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".
As every year goes by, I remember less and less about my old radio career. Luckily, I've written a lot of it down, including this piece, 15 years ago today. It's my top 5 memories from being on the Steve & Garry show on the Loop...
I worked for the Steve & Garry show for almost five years (1986-1991), including the last four years as their producer. I've previously chronicled that on this blog a few times (Loop Photo Album 1986-1993), but I haven't really written about it at length.
This seems like a perfect time to do that.
I was running the Steve & Garry fan club and helping out the Loop's promotions department when Steve & Garry's former producer (Roman) quit. That's when they promoted me to producer, and announced my arrival in the Steve & Garry newsletter.
During those years, I had some high highs and some low lows (some of my nicknames included "college boy", "Slow-Mo", and "Rick the German Boy"), but now that so much time has passed I really only think about the highs. Here are my five favorite moments.
#5: The Brian Wilson interview Brian Wilson emerged from more than a decade of intense psychological treatment to release a solo album in 1988. He still wasn't quite right (and maybe never will be) when he arrived at the station for an in-studio interview. How do I know this? When I offered my hand to him, he jumped backwards like he had just seen a ghost. His "personal advisor" wouldn't let him out of his sight and actually sat on the floor in the studio during the interview. The interview itself was also memorable. At one point Brian started choking, leaving Steve and Garry speechless and completely at a loss for what to do. I've probably heard that 48 seconds of audio a thousand times since then, and it still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
#4 Steve's on-the-air vasectomy When Steve decided to get it snipped live on the air, the rest of us cringed. Garry actually had to witness it and provide play by play, while I was thankfully running the equipment, a safe distance away from the snipping. This was a big story at the time (I can't remember the year exactly...I want to say it was '89 or '90). The story came full circle for me in 2003 when I was getting my own vasectomy. The doctor who was handling the procedure realized who I was in the middle of the operation, and started asking me questions about Steve & Garry while he was cutting my bits and pieces.
#3: A Christmas Carol In December of 1988, I tackled my first big production for Steve and Garry, a celebrity reading of the classic "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. I booked dozens of local celebrities to play the parts, and we performed it in front of a live audience at the Museum of Broadcasting. Steve was Scrooge, Garry was Cratchit, Bruce Wolf was Fred, Christmas Past was Roger Ebert, Christmas Present was Buzz Kilman, the late Channel 5 news reporter Paul Hogan was Marley, and other participants included Sports Illustrated writer Rick Telander, Channel 2 anchor Linda McClennan, Blackhawks announcer Pat Foley, West 57th correspondent Bob Sirott, Channel 7 anchor Diann Burns, Channel 5 anchor Joan Esposito, Channel 7 reporter Janet Davies, Chicago Bears quarterback Mike Tomczak, Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed, Chicago Bears safety Gary Fencik, artist Tony Fitzpatrick, Kevin Matthews, Bob Stroud, Stan Lawrence, Chicago Bears Guard Tom Thayer, and Channel 7 anchor Mary Ann Childers.
It was a huge success, got a big write-up in the Chicago Tribune, and my boss at the time, future gazillionaire Jimmy de Castro wrote a memo to us saying how great he thought the show was (above on the left).
I've previously written about how this chance meeting with Mary Ann Childers had a big impact on my life. You can read that story here:Thank you Mary Ann Childers
#2 The Ringo Starr Interview Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh was in the studio promoting his appearance with Ringo's All-Star Band. Steve asked Joe if he could get Ringo on the air, and Joe handed me the number to Ringo's hotel room. As a fanatic Beatle-maniac, I was stricken with fear. After a mild panic attack in the producer's room, I made the call. He was actually very nice to me on the phone, and agreed to come on the show. My conversation couldn't have lasted more than thirty seconds, but I remember every word of it. When he finally got on the air, he noticed he was on delay. He told Steve & Garry that it hurt him that they didn't trust him and demanded that they take the delay off before he continued the interview. When they followed his orders dutifully, he made sure he was on the air live, before blurting out: "SHIT!" Today that would have cost the station $325,000. In 1989, it was hilarious.
Ringo later showed up at the station for a nationwide interview (for a show called "Rockline"), and I got his autograph. It's something I will treasure forever.
#1 Meeting Bridget
A year or so after I became the producer, a young intern from the news department came into the producer's booth to retrieve the news wire copy for Steve & Garry news anchor Carrie Cochran. I struck up a conversation with her like I did with all of the news interns (I was friendly in those days), and discovered quickly that the two of us had a lot in common.
Unfortunately, the producer of the Kevin Matthews Show also liked her and asked her out on a date. She took the unusual step of asking me to accompany them, which I did. By the end of the night, I was volunteering to drive her home all the way to Wheaton. I broke up with my girlfriend shortly thereafter, and Bridget and I started dating.
That was in 1988 and we're still together. We got married in 1991, and we have three boys now (Tommy, Johnny & Sean).
Every week I send my Minutia Men Co-Host Dave Stern a list from our audio archives for this week's Studio Walls feature. These are the possibilities for this week. Which one will he choose?
*August 21 would have been Joel Daly's birthday. We talked to the late-great newscaster on one of our earlier shows. (Listen to interview here)
*August 21 is Carl Giamarese's birthday. The Buckinghams lead singer was on the show a few years ago. (Listen to the interview here)
*August 22, 1995, Congressman Mel Reynolds was convicted and sentenced to prison. I wrote a song about him for the John Landecker show on WJMK. (Listen to the song here)
*August 23 is Mark Hudson's birthday. We interviewed Mark when we filled in on WLS Radio. (Audio)
*August 23, 1992, I made my debut on the Dr. Demento show with "The Hayfever Song" (Audio)
*August 23, 1998, That 70s Show debut. We had one of the stars of that show, Tommy Chong, on the show and he told us several tales about his time on the show (Listen to that interview here)
*August 25 is Gene Simmons birthday. We interviewed Doug Johnson from Loverboy, who told us about their first gig ever...opening for Kiss. (Full interview here)
*August 26, 1972, the Munich Olympics began. We talked to one of the American Olympians from that year, Dwight Stones, and he told us all about it. (Listen to the interview here)
*August 27 is Dave Sinker's birthday. We talked to the former Second City star about his unlucky experience as a Michael Dukakis impersonator. (Full interview here)
*Today is Bill Parcell's birthday. The legendary coach receives his own chapter in Randy Merkin's book Behind the Glass.
*This is also the anniversary of the first Mariano's opening. Vicki Quade's book Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind has a whole chapter about her encounters in the supermarket.
The latest episode of Minutia Men dropped today. It's a good one. Listen to it here.
Japanese drinking, Embarrassing injuries, a celebrity story about Woodstock, Dive bar ice cream, long hair, and a story about Jerry Springer in a bed store. [Ep281]
Chelsea & Tottenham managers fight on the sidelines, Manchester United sinks to the bottom of the table, and another Uruguayan Liverpool striker gets red-carded. Just another great weekend in the Premier League. Adam and Rick discuss. [Ep158]
A curation of news items
about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago…
RADIO/PODCASTS
*Audacy “Cost” Savings
=The writing has been on the wall for some time that
Audacy is going to be making some cuts. Just to be very clear, that means
firing people. Their stock price is below a dollar, and they are projecting a
downturn in profits that will make the situation even worse. The promised 5%
cut in work force has begun. In Milwaukee and Las Vegas, they eliminated all of
the airstaff on the sports-talk stations. All of them. Going fully syndicated
now. In Seattle, they eliminated former Chicago jock John Fisher (WMET, WLUP,
WCKG) from the morning show. Cuts have been announced in several other markets
as well, including Austin, Denver, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, St.
Louis, and Washington DC. (Details here).
=In Chicago, Audacy owns WBBM-AM, WBBM-FM, WUSN-FM,
WXRT-FM, WSCR-AM, and WBMX-FM. Obviously tensions are running high at all of
those stations. No announcements yet.
=Here’s what John Fisher wrote on his Facebook page on
Tuesday…
Today was my last day on the air at 94.1 The Sound. When they asked me
at the beginning of 2018 to help launch their new station and play Lionel
Richie and Celine Dion songs, I thought they were kidding. But I learned so
much, I worked with so many bright, committed people who put The Sound on the
map, and I met a ton of fantastic listeners. It was a thrill and a pleasure. On
to the next thing!
=To get a better idea of how deep Pat
Foley’s Cub Roots run, listen to this great interview of Pat done by George
Ofman on a recent Tell Me A Story I Don’t Know podcast. He talks about
his dad, and former Cubs announcer Jack Quinlan, and how that Cubs connection
propelled his entire career.
*Joe Girardi to join Cubs booth
=Former Cub catcher (and Yankees/Marlins/Phillies manager) Joe Girardi has signed with the Marquee Network to join Boog & Jim in the booth for some upcoming games this season. ESPN has the story this morning.
*Congratulations to WBEZ
=The 2022 Edward R. Murrow awards were announced this weekand WBEZ (NPR in Chicago) took home two of them. One for
Hard News and one for Investigative Reporting, both of them for their coverage
of the Chicago lifeguard sexual abuse story.
*Rock Radio Revisited
=A who’s who of Chicago Rock Radio
from the 60s and 70s turned out this past weekend at the Des Plaines Theater.
In case you missed it, here’s my review. Includes lots of photos.
*Top 50 Nationally in Cume
=For the uninitiated, Cume refers to
the total number of different persons who tune in to a radio station during the
course of a daypart for at least five minutes. Radio Insight published the top 50 in the country (for July) and not surprisingly, several Chicago stations are on that
list.
=All of these stations have a cume over a million, and
are ranked among the top 50 nationwide: WLIT-FM, WDRV-FM, WLS-FM, WTMX-FM,
WKSC-FM, WBBM-FM, WSHE-FM
=Just behind them, still in the top 50, but not quite
at the million mark…WUSN-FM, WKQX-FM
*A Podcast About the Podcasting Industry
=Talk about Meta. A new podcast about the podcasting
industry debuted this week. It’s called Podcasting By the Numbers, and
it’s hosted by Gary Spurgeon. Radio Ink has the details.
*Podcast Ratings
=Podcast Business Journal has the listings of the top 20 podcasts in America. Joe Rogan is in first place and is joined on the list by
NPR staples like This American Life, NPR News Now, Money First, Wait
Wait Don’t Tell Me, Up First and Fresh Air, along with the political
podcasts Ben Shapiro, Pod Save America, and Dan Bogino. One of my
personal faves, Smartless, is also on the list.
*Garry Meier tease/bonus
=My next Illinois Entertainer column will be an
interview with Garry Meier. The September issue comes out on September 1st,
but here’s a bonus portion of the interview that didn’t make the final cut of
the article. Garry told me the story about how a monarch butterfly indirectly
led him to pursue the radio business…
“In 1969 Larry Lujack was
on WLS and I found his style to be akin to what my style would be if I ever did
radio. He often talked about reincarnation and that he wanted to come back as a
butterfly. One day, there was a dead monarch butterfly on the ground, and I
immediately thought about sending it to Larry along with a note that said, ‘I
think I killed your uncle.’ He had this feature called Clunk Letter of the Day,
and three days after I sent the letter, a friend rushed into the pharmacy where
I was working and said, ‘I think Lujack is going to read your letter. He just
teased that he got a butterfly from an idiot in Oak Forest.’ I immediately knew
that I was that idiot. I asked the pharmacist to turn off the beautiful music
station and turn on WLS. Sure enough, I was waiting on customers and I heard
Larry’s voice say, ‘This idiot in Oak Forest sent me a dead butterfly’ and then
he read my letter on the air. I got a chubby. Oh man, my material was on the
air, and it was being done by a guy I really admired. That was an important
moment for me. I always kept it in the back of my head. After American
Graffiti, Wolfman Jack became another idol. I went to broadcasting school after
that. Just to bookend the story, at the end of my time at the Loop, on my last
day there, you know what I saw on the ground outside the Hancock? A dead
butterfly. And I also worked at the same station as Lujack in the 80s, and he
hated me. He threatened to punch me in the face live on the air. So it really
does come full circle, doesn’t it?”
=Barry Butler has been a broadcasting executive in
Chicago for years (currently with Hubbard in Chicago), but he has another side
to him that is becoming quite famous. Barry’s photographs of Chicago are simply
the best I’ve ever seen. Block Club Chicago has the details about Barry’s
exhibit, currently on display at Navy Pier.
=Tony Fitzpatrick has been a well-known voice on
Chicago radio for decades and is a frequent contributor to Joan Esposito’s show
on WCPT, but his day job has always been artist. Here’s the poster for his
upcoming showing…
*Ken Levine proclaims terrestrial radio dead
=Ken is no ordinary media pundit. He’s one of the
all-time greatest television writers, a baseball announcer, and a
self-described radio geek. To find out what led him to this rather drastic
opinion, click on his blog.
*Former Chicago Radio alert
=Bart Shore, the former Chicago radio traffic
reporter, has retired to North Carolina. If you thought that also meant the end
of his radio career, you are wrong.
MEDIA BIRTHDAYS & MILESTONES
The following Chicago media pros are celebrating
birthdays this week. If you’d like to read my interviews with them, click on
their names. The year I interviewed each of them is listed in parenthesis.
=Here's the latest on Lin's health. From his Facebook page...
Quick update: 2 rounds of chemotherapy under my belt. The first coincided with a nasty lung infection that put me in the hospital for 5 days. Followed closely by a fracture of my femur and surgery to put a rod in my leg to stabilize my leg. Been at home last couple weeks dealing with post op pain in my leg. But overall I am maintaining. I should add the nurses at Northwestern are a rare breed of sensitivity, good humor, and professionalism. I will never forget how well I was treated during all this drama. I have a long way to go and I have been overwhelmed, truly, by your love and support. So thank you. GTBA-Lin
=The investigative reporting team at WBBM-TV (Channel
2) brought home an Edward Murrow award this week. Dave Savini announced the
news on his LinkedIn page…
My team just won
the National Edward R Murrow award for our investigative series on a
ten-year-old girl raped and trafficked out of a hotel in Chicago while DCFS and
CPD looked the other way. One rape kit had a match on a registered child
predator who was free but CPD sat on the results for five months until we
exposed it all!
*Hollywood
Critics Association Awards for Television and Streaming
=Award
season is beginning in Hollywood, and the HCA announced their winners this
week. See the full list of winners here. Among them, Bill
Hader, Henry Winkler, Bob Odenkirk, Norm MacDonald, and of course, The Beatles.
*Streaming
now beating cable TV
=I’m
not surprised by this news at all. Variety has the details. And these numbers don't even include people who stream on tablets or computers. The numbers are likely even higher.
*Big
Ten’s New TV Deal
=The
Big Ten has already cashed in after adding USC and UCLA. This week they signed
the richest TV deal in College Sports. It’s a multi-billion-dollar mega-deal.
The Washington Post has the full story.
*John
Owens moves to Channel 7
=John
is the president for the Midwest/Chicago chapter of the National Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences, and an acclaimed published author (Chili Dog MVP).
He had also been working for Weigel broadcasting. As of this week he is now a
multi-platform program producer for ABC-7 in Chicago.
=The
announcement came this week that the two entities would continue their
association.
“We are beyond excited to partner with Weigel
Broadcasting to continue the tradition of televising the IHSA Football, Girls
Basketball, and Boys Basketball State Finals,” said IHSA Executive Director
Craig Anderson. “Weigel has deep roots in covering IHSA sports and clearly
values the community aspects surrounding high school sports that make them so
special. I am confident that Weigel’s vision will serve our viewers well and we
are eager to kick off the partnership with the IHSA Football Playoff Pairing Show
in October.”
*Nexstar Buys the CW
=On Monday, Nexstar
(which owns WGN radio and television locally) agreed to purchase 75% of the CW.
Adweek has the details here.
*When
Politics/Comedy/Television collide
=It’s
not often that a politician hosts a late-night talk show. Of course, Al Franken
isn’t an ordinary politician. This is a pretty good effort filling in for Jimmy
Kimmel this week…
*Alex
Wagner’s show debuts on MSNBC
=Rachel
Maddow has officially stepped down from hosting her nightly show on MSNBC. Ever
since this past Tuesday, Alex Wagner fills that role every Tues-Friday (Maddow
remains on Monday nights). The Washington Post has more on this new show.
*Brian
Stelter’s Show Reliable Sources canceled
=I’m
really starting to see why nobody else appears to be jumping into this
media-beat frying pan. The only show on cable television that was about the
media, Reliable Sources, has been canceled. Host Brian Stelter is leaving CNN.
This is a terrible move by CNN. @brianstelter was the symbol of a media establishment willing to question itself. He was a flawed but essential voice in the national media. His firing is a win for all the wrong people. https://t.co/TOMHgZktU3
— Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) August 18, 2022
=Jimmy Greenfield was the man behind ChicagoNow, a blog run by the Chicago Tribune. This past week it met it's permanent demise. Jimmy had some thoughts on the matter, via his Facebook page...
There were signs that ChicagoNow was ending. The guy who had been overseeing it since I left in 2017 announced one day in late June that he was leaving the company and somebody from the Tribune would get in touch. Nobody ever did.
The bloggers who had stuck together all these years -- some for over a decade -- weren't dumb. They had organized to get the word out amongst themselves that if you wanted to keep your content then you better move it because it could all disappear at any moment.
Still, I don't think anybody really expected the Tribune to first begin to unpublish posts critical of the Tribune, and then just kill the whole site. The Tribune never reached out, never responded and never gave anybody an opportunity to take their content with them before taking it offline. Nobody can access the back end of the WordPress-hosted platform. It's all gone.
What an awful thing to do.
RIP ChicagoNow, and F Alden Global Capital.
*Media
Job Board
=Just
in case you didn’t know this was out there, your future media employer might be
looking for you here. https://jobs.mediajobboard.com/ It’s being run
by Poynter, Editor & Publisher, and America’s Newspapers.
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
Mike McMains does a few truly memorable walking tours of Chicago including an Ugly Buildings tour, and an Underground Chicago tour (with rats!). Rick and Dave chat about those tours and their hometown of Chicago. [Ep101]
*Happy birthday to Eckhartz Press author Brendan Sullivan. Brendan is the co-author (with me) of the first ever book released by Eckhartz Press, The Living Wills.
The New York Times review of Jared Kushner's book is about as brutal as any review I've ever seen. Read the whole thing here. Here's a little clip of it...
“This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox. Kushner’s fealty to Trump remains absolute. Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.”
Every week I send my Minutia Men Co-Host Dave Stern a list from our audio archives for this week's Studio Walls feature. These are the possibilities for this week. Which one will he choose?
*August 14 is David Crosby's birthday. We had comedian Mike Toomey on the show and he told us what it was like opening for Crosby, Stills & Nash. (Listen to the interview here)
*August 15, 1969 was the first day of the famous Woodstock Festival. Essra Mohawk was there and explained to us what it was like. (Full interview here)
*August 15 is playwright (and author) Vicki Quade's birthday. The woman is famous for nun-comedy, and we had her on the show to talk about it. (Listen to the interview here)
*August 16 is Elvis' death day. One of our former guests, Danny Bonaduce, starred in a movie with Elvis and told us that story. (Listen to the interview here)
*August 16, 1996, Brookfield Zoo gorilla Binti Jua saved a little boy who fell in her cage. I wrote a song about that (Binti You Are a Hero), and it was performed by Landecker & The Legends (AUDIO)
*August 16, 1999, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire debuted. Little Tommy Kaempfer (age 4) played a version of the game with his dad. (AUDIO)
*August 17, 1991, Ebony & Ivory debuted on the Loop. My co-host Stan Lawrence was on Minutia Men to discuss. (Listen to that interview here)
*August 17, 1999, Bill Clinton apologized to the nation for his affair. I wrote a song about it (He's the President) for Landecker & the Legends (AUDIO)
*August 18 is Breaking Bad actor Carmen Serano's birthday. We interviewed her about the experience of being on one of TV's most critically acclaimed shows. (Listen to that here)
*August 18 is Elayne Boosler's birthday. Poor Elayne has the misfortune of following the band Ed Zeppelin once at a Kevin Matthews Comedy Jam. Kevin was on our podcast and told that story. (Listen to full interview here)
*August 18 would have been Patrick Swayze's birthday. His good friend and co-writer Stacy Widelitz was on the show talking about the making of Dirty Dancing. (Listen to that here)
*August 19, 1969, Ken Holtzman tossed a no-hitter. In our EveryCubEver files we have the audio of his last out. (AUDIO)
*August 19 is Brendan Sullivan's birthday. We had him on the podcast and he told a great story about being sent out by radio management to potray a Nazi. (Full interview here)
*August 19 would have been Ginger Baker's birthday. We had fellow drummer Alan White (Yes) on the show, and he discussed his relationship with Ginger. (Full interview here)
*On this day in 2017, Eckhartz Press announced the upcoming release of "Safe Inside" by Lee Kingsmill. It would go on to be named a finalist for Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year.
Here's a sampling of the critical acclaim...
“The best books expand our humanity by the vicarious experiences and opportunities for compassion they provide. Lee Kingsmill’s Safe Inside is just such a book. It’s rich and textured, filled with family dynamics, religion, sexuality, the refuge of the imagination, the sanctuary of movies, and most of all, the depth, truthfulness, and complexity of humanity.” Michael Lister, New York Times Bestselling author of "Blood Work"
“This beautifully written and sensitive novel about growing up in Chicago in the 1940s and ’50s and falling in love with the movies is that rare thing, a story that totally recreates a vanished world. Every detail of both place and character is so closely observed and evocative that you feel like you are there. ” Dan Callahan, associate editor of Simon Media Works and author of "Barbara Stanwyck: the Miracle Woman," and "Vanessa"
“The meticulous detail of Safe Inside leads us through the memories and emotions that take hold early and never let go.” Walter J. Podrazik, Media historian and author
August 16, 1977. Bobby Murcer scores the winning run in bottom of the 15th inning on an error. If Cubs hadn't scored, umps were going to call the game because of darkness. In the news: Elvis Presley dies in his home at Graceland in Memphis Tennessee at the age of 42 #EveryCubEverpic.twitter.com/xwvk90f5sh
#5: The Brian Wilson interview
#4 Steve's on-the-air vasectomy
#3: A Christmas Carol
#2 The Ringo Starr Interview
#1 Meeting Bridget
