On Air Staff
John Landecker
 | Radio legend John Records Landecker has had to explain this since his radio career began in the 1960s. Records truly is his middle name. It's not just a catch phrase or a stunt. His mother gave him the middle name because it was her maiden name. Call it destiny. He was even saluted as one of the most influential disc jockeys in rock music history when he became one of the inaugural inductees in the new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Landecker has also been named an official member of the Girl Scouts for his help raising thousands of dollars during their annual cookie drive. |
Landecker first arrived in Chicago in 1972 as the evening disc jockey for WLS. With a signal that reached a large part of the country, he dominated the nighttime ratings for the next nine years, a feat that would be considered impossible today. "Boogie Check" was Landecker's trademark phrase, and over the years he used it to entertain listeners, callers, and all of the great entertainers that he would interview. It was then that Landecker began using his humorous outlook at current events to write and perform song takeoffs.
His band "Landecker and the Legends" performs at festivals and special events throughout the greater Chicago area. His second compact disc Landecker and the Legends Vol. 2, was released in 1995, with songs ranging from Why DNA? (YMCA) about the O.J. trial to I'll Still Pay for You,: spoofing I'll Be There for You, the theme song of the NBC hit Friends.
A native Midwesterner, Landecker grew up in Ann Arbor and began his radio career in Michigan while still in high school. He has worked stints in Philadelphia, Toronto and Cleveland. While serving as a television reporter at WJW-TV in Cleveland, Landecker's sense of the absurd, combined with his versatility brought him an Emmy for best Feature Reporting.
Landecker was inducted into the radio wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland after legendary stops at WIBG in Philadelphia. WLS in Chicago, CFTR in Toronto and a few others. A household name in Chicago since 1972, a whole generation of Chicagoans have grown up singing John Landecker's parody songs and laughing at his comedy bits.
