Remembering Larry Lujack

• Report rights infringement
• published: 16 Jan 2014
• views: 7476

Superjock YOUR CHARMING AND DELIGHTFUL OLE' UNCLE LAR Larry Lujack was the best disc jockey of the AM Top 40 era. After his death, people nationwide recounted in minute detail things he said on radio over 40 years ago. Imagine the talent required to do that. Lujack became a DJ in the early 1960's during the emerging heyday of AM Top 40. A huge youth market across America of Baby Boomers was poised to listen to rock music, and the disc jockey's job was to fill airtime between music, news, traffic, and commercials with upbeat patter, jokes, and feigned excitement. Lujack was the groundbreaker, the first to abandon the standard DJ attitude. Sarcastic, barbed, and blessed with a great voice for radio, if he thought a record was bad, he'd tell his audience . But above all, he was sincere; radio audiences, especially teenagers, had never heard such sincerity from a DJ Combine that with a rapier-like wit, and a laid-back on --air persona, and he did what only a handful of others could do then or now, -- make talking about everyday subjects not just interesting but compelling. As he moved between Chicago's two radio giants, WLS and WCFL, he developed regular features that sounded improvised but were actually meticulously prepared, and always listener friendly. Later in his career, he and fellow DJ Tommy Edwards created "Animal Stories", a certifiable radio classic. As we grow older, we all remember virtuoso performances we were lucky enough to witness in our lifetimes. Perhaps it was Olivier doing Henry V, Charlie Parker playing sax, or Jordan on the basketball court. We silently regret that our children, or other young people, can never share that experience. It can be recreated, there is certainly plenty of video of Michael Jordan or Olivier. But watching video lacks the spontaneity and sense of immediacy. The performer's brilliance can be appreciated, but not their true genius. And young people are poorer for having missed the performer live. Thus it is to listen to tape of Larry Lujack today. The wit, the strategic pauses, and the rhythm all testify to his virtuosity. But to appreciate his genius, you would have had to be listening around 1970. The freshness and vibrancy in those old radio waves are somewhere in deep space now, but the memories attached to them are still indelibly etched in the minds of his listeners everywhere. Thanks, Uncle Lar. You were the best. Larry Lujack (June 6, 1940 -- December 18, 2013) was a Top 40 Music radio disc jockey who was well known for his world-weary sarcastic style. "Klunk Letter of the Day",[1] the darkly humorous "Animal Stories"[2][3] with sidekick "Little Tommy," and the "Cheap Trashy Show Biz Report" were some of his more popular bits. He was also referred to as Superjock, Lawrence of Chicago, Uncle Lar, and King of the Corn Belt. "Animal Stories" came about because WLS was still receiving farm magazines long after they went into Rock and Roll in 1960. Lujack started reading some of them and began airing stories from them instead of reading the grain reports connected with the Farm Report. When the Farm Report was officially discontinued, the feature became Animal Stories.[4][5] Lujack initially retired in 1987,[6][7] shortly after his son John from his first marriage died in an accident.[8][9][10] In 1997, Lujack moved from Palatine to the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico and, in May 2000, began working again for then-WUBT in Chicago, via a remote ISDN link from a New Mexico recording studio, teaming up with Matt McCann who was based in the Chicago studio. The ratings for the show out-paced the rest of the radio station. In 2003, he re-teamed with his Animal Stories partner, Tommy Edwards ("Little Tommy"), on WRLL (1690 AM) in Chicago, to broadcast his signature features on weekday mornings. On August 16, 2006, Lujack was terminated along with the entire WRLL on-air staff as it was announced that the station's "Real Oldies" format would cease on September 17, 2006. The broadcast duo were on the air once again as part of the WLS "The Big 89 Rewind" on Memorial Day, 2007[11] and 2008[12] where the station returned to its "MusicRadio" programming, featuring many of the former WLS personalities and special guests, other DJs, etc. Lujack was inducted into the Illinois Broadcasters Association's Hall of Fame in June 2002[13] and the National Radio Hall of Fame[14] on November 6, 2004. On April 15, 2008, Larry Lujack was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame during their annual convention in Las Vegas.