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".
With over 80 books in our library, this year we're taking some time every week to highlight one of the books on the Eckhartz bookshelf. This week's book is Down at the Golden Coin by Kim Strickland .This was second book we ever published.
How would your life change if you met your Messiah at the laundromat?
During the horrible economic downturn, former airline pilot, Annie Mullard, feels she’s sunk to a new low when she’s forced to go to a run-down laundromat, The Golden Coin, after her washing machine breaks, but it’s here she meets a Messiah. Even though twenty-something, blue-haired Violet isn’t anyone’s idea of a Messiah, she can read minds, levitate Tide with Bleach Alternative and send Annie into past lives. It doesn’t take long before Violet has Annie’s quiet morning in the laundromat spinning as out of control as the rest of her life.
Reviews
A lesson in faith and the power of positive thinking, all nestled within a satisfying story.
Kirkus Reviews
“Down at the Golden Coin” couldn’t be more timely or original, with the most eccentric spiritual guide since Clarence the Angel. Prepare to set your set your brain to spin-cycle.
Linda Howe, author of "How to Read the Akashic Records" and "Healing through the Akashic Records
Strickland beautifully weaves a story that shows the ability we have to change our lives and ultimately find that elusive happiness. She brings together powerful words and concepts of self-responsibility, passion, faith in oneself and universal experiences to demonstrate how we can write our own happy ending.
Serena Wadhwa, Windy City Reviews
Down at the Golden Coin’ is funny, serious, enlightening, and thought-provoking.
We have now done over 200 interviews on our various Minutia Men podcasts, and this year we're going to revisit some of the best. Mark Giangreco was a TV sportscaster in Chicago for decades before being fired for inappropriate comments about his co-worker Cheryl Burton on the air. Turns out, Mark has been a naughty boy before, and that's one of the many subjects we discuss. We also go back to my encounters with Mark at the Loop back in the late 80s/early 90s, and discuss our mutual friend Chet Coppock. Well worth a listen.
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 Eddie Webb. Eddie had two different stints with the Loop under two different ownership groups. Both of them came after the main Loop heydays, but he will still always be associated with the radio station.
Rick: What are some of your favorite memories from your Loop days?
Eddie: Oh man, there’s a lot of them. Obviously working with a legend like Jonathon Brandmeier—what an honor that was. Doing the Loop Rock Girl...
Rick: Be careful how you say that.
Eddie: (laughs) Right. Doing the Loop Rock girl promotion. (photo) That was a ton of fun. But you know, this is going to sound corny, but my favorite memories are the times I went out to these concert events, where we were broadcasting live, and just meeting the Loop listeners. These great Loop fans treated me like I was one of their buddies—they didn’t ask for autographs, they talked to me like they knew me. They just wanted to have a beer with me and talk about rock and roll. You know, real people. I loved that. These guys really are just like me. I know this format. I live the format. This is who I really am. That’s why I could never do some of those other formats, like a Mix format or one of these AC formats.
Rick: I run into Byrd at a lot of the concerts I go to, and he’s the same way.
Eddie: Absolutely. Byrd (photo) totally is. He lives the format too. It’s a bummer that the decisions are being made now by guys that aren’t really in the audience, and don’t really understand them.
Rick: One of the things that no one ever questioned about you was your rock and roll authenticity. It just takes one second of looking at you to notice that. But not everyone realizes that you actually worked with some of the biggest bands. Talk about that time.
Eddie: I was living in Phoenix and a buddy was a tour manager for Skid Row and asked me to come out to the show—and when I came out, he asked me if I wanted to stay with the tour. I said “You mean right now?” He said yeah, and I said “What the hell?” I did that for a couple of months. When I got home, a buddy of mine had moved to LA and he was working with Madonna at the time, and said you gotta come out to LA, man. So I did, and one of my friends was working for Guns and Roses, and he heard that the guys Duff (photo) had hired were ripping him off, and taking advantage of him. So, I went over there to clean out the place. I went from feeding his dogs, to before I knew it, making appointments with contractors, and occasionally going on the road with them. I was sort of like part assistant/part security—not that I’m a badass or anything.
Rick: You must have seen some things.
Eddie: (laughs) I’ll take a few of those stories to the grave. It was the usual rock and roll stuff.
Rick: What about Ozzy? You worked with him too, didn’t you?
Eddie: That was a few years later. I got an e-mail from a buddy, asking if I’d like to do this MVP program for Ozzie. This would have been 2004, and I did that three and half years and toured the country with the band in a bus, and ran this VIP program. In select cities, Sharon Osbourne also did a platinum project. We’d bring in these ten people, and we’d take care of them, and make them feel special. I’m a small town Iowa boy, born and raised—a town of 8000, and if you told me when I was a kid, that I would end up working for Ozzy, I never would have believed it. It was a great time. After that, I got back into radio in Vegas, and then back to Chicago.
Rick: You’ve been in the rock and roll business now for a long time, and met just about everyone. Who are some of your favorites and least favorites, just as people to talk to?
Eddie: Most of them are great guys. I just recently interviewed Jason Bohnam. He was awesome. Kevin Cronin. Awesome. Skid Row was cool. Believe it or not, Donny Osmond was one of my all-time favs. He gets it, he understands who he is, and he goes with it. He was just a fun interview and a great guy. Of course, Duff and Slash are two of my all time favorites.
Rick: I met Slash once, and was really surprised that he’s such a gentle dude.
Eddie: No doubt. But compared to Duff, Slash is a dick (laughs). That’s how nice Duff is.
Rick: What about guys that you were excited to meet? Any rock and roll heroes?
Eddie: I got a chance to meet Robert Plant once, and while they were laying out all these ground rules, I almost bumped right into him. He looked at me and said: “Who do I have to fuck around here to get a cup of tea?” I said, “Dude, I hope it’s not me.”
Rick: What about least favorite?
Eddie: There are two guys I talk about on the radio—my listeners know how I feel about them. Chris Robinson (photo) was the biggest dick ever. Every time in the last ten or eleven years that I’ve played the Black Crowes, every time, I play a tape of this caller saying “That guy is a dick”
I will not interview him again or go anywhere near him.
Rick: What did he do?
Eddie: He is just one of those guys that is too cool for the room. I said, “You guys are like the ultimate garage band,” which I intended as a compliment, because I really do like their music. He said: ‘We ain’t no fuckin’ garage band!” Real pleasant.
The first time around at the Loop, I was down in Atlanta for the “By Your Side” album release show, live on the radio on the SFX network. I was the host of the show. There were people from radio stations all over the country, and we were squeezed into this little rehearsal studio in Atlanta. I was crushed against the stage, and had my notes on a music stand.
I don’t know if you’ve done a show like this before, but we were on about 200 stations—this was a live network show, and we had planned out the show very meticulously with the SFX people—I wasn’t exactly ad-libbing up there. One of the questions someone asked compared Robinson’s raspy sound to Rod Stewart, which to me, again, is totally a compliment. He said “I’m going to go down there and kick you in the teeth.”
Rick: Whoa.
Eddie: The other guy I couldn’t stand was Stephen Pearcy from Ratt—but he’s a combination of dick and stupid. So I’ll cut him a little slack. But those are really the only two bad experiences.
Rick: What about rock and roll radio? Do you have any radio heroes?
Eddie: You bet. John Records Landecker (photo). I will say this to anyone that will listen; he is the guy that inspired me to go into radio. I don’t know whether to thank him or blame him for that. I still remember this like it was yesterday. It was in January, and I was like 15 years old, living in Iowa, and WGN-TV aired this special show following John around the studio, asking him questions about the job—why he did it—what he loved about it. I was watching him in the WLS studio, doing his bit, doing his thing, and I was just MEZMERIZED. (Here’s a portion of that show)
My father owned a hardware store, and that summer his store was doing a promotion with a local radio station, and he asked me if I wanted to come to the station with him, and I did—and I see this guy talking into that same nerf ball microphone, and I thought –man this is great, this is what I want to do. And they said they needed help on the weekend, and would I be interested? Are you kidding me?
It was a beautiful music station, and I would change these tapes, and then I got to read the weather. I thought I was big time—I had visions of grandeur.
Since those days I’ve tried to listen to whatever Landecker stuff I could get my hands on; tapes, MP3s, you name it. He was tremendous. I mean he would become a part of that music—whatever he did made the music even better. I know he did a good morning show and a talk show, but for my money, if I had a radio station, I’d put him on at night, and say, here’s a million dollars play whatever, and do whatever you want. He was the greatest disc jockey ever.
I ended up having lunch with John a few years ago, and I was really nervous, more nervous than I was meeting any of the rock stars I’ve met. Meeting him was like meeting Wolfman Jack.
Now that we have such a big stable of talented authors, we're going to take some time this year to re-introduce them to you. This week it's Rich King, author of 2022's "Ike & Me"...
Rich King
Rich King was a fixture in Chicago sports broadcasting for 48 years on WBBM News Radio, WBBM-TV Channel 2, and WGN-TV, Channel 9. Rich is not only the winner of numerous awards (Sportwriter of the Year, AP, UPI and 2014 Silver Circle Inductee), he’s also an acclaimed author. His first book (My Maggie) was published to rave reviews in 2008. His second book Back in the Game came out in 2014. Ike and Me is his third.
Over his five decades on the air, Rich King was always more than just an outstanding sportscaster in his sports-crazy hometown. So it’s no surprise this splendid memoir is more than just a collection of war stories and character vignettes spanning the last golden era in Chicago sports and local TV news.
A curation of news items
about the media from this past week, with a particular emphasis on Chicago
(By Rick Kaempfer)
RADIO/PODCASTS
*The Fred Show Goes National
=The morning show airs every weekday on Kiss-FM (103.5
FM) in Chicago. Now it’s going national, via Premiere Networks. “I’m
incredibly grateful to introduce our show to cities across the country,” Fred said
in a release. “We have built a community in Chicago and are excited to welcome
the entire nation to our family.” Kiss-FM is routinely one of the highest rated stations in Chicago in cume. In
the most recent ratings (posted last week), only WLIT and WLS-FM had more
listeners. (Cume literally means: the total number of listeners who listen to a
certain daypart for at least five minutes.)
=(Late update: The PD Troy Hanson was fired on Friday, and there are a few stories floating around that I haven't yet confirmed. I'll have a full report for next week's column)
*Chicago Fire Games to Air on WLS
=It’s a multi-year deal, regular season and playoff
games. PD Stephanie Tichenor said in a
release: “Sports are a huge part of the fabric of Chicago and as 890 WLS-AM
approaches its centennial anniversary, we are delighted to add Chicago Fire FC
to our lineup.”
*B96 moves back to roots
=With longtime programmer Todd Cavanah gone, B-96
is changing it’s on-air approach. The new slogan is “The Music You’ve Always
Loved, and the Best of What’s New”. Radio Insight does a deeper dive on the music.
*Barry Butler Book
=The radio world knows Barry Butler as the General
Sales Manager at Hubbard Broadcasting in Chicago. To the rest of the world,
he’s the greatest living photographer of our fine city. I buy his calendar
every year for my out-of-town brother. Barry also has a coffee table book,
called “Chicago, A City Above All” which came out in 2020, and this week he
announced he is coming out with a follow up book. It’s called “Chicago –
Morning, Noon & Night” and it includes 100 beautiful images of Chicago.It’s available for pre-sale now.
*”Fresh Air” Adds a Co-Host
=Terry Gross is still the main host of the NPR show
(and co-executive producer), but Tonya Mosely, who has been a
contributing interviewer on the show since 2021, will now officially become
part of the show as well. NPR announced the news on their website. The show is
produced in Philadelphia, but airs here in Chicago on WBEZ.
*CBS News Lays Off Steve Futterman and Steve Dorsey
=Ryan McGuire was once the executive producer of
the Chicago White Sox Radio Network at WMVP. He has a new gig now. This week he
was named Westwood One’s VP of Affiliate Sales for Sports.
*Dave Wills Day in Tampa
=This only seems fitting. On the day the Tampa Rays honored their late broadcaster
(and former White Sox broadcaster) Dave Wills, the Rays won the game on
a walk-off homer…against the White Sox.
=The former Chicago Bulls center is now the color analyst
on Bulls radio broadcasts with Chuck Swirsky. This is a photo of the two
of them from Chuck’s book “Always a Pleasure”
*April 26—Paul Webber birthday
=Paul has been a key behind the scenes contributor for
many years, first at Bonneville, then at Hubbard, and finally as the marketing
and creative services director at WXRT.
*April 27—Kathy Voltmer birthday
=Voltmer is one of Chicago’s most respected radio news
veterans, having worked at WXRT, WLUP, Q-101, WMAQ, WDRV, and WLS. She probably
doesn’t like telling people this, but she was also the newscaster on my radio
show on WPGU in Champaign-Urbana when we were in college. I’ve interviewed her
several times over the years, most recently in 2015 for Illinois Entertainer.
*April 27—Bill Klaproth birthday
=Bill was a longtime program director at the Loop during
the Bonneville days. He is currently director of marketing for RadioMD. (Photo:
Bill Klaproth, Matt Bisbee and Me)
*April 28—Dan Fabian birthday
=Fabian served as the VP/General Manager of WGN during
some of their most successful years. He left in 1996, 30 years after he started
working at the station.
*April 28--Terri Hemmert birthday
=WXRT's all-time favorite. Still going strong at 93.1 FM. I never miss her Breakfast with the Beatles program.
*April 29—Lee Abrams birthday
=Lee is one of the most successful rock radio programmers
of all-time. He was the man who created the original Loop in the 1970s. Abrams recounts that experience nicely here.
*April 29—Lisa Kosty birthday
=Lisa is the midday host at WSHE-FM. She previously
worked for Total Traffic Network and CBS Radio.
*April 29—Steve Fisher birthday
=When Steve worked at Q-101 in the early 1990s, he was
one of the first people I interviewed. At the time I was writing for Chicago
Advertising & Media magazine. The last time I interviewed Fisher, he worked
at Nine-FM in 2010. Steve has since left the radio business and is a successful
real estate agent.
*April 29, 1983—Lee Elia Day
=This year is the 40th anniversary. It’s the
second year we’re celebrating the most memorable rant in history without the
only man who recorded it, Les Grobstein. The fully unbleeped tape is here on YouTube. Obviously, I don’t need to remind you this clip is NSFW. Don’t
click on it if you are dainty.
*April 29, 1997—Mike
Royko death
=The greatest Chicago
newspaper columnist of all-time died on this day in 1997. Royko was only 65
years old. The Pulitzer Prize winner wrote for all three major Chicago dailies,
The Daily News, The Sun Times, and The Chicago Tribune. One of his favorite
topics of discussion was the Cubs. I wrote about that for my Cubs website JustOne Bad Century.
TV/STREAMING
*Ravi Baichwal Interview
=Margaret Larkin did a great interview with ABC-7 news anchor Ravi Baichwal for the Illinois News Broadcasters Association. You can listen to that here.
*Local-TV 25-year anniversary
=Congrats to Mike Lorber…
*Elizabeth Vargas Interview
=John Landecker had the new lead anchor of NewsNation on
his radio show at WGN this week. Worth a listen.
*Chicago Red Stars on the U
=For the second season in a row, Chicago’s
female professional soccer team the Red Stars will be seen on the U, WCIU-TV
& WMEU-TV. The first game is this Saturday (April 29th) at 7pm. The
U will broadcast six games in all.
*James Corden Signs Off
=Last night was the final
episode of James Corden’s late night show on CBS. Among the guests who
appeared, Harry Styles.
*Tucker Carlson out at Fox News
=By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard this news. There are a
ton of theories about why Fox fired him (Dominion Lawsuit, Producer Lawsuit,
Ripping his Bosses, Too big for his britches, Common use of the C-word), but
no-one really knows for sure. Whatever the reason, you can always tell what
kind of a person someone is by the way they treat those lower on the totem
poll. With that in mind, this headline should tell you all you need to know
about Tucker. Fox News Staffers Celebrate Tucker Carlson’s Departure: ‘Pure Joy’
=How ugly can this get? Check out this little tidbit.
Exclusive: If Carlson attempts to torch the network he’s leaving, Fox News is prepared to release an "oppo file" of dirt on the former network star https://t.co/QkUBJwMZxU
=To me this one wasn’t surprising at all. The ratings of
the morning show were terrible, Lemon had stepped in it a few times recently,
and the chemistry with his co-hosts wasn’t good. I honestly don’t see a
conspiracy here. Although it looks like Lemon does…
=For
the trifecta, NBC also had a major firing the beginning of this week. Jeff
Shell, the chief executive of NBCUniversal, left the company because of an
inappropriate workplace relationship.
In Comcast’s statement, Shell admitted to “an inappropriate
relationship with a woman in the company.” According to the Wall Street
Journal, CNBC International anchor Hadley Gamble accused him of sexual
harassment and sex discrimination.
*ESPN Reporter Fired
=Awful Announcing has the video of the infraction. It's a female reporter (Marly Rivera) calling another female reporter (Ivon Gaete) the word that Tucker Carlson apparently uses regularly. Rivera was fired by ESPN.
*Disney Layoffs Hit 538
=Nate Silver announced the news.
Disney layoffs have substantially impacted FiveThirtyEight. I am sad and disappointed to a degree that’s kind of hard to express right now. We’ve been at Disney almost 10 years. My contract is up soon and I expect that I’ll be leaving at the end of it.
=Jerry Springer, who taped his talk
show in Chicago for many years, passed away yesterday at the age of 79. The
controversial TV host was also once the Mayor of Cincinnati. He died peacefully
in his home in suburban Chicago after a brief illness.
=CNN boss Chris Licht
promised to deliver some outside-the-box programming for the network. This one
sure seems to fit the bill. Beginning this fall, NBA great Charles Barkley
is getting his own weekly show, co-hosting it with CBS Mornings host Gayle
King. No official start date has been announced yet.
=John King is leaving the show Inside Politics, and he is being replaced by his ex-wife, Dana Bash. Despite that odd coincidence, Bash is the obvious choice to replace King. King is not leaving CNN. He's creating a new show.
*Richard Lewis updates his fans
=His fans know he hasn’t been doing well the past few years, but
until this week Richard Lewis hadn’t fully explained his health
situation.
*A New Book About Trailblazing Sportswriter Wendell Smith
=If you saw the movie “42” you know about Smith’s
importance in the Jackie Robinson story. Rick Kogan highlights a
new book about Smith, which delves deeper into Smith’s personal story,
including his time writing for the Herald-American (in Chicago). He was the
first African-American sportwriter at a so-called “white” newspaper in Chicago.
*German editor fired over an AI interview with Michael
Schumacher
=After making a huge deal out of labeling NPR
“Government-Funded” and NPR’s departure from the platform because of that,
Twitter reversed course this week and removed the label. The question is: Will NPR return?
=Twitter also gave a fake Disney account verification status.
The account, called @DisneyJuniorUK, managed to be verified with a gold tick
before being suspended.
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.
If you're interested in some of my other projects from this week...
