JOHN RECORDS LANDECKER: Forsaking College for Radio

Guest Blogger:  JOHN RECORDS LANDECKER

John Records Landecker

1969: I was attending Michigan State University. I was a husband and a father. During the day I went to class and at night worked at WILS, an AM station in Lansing, Michigan.

I was not aware of it, but two MSU students, Dave Albery and Jim Donahue, had taped one of my shows and sent it a friend of theirs, Mike Rivers — who did afternoons at the #1 rock station in Detroit, CKLW.

Jim and Dave loved radio. They knew the Bill Drake format backwards and forwards. I don’t know how they did it, but they had the studio hotline numbers to Drake stations all over the country.

CKLW was not a Drake station, but it was run by a Drake devotee, Paul Drew.

Paul Drew left CKLW for a job at WIBG in Philadelphia. He took Mike Rivers with him. WIBG had an opening. Rivers gave Drew the tape of my show.

I was sitting in my married housing apartment one day and got a call: “Paul Drew is going to call you tomorrow about a job in Philadelphia.”

He did, and I flew to Philadelphia for an interview….

Before going forward, I need to set the scene. I am the son of a college professor. At the time, my mother and father were in Germany; my father was lecturing there. My younger brother was going to school in Switzerland.

If I took this job, I would be DROPPING OUT OF COLLEGE. This is something the son of a college professor does not do!

But it was a job in market #4.

I consulted with my instructors at MSU. I was a senior and it was pointed out that this is exactly the job I would want upon graduation.

I also consulted my in-laws — graduates of M.I.T. and Vasser. It was decided I would take the job.

So I left my family behind and went ahead to Philadelphia to get situated. When I got there I found out that my name had been changed to “Scott Walker.”

There was a manual to read and learn about the format. It was overwhelming. I could not grasp it.

I was making mistakes on the air. I botched a countdown. It was a nightmare.

I remember being in my motel room and bursting into tears. I had dropped out of college. I was moving my young family. Panic set in. What had I done??

Paul Drew was one of those PDs who controlled every aspect of the station. He always wore an earphone with a transistor radio wherever he went.

There was a Bat Phone in the studio. When it rang, a spotlight went off directly in your face. The joke was that all the WIBG jocks had sunburn on the right sides of their faces.

Somehow I survived. Paul could have fired me, but he didn’t.

I was hired to do 9 – midnight but I was shifted to midnight to 6am, six nights a week. After I was deemed format worthy, I was shifted to noon to 3.

Then something happened that changed my career forever. The station was sold to Buckley broadcasting. The late Rick Buckley became the general manager.

Paul Drew invited me over to his apartment. “Scott” he said, “what do you want to do now?” I told him I wanted to go back on the air as John Records Landecker.

He told me I would never be a success using that name and I should go to a medium market and get it out of my system.

He did say that as far as his format was concerned, he could have used six Scott Walkers. He was very nice to me.

Next I met with Rick Buckley and the PD, Jack Reynolds. I told them my history and that I wanted to be John Records Landecker again. They said okay!

I was told I would do 10pm – 2am and would follow someone named Joey Reynolds.

Boy, was that an eye-opener. Joey is the most talented radio personality I have ever worked with.

The format was wide open. What followed was just amazing. We were out of our minds. No idea was off limits.

Eventually Joey left and I moved to 6 – 10 at night. There was a radio war with WFIL. My direct competition was George Michael. It was an absolute blast.

I’ve been told that WFIL wanted to get me out of town. WLS/Chicago wanted a new night jock. They were an ABC station, as was WABC/New York. So WLS talked to WABC. WABC talked to WFIL. They learned about me.

On their recommendation, WLS flew their PD, Mike McCormick, to Philadelphia to check me out. He went back to Chicago and offered me a job. I guess you know I took it.

Later I received a hand written note from Paul Drew. It said, “I guess what I needed was six John Records Landeckers.”