April 15th is tax day, but this one was a bit more taxing than we expected.
The game plan was to fly from Chicago to Panama City Beach on Monday morning but, like many others, our O’Hare Airport adventure took an unexpected turn! After a surprisingly easy trip on the Kennedy, we found ourselves sitting on the I-190 ramp into O’Hare for well over an hour due to protesters blocking ALL access.
Our view of the I-190 ramp into O’Hare International Airport.
Finally, after 90 mins on the ramp we were able to exit & re-book for Tuesday. When Johnnie called the airline, they were not aware of the protest. It took a while on hold for the advisor to check with her supervisor but, it was worth the wait because, the airline issued a waiver so we wouldn’t be charged $400 for re-booking!!
Our Uber driver, Ryan, could not have been nicer and, fortunately, was driving a RAV4 Hybrid, which made the not moving part of the adventure a lot less environmentally challenging.
Just like the movie “Ground Hog Day,” we’re going to try again tomorrow. And, hopefully we’ll have a much better ending.
Our first WGN Radio show for the month of April ran a gamut that included AXPONA, the largest audio expo in the country, the 85th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz, Chicago jazz icon, Dee Alexander, auto industry updates from Consumer Guide‘s Publisher, Tom Appel, “zombie cicadas,” and, trust us, a whole lot more.
If you missed it, or if you’d like to hear it again, the podcast is all yours if you just click this link.
With a show that full, you know we had to have a well stacked turntable and, since you asked, here’s a bunch of musical goodies that found their way on to that show’s playlist.
Billie Eilish “The 30th”
The Isley Brothers “Shout”
The Doobie Brothers “Listen To The Music”
Bobby Broom “Humpty Dumpty”
Wizard Of Oz Cast “We’re Off To See The Wizard”
Judy Garland “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”
Metropolitan Jazz Octet “Twenty Four Hours A Day”
Metropolitan Jazz Octet “The Blues Are Brewin'”
Samara Joy “Can’t Get Out Of This Mood”
David Rose “The Stripper”
Terry Nolan “There Was A Fungus Among Us” (With The Anita Kerr Singers)
Benny Carter & Benny Carter Quartet “My Blue Heaven”
Jo Jones “My Blue Heaven”
Bob Crosby Orchestra “My Blue Heaven”
Duane Eddy “My Blue Heaven”
Fats Domino “My Blue Heaven”
Sue Foley “Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie”
Buddy Guy “What Kind Of Woman Is This?”
The Beatles “Here Comes The Sun”
Beyonce “Blackbird”
Hopefully, assuming we can get the image of zombie cicadas out of our heads, we’ll give this show thing another try this coming Saturday night.
And, hopefully, you’ll join us to see how it all works out.
We had the very good fortune of having him on our show several times. The very first time we talked with him, it was like having a conversation with an old friend. He always easy to talk with and, after our second on-air conversation, it wasn’t unusual for him to occasionally call us at home. For many years, one of the very first signs we had of the start of the Christmas season was a card from him with a personal message.
He was one of the founding fathers of the New Orleans R&B sound that regularly inhabited the pop charts in the 50s and 60s. For a 1964 tour, the “Frogman” opened for The Beatles.
The Beatles with Clarence “Frogman” Henry.
If you were fortunate to see him in concert or on a live TV appearance, you know that, unlike far too many performers who had hits in the 50s and 60s, Clarence “Frogman” Henry was a performer who could easily duplicate the sound of his records in a live performance.
Clarence “Frogman” Henry performing “I Don’t Know Why I Love You But I Do” (Live).
Even though he was known the world over, that level of fame never changed who he was.
His biggest hit may have been “Ain’t Got No Home” but he’ll always have a home in our hearts.
40 years ago, on April 7th, 1984, Him and Her became HimNHer.
As we celebrate our “Ruby” anniversary, we’ve been going through our wedding photo album and thought we’d share a few with the class.
The journey started at the King Richard’s Faire, in August of 1983. We were both at WIND radio and, as part of a station promotion, had been picked to be the King & Queen of the faire and broadcast live from high atop an elephant named Killer. During a commercial break, he popped the question and she said “Yes!” It would remain a secret for a few weeks, so the photo you see is us, newly engaged, trying to contain our enthusiasm and continue with the broadcast.
The secretly newly engaged HimNHer riding Killer, who also kept the secret.
Now, we’ll fast forward to April 7th of 1984. The location was the First Congregational Church, in Des Plaines, IL. The service was officiated by the church pastor and members of WIND’s “God Squad” (Hosts of the station’s religious programming.)
Johnnie’s mom and bridesmaid helped her get dressed.
Thankfully, the maid of honor’s mom brought a sewing kit to fix a last minute problem.
Maid of Honor, Donna Moriki, and Johnnie’s Mom, Joyce, also made some last minute adjustments.
All dressed up and waiting on opposite sides of the church.
The bridal party. From left to right, Johnnie’s cousins, Glenda Hall, Cynthia Muryn, Sharon Scott, Maid Of Honor, Donna Morikki, Johnnie, Steve, Best Man, Lee Kingsmill (Steve’s brother), Groomsmen, Larry Langford, George Szubka and David Hall.
At last, him and her were officially HimNHer.And, yes, we both remember exactly what Steve was saying here and, no, we’re not sharing.
Hangin’ on for the ride!
Long time friend, reporter and Groomsman, Larry Langford, (Now Director of Media Affairs for the Chicago Fire Department) through his police connections, surprised us with handcuffs.
Exiting the church, being videoed by the CBS 2 documentary team who used our wedding footage for the Emmy Award winning special “Children Of Divorce” that was hosted by Lee Phillip.
Picture taking time.
There was no denying we were happy, even though it was a cold and windy day.
One way to warm up …. hugging!
One hundred and forty family and friends joined us at the reception. Here are a few of our broadcast buddies you may know.
After catching Johnnie’s garter, Richard told us that he was going to use it to get free drinks on Rush Street. Apparently that was a thing 40 years ago.
Forty years really did go by in a flash!
We’ve been blessed from day one and can’t wait to see what the next forty have to offer.
Due to WGN Radio’s NCAA Elite 8 coverage, post Chicago Blackhawks, our last show for the month of March started later than usual. Because of that, we’ve rescheduled some of our planned guests to a show to be named later.
While we were in the studio waiting to go on we heard a scurrying noise and, when we looked around, we saw our little friend E.B. We asked him if he could stick around and go on the air with us, but he said this was his busy season and he had a lot of eggs to hide, so he only had time for a quick photo. Then, quick as a bunny, he hopped up on Johnnie’s shoulder.
We also shared memories of a very special man, Wayne Vriesman, who, sadly, we lost last week. Wayne was General Manager of WGN Radio when we started working at the station. One of the real highlights of our merged broadcast careers was having the privilege of working for and with Wayne and, more importantly, getting to know him as a friend.
Long time WGN radio listeners may remember that, legendary WGN morning man, Bob Collins gave Wayne Vriesman the nickname “get on the plane Wayne.”
March 16th found us celebrating St. Patrick’s Day weekend on WGN Radio with a very full show!
Baseball’s official opening day isn’t that far off so we threw a few warm up pitches with our friend John St. Ausustine as we explored “IRONMAN” the book he wrote with and for legendary Chicago Cubs catcher Randy Hundley.
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day we welcomed Ireland’s blues rock powerhouse, Grainne Duffy and her husband and creative partner, Paul Sherry, into our studio.
Grainne Duffy with Steve & Johnnie.Thanks to Paul Sherry for the photo.
Consumer Guide‘s Publisher, Tom Appel, gave us the 411 about automotive manufactures sharing driver’s information with insurance companies and shared some of his latest road test results.
And you can bet your sweet shillelagh that we had a few more St. Patrick’s Day surprises and other goodies in our pot o’ gold and you can find them all cleverly hidden right here in our podcast.
Any St. Patrick’s Day party has to have some good music and we sure did, so let’s crank it up!
The Irish Rovers “Wasn’t That A Party”
Steve Goodman “Go Cubs Go” (From the WGN Radio vault)
“Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel” (1969 Chicago Cubs Fight Song)
Eddie Vedder “Someday We’ll Go All The Way”
The Cast of Glee “Shout”
Grainne Duffy “Dirt Woman Blues”
Grainne Duffy “Well, Well, Well”
Grainne Duffy “Running Back To You”
Grainne Duffy “Killycrum”
Grainne Duffy “Yes I Am”
Grainne Duffy “Rise Above”
Amancio D’Silva “A Street in Bombay”
Amancio D’Silva “Konkan Dance”
Joe Harriott (and the Amancio D’Silva Quartet) “Hum Dono”
Joe Harriott and John Mayer “Contrasts”
Stacey Kent “It Might As Well Be Spring”
Our thanks to John, Grainne, Paul and Tom for making this a memorable St. Patrick’s Day weekend show and we look forward to the next time Grainne and Paul get to head back across the big pond and land back in our studio.
And, as always, our thanks to you for spending some time with us on the radio and right here in this part of our cyberspace landscape.
Due to the Chicago Blackhawks game on WGN Radio, our March 9th show didn’t start until 9:30PM (Central) but, then, since we were springing forward one hour, it was 3AM when we ran out of time and words.
Our resident computer guru, Dr. Patrick Crispen, shared tips on how to secure your kid’s first cell phone and tackled some other cyberspace demons.
Rock star photographer, Will Byington, joined us in studio with tricks to help you get the best photos from your cell phone. During a short commercial break, Will quickly worked his magic and showed us how it would look if we were interviewing … us. He had us pose together on one side of the studio, then quickly walk behind him to the other side while he slowly panned his cell phone.
There was a lot more before our clock ran out and you’ll find it all in this week’s podcast.
Now, how about we strike up the bands for this week’s soundtrack.
Johnny O’Keefe “Shout”
Austenyo “Computer Talk”
Kraftwerk “Pocket Calculator”
AC/DC “Cyberspace”
The Technology “Computer Magic”
Ringo Starr “Photograph”
Paul Simon “Kodachrome”
J. Geils Band “Freeze Frame”
The Kinks “People Take Pictures Of Each Other”
Greg Hulme “Oscars Theme”
Billie Eilish “What Was I Made For?” (From “Barbie”)
Ryan Gosling “I’m Just Ken” (From “Barbie”)
Jon Batiste “It Never Went Away” (From the Netflix documentary “American Symphony”)
Gloria Gaynor “I Will Survive”
Grainne Duffy “Dirt Woman Blues”
The Holderness Family “Daylight Savings Time” (Green Day Parody)
Grandpa Jones “Daylight Savings Time”
Next week, assuming we’ve got all of our clocks adjusted, we’ll have a full show, starting at 9PM (Central). One of next week’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend game plan highlights that we’re really looking forward to is meeting Ireland’s blues rock powerhouse, Grainne Duffy.
In a little over a month the video of Tommy playing “I Feel Fine and his Beatles medley has been viewed well over 101,000 times on our channel.
If you haven’t seen it, yet, take a look.
Thank you to Tommy’s worldwide fans for hopping aboard our YouTube hang out and, most importantly, thank you Tommy for your friendship and allowing us to share your talent with the class.
Thanks to Sidney Friedman, our first WGN Radio show for the month of March had some very magical moments. Sidney was accompanied by Photographer & Videographer, Meiling Jin.
As we mentioned previously, this show was brought to you by the letter M, since we were loaded up with mind games, motoring and, of course, music…
Otis Day & The Knights “Shout”
John Lennon “Mind Games”
Olivia Newton-John “Magic”
Pilot “Magic”
Dolly Parton “Magic Man” (With Ann Wilson)
California Guitar Trio “Pipeline”
Bob Crosby’s Bob-Cats “Big Noise From Winnetka”
Ray Bryant “The Impossible Rag”
Roy Clark “El Cumbanchero”
Grainne Duffy “Dirt Woman Blues”
Al Jarreau “Moonlighting (theme)”
Terry Jacks “Seasons In The Sun”
Next week, we’ll start at 9:30PM (Central) and, at the end of our show, we’ll start running and jumping so we can spring forward to set your clocks ahead one hour.
Chicagoland’s own, nationally known singer, Megon McDonough joined us to preview her upcoming show featuring a night of music by legendary songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
Our resident computer guru, Dr. Patrick Crispen tackled the AT&T outage and other cyberspace demons.
Of course, we’ve only unwrapped a part of what was in this week’s goodie bag, so if you want to hear the rest, just point your browser to this week’s podcast.
This week’s soundtrack was packed full of goodies, too, so crank up your speakers and let the fun begin.
Greg Hulme “Oscars Theme”
Eddie Cochran “Sittin’ In The Balcony”
The Guy Who Sings Your Name Over And Over “The Oscar Song”
The Drifters “Saturday Night At The Movies”
Megon McDonough “The Music of Burt Bacharach & Hal David”
Megon McDonough “Wait, Am I In Love?”
Megon McDonough “How Ringo Saved Me From Life In The Convent”
Austenyo “Computer Talk”
AC/DC “Cyberspace”
Survivor “Eye Of The Tiger”
John Fogerty “Centerfield”
Jerry Lee Lewis “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
MC Hammer “U Can’t Touch This”
Next Saturday will be brought to you by the letter M, since we’ll be loaded up with mind games, motoring, music and more.
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