Four decades after John Records Landecker first stepped up to a microphone at WLS and went on to become one of the most celebrated disc jockeys in rock and roll history, he’s coming back.

Throughout the ’70s, Landecker was the nighttime giant of WLS-AM (890), where his blazing wit, brilliant parodies and rapid-fire phone calls lit up 38 states and inspired a generation of radio personalities. This time around, he’ll be heard on oldies WLS-FM (94.7), starting this weekend with shifts from 10am to 3pm Saturday and Sunday.

“For anyone who knows Chicago radio, there’s something about John Records Landecker and WLS that just sounds right together,” said Michael Damsky, president and general manager of the two Cumulus Media stations.

The move also will reunite Landecker, 64, with Jan Jeffries, Chicago-based senior vice president of programming for Cumulus Media. The two first worked together here in the mid-’80s when Landecker hosted mornings on the former Top 40 WAGO and Jeffries was program director.

It’s not clear what plans Jeffries has for Landecker beyond the upcoming weekend shifts and holiday vacation relief. But it would be hard to imagine a better fit all the way around.

“I’m very grateful to Jan for the opportunity,” Landecker said of the WLS-FM stint. “I am so excited I’ve been practicing the call letters all week.”

Landecker’s return caps a year of surprise comebacks for Chicago radio stars in exile, including Jonathon Brandmeier, Robert Murphy, Steve Cochran, Eddie Volkman, Joe Bohannon and Kevin Matthews (via Steve Dahl’s subscription podcast network).

Enshrined in the radio wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Landecker achieved legendary status at WLS during his first run from 1972 to 1981 with such trademark bits as “Boogie Check” and “Americana Panorama.” He’s been cited as a major career influence by personalities as diverse as Brandmeier, Eric Ferguson and Rush Limbaugh.

“I used to listen to you every night after I got off the air at KQV-AM in Pittsburgh, where I was working as Jeff Christie,” Limbaugh once told Landecker, according to a 1994 Tribune profile. “I even called you at home once for advice, and you talked to me for half an hour.”

Landecker exits weekday shift on Chicago-area WIMS-AM
john landecker After nearly a year and a half, Chicagoland Radio and Media reports that radio vet John Records Landecker (his legal name) has decided to leave his morning show on WIMS-AM (1420) in Michigan City, Indiana, to concentrate on the weekend gig he started in late December for WLS-FM (94.7) Chicago. Landecker has been with WIMS since the fall of 2007 – first in afternoon drive, but then shifting to mornings in June 2010. He’s known for his years on Chicago radio stations such as WLUP, WZZN, WAGO, WCKG, WJMK, and WGN-AM.

John Landecker Drops WIMS Show To Focus On WLS Work
January 16, 2012 at 12:03 PM (PT)


CHICAGOLAND RADIO AND MEDIA is reporting that CHICAGO radio legend JOHN RECORDS LANDECKER has dropped his daily afternoon oldies show at GERARD MEDIA Talk-Oldies WIMS-A/MICHIGAN CITY, IN to concentrate on his 10a-3p SATURDAY and SUNDAY shows and fill-in weekday work at CUMULUS Oldies WLS-F/CHICAGO.

LANDECKER has been hosting at WIMS since 2007 (briefly leaving in 2009) and joined WLS-F in DECEMBER. The site also reports that WLS-F has dropped LANDECKER's syndicated "INTO THE SEVENTIES" weekend show, which had been airing 7p-midnight SUNDAYs.

As badly run as they are, it was inevitable that this was a paycheck until a real job (such at WLS) came along.

http://www.radio-info.com/news/landecker-e...go-area-wims-am

John Records Landecker takes over Dick Biondi's evening shift on WLS-FM, Chicago
john landecker Biondi, now 79, says he asked management for some time to think it over, after they proposed moving him out of evenings back to 11pm-2am. He tells TimeOut Chicago's Robert Feder “I’m going to go into the new show and give it everything I’ve got...I hope that management will allow me to still be the crazy Dick Biondi.” Landecker recently gave up his weekday shift on WIMS, Michigan City, Indiana, a station near where he lives. Now he is free to do 6pm to 11pm for Cumulus Media's classic hits WLS-FM (94.7). Landecker worked with Cumulus Senior VP of Programming Jan Jeffries in the 1980s. Greg Brown’s afternoon drive shift will now run 2:30pm to 6pm, clearing the way for Landecker to take 6-11pm. Biondi will also host a new weekend show about the history of WLS.

The legendary John Records Landecker is stepping up to full-time status at oldies WLS-FM (94.7), where he'll return to the shift that made him a radio superstar four decades ago at Top 40 sister station WLS-AM (890).

Starting next week, Landecker, 64, will be heard from 6 to 11pm Monday through Friday on WLS-FM. The move will slide another Chicago broadcasting icon, Radio Hall of Famer Dick Biondi, 79, to later hours — from 11pm to 2am — on the Cumulus Media station.

“It’s like having Mantle and DiMaggio playing centerfield in the same outfield,” said Michael Damsky, president and general manager of WLS. “With John Landecker joining Dick Biondi in our evening talent lineup, we’re thrilled to feature two of WLS’s all-time biggest stars, representing two distinct eras of the radio station. It’s great to be able to expand the presence and power of our brand.”

To accommodate the new lineup, Greg Brown’s afternoon show will begin a half-hour earlier, airing from 2:30 to 6pm weekdays. Starting next month, Biondi also is expected to host a new, weekly one-hour show on weekends, highlighting the history and heritage of WLS.

At WLS-FM, Landecker has been reunited with Jan Jeffries, Chicago-based senior vice president of programming for Cumulus Media. The two first worked together in the mid-‘80s when Landecker hosted mornings on the former WAGO and Jeffries was program director.

Since last month, Landecker has been working part-time and weekends at WLS-FM, while continuing to host a weekday afternoon show on WIMS-AM (1420) near his home in Michigan City, Indiana. Foreshadowing the latest move, he stepped down last week from the The John Landecker Music Explosion, telling Chicago Radio Spotlight blogger Rick Kaempfer: “I loved being on WIMS. I really did . . . But the opportunity to come back to WLS, working for someone like Jan Jeffries was too good to pass up.”

Enshrined in the radio wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Landecker achieved legendary status at WLS during his first run from 1972 to 1981 with such trademark bits as “Boogie Check” and “Americana Panorama.” His blazing wit, brilliant parodies and rapid-fire phone calls lit up 38 states and inspired a generation of radio personalities.

“Ever since I left nights at WLS in the ’70s, everything has been a challenge,” Landecker told Kaempfer, his former producer. “I did different shifts. Afternoons. Mornings. Talk radio. I sought out those challenges, but in all of those situations I never would describe it as being in a comfort zone. I’m glad I did ’em, but this is a party. This is the best thing I’ve done since coming to WLS since 1972, and I think Chicago is going to eat this station up. I consider this a new beginning.”

Biondi, of course, was no less influential to WLS in the 1960s, when his nighttime show put the 50,000-watt AM powerhouse on the map. He was voted the most popular Top 40 disc jockey in the country in 1961 and 1962, and he’s been enshrined in both the radio wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame.

After a 21-year run at CBS Radio’s former oldies WJMK-FM (104.3), Biondi joined WLS-FM in 2006. In 2010, when he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first broadcast on WLS, the city of Chicago honored him by designating an area near the station’s old studios — just off Lower Wacker Drive near East Lake Street and Garland Court — Dick Biondi Way.