Latest news with #WLS-AM890
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Afternoon Briefing: State trooper arrested on child porn charges
Good afternoon, Chicago. An Illinois state trooper who also served as a youth hockey referee was arrested on child pornography charges this week while at work at the agency's Des Plaines headquarters, authorities said. Colin Gruenke, 38, of Deerfield, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court yesterday with one count of distribution of child pornography, court records show. Prosecutors are seeking to have Gruenke held without bond pending trial, and a detention hearing is set for Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Young Kim. Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices. Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History Walter Redmond Burnett knows what you're thinking. The 29-year-old seeking a City Council seat is well prepared for the question lingering around his quest to lead the 27th Ward: Is it fair he be appointed to succeed his father? Read more here. More top news stories: Struggling to pay your rent? Need to get paid for rent you are owed? There's a solution for those issues again after a two-month hiatus: Illinois' court-based rental assistance program reopened July 31. Read more here. More top business stories: The Bulls will open Oct. 22 at home against the Detroit Pistons, followed by a road game against the Orlando Magic on Oct. 25. They finish the regular season April 12 in Dallas against the Mavericks. Read more here. More top sports stories: Fire up your AM transistor radio and get ready to travel back in time tonight to the heyday of the Top 40, when WLS-AM 890 and WCFL-AM 1000 battled it out for supremacy on the Chicago airwaves. Read more here. More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories: Tropical Storm Erin was expected to strengthen into a hurricane today as it approached the northeast Caribbean, prompting forecasters to warn of possible flooding and landslides. Read more here. More top stories from around the world:
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Radio Geeks revisits Chicago's Top 40 heyday on WGN-AM
Fire up your AM transistor radio and get ready to travel back in time Friday night to the heyday of the Top 40, when WLS-AM 890 and WCFL-AM 1000 battled it out for supremacy on the Chicago airwaves. Bob Sirott and John Records Landecker, who held down afternoon and evening shifts respectively for much of the 1970s on WLS, are reuniting on the air at WGN for a three-hour tour of anecdotes, DJ interviews, vintage jingles and listener calls. 'It takes people back to the days before streaming, before cable, before the VCRs, DVRs, DVDs, video games and smartphones and all that,' said Sirott, 76. 'And the No. 1 source of entertainment for people of a certain age was rock 'n' roll radio.' The show, dubbed 'For Radio Geeks Only,' will air from 7 to 10 p.m. on WGN-AM 720, which has been the new radio home for Sirott and Landecker for the past five years. The idea of taking listeners back to a time when AM ruled the airwaves has been percolating for a while. Sirott hosts mornings and Landecker evenings at WGN, so on-air interaction between the two veterans doesn't happen very often. Last month, they decided to team up for a one-hour Radio Geeks special, and the listener response was so strong they decided to bring it back and expand the show to three hours. 'We just did an hour, and we didn't do any interviews or play any audio,' Sirott said. 'John and I just talked, exchanged stories and then listeners chimed in on the phone and the text line, and that was basically it. And the response was really great, and it was positive, and people wanted more.' Friday night's show will include an interview with Ron Riley, an influential WLS DJ during the seminal '60s, digitized air checks from Sirott's own collection of dusty tapes and call-ins from listeners sharing their recollections of being on the receiving end of the radio waves. The show will also include some mic time with former WGN Radio morning show host Spike O'Dell, who retired in 2009 after 22 years at the station. Don't expect a 'Boogie Check,' however, Landecker's signature rapid-fire caller segment, which once beamed across the Midwest to millions of listeners each evening via the 50,000-watt blowtorch that was the 'Big 89.' 'That's impossible to do these days,' said Landecker, 78, who nonetheless plans to field listener calls and texts on air and 'see where it goes.' Landecker arrived at WLS in 1972 and Sirott joined the star-studded lineup the following year, which during their tenure included the likes of Fred Winston, J.J. Jeffrey and 'Superjock' Larry Lujack, who also spent time at rival Top 40 station WCFL. By the early 1980s, both Sirott and Landecker had left the station, with their post-WLS broadcast careers taking different paths. Sirott shifted to TV news in 1980, with stints at nearly every station in Chicago over the course of the next three decades. He returned to his radio roots at WGN, hosting 'The Noon Show' from 2007 to 2010 while co-anchoring the WFLD-Ch. 32 news at 9 p.m. Sirott co-hosted middays on WGN with his wife, Marianne Murciano, from 2013 to 2015, and was brought back to helm the morning drive in December 2019. Landecker, whose middle name really is Records, left WLS in 1981, going through an alphabet soup of radio stations, including stops in Toronto and Cleveland. Most of his prodigious career has been in Chicago, with successful runs at powerhouse stations including WLUP, WCKG and WJMK. He ostensibly retired from radio in 2015 when he stepped down at WLS-FM, but was lured back behind the mic in 2020 at WGN. Longtime colleagues and friends, Sirott and Landecker look back at their time together at WLS-AM in the '70s with newfound appreciation, something they plan to share with listeners Friday night. There was a lot more happening behind the scenes, in between spins of 'Billy, Don't Be a Hero' and ads for pimple cream, Landecker said. 'All of us were really young,' Landecker said. 'So there was a lot of really youthful energy in there, combined with really good ratings, and that's a pretty potent combination.' Sirott said there was a camaraderie at WLS in the 1970s, where DJs would crash each other's shows on a whim, and socialize together in their off hours. Listeners picked up on that spirit of fun, which was part of what made WLS — and rival WCFL — such cultural forces at the time, he said. 'One of the great things about Chicago is we had two great Top 40 stations, WLS and WCFL,' Sirott said. 'The beneficiary was the listener. So you had great personalities on both stations, and it was exciting and fun to be part of it and to listen to it.' While older radio listeners may want to revisit the glory days Friday, the hoopla may be lost on a younger generation weaned on Instagram, Spotify, streaming video and social media. But if they can find an AM radio, they may want to tune in to understand the power of a clear-channel station like WLS bouncing its 50,000-watt signal off the night sky and delivering a 'Boogie Check' to a listener in Central Ohio or beyond circa 1970-something. Landecker can tell you. 'It's been evident to me over the years that this radio station of that time made a huge impression on a lot of people in the greater Chicagoland, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin area,' Landecker said. 'It was a really big deal. And if I do say so myself, I think it was at that time, the best radio station of that kind in the United States.'
Chicago Tribune
22-04-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Jim Johnson, WLS radio newsman for 45 years, dies at 80
Jim Johnson was a news anchor and reporter at WLS-AM 890 in Chicago for 45 years during which he became known for providing wit and levity in programs hosted by well-known radio personalities. Johnson's father, Charley, was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and the Chicago Sun newspaper who later was deputy press secretary to Gov. Richard Ogilvie. Former WLS on-air personality Roe Conn said Johnson's background 'was such an important part of maintaining that Chicago journalistic spirit and legacy.' 'With him, there was an adherence to telling the story the right way,' Conn said. Johnson, 80, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease March 28 in a memory care facility near Kansas City, Kansas, said his daughter, Alexis Del Cid. Born in Chicago, Johnson grew up on the West Side and in several near west suburbs and graduated from East Leyden High School. As a boy, he also would spend several months at a time at his family's lodge in far northern Wisconsin during hunting and fishing season, his daughter said. After receiving bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Johnson returned to the Chicago area and applied for a job at WLS, which hired him as a news writer. 'He did something that he always told me to do,' said Del Cid, who worked for a time as a TV news anchor. 'He would say to show up, throw your name in the ring and ask for what you want. He graduated and showed up in Chicago, and gradually he became a reporter for WLS, and then he started anchoring.' Johnson took on other duties, including hosting a political program with Bill Cameron and working weekends as an on-air reporter for WLS-Ch. 7, which in those days was under common ownership with WLS radio. 'He was working seven days a week briefly, when my parents were first married,' Del Cid said. 'Then he realized he needed to make a choice.' Over the ensuing decades, Johnson provided the news for programs hosted by a variety of prominent radio hosts, including Conn, Steve Dahl, Garry Meier, Larry Lujack, Fred Winston, Richard Roeper and Don and Roma Wade. Conn called Johnson 'an incredibly professional broadcaster.' 'The crazy thing about that industry as you well know is that it's not known for people who are properly regulated, and it's known for extreme personality types,' Conn said. 'And Jim was my newsman for 22 years, and he was surprisingly well-adjusted for being in the business of show. The most important thing he taught me was, don't inhale too deeply — that stayed with me my whole life, the idea that there are ups and there are downs, and he was there for all of it.' Retired WLS news anchor John Dempsey, who worked with Johnson from 2007 until 2013, noted that Johnson covered Chicago politics, the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots, fires, crime and the 1979. American Airlines crash near O'Hare International Airport. 'Jim truly made his mark as a news anchor working with … big name personalities. Jim was an integral part of their shows, with a deeply cynical, razor-sharp wit and an infectious personality,' Dempsey said. 'He was living proof that a great journalist could also show humor on the air. One of his favorite phrases was, 'Don't worry, nothing will be OK.'' Johnson was philosophical about his place in Chicago's broadcast world. 'When I feel self-absorbed, I take out the trash,' he told the Tribune in 1999. 'I mow the lawn. … These activities are important, they keep you grounded. You become one-dimensional if you only hang around the North Side going to press parties, seeing other radio people.' Johnson and his wife moved from Glenview to Streeterville in 2009. After retiring from WLS in 2013, they moved to northern Wisconsin, where he enjoyed boating. 'He was such a fun guy. He always brought humor to the party, and just as an individual, you couldn't stop laughing when I was around him because he just made everything fun,' said Dan Holton, a friend and fellow resident of northern Wisconsin. On the air, Johnson left behind a legacy as a warm and unforgettable personality, colleagues said. 'You could not be around Jim and not laugh, or feel better, and that came across, not only to those of us who knew him, but to the thousands of people in Chicago who listened to him on the radio for decades,' Dempsey said. 'He was truly one of a kind.' In addition to his daughter, Johnson is survived by his wife of 56 years, Denise; a sister, Rosalie Davies; and a grandson; Services are being planned both for Wisconsin and in Chicago.
