Studio A Profile Of A Disc Jockey

[tuned]

An interesting short film from the 70s with John Records Landecker of WLS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTrSr-Dfuw

[Neumann Sennheiser]

BoogieCheck Caller: "...uh hey John...uh..I don't know what to say".
Landecker: "Well, you could work mornings here".

Just relax, be yourself and have fun. You'll sound great. That's what I learned from John Landecker.

I have seen other youtube pieces of John working in Studio A but this one was all new to me. Thanks very much for putting it up here.
BTW, by matching the Billy Carter news item date, this was filmed on the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 7, 1976; just so you can ask yourself where was I and what was I doing at the time.
I was working the same evening show in Winnipeg where, most nights, I could pick up John and WLS quite clearly.

The "Fred" referred to as "the new competition on WMAQ" would be Fred Winston who had been fired from WLS earlier that year and resurfaced at WMAQ playing country; hence John's "Waylon Jennings" reference.

[hagopian]

Oh man.

When I worked at CFRA in Ottawa, we would get a great skip from WLS and WCFL. Landecker...was a must listen.

They all worked 6 day live shifts and the 7th day, was voice tracked. If you ever run across Landecker when he was a tyro at WIBG in Philly, you will be impressed.

[tuned]

I found out about the film in his terrific book...it's not available through amazon.ca
http://www.amazon.com/Records-Truly-Mid ... +landecker

I enjoyed seeing the McCurdy board.

[jon]

If you want the Kindle edition, I would recommend buying it through amazon.ca if you are a Canadian resident. There is a fair possibility that Canadians may get left high and dry with some or all of their amazon.com Kindle purchases should there be a tightening up of licensing:
http://www.amazon.ca/Records-Truly-Midd ... B00C1R1NWY

Those of you who are willing to pay double (triple with shipping to Canada) for a print copy can get one here:
http://eckhartzpress.com/shop/records-t ... ddle-name/

Landecker was also on CHUM for a relatively brief period of time.

In 1964-65, WLS was second only to WBZ Boston as great listening while doing homework in Burnaby. And DX conditions could be a lot crappier for WLS to be listenable after dark.

Here in Edmonton, WLS-890 was one of the easiest distant stations to get until CHQT switched to 880.

[hagopian]

Actually Landecker was at CFTR, not CHUM.
Cheers.

[jon]

You're right, of course. Just checked and it turns out he spent 2 years at CFTR, from 1981-83, working off a no-compete clause in his WLS contract. He then returned to Chicago, going initially to WLUP-FM.

[hagopian]

Got the Kindle Edition. It is a quick and fun read.

I went crazy for John, when he was at WIBG, but Chicago and WLS, he was off the hook. He was so droll, and his “American panorama” - musical pun intros were a highlight, along with “BoogieCheck”.

Swell stuff.

[Neumann Sennheiser]

So I did the math; John Records Landecker turned 66 years old this year.
Feeling kind of older myself now.



...and Emma Peel turns 75 later this month.

[pave]

While Landecker probably didn't know it at the time, he was being quite profound when he discounted the cult-like acceptance of radio's "one-to-one" concept and mentioned he didn't know who he was taking to - other than his board-op.

[hagopian]

Time is screaming by - my late Dad said "Life goes at the speed of your age". It sure feels like time is speeding up, because it can't be nearly 38 years since I was hanging onto Landecker's every word, on WLS.

Thanks for the pic!

[pave]

True 'dat, hag.
(Maybe I should start thinking about getting a real job!)
Meanwhile, does Biondi look a bit like Walter Gretzky...?

[hagopian]

Pave, you crack me up.

Biondi DOES look like Mr. Gretzky, now that you mention it.