An Open Letter To WDRV’s Bob Stroud. Late isn’t Always Great!

WDRV’s Bob Stroud Hosts *Rock ‘n Roll Roots* on Sunday Mornings

Hi Bob,

I hope you are enjoying your semi-retirement as much as I am enjoying mine. New paths to discover and old ones to reminisce about.

And plenty of free time to air pet peeves and gripes, hang-ups and annoyances. So I am using this space to air one of mine.

But first, a compliment. Long-time listener long-time fan. I was an early adopter and admirer of The Drive. I only relegated the station to the hardest-to-reach button on my car radio when Van Halen+ACDC+Aerosmith began to dominate the station’s playlist and I was forced to return to ‘XRT. But through it all, if I am in my car on Sunday mornings, I push that hard-to-get-to button and listen to you and Rock’n’Roll Roots. You beat that Breakfast with the Beatles show hands down.

I greatly enjoy the mix of 60s and 70s rock you feature. Some of the songs are well-remembered, others buried deep in the sulci of my cerebral hemispheres. Cover versions and forgotten originals are always a plus. But it’s your thoughtful commentary that holds the show together.

So what is my complaint? Bob, I know it’s your phrase that pays, but not everyone who has passed away deserves the honorific of “the late great.” When you die you are “late,” but that doesn’t automatically make you “great.”

I can understand if on February 25th you want to play While My Guitar Gently Weeps and preface it as a celebration and remembrance on the birthday of the “the late great George Harrison.” After all, he was a Beatle, if only the quiet one. And sure, on the anniversary of Glenn Frey’s death it’s ok to play The Heat is On and reminisce about the late, great former Eagle.

But I cringe when I hear you call the guy who brought Fleetwood Mac their coffee during the recording of Rumours as “the late great caterer Ferd McPorter.” From what I hear, McPorter frequently poured too much milk into Lindsay Buckingham’s cappuccino. Surely you can find a better way to talk up You Make Loving Fun. Late great indeed!

And don’t get me started on your annual Gone But Not Forgotten episode. Was the guy who vacuumed the carpet in the office where Billy Joel signed with Columbia Records really all that great of a janitor?

I know you didn’t originate the phrase, and I know you aren’t the only one to ~~over~~use it. I ran across it in the New York Times today, in an article about the very good, but never-Oscar-winning, not quite great, actor Tom Wilkinson. And there was a massive best-seller in the 1970s, The Late Great Planet Earth. Perhaps that’s where you first came across the “late great” phrase?

I have no quibble with memorializing people who have passed on. From celebrating my own mentors to folks in the world of music, I have done it often in my blog posts. But while these people had a huge impact on me, their knocking on the pearly gates didn’t instantly elevate them to greatness. Even the Oscars and other awards program present their “In Memorium” segments with somber music and dimmed lights, but without the allegation that every cameraman being recognized was a great one.

Bob, thanks for letting me get this off my chest. It’s quite a relief. And let me say, for all these years, it has been GREAT listening to you.

Long-time fan,

Les

These People Are Why I’m Radio Ga-Ga. Who Did It For You?

I don’t do Spotify. I don’t stream Apple Music. When Alexa asks me if I want to sign up for Amazon music, I ignore her, even when she offers me a 90-day free trial of all my favorite music. I know how 90-day free trials turn into $9.95-a-month subscriptions in a hurry.

I was born and bred to listen to the radio Chicago style. There were WCFL and WLS in my grammar school years. I spent many Fridays walking down Morse Avenue to the local record store to collect their music surveys and see what was at #1. WDAI (pre-disco) and The Loop, along with a taste of WGN, were my companions early in my professional career. Next, The Drive held my attention for a few years but by the late 2000s I had morphed into a WXRT listener, and for the most part, remain that way today.

Behind the radio call letters and station names have been the varied personalities I have listened to. Each epoch had a jock or two who kept me listening, even after the music had stopped. In some cases, they didn’t play much music at all, and that was OK too.

I’ve spoken before about Joel Sebastian, the smooth morning man at WCFL, and later at many other Chicago stations. When Chicago radio, and my own tastes, evolved, I discovered Steve Dahl in his early solo days. I didn’t know what to make of his humor and stunts, but by the time he paired with Garry Meier, I was hooked on his style of very personal radio. I couldn’t have guessed then that his wife Janet’s school board adventures would be a forerunner of my own.

Dahl and Meier served me well on my morning commute, but once I reached my hospital laboratory office, I tuned in to a more “work-appropriate” radio format with my radio-wave friend Roy Leonard. Sadly, I think that I won more radio call-in contestants on Roy’s show than I answered questions correctly during my one Jeopardy! appearance. I finally had the opportunity to meet Roy before a show at Chicago’s Second City–and yes, I was there after winning the tickets for the performance on Roy’s show.

Mr. Leonard was followed on WGN by the combo of Kathy O’Malley and Judy Markey. I presumed I was the only male in their radio audience–a feeling reinforced when a male oncologist friend reviewing some slides at my microscope asked how I could listen to those babbling idiots. I think his chauvinism was peeking through.

And then came everybody’s best friend in the whole world, Lin Brehmer. When my daily morning commute doubled in length with my new company and new position, I fell into WXRT. I timed my drive so that I would arrive at the lab just in time for Three for Free, Lin and Mary Dixon’s morning musicology quiz, battling it out with Mailman Jack, Brad Frey, Cathy Chouinard, and many others. Lin’s death felt to all of us like the loss of a valued and loved co-worker.

Lin was my man at ‘XRT, but a shout-out to Terri Hemmert, who last week celebrated 50 years on WXRT with a Saturday Morning Flashback to the year 1973. That was a good year with great music, and even better memories.

Long live Chicago radio–I hope it never goes away.

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In Memory of Lin Brehmer and Dr. Rebecca Blank. After Every Loss We Must Fight For More Wins. Please Read To The End.

Last July, my post was centered around the newly public cancer diagnoses of Lin Brehmer and Rebecca Blank. As everyone in Chicagoland knows, Lin, our local WXRT radio legend, succumbed to prostate cancer last month. This week, we learned that Dr. Blank, the incoming President of Northwestern University, has passed away from her “aggressive” cancer, which I have seen classified as pancreatic cancer.

Sadly, my campaign for a moment of radio silence in honor of Lin fell on deaf ears. Too many readers let me know that “dead air” was the last thing a radio pro like Brehmer would have wanted. My next request will be for NU’s men’s basketball Wildcats to win a few games in the NCAA March Madness Tournament to honor the University President who never got to be. Go Cats!

Prostatic cancer and pancreatic cancer are the two diseases that took my father and my sister. Each year tens of thousands of other Americans die of these two scourges. A thimbleful of DNA gone wrong, a pinpoint of genetic material led astray, and a person’s life and sometimes lifespan is indelibly altered.

I am not an eternal pessimist. All cancer news is not negative. Progress is being made in the multi-faceted battle against the disease. The very genes whose alterations begin the malignant process are now targets for therapies that can halt or reverse the course of the disease. Surgery and radiation treatments have become more focused in an attempt to minimize patient side effects and avoid damage to surrounding tissues. In fact, better treatment along with earlier diagnoses and a decrease in smoking rates have given us a remarkable 33% drop in cancer death rates over the last 30 years.

My friends with cancer histories are fighting strong and proud. This week I bowled with a prostate cancer survivor and played tennis with a kidney cancer warrior. I aspire to play half as well and be half as optimistic as either one of them. And my dear wife is 11 years past her melanoma diagnosis and treatment. I look forward to a day when all cancer patients can celebrate the same successes.

Those of you who know me well are aware that for many years I have been involved in the SEA Blue/Zero Prostate Cancer Walk and Run for Prostate Cancer Awareness. My involvement continues this year. If you are thinking of Lin or someone in your family who has been affected by prostate cancer and want to help prostate cancer patients please support our cause by clicking this link. (Please be aware the donation process currently only works from mobile phones. It does not work on desktop computers or tablets.) Any and all donations are appreciated.

And if you are a Northwestern alum and want to recognize Dr. Blank, a memorial fund exists at the University of Wisconsin, where she served as Chancellor for nine years.

The fight goes on!

How About A Minute Of Silence To Honor Lin Brehmer. Chicago Radio, Would You Do It?

Let’s not hear it for Lin!

On Broadway, when a legend dies, all the theaters collectively dim their marquee lights for a minute as an honor and show of respect. The tradition dates back to the 1950s and in the last year been used to remember Angela Lansbury and Sidney Poitier.

Why couldn’t Chicago radio have a similar honor for its own recently passed legend, WXRT’s Lin Brehmer? Why not a minute of silence for the man who brought joy to so many Chicagoans with his favorite adage “it’s great to be alive”?

I propose that next Monday, January 30th, at 9:31 am (“XRT call letters are 93.1 on the FM dial) all locally produced radio stations turn off their transmitters and fill the airwaves with a minute of silence

That’s right. A minute without any number-one hits. A minute without the guy from Portage Park calling in to argue about how the Bears should use their number one draft pick. No young women calling in to talk about being ghosted after their last horrid date, no call-in-to-win contests.

We can handle a minute without Hotel California, radical right rants, or left-leaning logic. No smooth jazz, no urban sounds, no up-to-the-minute traffic reports. Especially no pledge drives with matching grants and handy giveaway totes.

Just a moment of peace and quiet to reflect on the fun-loving guy who helped keep Chicago radio alive. And if people want to reflect on other things, like how you should never take anything for granted (another Linism) that’s fine too.

How about it, local radio moguls? We aren’t NYC (thank the lord) but we are Chicago strong. Let’s remember Lin, and then, as he would want, let’s keep on rockin’ in the free world.

It’s great to be alive.

Chicago’s Best Friend In The World Has Died. Lin Brehmer, I Will Miss You.

What a week. Jeff Beck. David Crosby. And now Lin. It’s the last of those that brings me closest to tears.

I can’t describe myself as a long-time WXRT listener. Back in the day (whatever that means) I spent more time with Steve Dahl and Garry Meier on the Loop and was an early disciple of the Stroud Crowd on the Drive. But in recent years whether listening to my office boom box or streaming at home, if I wanted music with a local source, it was WXRT for Chicago’s Finest Rock. And if it was “XRT it was most likely Lin Brehmer.

Lin played the same music as the other WXRT jocks, but his personality outshined all the others. Never one for understatement, any song he liked was the greatest song ever written. And of course, he was everyone’s best friend in the whole world. Who wouldn’t want to be best friends with a Chicago legend?

For a year or two my schedule at the lab revolved around Lin. No matter what I had scheduled, or what unscheduled fires I needed to extinguish, I was sure to be in my office listening to that old radio at 6:20 in the morning for Lin and Mary Dixon to play the three snippets of songs that comprised that day’s 3 for Free contest. My only reward for the dozen times I was the first to Tweet in the right answer was having Lin say my name on the air. It was lagniappe enough.

We exchanged direct messages over a few topics. Lin took issue with an email from ‘XRT program director Laura Duncan to new jock Annalisa that I “discovered.” But at the end of our back and forth, even Lin had to admit that the station played a limited number of prescribed tunes from artists such as the Cure and The Grateful Dead. And we disagreed over a particular song by the band Guster, with the band members themselves becoming involved in our Twitter conversation. At this sad time, I concede that battle to Lin.

Lin lost his life to prostate cancer. Regular readers of this blog know of my involvement personally, professionally, and philanthropically in the fight against prostate cancer. Men of a certain age, please get screened for this potential killer, whether by PSA or one of the myriad of other tests now available. None are perfect, all are better than doing nothing,

On Lin’s Bin, our superjock gave tongue-in-cheek responses to questions submitted by listeners. Disappointingly, Lin never answered any of the questions I submitted. Lin, I have one more question for you.

Are angels your best friends in the world now?

The Fight Against Cancer Never Rests. Northwestern’s Rebecca Blank and WXRT’s Lin Brehmer Have Revealed Their Battles.

Rebecca Blank and Lin Brehmer (Photos courtesy of Chicago Tribune)

Two days this week, two announcements that saddened me, one of which really shook me.

A 1975 Northwestern graduate, I wear the purple proudly. A family trip to Ryan Field for a football game is an annual event. So I was disheartened to read the email this week that Rebecca Blank, the incoming university president-elect at NU has stepped away from her role to face a battle with aggressive cancer. I wish her the best and trust that my alma mater will again find a top-notch academic to fill the role of university president.

The other notification has struck me more deeply. I missed the Tweet yesterday, spending a lovely afternoon on Lake Michigan, but this morning, the first news story I read was about WXRT radio guy Lin Brehmer. He too is stepping away for a while, taking a sabbatical from his role as the midday jock on my favorite radio station to begin chemotherapy for metastatic prostate cancer.

While I must concede that Rebecca Blank is just a name to me, Lin Brehmer has been a daily voice in my life for years. I would time my morning commute to be sure I was in the lab for “Three for Free,” the on-air trivia game orchestrated by Lin and Mary Dixon. A double-digit number of wins soothed my ego still bruised over long ago losses on Jeopardy! and It’s Academic.

And thanks to social media I am one of the thousands of listeners who have a bit of a relationship with Lin. He and I have Twitter bantered over Janet Jackson’s nomination to the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, over an awful Guster song, and most recently over my allegation that the station program director required one Cure song per shift. “Just don’t play Friday I’m In Love on Fridays…”

As a pathologist specializing in the diagnosis of urologic diseases, I see about 5 cases of prostate cancer a day. While many, perhaps most, of those men do well, I still feel a sense of loss for each of those husbands, sons, and brothers whose prostate biopsy is under my microscope. I know their lives have changed. So it is for Lin. (No, he is not a patient of mine and I was not aware of his diagnosis or the previous treatment that he has revealed in his Tweet.)

Lin is always everyone’s best friend in the whole world. I know the wishes from all of those admirers are bringing him strength and leading to a successful outcome. I can’t wait to hear his voice on “XRT once more.

And just a final reminder to all of you. Men, ask your primary care physician to check your PSA level. Ladies, remind the men in your life. Just do it.

________________________________

The above is the opinion of the author and not UroPartners LLC.

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WXRT Hires New Jock–A Greeting To Her From the Program Director.

Getting More from Les Blog Readers: You might have read that WXRT has hired a new DJ, AnnaLisa Parziale, a radio veteran with stints in San Francisco and Boston. Somehow, an email from ‘XRT program director Laura Duncan to Annalisa wound up in my inbox. I reproduce it below with only slight editing for brevity.

******

Dear Annalisa,

Welcome to Chicago and WXRT. As your program director, I am sure that I will be your new best friend in the whole world, no matter what Lin Brehmer tells you.

I know that throughout your career you have heard great things about WXRT and that you are looking forward to all the freedom and variety that you will have while programming your show. There are just a few little rules, or as I like to call them, suggestions, that will help you fit into our family.

You are required to play one song by The Cure on each shift. We have six tracks to choose from. I prefer if you don’t play Friday I’m In Love on Fridays. It is just sooo cliche.
The Clash must always be referred to as The Only Band That Matters, even though we only have two of their songs on our allowed playlist.
Terri plays the Beatles. Period.
We feature a heavy rotation of one Grateful Dead song a month. Last month’s selection was Touch of Grey. This month I haven’t yet decided between Uncle John’s Band or Touch of Grey. I will let you know when I make up my mind. In the meantime, in case you have any inclination to play Truckin’, don’t.
Sprinkle in a few anecdotes of the first time you heard a particular band in concert. It doesn’t have to make sense, but it shows the listeners you are just like them.
Playing Chicago music means playing Smashing Pumpkins, or occasionally Wilco. And a couple of blues guys to prove how hip we are. Their names escape me.
For the first 45 years of this station, Aerosmith was just the misspelling of a Sinclair Lewis novel. But ever since The Loop, Chicago’s harder rock station, shut down, we at XRT have been courting their Incel former listeners. Therefore we have been rocking Dream On every other Tuesday. Ditto, I’m looking for a slot to crank out some Van Halen. You good with Panama?
We don’t do news, Huey Lewis or otherwise. Mary Dixon has left the building.
In view of your recent history in Massachusetts, and because our listeners fantasize over Phoebe Cates, you may play The Cars Moving in Stereo as often as you desire. On the other hand, playing the band Boston is strictly verboten. So is playing Chicago.
Måneskin. Always more Måneskin. I’m begging.

Good luck and welcome.

REM forever,

Laura

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Hey, NPR. You Are Making Me Feel Old!

In July of 1984, I mentioned to a friend that for the first time that I could recall, the number one song on the Billboard charts was something I had never heard. The song was “When Doves Cry” from Prince’s Purple Rain soundtrack album. It had totally escaped my ears and for the first time in my life, I was all of 28.

So imagine my feelings today at age 65 upon reading the NPR list of best songs of 2021, and not recognizing a single song, from #100 down to #1. A total shut-out. And this wasn’t a list from some hip new-age media outlet. This wasn’t the 100 most streamed songs on Tik-Tok. No, this was a list from National Friggin’ Public Radio, the network programmed for old farts and fans of over-enunciated world news. NPR is 100% cooler than I am.

I did recognize the name of one artist on the list. Robert Plant showed up for a duet with Allison Krauss. For those of you even more out of touch than I am, Mr. Plant was once the lead singer for a band called Led Zeppelin. No-those boys didn’t make this year’s NPR 100.

It’s not that I have stopped listening to music. I still do. And “my” station, WXRT plays some new music along with the oldies. But I guess not one of the adult alternative songs they play (that’s the description of the format from Audacy, Inc. the station’s owner) was one of the year’s 100 winners. What a losing record! That’s what they get for letting Mary Dixon run off to WBEZ. Hey–isn’t WBEZ the local NPR affiliate? Mary must be even hipper than I thought!

So what was NPR’s Number One Song of the Year? Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” took the number one slot. If I had a nickel for every time I have heard it, well, I wouldn’t have a nickel.

Yes, I am old, crotchety, and out-of-date. On TV I’m watching the new documentary about John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The last books on music I have read were by Keith, Bruce, and Patti. I just am not on a first-name basis with Cardi and Nas and Megan Thee.

So I’ll just sit back and listen to my radio. “Once In a Lifetime” by The Talking Heads is playing. I remember when they were avant-garde.

And so was I.

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Stop Playing this Song. I’m Beggin!

I’m at my desk listening to the sports radio “experts” discuss the White Sox chances in the playoffs, and the future of Andy Dalton now that Justin Fields is the Bears’starter. I am peering through my microscope, drawing lines and dots on the prostate slides. All is as it should be.

And then I hear it. Again. For the third (or is the fourth?) time in the last 90 minutes, I am forced to sit through that song as it plays on the radio in the lab, the one right outside my office. And I shudder.

I am suffering through a song called Beggin’. A little research (isn’t that what we call looking things up in Google and/or Wikipedia?) tells me the song is a remake of a Four Seasons song from 1967. This cover version is by an Italian band called Maneskin and isn’t even new. It was recorded four years ago but has only hit the charts in English-speaking countries this year.

How can I describe it to those fortunate enough not to have not yet been exposed? Remember Dave Seville and the Chipmunks? Think of one of their songs, recorded at 45 rpm, sped up 78 rpm. Then imagine that English is not the Chipmunks’ native language and that they seem to have no idea what the lyrics mean. And then pretend you are hearing the song over and over and over.

It’s not just that the song is being played by the Eric Ferguson-less-Mix every quarter-hour. I can’t escape it at my Fitness Center where it’s on the overhead music stream. And the final indignity, it has hit the WXRT heavy rotation list. C’mon Lin Brehmer, this is Chicago’s Finest Rock? Just play Sympathy for the Devil one more time.

It has happened to me once before, a song drifting from the lab into my office over and over. It was back in 2006, the first summer we were in operation. That is the summer Justin Timberlake was bringing SexyBack…and back…and back.

At least ‘XRT never jumped on the JT bandwagon.

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Oh well, I assume Beggin’ will wear out its welcome in the next month or so. Just in time for the people in the lab to switch the radio to WLIT and non-stop Christmas music. By then I will be ready for a little Santa Got Run Over by a Reindeer.

Should I Try To Win Tickets to a Genesis Concert?

The DJ’s on WXRT are super-excited. The station is giving away tickets to see Genesis perform at the United Center in November. Call In To Win!

Should I make that call? So many thoughts come to mind, so many questions.

First, as I have said before, I am not particularly lucky in contests–though I used to do OK on Lin Brehmer’s 3 for Free back in the day, back when Lin still hosted early mornings on ‘XRT. But there were no prizes for winning, and 3FF was broadcast at 6:30 in the morning–not a heck of a lot of competition.

Next, will I be ready to go to an indoor concert at the United Center in November? Like everyone, I am entertainment starved. And public health officials say we are getting to an inflection point in the pandemic. Barb and I are both well-vaccinated, and we wouldn’t turn down a booster if it was necessary.

So yes, we are edging toward losing our inhibition about indoor recreation. I am back working out at my (nearly deserted) fitness center. We are noticing that Broadway is going to be opening back up in September, though we will be holding off on a New York City trip until the Neil Diamond jukebox musical opens in 2022 (tickets to opening night would be appreciated.)

And we do have tickets for a couple of indoor things–the Van Gogh exhibit on Father’s Day and Six on our anniversary. But none of that is like going into the cavernous barn that is the United Center. The contest is for admission to a “luxury suite,” but I still would anticipate lots of crowds in the walkways and on the stairways. Will I be ready in November to rub elbows with the hoi polloi?

Lastly, there is the band itself. How much do I care about Genesis? I have a personal rule, I would never go to a concert if I can’t name at least 10 songs by the band. I have no trouble doing that for Genesis–but could Barb do the same? That is a lot less likely. Plus, Barb likes her concerts at the United Center more mellow–she still complains about being dragged to see Bruce Springsteen there. Besides, who would babysit Cooper?

So all you Genesis fans out there–don’t mind me. I won’t compete for those tickets. Though if Phil and Mike and Tony want to play a set in my backyard, that’s cool–I am sure we can get the Home Owners Association’s permission for a great night out on the lawn.

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