I found some time to listen to the 2008 Big 89 Rewind on Memorial Day, although not as much as I would have liked. (Davewillieradio has a bit of Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards, including an edition of “Animal Stories,” as well as John Landecker’s show, scoped.) The WLS jocks who returned have various gigs now. Lujack is retired, and Edwards is doing mornings at an FM station in Chicago. Last I heard, Landecker and a female sidekick were looking for a two-headed slot somewhere; Landecker said on the air yesterday that he’s writing a book. I don’t think Fred Winston is on the air anywhere right now, but he’s been a consultant in the past. (He has a blog, too.) Jeff Davis is a nationally known voiceover artist. Chuck Knapp has done Christian radio in the Twin Cities until recently. Bill Bailey does afternoons in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
(Poking around the web for information about Landecker, I found this reminiscence of his 10-year tenure at Chicago’s WJMK, written by his longtime producer, Rick Kaempfer. Take note of the photo: newsman Richard Cantu was, a million years ago, a classmate of ours at UW-Platteville.)
The lesson in all this is that old radio guys do radio. Even if they used to be in Chicago or Detroit or Toronto or Los Angeles, they’ll do radio in Grand Rapids if that’s where the gig is. And they’ll do it part-time, too: I spent most of my holiday weekend on the radio, on the Lake and Magic 98, plus I was on-stage for a minute at our fabled Bratfest yesterday introducing a band. I’ve got one more day of filling in on the afternoon show at the Lake today, then I turn back into a pumpkin for a while. But only temporarily.
Recommended Viewing: From the fabulous Classic Television Showbiz, a CBS News Special Report from the night of the first Vietnam draft lottery, December 1, 1969. (It was first draft lottery since 1942; there was a lottery each succeeding year through 1975, although the numbers weren’t used after 1972.) It’s pretty dry: old guys calling out numbers and Roger Mudd quietly recapping them. Oddly, the report does not show something CBS must certainly have taped, and what would have been considered an extremely newsworthy aspect of the lottery event today: statements of protest by members of the Selective Service’s Youth Advisory Council, who said they were being used by the Nixon Administration to provide student cover to the lottery. Nevertheless, you ought to stick around until just past the five-minute mark for a classic Norelco commercial, featuring Santa Claus riding his electric razor.
My number was 285, which meant that I was unlikely to be drafted in 1970. Of course, being 10 years old helped me out, too.
Filed under: Radio Tales, TV
