At the Morning Show Boot Camp

The Morning Show Boot Camp was celebrating its 25 anniversary this year, and they came to Chicago to stage this momentous event. Among the memorable panel discussions was the "WLS, Then and Now" panel. It was a star-studded panel featuring John Records Landecker, Dick Biondi, Fred Winston, Brant Miller, and Jeff Davis, and it was moderated by current WLS PD (and Cumulus Programming VP) Jan Jeffries...



(Above photo: Jeff Davis, Dick Biondi, John Landecker, Jan Jeffries, Brant Miller, Fred Winston & John Gehron)

The panel told lots of stories about the old WLS days and the current WLS-FM, and gave advice to some of the younger broadcasters in the audience. After the session was over, John Landecker autographed copies of his book "Records Truly Is My Middle Name"...



(Above photo: Radio's best friend Art Vuolo chats with the panel before it begins. Art recorded it on video)



(Above photo: Boot Camp Organizer Don Anthony introduces the distinguished panel)



(Above photo: Jan Jeffries leads the discussion)



(Above photo: John Landecker sells autographed copies of "Records Truly Is My Middle Name", as Fred Winston looks on)

In the evening, Morning Show Boot Camp recognized the top 25 most influential radio personalities of the past twenty five years. Among the honorees, Chicago radio stars John Records Landecker, Steve Dahl, Garry Meier, Jonathon Brandmeier, and Kevin Matthews.



(Above photo: Garry Meier, Don Anthony & John Records Landecker)



(Above photo: Kevin Matthews & Garry Meier)



(All of the winners and/or their representatives. In the crowd, Tom from Bob & Tom, Scott Shannon, Ace & TJ, Kidd Kraddick's crew, and more)

Joe Collins

My August column in the Illinois Entertainer is about traffic reporter Joe Collins.

You can read it here.

Dan McNeil

My July column in the Illinois Entertainer came out last week. I had a chance to sit in and observe the McNeil and Spiegel show on the Score (670 AM), and discovered something quite surprising.

You can read the column here.

Below are a few of the pics I snapped the day I was there.

Dan in the studio...



The pre-show meeting...



The control room for the live on-camera web simulcast...

Larry Lujack

It was an honor to spend about an hour on the phone with Larry Lujack in preparation for my current Illinois Entertainer column. I probably got enough material for five more.

Read about Ol' Uncle Lar here.

Now found at the Illinois Entertainer

In case you aren't aware, I'm now the media critic for the Illinois Entertainer.

My first profile is with the Drive's Bobby Skafish.

You can read it here.

Records Truly Is My Middle Name

The orders are already coming in for John Records Landecker's memoir (which I co-wrote with him)! Very excited about this. You can order your copy today!

The book ships on March 28th.

The John Records Landecker Book

We're putting the finishing touches on John Landecker's memoir "Records Truly Is My Middle Name". We're getting very close. It's exciting. It's a really good book. Great stories, great pictures.

The media requests are coming in, and the first few "events" are being planned. Shore Magazine's Pat Colander spilled the beans about one of them in her "Adventures in Everyday Living" blog...

"The long-anticipated tell-almost-all John Records Landecker biography debuts in March so of course Chef Gary Sanders is throwing an April 7th Sunday afternoon autographing party beginning at 12 noon until 3 p.m. at Bartlett's in Beverly Shores, just down the road from the legendary DJ's Michigan City homestead."

More to come in the next week or so, including the debut of the book's cover.

My New Media Home

From Robert Feder's column today...

As sorry as I was to report on Cara Jepsen stepping down as media critic for Illinois Entertainer, there’s good news about her successor: Rick Kaempfer, the respected media blogger, author, publisher and former Chicago radio producer, will take over the monthly magazine’s media column in April. “I'm excited to be back on the media beat,” Kaempfer told me. “I think Cara did a wonderful job over the past 20 years. She recommended me as her replacement, so I do feel some pressure to ably fill her shoes. Although, now that I say that, I don't think she wears shoes anymore — she's a yoga instructor. I'm looking forward to highlighting some of the great Chicago stars, past and present — a continuation of my work at Chicago Radio Spotlight."

Thanks so much, Rob! I greatly appreciate it.