Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 29, 2007 at 10:42:11:
posted by Rick Kaempfer
John Records Landecker is a radio legend. He is a former Billboard Magazine air personality of the year, and has won countless of other awards for his on-air work, including induction into the radio wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Until recently he was doing afternoons on WZZN in Chicago, and is still on the air here as a fill-in on WLS AM-890, and as the host of the syndicated show "Into the 70s", which airs on WZZN. (Full disclosure: I produced John's show on WJMK from 1993-2003.)
Rick: What happened at WZZN?
John: When I initially signed the contract, it combined doing afternoons on WZZN and filling in on WLS, and it was a two year deal—but both of us could get out of the second year with 90 days notice. So three months ago, they told me that they wouldn't be needing me anymore, and I was given the choice of going home and collecting the rest of my money, or staying through the end of the first year. I decided to stay on the air instead of leaving.
In my mind, it was a bit of Don Quixote move, charging at windmills looking for a superhero ending, hoping everyone would change their mind. It didn't work out that way. As my agent said in Robert Feder's column, the ratings were good for that station and that daypart and that format…but, well, for some reason it wasn't enough.
The ironic twist is the day after they took me off the afternoon show, they signed up my syndicated 70s program to be on their station every Sunday night from 7 to Midnight.
Rick: Why would they do that?
John: I know you have super intelligent readers and I'll leave it to them to conjure up why situations like that should occur…
Rick: They obviously want to use your name without paying you.
John: But that's not a bad thing for the syndicated show. In fact, it's actually great news for the syndicated show. They did me a big favor in that regard. There are no hard feelings. I have to accept what's going on. I still have a good relationship with everyone there and I still work for WLS doing fill-in…
Rick: With Turi Ryder?
John: Yes.
Rick: How did the two of you hook up?
John: I only knew Turi (photo) in passing at WLS when we both worked there, and then when she was working in Minneapolis in 1991 or so, I was working in Cleveland, and she called me to say that I should give talk radio a try. She talked me into filling in for her. That led to a weekend at WLS which was a total disaster. At the time they were very strident and politically oriented, and I had a bad cold, had been given some medication, and was in outer space. Wow, was that bad.
Anyway, jump years ahead (after WJMK, and WGN), and I had been on WLS with Catherine Johns and Judy Baar Topinka…and those shows were going great. I loved working with both of them. In the meantime, Turi had been making her living the past few years as a national fill-in, filling in on stations all over the country. I heard that she was going to be used by WLS to do a weekend fill-in, and I said to (WLS Program Director) Kipper McGee (photo): "How about trying a show with me and Turi?" I remember my pitch. I said "It might be so uncomfortable that people will listen to it." I knew Turi had never worked with a partner before, and it would be out of her comfort zone, and initially she balked at it.
Well, an opportunity came up a little later, and we went on, and it went great. One show led to four, which led to her admitting to me that this was the most fun she had ever had in the business. We decided that since neither of us had something fulltime, we should start pitching ourselves around. We have airchecks of our shows together on her website shebopsproductions.com. The plan is to get out there as fill-in hosts over the holidays. We can fill-in anywhere in the country. All I need is a studio with ISDN line…and she does her part from her house in San Francisco.
I'm actually really excited about it.
Rick: Talking to anyone in Chicago?
John: We're on the fill-in roster at WLS, and Kipper McGee has been very supportive of both of us.
Rick: Let's talk about your syndicated show: "Into the 70s." What do you know about the 70s?
John: (Laughs) I was a street person during the 70s, and I don’t' remember it. Of course, that was my era. That's what people remember the most about me.
Rick: Aren't you sick of those songs yet? Didn't you play them every 90 minutes in the 70s?
John: Are you kidding? After you've played music from the 60s for 13 years, the 70s are amazingly refreshing. "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty never sounded better. It's been a lot of fun. It's a Top-40 show with great music from the 70s. It’s not disco, or hard rock, or classic rock, it's Top 40, just like I used to do.
The show had existed for a few years before I came aboard. When the previous host left, my agent got a call from the syndicator out of Dallas, asking if I would be interested. I was excited to do it. I've never done anything like this before.
It's a different way of doing things, and I'm still getting comfortable with the process, but the affiliates are happy, so we'll see. This week my syndicator TKO productions merged with a bigger syndicator named United Stations, and I'm hoping that's a good thing. I know they have a much bigger marketing and sales staff.
Rick: There's so much to cover about your career that we can't even begin to cover it all. How about if we just go decade by decade.
John: Shoot.
Rick: The 60s…
John: Graduated in '65. Went to Michigan State Univerisity. When I was in college, between my freshman and sophomore year, I got a radio job in Flint Michigan at WTRX. At the time, they were known as "Home of the Jones boys." Everyone who did a show had to use the last name Jones. I convinced the boss there to let me have a weekend show, and he let me use the Jones name I wanted…Dow.
After that I went back to school and got a job working nights at WILS in Lansing. There were some radio geeks going to school there, and unbeknownst to me, one of them taped my show and sent it to a big time DJ named Mike Rivers at CKLW (out of Windsor). He later moved to WIBG in Philly and they were looking for additional DJs, and he played the aircheck to the program director.
So, one night, I got a call to fly out there for a job interview. I took the job, and dropped out of school. They gave me the midday shift, and changed my name to Scott Walker. That was not a good time. It was super strict format, and I wasn't allowed to do anything creative. Luckily, that lasted only a year or so. The station got sold to Buckley broadcasting, and these guys were like cowboys. They brought in Joey Reynolds (photo) to host afternoons, and it went from strict to wide open. They asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to try this new wide open format, but I wanted to go back to my own name. The next day I was John Records Landecker again, and I was following Joey Reynolds. That was a wild time.
Rick: The 70s…
John: I came to WLS in 1972 just as the Watergate story was breaking. ("Make a Date with a Watergate") Everything started clicking shortly after that. There was 3-4 year span where WLS was in total synergy from programming to air personalities to sales to promotions. We got along. We hung out together. We were actually friends…and the station was super duper successful.
Rick: You're talking the mid-70s.
John: Yeah, and there were some individual high points for me too. I was just thinking about one the other day. It was in the news that the space shuttle took a light saber from Star Wars because it was the 30th anniversary, and it made me think of my Star Wars bit…Radio Star Wars. I don't know how we did it, but we actually got Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (photo) to participate in the bit. Rick Dees' song "Disco Duck" was a part of that bit too, and I've been talking to his company lately, so I just sent it to him too. It was a great kick to listen back to it. Bob Sirott was in it. The newsman in that bit, Jack Swanson, is now the GM of KGO Talk radio in San Francisco.
Those were some pretty incredible times. One day I was doing something like that, another day I had that memorable afternoon at Woodfield Mall with John Travolta, and another time I was doing the show from the original great America when it was owned by Marriot's. They flew me out there in a helicopter to be the very first person to ride "The Tidal Wave." There was a plaque up there for years.
Rick: What about the 80s?
John: Ugh. Not real fond of the 80s…just generally speaking. Although, it's funny. I run into people now that listened to me in the 80s and say it inspired them to get into the business, and I'm always surprised by that. A guy down in Indy had a complete set of airchecks of my shows from WLS in the 80s. I guess it was just bad timing. The climate had changed, and music radio on AM radio was dying. We didn't really have a chance.
Rick: And the 90s…
John: Pretty good. We had a nice long 10 year run doing mornings at WJMK. We won a few awards locally and nationally, and worked really hard at it. Actually, I had that job longer than my job at WLS in the 70s. The thing that stands out the most from that era to me was hooking up with Legends. We recorded all of those parody songs ("He's the President", "YDNA", "King of *arts"), put out CDs, toured in concert. That was an absolute blast!
Rick: And since then…
John: It's been all talk with the exception of WZZN. I've been priveleged to work at some of the biggest talk stations in the country. WIBC in Indy…WGN and WLS in Chicago …and I love it. I've been working hard at crossing over into being a talk show host…and the crossover is now complete. That's what I would like to do for the rest of my career, although I love doing the 70s show. There's no reason I couldn't do both.
Rick: Let's clear this up once and for all. I know it drives you crazy when people put your middle name "Records" in quotes. It's not a nickname; it's actually your middle name.
John: Yes, I once brought my mom into the radio studio to confirm it for everyone. Her maiden name was Records, and she gave it to me as my middle name.
Rick: I feel like I'm forgetting something important. Am I?
John: Go Blue.
(John grew up in Ann Arbor, Rick went to U of I in Champaign)
Rick: Shut up. I mean about your career.
John: (laughs) Oh. Right. Well, I'm very anxious to work. So if anyone reading this is a programmer, contact me through this website. Rick knows how to get in touch with me. I'm ready to go on the radio….
Rick: And you're doing an event this week for AFTRA.
John: Yes, I've talked to them, and I know it's coming up. When is it exactly?
Rick: (laughs) It'll be at Columbia College's 'Film Row Cinema' @ 1104 S. Wabash, 8th flr, from 6-7:30p on Friday Nov. 2nd. It's an evening with you, Fred Winston, and radio Hall of Famer Dan Ingram, and it's being moderated by Doug James.
John: Yes, exactly. See you there.