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| John Records Landecker Returns Full-Time To WLS-FM; Biondi, Brown Hours Cut |
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| Written by Larz | |||
| Friday, 20 January 2012 18:36 | |||
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WLS-FM has given its fans a "Good News/Bad News" situation today. The good news is the full-time return of John Records Landecker to its airwaves, returning to the nighttime hours that first made him a household name on WLS-AM in the 1970s. The bad news is that to make room for Landecker's shift, hours are being cut back from station mainstays Dick Biondi and Greg Brown and their shifts are moving. The changes all take effect on this coming Monday, January 23rd.
John Landecker's return to full-time status is not a surprise at all. Just last week, it was reported HERE that he had left his full-time job at Michigan City, IN's WIMS-AM to focus on his new part-time job with Chicago's WLS-FM. At WLS-FM, he had been working Saturday and Sunday shifts, as well as being a weekday fill-in host. For the most part, he had been filling in on the midday shift, which is the one daytime shift done via voice-tracking from New York by True Oldies Channel boss Scott Shannon. Landecker had been filling in for that shift pretty consistently since the week after Christmas, including on days when Shannon was not really on vacation and was available to work. It was widely assumed that Landecker was being groomed to take over that shift in the very near future. What was indeed a surprise was the shift that was given to Landecker. Instead of the available midday shift, a new evening shift was created for him, giving him the hours of Monday-Friday 6:00pm-11:00pm. As mentioned here last week, Landecker's return to WLS was a triple reunion. He was a DJ on the station, after it had flipped from Alternative Rock to Oldies and was still known as WZZN-FM. He was there for just over a year as its afternoon host before parting ways with the station in 2007. It also reunited him with Jan Jeffries, who was Landecker's Program Director at WAGO-FM. Jeffries is the Senior Vice President of Programming for Cumulus Media, as well as now the acting PD for WLS-FM since forcing out the former PD in October. The two worked well together in the past and wanted to work together once again at WLS-FM. Perhaps biggest of all, the move reunites Landecker with the famous WLS call letters, which he was most associated with in the 1970s. With this afternoon's announcement of John Landecker's new time shift on WLS-FM, it becomes a quadruple reunion. From 1972-1981, it was primarily the evening shift on WLS-AM that turned John Landecker from DJ to superstar legend. For the most part, Landecker worked from 6:00pm-10:00pm on WLS-AM. He will now be doing the same hours (only until 11:00pm), hoping to reignite some of that nighttime magic. In an interview with the industry website All Access today, John Landecker said: "I am just so grateful for this opportunity that Jan has given me and am so psyched to do this. Totally reminiscent of when the Big 89 was in play in the '70s. I don't know of any other situation or opportunity like this. The calls of the heritage AM station on FM, the same music, the jocks and the programmer who knows how to put this together. I start on Monday and can't wait to get started."  Unfortunately, the great news of Landecker's return to WLS nights is tempered with the bad news for the legion of fans of Dick Biondi and Greg Brown. To make room for this new airshift for John Landecker, Dick Biondi now loses one hour per night from his show and has been pushed into the extremely late hours of 11:00pm-2:00am, far later than the time many of his longtime fans can listen. Greg Brown will now have to end one hour earlier each weekday -- 6:00pm, instead of 7:00pm -- to make room for Landecker. To help make up some of that lost time, Greg Brown's afternoon show will now start 30 minutes earlier, at 2:30pm. It is a net loss of 2.5 hours per week for Brown. For Radio Hall of Famer and living legend Dick Biondi, it is a net loss of 5 hours per week, plus he is now forced to work into the wee hours of the morning. To help make up some of the lost air time for Biondi, he is being offered the chance to do a weekly one-hour weekend special (most likely pre-taped in advance), which will focus on the history of WLS-AM's Musicradio years from the 1960s and 1970s. This special will begin in February. Still, many are seeing these new changes as a slight against the beloved Dick Biondi. Although he turns 80 years old later this year, he still has the energy and excitement of a DJ a fraction of his age. He has said many times that he has no plans on retiring. With the man still sharp and on top of his game, listeners have no desire to have him retire anytime soon, either. Now that his hours have been cut back and shifted to a less desirable time slot, one has to wonder if the fairly new ownership and management of WLS-FM isn't trying to force the hand of Biondi and make him consider taking the retirement he previously hasn't wished to take. Dick Biondi has been with WLS-FM/WZZN-FM since 2006. He first joined WLS-AM and Chicago radio back in 1960. Greg Brown joined WLS-FM/WZZN-FM in 2007, after being a fixture on Chicagoland radio since 1974.   Not seeing any changes at this time is the WLS-FM morning show with Dave Fogel and Marti Jones, who will continue to work their regular shift (with the odd times) of weekdays 5:30am-10:15am. Scott Shannon's syndicated and voice-tracked True Oldies Channel programming in middays will only be losing a half hour (2:30pm-3:00pm) and three hours from the overnight shift, which Dick Biondi is now being forced to occupy. 
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