November 19, 2009
Radio.
As a young duckling, I grew up listening to "The Great 89", WLS-AM outta Chicago. This was back before they turned into the talk radio abomination they are now, and instead played music from high atop the downtown Burger King. John Records Landecker (and yes, Records truly was his real name) brought his "boogiecheck-boogiecheck-ooh-AH" into Pond Central, amusing this fresh out of the shell duck every night. Les Grobstein, the sports newscaster is a legend in Chicago, and has recently returned to the airwaves, too. Lyle Dean, the main newsman, had the greatest voice ever.
But it was Larry "Superjock" Lujack and Tommy Edwards that truly warped my brain. As "Uncle Lar" and "Lil' Snotnose Tommy", they reported on bizarre goings-on in the animal kingdom in their world-famous Animal Stories segment. Just hearing Lil' Tommy break up puts a smile on my face. Better'n a shiny new dime!
But I grew up wanting to be Larry Lujack. It didn't happen, but it was a nice dream while it lasted. I only spent 10 years in the business and never made more than $7.00/hr at it, but it was the greatest job I could ever hope to have.
On Memorial Day in recent years, WLS has taken to bringing back some of their legendary voices for a full day of remembering the good ol' days. Here's some snippets from the 2007 "Big 89 Rewind":
You know what? This post went a completely different direction from what I was planning.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
10:08 PM
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Ah, memories. When I was a kid I had a transistor radio (8 transistors! Wow!) that only picked up AM, and I used to listen to baseball games on it on KEX.
Those were Portland Beavers games, and that was during the period when Luis Tiant pitched for them, before going up to the big leagues. Portland was the AAA farm team for the Cleveland Indians at the time. (Now they're farm team for the Padres.)
Tiant got traded to Boston, and when I was in college Boston made the world series. They won only 3 games, and Tiant started all three of those.
KEX was easy listening then. But seems like these days AM stations change their formats more often than their underwear. I just searched and found out that they're all-news now. I wonder if they still broadcast Beavers games?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 20, 2009 01:29 AM (+rSRq)
Posted by: Vaucanson's Duck at November 20, 2009 10:25 AM (XVJDy)
Posted by: Wonderduck at November 20, 2009 09:41 PM (C32SO)
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