{"id":11722,"date":"2011-12-14T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T08:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/?p=11722"},"modified":"2011-12-13T00:08:41","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T08:08:41","slug":"john-records-landecker-wibg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/john-records-landecker-wibg\/","title":{"rendered":"JOHN RECORDS LANDECKER: Forsaking College for Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Blogger:\u00a0 JOHN RECORDS LANDECKER
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>

John Records Landecker<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I was not aware of it, but two MSU students, Dave Albery<\/strong><\/span> and Jim Donahue<\/strong><\/span>, had taped one of my shows and sent it a friend of theirs, Mike Rivers<\/strong><\/span> \u2014 who did afternoons at the #1 rock station in Detroit, CKLW.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

CKLW was not a Drake station, but it was run by a Drake devotee, Paul Drew<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

He did, and I flew to Philadelphia for an interview….<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

But it was a job in market #4.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I also consulted my in-laws \u2014 graduates of M.I.T. and Vasser. It was decided I would take the job.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

There was a manual to read and learn about the format. It was overwhelming. I could not grasp it.<\/p>\n

I was making mistakes on the air. I botched a countdown. It was a nightmare.<\/p>\n

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??<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Somehow I survived. Paul could have fired me, but he didn’t.<\/p>\n

I was hired to do 9 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

Then something happened that changed my career forever. The station was sold to Buckley broadcasting. The late Rick Buckley<\/strong><\/span> became the general manager.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

He did say that as far as his format was concerned, he could have used six Scott Walkers. He was very nice to me.<\/p>\n

Next I met with Rick Buckley and the PD, Jack Reynolds<\/strong><\/span>. I told them my history and that I wanted to be John Records Landecker again. They said okay!<\/p>\n

I was told I would do 10pm \u2013 2am and would follow someone named Joey Reynolds<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Boy, was that an eye-opener. Joey is the most talented radio personality I have ever worked with.<\/p>\n

The format was wide open. What followed was just amazing. We were out of our minds. No idea was off limits.<\/p>\n

Eventually Joey left and I moved to 6 \u2013 10 at night. There was a radio war with WFIL. My direct competition was George Michael<\/strong><\/span>. It was an absolute blast.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On their recommendation, WLS flew their PD, Mike McCormick<\/strong><\/span>, to Philadelphia to check me out. He went back to Chicago and offered me a job. I guess you know I took it.<\/p>\n

Later I received a hand written note from Paul Drew. It said, “I guess what I needed was six John Records Landeckers.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Blogger:\u00a0 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"yoast_head":"\nJOHN RECORDS LANDECKER: Forsaking College for Radio - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/john-records-landecker-wibg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JOHN RECORDS LANDECKER: Forsaking College for Radio - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Guest Blogger:\u00a0 JOHN RECORDS LANDECKER 1969: I was attending Michigan State University. 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