Media: January 2025 • Gone, But Not Forgotten
Doug Dahlgren
Every year, I write a piece about the people that we lost in the Chicago media world the previous year. We lost some great talent in 2024.
Bob Newhart (July)
If you’re my age or younger, you don’t remember a time when Bob Newhart was not famous. Bob was an ordinary Chicagoan when WCFL morning man Dan Sorkin discovered him. Dan told me that story back in 2010.
“Playhouse 90 writer Jim Gallagher and I were friends. Jim and Bob had put together and were selling to radio stations a 5-minute taped comedy ‘Man on the Street Show’ for $5 a show. It cost them $7 a show to produce. The more successful the sale, the more money they lost. I loved the comedy routines and asked Jim to bring Bob to the WCFL studios for a live interview. He did. Bob performed several of his routines on air. When Warner Bros. President Jim Conkling came to Chicago, I performed Bob’s routines for him and suggested a contract. Conkling had Bob booked into the Tides Hotel in Dallas and recorded live, **The Button Down Mind Of Bob Newhart.”
Paul Brian (June)
For the last twenty-plus years of his life, Paul was best known in the auto-racing world, but his years at WGN Radio were probably the highlight of his career. I asked Paul about that time when I got a chance to interview him in 2008.
“I got the chance to work with some awesome people: Wally (Phillips), Bob (Collins), Roy (Leonard), Orion (Samuelson), Dr. Milt (Rosenberg), Harry (Caray), Brick (Jack Brickhouse), the list goes on and on. I was a bit in awe of being there and they were all gentlemen, giving mentors and good friends. Dan Fabian was the PD then and gave me two orders: Don’t lose the license and have fun. I remember the Bears championship season vividly. I did all the pre-game shows from Gate O at Soldier Field for those years and had a ball. The coldest I’ve ever been in my life was sitting on a concrete slab for the Superbowl Championship celebration in Grant Park doing the remote on what had to be the coldest day of the year. I got to interview some awesome people, as many of us in this business get to do and sometimes minimize. Perhaps my grandchildren will read about that in my notes someday and think that Grandpa had a few moments.”
J.J. Jeffrey (October)
In his later years, Jeffrey became a radio station owner, but he’s best remembered in Chicago for his time as a disc jockey at WLS-AM 890 in the 1970s. John Records Landecker wrote about his old colleague in his book “Records Truly Is My Middle Name” (2013, Eckhartz Press).
“Bob Sirott, J.J. Jeffrey, and I had our own little language when we spoke to each other — code words and phrases that meant things only to ourselves. (For instance, a ‘W.A.’ was a ‘weak anecdote,’ an ‘S.A.’ was a ‘strong anecdote,’ and watch out that you don’t get ‘T.T.F.O.’ or ‘thrown the fuck out.’) J.J. was one of the most unique characters I ever worked with in radio. He had this unbelievably great laugh, and that was all we ever wanted to do — get him to laugh on the air. J.J. was also a bit eccentric. For instance, he had nothing but blow-up furniture in his apartment, he walked to and from work even though he lived at Belmont Ave, quite a long way from Michigan and Wacker, and he smoked cigarettes in a cigarette holder. There was no one else like him.”
Doug Dahlgren (November)
Doug worked all over the country in radio, but he’s best remembered in Chicago for his time at WCFL and WIND when they were Top 40 powerhouses. I interviewed Doug back in 2012 about those heady times, especially his days with Dick Sainte (Dick and Doug) at WCFL.
“Dick was working in mornings with Tom Murphy, and I replaced Tom, and I still don’t know the story of why – of what happened there with him. But Dick and I hit it off right away, our timing was immediately perfect. We never stepped on each other. We became almost like brothers. Every day was fun. We had a good time on the air, but we probably had even more fun off the air. When WCFL changed formats, we read about it in the paper in Gary Deeb’s column. The next morning, they held a staff meeting and said, “Sorry, it wasn’t supposed to leak out yet, but that’s the way it goes.’ Dick and I asked if we could have one more show together, and they said yes. Though, in the middle of that last show, they came in and yanked us off the air because we were talking about the format change. That was considered a big no-no. Later, Dick lived in Oregon when I did, too, so we’d see him all the time. He had a huge career after WCFL, too. ”
Those are just a few of the people we lost in 2024. There were other big stars, notably Phil Donahue (August), former Cubs and Blackhawks play-by-play man Jim West (July), former Loop night-time talker Liz Wilde (October), and former WLS-jock Tom Kent (July).
May their memories and the dozens of other media pros who passed away last year be a blessing.
– Rick Kaempfer
