbing. This one fits the latter category...
August 14, 1908
In the midst of the Cubs final championship season, a horrible race riot broke out in Springfield Illinois. Before the race riots were over, forty homes were burned to the ground, 24 businesses were destroyed, and seven people were dead: two black people (lynched by the angry mob) and five white people (accidentally killed during the riot).
It was sparked by a charge of rape (a white woman claimed she was raped by a black man). The scene was so ugly that the Governor of Illinois, Charles Dineen, had to call in the state militia to quell the violence. It didn’t work. At it’s peak, the mob was composed of 12,000 people.
107 people were eventually indicted for their roles in this ugly night, but only one was convicted…and he was convicted of stealing a saber from a guard. The woman who made the rape claim that started this whole thing later admitted that she made it up. The rape never occurred.
As a result of this night, a meeting was held in New York City to discuss the national problem of racial intolerance. This incident was one of 89 confirmed lynchings in America in 1908, and reasonable Americans were appalled. That meeting in New York eventually led to the creation of the NAACP.
While baseball wasn’t directly involved in this gruesome event, there was one shameful tie-in. On his way to Chicago to play the Cubs (a few weeks later), New York Giants manager John McGraw stopped in Springfield. He called the lynchings “so called outrages” and the townspeople gave him a section of the rope used in the lynching as a souvenir.
He took it on the road with the Giants as a good luck charm to replace the rabbit’s foot he had been using.
Facebook’s new Chat-bot, gross ice cream flavors, a former member of Olivia Newton John’s band reminisces about her, chorizo in space, getting pigs horny with music, and a great listener story about one of Charlie’s Angels. [Ep280]
Rick has filled a void, with a much-needed weekly mashup of media-related tidbits, soundbites, news items, and media personality comings and goings.
Want to know who's hot and who's not?
Rick Kaempfer has a nose for the news-behind-the-news and he's sharing it with everyone every Friday!
Rick Kaempfer is no stranger to Chicagoland media...a #1 podcast star (Minutia Men and Free Kicks), not to mention a lifetime of professional work in the Chicago media scene, as a producer, radio personality, best-selling author, publisher and more...you name it...Rick has done it!
Rick Kaempfer has racked up countless professional credits working at WLUP AM, WLUP FM, WJMK FM, and WPGU to name a few. He is the best-selling author of Father Knows Nothing, Records Truly is My Middle Name, The Living Wills, $everance, The Radio Producer's Handbook and Grun Weiss Vor!, media critic at Illinois Entertainer, a freelance magazine and newspaper contributor, and the co-owner of the trending Indie Book Publishing House, Eckhartz Press (with David Stern).
Celebrating 40 years of creative content, Rick Kaempfer has always had his finger on the pulse of Chicago media, who's in, who's out, what makes it tick, and everything in between.
A curation of news items
about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago…
RADIO/PODCASTS
*Chicago Radio Ratings
=Inside Radio has the latest Chicago radio ratings. (Click here)
=The Top
Five stations currently are The Drive (6.1), Lite-FM (5.4), WBEZ (5.1), WVAZ
(5.1) and WBBM-AM (4.6). That’s a big jump for the Lite, which is pulling in
these numbers without their annual Christmas music bump. The other four
stations have all been in the top spot at least once this year.
=Among the winners…Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend (Best
Comedy Podcast), The Right Time with Bomani Jones (Best Sports Podcast),
Bridgerton: The Official Podcast (Best Television and Streaming Podcast), and
The Problem with Jon Stewart (Best Interview Podcast).
*Bears Broadcasts Leaving WBBM-AM
=According to this piece by Jeff Agrest in the Sun Times, Audacy has been losing money on the Bears radio broadcasts, so they are not renewing their deal after this season. Am I the only one who has a hard time believing they are truly losing money? I listen to the games. They have more commercials than action. In any case, this is a seismic change in Chicago. The Bears/WBBM releationship goes back 22 years. Agrest reports that Joniak and Thayer will remain on the broadcasts, but they will be moving to either ESPN (AM 1000), or WCHI (95.5 FM).
=He was the program director of WCFL during the famous
1960s battles between WLS & WCFL. Super CFL was one of the most creative
and memorable radio stations in history, and Ken Draper was the man who put it
all together. He passed away this week at the age of 89.
“When he took over,
WCFL was owned by its namesake-the Chicago Federation of Labor. He figured if he
could just get one half of WLS audience he would be doing incredibly well. So,
a lot of the things he pioneered at KYW in Cleveland along with some of the
people that were there; he brought them to town. Management gave him carte
blanche. He believed in the talent; he wasn’t going to hire somebody and then
tell him to shut up. He wanted them to be who they were…he wanted them to
perform. To put on a show. You couldn’t just do a record hop…he sent all of the
guys out together to the events, to represent the station. He was very, very
competitive. He believed that News could be just as exciting as any record that
was played, if it was presented properly. They had a huge News Department, it
was unionized and paid well. He showcased the News and made it into something
really important.”
=Arguably
the biggest star at WCFL was Ron Britain. I got a chance to interview the late
great jock about ten years ago, and he was quick to give Draper the credit…
”So I flew up to Chicago and met with the folks at WCFL. I thought, you
know what? This is a great radio town. Maybe this is where I should go. Ken
Draper, the guy who hired me, and Jim Runyan drove me into the city. All these
lights were lit along Michigan Avenue, and they told me that they decorated the
city just for me. I took the job, but I was scared to death.I had never worked at a place
that had so much talent. It was just unbelievable—I was intimidated by it. They
had guys I really respected like Jim Runyan and Joel Sebastian. I thought, how
I can work alongside great talent like this? I was so scared when I went on the
air the first time—I didn't know what to do. I thought what I had been doing
before wasn’t good enough. My first night on the air, I was using squeaky toys,
and I got a note from Ken Draper. The note said "We hired Ron Britain not
Pinky Lee." Of course, he was right.”
=Draper
was even indirectly responsible for the creation of the incredible Chickenman
bit. He hired Dick Orkin to do production. I spoke to Dick in 2012 and he also
gave credit to Draper…
“The origin of Chickenman was the direct result of the
popularity of the television show "Batman". It was huge. It was camp.
It was fun. Draper decided that each of the DJs should choose a campy superhero
mascot, and for the Jim Runyon show, we came up with
Chickenman. I sort of based the character on the Broderick Crawford sheriff
character--that sort of straight, know it all delivery of his. It seemed like a
fun thing to parody. It began with that. I wasn't thinking about a chicken.”
=This
video was done by Jim Hampton. If you’re interested in the legacy of Draper,
you’ll love it.
*Radio formats with most upscale listeners
=The Sound Answers blog from Katz Radio Group did an
analysis of the average net worth of radio listeners in every format, and they
conclude that 17 different radio formats have listeners with an above average
net worth. (Full details are here)
=The five radio formats attracting the most upscale
audiences are All News, Classical, Public Radio, News/Talk and Jazz.
=Other music formats classified as having an upscale
listenership: AAA, Alternative, Adult Standards, Classic Rock, Classic Hits,
Soft AC, and Hot AC.
*Another Big Player Expands Reach in Podcast World
=Apple has signed a deal with Futuro Studios to
produce more original podcast content. Bloomberg has the details
*Rick on the Radio
=Tune in to WGN Radio tonight. I’ll be on the Phil
Manicki show talking about this column, my publishing company, and our upcoming
books. Plus we’ll get into my radio background a bit and discuss my former
roles on the shows hosted by Radio Hall of Famers Steve & Garry, and John Records Landecker.
*Museum of Broadcasting tribute to rock
radio
=Don't forget! This Sunday August 14th (3pm) at the Des Plaines
Theater, a few local radio legends will be part of a discussion about the
heyday of rock radio (including John Landecker, Tommy Edwards, and Bob Stroud).
Other rock radio legends from around the country will also be joining via zoom.
Wendy Snyder will the host/moderator. Get
your tickets here. All proceeds benefit the Museum of
Broadcast Communications. (Photo: WGN-TV's Dean Richards interviews John Landecker & Tommy Edwards)
*Former Chicago Radio Alert
=Sending out positive vibes to Jay Marvin, once a talk show host at WLS in Chicago. Apparently, he is not doing well. This is what he posted on his Facebook page this week...
MEDIA BIRTHDAYS/MILESTONES
I’ve interviewed quite a few Chicago media figures who
are celebrating birthdays this week. Click on their names to read the
interviews. The year I interviewed them is in parenthesis.
*August, 2004—Infamous Dave Matthews Band Poop Incident
=This week in 2004, hundreds of pounds of human waste
was dumped out of their tour bus, and splattered all over people on a Chicago
River tour. Bobby Skafish was the first one to interview Matthews about that
day, and a partial transcript appears in his book We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters Here’s an excerpt from that chapter…
We
had a strict allotment of time for this interview which I’m not proud to say I
exceeded, but I wanted to wait for the right opening to broach the Chicago
River incident, which of course was nicknamed by some “Poopgate,” and had not
been commented on publicly by anyone in or surrounding DMB.
My opening came when I
asked about the band’s charitable organization known as Bama Works, which began
in 1999 in the band’s ground zero, the Charlotteville, Va. area, but had since
spread out nationally and internationally, and supported all sorts of causes
including, as Boyd Tinsley reminded me, the Amazon rainforest…
Bobby Skafish: “…which
makes this Chicago River incident all the more unexplainable.Everyone I know has always thought of DMB as
being a green band, and then this incident popped up…”
Dave Matthews (cutting
in): “Well, certainly if we could turn it around, if we had any control
directly over that event…I mean it’s contrary to everything we believe and the
thing that kinda kills me about it is if someone else had done it, I’d be
furious. And if I was in Chicago, I’d be furious about it. And we’re just so
embarrassed and we’re truly, truly sorry about what happened in Chicago, and we
will keep doing things to try to keep that river clean, we will keep doing
things to try to help out in Chicago until this thing is only remembered for
what good came out of it. We want to do our best to turn this thing around
because, honestly, I can’t tell you enough how contrary to everything that
event was for us, and everything we believe and everything we think about
Chicago. Chicago’s been an awesome part of our career, always a place that is
sort of a home for this band. It was our first journey west and the first place
to embrace us. It’s just horrible and we couldn’t be more sorry.
TV/STREAMING
*Keenan Thompson Hosting the Emmys
=The longest-running cast member of SNL has been named
to host this year’s Emmy Awards broadcast in September. The Associated Presshas the story.
*Chicago TV Job Alert
=Whenever I see job openings like this in Chicago, I'll share them....
Interested in working on our studio productions at NBC Sports Chicago?
We're looking for a part-time freelance Associate Producer
=After CNN+ went belly up, it appeared there wouldn’t
be a streaming outlet to watch some of the original programming CNN has aired
over the years. That has changed, thanks to Discovery+. Beginning August 19th, there will be a
special hub on Discovery+ for CNN Originals. Among the shows you can see
there…Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown; Stanley Tucci:
Searching for Italy; The History of the Sitcom; United
Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell; and The History of Comedy.
=One of the Discovery+ shows that has my attention is
the House of Hammer. Army Hammer comes from the famous Hammer family who created the brand of baking soda you probably have in your refrigerator to keep it smelling nice. A new television show will soon
reveal the dark underbelly of the entire Hammer family. Here’s the trailer…
*TV's Effect on Political Polarization
=Niemann Labs has done a study of political polarization and information silos, particularly regarding television news. Here's a short excerpt from their findings...
Besides being more politically
siloed on average, our research found that TV news consumers are much more
likely than web consumers to maintain the same partisan news diets over time:
After six months, left-leaning TV audiences are 10 times more likely to remain
segregated than left-leaning online audiences, and right-leaning audiences are
4.5 times more likely than their online counterparts. While these figures may
seem intimidating, it is important to keep in mind that even among TV viewers,
about 70% of right-leaning viewers and about 80% of left-leaning viewers do
switch their news diets within six months. To the extent that long-lasting echo
chambers do exist, then, they include only about 4% of the population.
OTHER MEDIA NEWS
*Another media columnist bites the dust
=I’m starting to think the idea of covering the media
isn’t such a great idea. The New York Times media writer Ben Smith left at the
beginning of this year and hasn’t been replaced. Robert Feder left the Daily
Herald and hasn’t been replaced. Here’s yet another example of a media
columnist leaving the business, Margaret Sullivan at the Washington Post. She talked to Vanity Fair about why she is leaving.
*Axios sold for $525 million
=You read that right. Axios just sold to Cox for $525
million. Details are here.
*How hot
is it?
=The New York Times has the story about how much the unprecedented heat has
affected summer outdoor performances…
Smoke from
a raging wildfire in California prompted the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival to cancel a recent performance of “The Tempest” at
its open-air theater. Record flooding in St. Louis forced
the cancellation of an outdoor performance of
“Legally Blonde.” And after heat and smoke at an outdoor
Pearl Jam concert in France damaged the throat of its lead singer, Eddie
Vedder, the band canceled several shows. Around the
world, rising temperatures, raging wildfires and extreme weather are imperiling
whole communities. This summer, climate change is also endangering a treasured
pastime: outdoor performance.
*Chicago Job Alert
=Another media job possibility…
friendly reminder —
we’re hiring for a Digital News Editor at @TheTRiiBE.
salary range: $54K-$58K, based on experience.
application deadline: Aug. 31
here are some of the News stories that have come out of The TRiiBE. 🧵https://t.co/qzG9IhXLKK
=David McCullough has passed away. McCullough won Pulitzer
Prizes for two presidential biographies: Truman in 1992 and John Adams in
2001. McCullough is also known for narrating Ken Burns’ 1990 PBS series “The
Civil War.” The New York Times has the obituary.
*Burt Constable Exit Interview
=Eric Zorn got a chance to interview outgoing Daily Herald
columnist Burt Constable. Burt sounds like a man who is definitely ready to
hang up his keyboard. (Read it here)
=I was part of Constable’s column exactly twice, twenty years apart.
His interview with me in 1999 and in 2019
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
August 11, 1966, the Beatles were in Chicago. John Lennon apologized for his "more popular than Jesus" remark at the Astor Hotel. The next day, August 12, 1966, 55 years ago today, the band appeared in concert here for the very last time at the International Amphitheater...
*On this day in 2014, Joel Daly was interviewed about his book The Daly News by the Bar Association.Why? In addition to being a news anchor, reporter, pilot, and singer, Joel was an attorney. More on that here, if you're interested.
*Today is Barry Butler's birthday. The talented photographer took the great photo that we used as a cover for Pat Colander's book Hugh Hefner's First Funeral. He also took the promotional shot to announce the signing of Mitch Michaels and Ken Churilla to write Doin the Cruise. (Photos above)
*Today is also Joe Jackson's birthday. Not the 1919 White Sox player who was banned for life, the musician who had a string of big hits in the late 70s/early 80s. He is featured in Bill Paige's Eckhartz Press book Everything I Know I Learned from Rock Stars.
*On this day in 2013, John Records Landecker appeared at the Morning Show Boot Camp in Chicago to promote his book Records Truly Is My Middle Name. I was there and snapped the photo of John (below) with his old WLS colleagues who also appeared there. Exactly one year later, on this day in 2014, John was in Georgetown, Illinois (outside of Danville) to promote his book. Dave and I were there for that too.
August 10: On this day in 1941, the Cubs stage Charlie Root Day at Wrigley Field to thank their all-time winningest pitcher for his great career. The club gives him many gifts including a live pig and a station wagon. They lose a heartbreaker in ten innings to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
