WLS' John Landecker & The Boogie Check

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - As a young teenager who was at the time certain that he would be a "big time" radio disc jockey, there could not have been a better radio station role model than WLS/Chicago, "The Big 89" and its evening personality, John Landecker.

I first "discovered" John when, at home at night, I plugged in the headphones into my Dad's stereo and hit the AM band to listen to KLIF, KBOX, and KFJZ locally (KXOL pulled in their signal at night on the 1360 kHz frequency so I could not pick it up). As I tuned up and down the dial from 540-1600 kHz, I landed on the 890 frequency and lo and behold I "found" a great Top 40 station in WLS, then owned and operated by ABC Radio (today it is a news/talk station owned by Cumulus Media). The station was and is a Class A AM station, meaning it can operate with 50,000 watts day and night with a perfect circle transmission pattern. It also meant that no other station could broadcast from dusk to dawn on that frequency within 750 miles of their antenna/tower.

John was the epitome of pure radio genius. Born in Michigan, his middle name was "Records" (his mother's maiden name). He often said on the radio, "Records truly is my middle name."

WLS was clearly the market leader in Chicago in the 60's and 70's, beating rival WCFL most if not all of the time. John started his career in Ann Arbor MI, Lansing MI, and Philadelphia before coming to WLS in 1972. With WLS's huge nighttime signal (especially on cold nights), Landecker could be heard in nearly 40 states…and with a big nighttime audience!

When you listened to the station then, WLS management used a bit of "reverb" or reverberation which made the DJ sound big or sound like they were in a cave with sound waves bouncing off the walls! The single most successful franchise created by Landecker was the WLS "Boogie Check," a two minute stint where listeners would call in, say something (either smart or stupid), and John would respond back. His responses were hilarious, ranging from pure humor to Don Rickles' style humor: the put down! Regardless, the Boogie Checks were just brilliant.

Most recently, Landecker was doing evenings on 94.7 WLS-FM until July 2015.

Listen to this Boogie Check from 1974………Landecker at his best!