One More Day For Johnny?

I woke up on Monday and the world had changed in a sadly familiar way.

Chicago radio legend and perennial goofball, Jonathon Brandmeier, had disappeared from his morning show on WLUP. In fact, the whole show disappeared. In what is now a typical occurrence, another iconic radio personality bit the dust.

In a new story by another legend, Rob Feder, it was reported that Brandmeier and the station had hit an impasse in contract negotiations in the 11th hour of talks. In a mutual decision, they parted ways immediately. Unfortunately, no one told the audience. And, for once with Johnny, we were not amused.

Chicago is a wonderful town for many reasons. But one is that we relish our "Second City" status. By that, I mean we love everything that is ours and makes us not New York. We love our lake that is as beautiful as an ocean. We love our stores that will never be called Macy's no matter how hard they try. We love our sports teams no matter how much they lose. And, I would argue, we love our radio personalities. Howard Stern spent years trying to compete in this market and he almost made it. But he never really did. He wasn't one of us.

Across the country, it's been quite the bloodbath in radio. Due to excessive consolidation of ownership, a failing economy and increased technological competition, radio is not faring well. Even Stern, the self-proclaimed "King of all Media", has been reduced to a fractional audience of loyalists.

In Chicago, we've lost most of our legendary hosts to old age or falling profits. Notably in the past years, we lost the dimwitted but long-lasting Eddie and Jobo, the really old Wally Phillips, and the Rebel turned Elder Statesman of the Dial, Steve Dahl. Even those that remain have become shadows of their former selves. They are lost somewhere in AM radio with no promotion or recognition.

Yet there was one shining light. We got Brandmeier back on the LOOP.

Brandmeier began at WLUP, called "The Loop" for obvious reasons, in 1979. He was hired to compete with Dahl and his partner, Garry Meier, after the Loop fired them. Chicago radio was at its height. Dahl and Meier's "Disco Demolition" brought the national spotlight to youth-oriented, rebellious talk radio. This wasn't your parent's radio show. It was FM! It was crazy and anti-social and spoke for a generation. With no Internet and cassettes in their infancy, we all listened to the radio. That was our medium.

Brandmeier, unlike Dahl, was silly and just "having a good time", as he still says. Dahl's humor was always edgier and more angry. Brandmeier was like that goofy kid in school who not only made everyone laugh, but who everyone really liked, too.

He would get his audience involved in the joke and he laughed at them as much as they laughed at him. He would get his poor, beleaguered producer, Wiser, to do the most embarrassing things for our amusement. But rather than see it as abusive, it was just fun! Brandmeier did everything with a joy for living and appreciation for stupidity. It wasn't mean, it was just silly and we wanted to be a part of it.

Eventually, Dahl and Brandmeier were both on the Loop- Johnny in the morning, Dahl and Meier in afternoons. They added another goofball in the middays named Kevin Matthews, and the classic line-up emerged. In the 1980's, everyone under 30 listened to the Loop. If possible, you listened all day.

It was like having a party with some really good friends all the time. The audience was a part of the gang and we all met at the same place at the same time everyday. They had live events that were outrageous and broke records for venues. They would call in each other's shows at various times and often drunk. It was if the party was happening off the air, as well as on. And everyone laughed all the time. As Brandmeier called it, it was "high school with money" but only the "old people" got picked on. And everyone was welcome from 6 am to 7 pm, 5 days a week. Or for a concert on the weekend.

That started to change in the early 1990's when Dahl and Meier parted ways. It was a domino effect, really. Soon, Dahl was relegated to other stations. Matthews couldn't hold his own without the strong lead-in and follow up. And Brandmeier heard Hollywood calling and left town. New responsibilities had also changed the audience. We still listened, but it wasn't the same. We didn't think we had time for all the partying anymore. We thought we had to grow up.

But we were wrong.

After a 5 year hiatus in LA, Brandmeier returned. The Loop had fallen on hard times and thought he could restore them to their glory. It seemed everything would be okay. The fun was back and we really needed it. And it was fun, until this Monday. I'm sure Johnny will be back on another station very soon. But that isn't the point.

In Chicago, we keep losing our "Second City" status. We lose something of ourselves when we lose icons. Many of us have never gotten over losing Marshall Fields and still call that ballpark on the south side "Comiskey". It's not that we don't like change. We don't like loss. What other city has the same family running it for decades? When we lose our heritage, we lose a bit of ourselves in the process. Hell, the Sears Tower isn't even the Sears Tower anymore. And I think the Daley era may be over.

When Brandmeier returned 4 years ago, there was a real sense of excitement. I've never heard such an outpouring of emotion and appreciation from fans. Eventually, he had to ask people to stop welcoming him back because it was getting ridiculous. I still remember his producer, a transplant from LA named Guy, remarking on how shocked he was by the number of calls that came in. He didn't know Chicago. We stand by our guys.

What neither of them realized is that we weren't just welcoming Johnny home. The party that the cops broke up was back on. And, in returning, we found out we were still able to enjoy it. Nothing had changed. We still laughed at the same bits and got the same joy from the stupidity. We missed some absent players but it was okay. We were still who we always thought we were. Just a little more gray around the temples.

For now, I'll be bored in the morning but I'm not concerned. I get some work done. And maybe Johnny will appear with his old news dude, Buzz. Maybe a newly reunited team of Dahl and Meier will follow him in the afternoons. And maybe they'll be just as much fun as they were. I think I still am.

See it's not just needing one more day for Johnny. We need one more day for us. In this world, we need to hold on to what we have so we can not just remember who we were, but who we are.