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Dick Biondi & Bob Sirott on the Roe Conn Show

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Author Topic: Dick Biondi & Bob Sirott on the Roe Conn Show  (Read 4775 times)
Perplexio
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« on: July 13, 2010, 10:21:36 am »

For years people throughout the Midwest and even some as far away as the east coast received their exposure to music thanks to WLS 890 AM out of Chicago.  In 1989 the station changed formats from music to talk radio but in its heyday it was one of the top music stations in the country. 

Broadcaster hall of fame inductees like Dick Biondi & Larry Lujack were mainstays and household names thanks to their time DJing on stations like WLS.

Bob Sirott has been a mainstay of Chicago radio and TV for several decades now.  For those who are fans of radio and its history check out the below podcast from the Roe Conn Show featuring Dick Biondi and Bob Sirott while it's still available:

http://wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=1763564&spid=16521

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CelticGal
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« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2010, 10:52:43 am »

I grew up with Musicradio WLS The Big 89, The Rock of Chicago. Nearly everything I know about 60s and 70s music came from Larry Lujack, Tommy Edwards, Fred Winston, Bob Sirott, Brant Miller, John Records Landecker (and Records really is his middle name), Yvonne Daniels, Chris Shebel, Steve King. Will music radio ever have that kind of impact again?
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Becky
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« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2010, 05:44:53 pm »

Okay...I don't know who any of those people are, sad to say.  But, this has always puzzled me--here in motown, we've had MOST of the FM guys/girls...SINCE FM GOT HOT!!  I literally GREW UP with 'em, and for the most part, a good chunk of 'em are still on every day...they're not on the same stations, and some have meandered back and forth between rock and classic rock stations...I can think of at LEAST 7 or 8 who were around when I was in JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL...and that's--holy ****!! 34 years!!  Is this a fluke?  Hell, I lived for 5 years in Houston, and it was like the radio stations had revolving doors...Which is when I ORIGINALLY began listening to AM NEWS RADIO.  (wwj am 950 here and ktrh in Houston...)  Or, is Detroit a good City to work in Radio/TV?  (AND--I can't BELIEVE how many former local news people are on MAJOR NETWORKS!!)

I've always been curious about this...
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« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2010, 11:26:54 pm »

I think WXRT 93,1 FM (adult alternative/deep cuts) in Chicago has had the same DJs since about 1980!  I kid you not!
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« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2010, 01:33:03 pm »

I think WXRT 93,1 FM (adult alternative/deep cuts) in Chicago has had the same DJs since about 1980!  I kid you not!

There was an FM station that used to have comedian Bill Leff on their morning show.  He was an odd fit but I really got a kick out of his rather off-beat sense of humor.  Leff later ended up as a co-host on the Roe Conn Show over on 890 AM but his contract wasn't renewed and his last show was back in May 09.  He was on WGN 720 for one of their Saturday shows for awhile but he ended up leaving WGN of his own accord. 

I'd like to hear him either get his own show or end up back on Roe Conn.  He had some great throw-away lines.  And honestly his humor is largely about delivery.  He can take some really cornball hokey comedy and make it much funnier just with his delivery of the humor.  I miss that. 

Back to Sirott though.  He is now one of the evening news anchors on WGN's 9 o'clock news.  NBC had him but totally blew it.  He was on contract and everything.  They tried to renogotiate his contract and he ended up walking... their loss. Bob was a great fit on NBC 5. 
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« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2010, 04:59:09 pm »

OH...I know who Bob Sirott is NOW...!!  I knew the name sounded familiar...heh.  If somethin' major is goin' on, YOUR 9pm news is better than OUR 10pm news...I watch WGN news quite a bit...and watch your noon news nearly every day (then I can watch Jeopardy...I know...heh.)

So, then--It's not as odd as I thought, then.  How 'bout your local TV people?  We've got a few of those...one of which is a MOVIE STAR...heh.  Well...DIANA LEWIS was the reporter who interviewed SYLVESTER STALLONE in the MEAT LOCKER in "ROCKY".  Cheesy  She's on RIGHT NOW on WXYZ in Detroit.  Love her, and now her Daughter's on here as well...every now and then she'll say, "back to you, Mom..."  heh.
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Perplexio
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« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2010, 05:25:26 pm »

OH...I know who Bob Sirott is NOW...!!  I knew the name sounded familiar...heh.  If somethin' major is goin' on, YOUR 9pm news is better than OUR 10pm news...I watch WGN news quite a bit...and watch your noon news nearly every day (then I can watch Jeopardy...I know...heh.)

Funny thing with Sirott... I have a recording of Chicago Live at the Greek Theater 1978.  It's from a radio broadcast.  Between songs are snippets of interviews with members of the band at the time.  The interviewer....  Bob Sirott!  Also there's an interview from around 2008 or so when the Chicago Historical Society had a temporary exhibit on Chicago the band at their museum/headquarters.  Jimmy Pankow, Lee Loughnane, Walt Parazaider  & Peter Schivarelli were all being interviewed by.... *drumroll*  Bob Sirott.

Quote
So, then--It's not as odd as I thought, then.  How 'bout your local TV people?  We've got a few of those...one of which is a MOVIE STAR...heh.  Well...DIANA LEWIS was the reporter who interviewed SYLVESTER STALLONE in the MEAT LOCKER in "ROCKY".  Cheesy  She's on RIGHT NOW on WXYZ in Detroit.  Love her, and now her Daughter's on here as well...every now and then she'll say, "back to you, Mom..."  heh.

I don't believe any of them are or were movie stars.  I know there's been some shuffling around with those as well.  Diane Burns, whom was rather abysmal started on ABC, was fired and then hired by CBS where she was an anchor for 2 or 3 years... (and by anchor I don't just mean news anchor, she was also a ratings anchor... CBS's Nightly News ratings which were already low somehow managed to suffer an even greater drop with Burns on the news desk).  I'm not sure where Burns ended up but she was a poor fit for Chicago.

Bill Curtis who was a CBS anchor from the late 70s up until about 1990 or so did some AT&T Wireless ads ("I'm Bill Curtis and I'm faster than Andy Roddick") but I'm not sure if those aired nationally or just in the Chicago metro area.

When I was growing up in NY state one of the news anchors on WPTZ in Plattsburgh was a guy by the name of Chris Ortloff who left the news desk to go into politics.  He was elected to the state assembly in a landslide victory in 1986.  He held his seat until 2000 or 2002 when he opted not to run for re-election and opted for an appointment on the state parole board.  I met him once... back in 1994 and he really impressed me at the time.  He had a natural charisma and I often wondered why he never ran for higher office than the state assembly.  Then the answer was revealed to me...  about a year ago he was arrested in a sting for solicitation of minors for sex over the Internet.  He pled guilty and I believe he's still waiting to be sentenced... When I read about that my skin crawled.  It also reminded me of something that had been said to me by the local "highway superintendent" (I use that term loosely as there were no highways within the village or even county limits) guy the very same night I met Mr. Ortloff-- "The higher up you go, the more you show your ass."  And given his sexual proclivities, I'm guessing the reason Ortloff never sought higher office than the state assembly was because he knew if he went any higher up the political ladder his opponents would dig up his rather seedy disgusting predilections.  My skin is crawling even now as I type this. 
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« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2010, 06:26:21 pm »

Bill Kurtis does TONS of stuff...!!  "American Justice" is the one comes to mind...I like his voice.  I didn't MEAN "real" movie stars...to my knowledge, Diana Lewis is just a "local celeb" cause of Rocky..."yeah, the Lady who does the local news here was in ROCKY"  kinda thing.  Like the "newscaster" who is on CSI on WLAS Channel 8...she's really a newscaster on the local news out there...whose name escapes me.  Roll Eyes Welcome to my brain...heh.

 
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« Reply #8 on: August 16, 2010, 07:01:50 pm »

Sirott DJ'd a dance/band fundraiser at my high school back in 1976 or 1977 for FREE.  What a cool guy.  He was extremely down to earth,  very approachable and really seemed to enjoy himself.

Diane Burns - CBS threw buckets of duckets at her and she did indeed make their ratings go down.  The more they paid her, the more the ratings plummeted.  She was really a news reader, not a real reporter or news person.  Her husband was her manager and negotiated her out of a job by making insane salary demands.  It's almost like the audience got a load of how much she was making and tuned out.   I never saw anything special about her and managed to play a few corporate gigs she was at and she always came off as rather arrogant.  Not that that means anything: Roland Burris, our disgrace of a Senator, was always extremely warm and gracious and look how he turned out: a scratch my back, I'll scratch yours pal of Blagovich.  YUCK!
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« Reply #9 on: August 17, 2010, 11:19:39 am »

Bill Kurtis does TONS of stuff...!!  "American Justice" is the one comes to mind...I like his voice.  I didn't MEAN "real" movie stars...to my knowledge, Diana Lewis is just a "local celeb" cause of Rocky..."yeah, the Lady who does the local news here was in ROCKY"  kinda thing.  Like the "newscaster" who is on CSI on WLAS Channel 8...she's really a newscaster on the local news out there...whose name escapes me.  Roll Eyes Welcome to my brain...heh.

I believe Kurtis and his co-anchor, Walter Jacobsen are getting together to do another "one-off" subbing gig on the CBS 10 o'clock news at some point in the near future.  The last time they did one of these one-offs it was actually quite well received by the viewing public.  I like Kurtis as he has a kind of Kronkite-esque style in his delivery of the news.  I also love the AT&T ads he did.  I found them quite amusing.
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