Columns
Media: July 2024 • 45th Anniversary of Disco Demolition: A Loop Insider’s Story
In the heyday of the late ’70s and early ’80s, Loop (WLUP, 97.9 FM) was owned by Congressman Cecil Heftel of Heftel Broadcasting. The president of Heftel Broadcasting was Tom Hoyt. A few photos of Hoyt appear in my book The Loop Files, as do a few stories told by him during his Heftel […]
Media: June 2024 • 100 Years Of The Big ’89
This year, WLS-AM 890 is celebrating its 100th anniversary as a radio station. It’s really been three radio stations during that time. From 1924 to 1960, WLS served the farmers of the Midwest. Since 1989, it’s been a conservative talk radio station. But for 29 glorious years (1960-1989), it was the biggest Top-40 station in […]
Studiophile: Remembering Steve Albini
Audio engineer, musician, and studio owner Steve Albini passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday night (May 7). His death is a terrible loss not only to his family, colleagues, and friends but also to so many studio engineers and music fans who loved his production and passion. His extensive recording resume included groundbreaking bands like Nirvana, […]
Media: May 2024 • WXRT’s New Afternoon Host Andy Chanley
It’s not like changes are made every day to the daytime lineup at WXRT. When disc jockeys come to work at the station, they stay a decade or five. New WXRT afternoon man Andy Chanley was well aware of this when he took the job. “That was my biggest worry going into all this,” Chanley […]
Media • April 2024 • Me-TV FM’s Deep Cuts
After a 20+ year stretch on the air in Chicago (WCKG, WLUP, and the Drive), most music fans know Phil Manicki as a disc jockey. But before he became known on the air, Phil had a vibrant background in programming, and that history is helping him in his new role as the program director of […]
Media • March 2024 : Tom Skilling’s Parting Words
You won’t be surprised to discover that retiring WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling has loved the weather since he was young. “My parents couldn’t figure out where the heck this weather passion came from,” Skilling admits. “I had a psychic tell me one time that I was a ship captain in a previous life. It’s […]
Media • February 2024 • Remembering the Early Loop
One of the great advantages of writing an oral history like I recently wrote about WLUP Radio (The Loop Files) is the opportunity to hear the stories right from the horse’s mouth. I interviewed over a hundred of those horses (Loop employees). Since the book came out a few months ago, I’ve heard from […]
Media • January 2024 • Brent’s Food Destinations
Growing up in suburban Chicago, Brent Petersen never thought he would become one of the top foodie podcast hosts in the world. “My first career was in radio,” he explains about his stints in Champaign, Peoria, and Providence, Rhode Island. “I wanted to find a way to get back into that audio medium because I […]
Media – December 2023 • In Memoriam
Every December, I write a column dedicated to the great pros we lost in the media this year. This year was a particularly cruel one. We lost writers like Bill Zehme and Joe Goddard (Chicago Sun-Times), television stars like Jerry Springer, Richard Belzer, Suzanne Somers, Matthew Perry, and Richard Moll, recording and movie stars […]
Hello My Name is… Geddy Lee of Rush – talks about his “Effin’ Life”
Rush bassist and frontman Geddy Lee makes it clear that the word “retirement” has no place in his vocabulary. Rush may be finished (or is it?), but Lee is a whirlwind of activity. His series for Paramount+, Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?, premieres on December 5 as an outgrowth of his best-selling […]
Media: November 2023: The Loop Files: An Oral History
I’ve written a new book called The Loop Files: An Oral History of the Most Outrageous Radio Station Ever. The book comes out officially at the end of this month, but this month’s media column is a free preview. All the biggest stars who helped make the Loop (FM 98) so memorable tell the […]
Media: October 2023 • Listening in on Internet FM
Steve Leventhal is no stranger to terrestrial radio. He spent quite a few years as a broadcaster on stations like WVVX and the Bear (WCBR), doing his Sports Radio Nightly show with people like late sportscasters Les Grobstein, Jerry Kuc, and Bob Greenberg. “In 2012,” Leventhal says, “I started working with Bart Shore […]
Media: September 2023 • More Stories From The Heartland
Max Armstrong spent a lifetime in broadcasting, both in radio and television, but he is also an author. In fact, now he’s an author for the second time. His first book was called Stories from the Heartland. Can you guess what the second one is called? “It’s called More Stories from the Heartland,” Armstrong says […]
Media: August 2023 • Road to Rock’s New Class
The Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66 is going to induct a new class to the Hall of Fame on September 17. This year’s musical acts include Earth Wind & Fire, the Cryan Shames, the Shadows of Knight, Nat King Cole, and Miles Davis. John Prine is being inducted into the songwriting […]
Hello My Name is Tommy Stinson
Some folks just attract trouble magnetically. Take ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, for example — when the coronavirus hit him, post-lockdown, it smacked him upside the scruffy head and just kept knocking him senseless. “That was horrible, and I’m still reeling from it,” the rasp-throated rock rapscallion recalls from his rustic home in upstate New York. […]
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