Monday, November 05, 2012

John Records Landecker

The mystery radio memoir I was teasing last week has been revealed by Robert Feder at TimeOut Chicago. Here is what he wrote...

Next March 28th will be a red-letter day for fans of John Records Landecker. It will mark not only the Chicago radio legend’s 66th birthday but the publication of his new memoir, Records Truly Is My Middle Name. Written by Landecker with longtime producer Rick Kaempfer, it’ll be published by Kaempfer’s Eckhartz Press. “I worked with the guy every single day for 10 years, and never heard some of these stories he tells in this book,” Kaempfer says. Among colleagues and pals who contributed additional stories about the great man are Bob Sirott, Jonathon Brandmeier, John Gehron, Joey Reynolds, Jan Jeffries, Catherine Johns, Eric Ferguson, Bill Zehme, Kevin Matthews and Don Wade. Forty years after he first conquered nighttime radio in Chicago, Landecker is still going strong — from 6:30 to 11pm weekdays on Cumulus Media classic hits WLS-FM (94.7).

I'll have more details in this space in the weeks and months to come.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Signing Off For Now

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who have taken the time to read Chicago Radio Spotlight over the past five-plus years. During that time I interviewed over 200 Chicago radio pros. I knew some of them already from my own radio career and really enjoyed re-connecting with them, but I also enjoyed meeting and interviewing many others that I had only admired from afar. Writing this blog has been a great experience.

Unfortunately, with all of my other responsibilities beginning to pile up, I no longer have time to do it.

My publishing company, Eckhartz Press, is doing quite well now, and demanding a great deal of my time. In the next few weeks we'll be shipping our fourth book "The Balding Handbook". (It's really funny, by the way, I highly recommend it). I'm sure you'll be seeing, hearing, and reading all about the book's author David Stern in the Chicago media over the next few weeks. I'll probably accompany him on that tour, and get a chance to see many of you.

Of course, if you know me, you know I can't get radio totally out of my system. Luckily, my publishing company will also be a new outlet for my radio-jones.

Next year (March 28) Eckhartz Press is going to be releasing a memoir from one of the 200+ interviewees listed on this blog. I'll reveal that mega-star's identity on December 10th, but I will tell you that if you've enjoyed this blog, you will LOVE that book. There are some incredible stories by the author. Just incredible. Plus, I interviewed over thirty additional radio personalities and asked them to tell me about their brushes with the author. Some of those tales are even more amazing. There will be tons of great pictures as well.

I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if further radio books were to follow. (Feel free to pitch me-- rick@eckhartzpress.com) In the meantime, all of my previous Chicago Radio Spotlight interviews will remain on this blog. If you haven't read them all, explore the site. The interviewees are listed alphabetically on the right. Also, I will continue to do my personal blog every weekday morning, if you're interested. Radio is one of the many topics I write about on a regular basis.

Thanks again for reading me over the years, and thanks for your kind words and support.

All the best,
Rick Kaempfer