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".
Piers Morgan was the co-host of Good Morning Britain and one of Meghan Markle's most vocal critics. He ripped her after the Oprah interview, saying he didn't believe the palace had denied mental health therapy, and he didn't believe she contemplated suicide.
When Piers got heat for the heat he was throwing Megan's way, he did exactly what you'd expect this Trump-loving snowflake to do: He had a hissy fit, stormed off the set, and quit.
From the New York Times...
Mr. Morgan’s vociferous criticism of Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, who Mr. Morgan said had orchestrated a “two-hour trash-a-thon of our royal family” in their interview, drew more than 41,000 complaints to Ofcom, Britain’s communications regulatory authority. The agency announced on Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into Mr. Morgan’s comments under its “harm and offence” rules.
Then, on Tuesday’s broadcast of “Good Morning Britain,” the strife came to a head when another co-host, Alex Beresford, admonished Mr. Morgan for his frequent sniping at Meghan. Mr. Beresford told Mr. Morgan that he had an ax to grind with Meghan because he previously had a rapport with her and she “cut you off.”
“She’s entitled to cut you off if she wants to,” Mr. Beresford said. “Has she said anything about you since she cut you off? I don’t think she has, but yet you continue to trash her.”
Mr. Morgan then got up from his anchor chair and walked off the set.
“OK, I’m done with this,” Mr. Morgan said.
The two hosts engaged in cross-talk as he was walking away, with Mr. Beresford saying: “Do you know what? That’s pathetic.”
He will always be remembered as one of the key members of three Stanley Cup champion teams. He retired this week, and said goodbye with this full page ad in the newspaper...
Just posted on the Eckhartz Press (Studio Walls) blog...
Eckhartz Press co-publisher Rick Kaempfer is a former radio producer and host and still writes about the media regularly as the media columnist for Illinois Entertainer. This is his 30th year as a media writer, so throughout the year we are featuring excerpts from the more than 200 current and former Chicago radio and television stars he has interviewed, including the following people who are celebrating birthdays this week
Ian Punnett’s birthday is March 3rd. He had a very high-profile shot on the radio in his hometown of Chicago during the 1990s ratings hey-day of WGN. Rick interviewed him during that time for Chicago Advertising and Media, and again in 2007 for Chicago Radio Spotlight. In that second interview he asked Ian if the time just wasn’t right for him at WGN…
I guess it wasn’t. In the Quad Cities and Nashville (where he worked before WGN), those were really hard-rock radio stations, even though I was doing a personality/talk radio show that just happened to play hard-rock records. I think when I came to WGN it was a culture shock for both of us. The problem with WGN was the culture kept changing at the top, philosophically-speaking, and it was hard for me to keep up with it. I was kind of like a sacrificial lamb for the inevitable change there. I stayed in touch with some of the managers after I left, and they told me I became like this measuring stick for the listeners. Every time they brought in someone new they’d hear things like “this new person you have stinks as bad as that Ian Punnett” or they’d hear “If you’re gonna change and go this route, why didn’t you stick with the guy who was doing it right?” I was the scapegoat of change.
Laura Witek’s birthday is March 4th. She was a newscaster in Chicago during the 80s and 90s, most famously at WMAQ during the beginning of it’s all-news format, and later at the Loop (AM 1000) on the Kevin Matthews and Steve & Garry shows.Rick interviewed her in 2007 about those crazy Loop days.To say it was a different era is an understatement…
My favorite times were at the very beginning…when everybody was there and everybody got along. I knew even then it was a moment in time….a very special and good “perfect storm.” Larry (Wert) used to call it “high school with money.” My favorite road trip was Las Vegas with Kevin (Matthews) and Steve and Garry. Johnny B met us there. There was one broadcast that they all did together that was amazing. I never heard anything funnier….before or since.
Other magical moments? Every single show in Hawaii (with Steve & Garry), but especially the time when Steve was diving beneath me in the pool and blowing up bubbles from his regulator. We were broadcasting live at the time and it was hard for me to concentrate. Boy, did that tickle! And yes, that’s code! (Photo: Bubbling in progress). When Kev got me a stripper for my birthday. A female stripper. (Who’s birthday was it?!!) The low fat versus regular Twinkie/Cupcake test when I was blindfolded and Garry fed me. I found it strangely erotic and yes, I could tell the difference!
Scott Dirks’ birthday is March 5. He also worked at the Loop. In fact, he was one of the only staffers to have been part of the first big Loop era (Late 70s) and the second one (Mid-80s to Mid-90s). Rick interviewed Scott in 2007 after he had moved over to WLS-FM. At the time Scott was finally able to publicly tell some of the tales from his early Loop days, which were as crazy as you would expect them to be.
I’ll tell you one funny story that probably won’t get me in any trouble now. When I started out at the college station I became friends with another one of the jocks there, and we followed almost identical paths for a while – he ended up working weekend overnights at WMET, when I was doing the same shifts at the Loop . The Loop and WMET were bitter rivals in a legendary rock radio war, but he and I were friends, and lived not too far from each other. We’d carpool to work together, or meet after we got off in the air in the morning and go have breakfast somewhere. While we were on the air we’d usually get each other on the phone and have these epic all-night conversations to keep each other awake and on our toes through the overnight shift.
One New Years Eve we were both scheduled to start work at midnight , so we met up a little earlier, toasted the New Year with a drink or two, and then went to work. For me it was just a slightly sloppier than usual airshift, but when he got to work, he kept drinking, and eventually decided it would be a good idea to throw the ‘more rock and less talk’ format out the window, and do very lengthy on-air commentary about the state of the radio business, share his thoughts on various other people on the air, his bosses, etc. I got off the air at 6am, and he was scheduled to be on until 7am, and I’d made plans to drive him home that morning. So as I was driving down the street to WMET, I turn on the car radio I hear him inviting listeners to come on up to the studio, and bring something to drink while they’re at it. I get there, and there are listeners wandering up and down the halls of the radio station, the studio door is propped open and people are just walking in and out, and the unscheduled talk show has taken a somewhat less than G-rated turn.
I tried to get him to cool it, but he just tried to get me to join in the fun. I wouldn’t say a word. So I stood in the studio and basically watched this guy commit career suicide for the last hour of what, as you might imagine, was his last shift in Chicago. The epilogue is that about five years later someone who didn’t even know I knew this guy asks if I want a dub of this hilarious tape that’s been circulating among radio people, it’s a guy who got drunk on the air on New Year’s Eve. A very valuable lesson there – you never know who might be listening…and recording.
This week's interview guest is Moody Blues keyboardist Alan Hewitt. Among other fun topics we discover that he is related to infamous Chicagoan George Streeter (of Streeterville fame). https://t.co/wNvCYbfUJ2
It being my birthday, my thoughts naturally turn to my ex-friends and downright enemies; we fell out for good reasons and I cherish our estrangement - we are united in our hostility 🕉
March is National Women's Month, and we salute the many female authors who have written Eckhartz Press books, including our newest author Vicki Quade. We still miss the late Pat Colander, Felizitas Sudendorf and Dena Mendes, and we'll always appreciate Lauren LoGiudice, Deb Tokarz, Janet Sutherland-Madden, Becky Sarwate-Maxwell, Beth Jacobellis, ML Collins, Ann Wilson, Jeanne Bellezzo, Lori Oster, and Kim Strickland. Also, Kristin Oakley who edited "The Write City Review", Lindsey Eanet who co-wrote "Back in the Game" with Rich King, and Jessica Hagy who provided illustrations for Kipper McGee's "Brandwidth".
Just posted at the Eckhartz Press Studio Walls blog...
Eckhartz Press co-publisher Rick Kaempfer is a former radio producer and host and still writes about the media regularly as the media columnist for Illinois Entertainer. This is his 30th year as a media writer, so we are featuring excerpts from the more than 200 current and former Chicago radio and television stars he has interviewed, including the following people who are celebrating birthdays on either February 28 or February 29 (which this year doesn’t exist)
Chuck Buell has a February 29th birthday. He was a disc jockey at WLS-AM during the hey-day of the WCFL-WLS battles in the late 60s and early 70s in Chicago. Rick interviewed Chuck in 2010, and asked him about that battle…
(Photo: Back row left to right, Larry Lujack, Chuck Buell, Jerry Kaye, Front row, Art Roberts, Clark Weber, and Kris Erik Stevens)
It was a genuine and fierce rivalry. In the late-sixties, the “Big Ten” (WCFL) was definitely challenging “The Big 89” (WLS). WLS still had an “older” sound even though they were playing Top 40 music. ABC felt a younger presentation was needed to match the music and the times. So abandoning their long-time policy of not hiring anyone under the age of 30, they brought in Larry Lujack from ‘CFL’s overnights for afternoons, Lyle Dean to do local news and a promising young 20-something hot shot from Denver by the name of Buell to hit the air in the early evenings. Within the first rating period that followed, the dominance of “LS” was unquestioned. So much so that a few months later, another “young kid,” was brought in to fortify this new nighttime “youth movement,” and (Chuck) Buell and (Kris Eric) Stevens, following the strong lead-in from afternoons, were rockin’ the Windy City back-to-back non-stop for eight big hours every night!
Leslie Keiling’s birthday is February 28th. She is an institution in Chicago for her years with Steve & Garry (as Lane Closure), John Records Landecker (WJMK) and with John Williams (WGN). She currently co-hosts a podcast with Garry Meier. Rick interviewed Leslie for Illinois Entertainer in 2016, and asked her to describe what kind of a podcast Garry does…
The one hour package of this podcast allows him to follow a thread if he wants to, or pick a story that appeals to him, and do it in a much more compact and coherent way. And it’s much more freeing than the WGN-AM days. He doesn’t have to hit a time clock. He does these longer interviews now without worrying about breaking the mojo. When you’re on a roll, you don’t have to stay, ‘can you hold on – we have to stop for a moment.’ Garry hasn’t forgotten the people who made things fun during his wgn.fm days. He’s done interviews with Joe the Uber Cubs fan, with Jo the lady who called right before her bath every night, and he’s incorporating some of them, while also taking it in a brand new direction. He’s also getting some advice from really smart people like Howard Stern and Adam Carolla. They are two of the guys who made alternative media what it is and what it could be.
Ben Finfer’s birthday is also February 28th. He is a gifted producer and host who has worked at the Score, ESPN AM 1000, and the short-lived The Game. Rick interviewed him in 2010 and wondered why it was that sports radio seems to have so much behind-the-scenes drama.
It’s definitely not the stress. There are several jobs out there that create a lot more stress than sports radio. We’re not putting our lives on the line. We’re just breaking down the Bears offensive line. I think the tense times came from the fact that these are guys paid to have opinions and to express them to others. There’s no switch to flip. Mac doesn’t turn off a microphone and all of sudden go into a shell. He likes to say what’s on his mind. As do Harry and Jurko. And I’m sure that’s the case with a lot of talk show hosts. But anybody who tells you they’re stressed out by talk radio is a drama queen. Passover seders with the family are more stressful. I know there’s always a ratings battle staring us in the face and jobs are always on the line. But the worst case scenario is you get fired.
One of my favorite things about co-hosting a podcast with a British gent is having someone to answer my questions about British colloquialisms I hear in Premier League play by play. This week, it's Hobson's Choice. @fkadamandrick@adamhowarth0627https://t.co/OgnCrxRlyR
In the years 1914 and 1915 there were three major leagues in baseball. The third one was the Federal League, and the Chicago team played in what is now known as Wrigley Field. In fact, the ballpark was built for them.
I found this interesting article today about the Federal League, and a movie that was recently discovered featuring a scene at a Federal League game. You can read it here.
