I first got the news a few minutes before ten o'clock last night ... we had
lost a radio legend ... Superjock Larry Lujack had died.
Lujack revolutionized radio ... his impact could be heard over the next few
decades as jocks became more out-spoken ... his dry wit and deep, baritone
delivery delighted millions of listeners here in Chicago for decades as he
bounced back and forth between WCFL and WLS, the two AM Top 40 Powerhouse Radio
Stations in town. The station that had Lujack on board held the edge every
time.
He first landed in Chicago (by way of Idaho) as the overnight jock at WCFL
in April of 1967. He was known as the crazy new guy who liked to broadcast his
show with all the lights turned off in the studio. He was somewhat manic ...
and listeners wondered if he was a lunatic or a genius. (Turns out he was
probably a little of both!)
WLS felt Lujack's talents were being wasted during the hours when virtually
nobody was listening ... and lured him over to The Big 89 just four months
later. He was first installed as the afternoon drive jock before moving to
mornings. He was an immediate hit. He would often take on both management and
the listeners on the air, developing regular features like the "Klunk Letter Of
The Day" and "The Cheap Trashy Show-Biz Report" and the IMMENSLEY popular
"Animal Stories".
Lujack wrote (by his own admission) a God-Awful book called "Superjock",
the name given to him by the media as he became the highest paid disc jockey in
America. (There was a lot of fuss at the time that "some disc jockey in
Chicago" was making more money than The President Of The United States ... and
Lujack would often shut down a listener who perhaps disagreed with him by
offering to compare W2 forms at the end of the year.) He even released a
God-Awful single called "The Diary Of A Mad Streaker", which went absolutely
nowhere ... and deservedly so. His "Addresses To The Nation" were both
hysterical and on point ... he was the consummate radio entertainer.
Yes, he played the hits ... he even did WCFL's Top 40 Countdown Show when
he returned to the station in 1972 ... but he didn't really have much affection
for the current hits of the day ... especially having to play them in such
heavy, repeat rotation ... and often said so on the air. When he was OFF the
air, he preferred country music ... or the early '50's rock and roll which he
was bred on ... the launch of Real Oldies really was the perfect fit for
Lujack's M.O. ... and Ron Smith tells us that Larry would often call him at
night, telling him that "you've got to add THIS record" to the computer the next
day ... which he would then sometimes play two or three times in a row!
The Animal Stories teaming with Tommy Edwards happened by pure accident ...
Edwards followed Lujack's morning show at WLS and would often come on the air
ten minutes early to talk with Larry. Soon the bit was moved to that time of
the day so that Ol' Uncle Lar could share real stories about real animals
incidents with his brand new sidekick, Little Snot-Nosed Tommy. (Sometimes he
even rewarded Tommy with "a shiny new dime" on the air if he got an animal
trivia question correct! Boy, whatta guy!!!) The show became one of the most
popular features on radio, spawning four albums worth of material that sold
briskly ... the fans LOVED it. (You can still pick up some of these volumes on
CD!) It became the perfect definition of "Appointment Radio" ... you didn't
dare miss it ... and rearranged whatever you were doing that morning to make
sure the radio was near by.
The ratings battles between WLS and WCFL in the late '60's and early '70's
were legendary ... both stations were vying for the teen-age audience and radio
was never more fun than flipping between the two stations to see what each one
would come up with next. But in 1976, WCFL threw in the towel ... and flipped
to a format offering "The World's Most Beautiful Music". Incredibly, because of
contractual obligations (and the MASSIVE amount of money he was making at the
time), Lujack stayed on. (Quite honestly, the fans felt somewhat betrayed ...
there was NO way we were EVER going to listen to this station ... and most of us
felt that Larry should have bolted on principle alone. A few months later, WLS
stepped in, helped settle up the tab, and brought him back home.)
DIDAJAKNOW?: For 50 years it's been talked
about that the very first rock and roll record WLS ever played was "Alley Oop"
by The Hollywood Argyles. But does anybody out there know or remember the very
LAST rock and roll record played by WCFL? Incredibly, on March 15th, 1976,
after Lujack signed off at 5:00 pm, the station played "ocean sounds" for two
hours ... before the start of their brand new "beautiful music" programming.
You can hear Lujack's last ten minutes on the air that day ... and WCFL's last
rock and roll song ... right here: Click here: ? Larry
Lujack - Last Show on WCFL 3/15/76 - YouTube
It wasn't always fun time with Uncle Lar ... when he son died, Lujack went
into a major funk (and understandably so) ... it had to be hard ... if not
impossible ... to come on the air and try to entertain others when you were
feeling such deep pain yourself.
And then there was the infamous Steve and Garry incident ... one of radio's
most embarrassing moments ... that prompted Steve Dahl and Garry Meier to
actually walk off the air, leaving Lujack to man the microphone until their
shift was over ... some twelve hours after he had already broadcast his own
regularly scheduled morning show. Suffice to say it was not pretty ... and, by
then, the fun was pretty well gone. He retired from radio in 1987. (Rumors
persist that WLS continued to pay Lujack for five years after leaving the
station as part of a "guarantee" that he wouldn't sign on with a competing radio
station in town!)
In later years he tried an ill-fated comeback with "The Beat", kind of a
"smooth soul" station that didn't last very long here in Chicago ... before
landing on Real Oldies 1690, where he shared the morning spot with his old
Animal Stories sidekick Tommy Edwards. (While Edwards broadcast live from the
Chicagoland studios, Lujack's contributions were phoned in from New Mexico ...
that was his one stipulation about returning to radio ... he didn't want to have
to leave home.) The pair were an immediate hit ... and probably the most
entertaining act on morning radio was back on the airwaves once again ... but
the incredibly weak signal made it almost impossible to listen to. (I didn't
care ... I still laughed harder between the static than I did at anything else
that was on the air at the time!) Even though they were a thousand miles apart,
the pair fed off each other and the humor was as sharp as ever. There was no
denying the incredible chemistry between these two. When the decision was made
to close the station, the loss felt was immediate. (Larry, we never realized
how much we missed ya!!!)
Had it ever officially gotten off the ground, Lujack would have been the
main focal point of John Rook's Hit Parade Internet Radio Station ... but sadly
those plans were abandoned before the station ever really launched. (Rook tells
us that Lujack missed radio ... he just wanted to do it on his own terms.) A
few years ago, John inducted his long-time friend into The Radio Hall Of Fame
... Lujack, as usual, poked fun of the whole concept.
We miss you, Uncle Lar ... you were one of the best. You'll find all kinds
of articles and accolades on the web today as the world catches up with the
news. Feel free to share YOUR memories here with us in Forgotten Hits. We'll
run some of them tomorrow.
