Tobias Music Showcases
By Rick Kaempfer
ay April 11th
Saturd
POSTPONED
A celebration of acoustic instrumental guitar....
2nd Annual Wordless Live featuring
Lee Murdoch
#######################
ay May 2nd
Saturd
POSTPONED
Acclaimed French/Algerian Acoustic Guitarist
and songwriter and author
Pierre Bensusan
Touring in support of his new Album "Azwan"
- Guitar Player Readers Choice Award Winner.
s
- One of the most unique and brilliant acoustic guitar veteran
in the world music scene today. — L.A. Times
Tickets for all shows
at tobiasmusic.com
and 630-960-2455
Tobias
Music
5013 Fairview Ave
Downers Grove IL 60515
www.TobiasMusic.com
40
16 illinoisentertainer.com april 2020
630-960-2455
VINTAGE RADIO CELEBRATION
S
teve Darnall remembers the exact
moment he became obsessed with old
time radio. “It was 1977, and I was dri-
ving in the car with my dad. I asked him to
turn on the radio, and he turned on Chuck
Shayden’s program, which aired old-time
shows from the Golden Age of Radio. Dad
told me that he used to listen to shows like that
when he was my age. You never think of your
dad as having been 12 years old himself, so
that got my attention. Then the show was
incredible. It was Fibber McGee and Molly (A
show that ran from 1935-1959). The voices.
The sound effects. The announcer. The whole
package enthralled me. It was like stepping
into a time machine.”
The current host of **Those Were the
Days (WDCB-FM, Saturday afternoons),
met Chuck Shayden just a few years
later when he interviewed him for his
high school radio station at Lyons
Township High School. “We aired that
interview on WDCB not too long ago,”
he says with a laugh. “To me, it was
cringe-worthy, but it certainly shows
that I’ve always had that interest.”
Darnell became the publisher of
Nostalgia Digest in 2005, before officially
taking over Those Were the Days in 2009.
“Chuck gave it up just before the 40th
anniversary, which was a little awkward
for me during that 40th-anniversary cel-
ebration show. I had been doing this
show for a whopping 43 weeks!”
Now in his 11th year at the helm,
Darnell is firmly entrenched as the host.
It’s hard to believe, but the show about the
Golden Age of Radio is about to celebrate it’s
50th anniversary, which means it’s been on the
air longer than the entire Golden Age of Radio.
“That’s true,” Darnell says. “Most people
consider 1962 as the official end of that era,
and I was born in 1964. That shows you the
power and quality of these shows. This entire
era took place before my birth, yet most of
these shows still stand up. They were the
product of hundreds of incredibly talented
writers, performers, musicians, and techni-
cians. I would put the quality and writing and
drama of Gunsmoke’ for instance, up against
any program today.”
That’s right, **Gunsmoke began on the
radio. So did Dragnet, The Lone Ranger, Guiding
Light, Father Knows Best, and scores of other
shows that made the transition into television.
I wondered if some of the shows had not stood
the test of time.
“I wouldn't be surprised if there were
some shows from this era that hadn't aged
well—after all, we're talking about 60, 70 and
80 years ago, when our perceptions as a soci-
ety were different than they are today. That
said, I think even the shows that are 'of their
time' can still tell us a lot about that time.
Hopefully, our audience believes — as we do
— that the majority of these broadcasts are still
as funny or scary or dramatic or tuneful as
they were then.”
He notes that there may be an occasional
topical reference to a star of the day that we no
longer remember, or they may tell some
incredibly corny old jokes, but some of those
jokes live on in other forms.
“Aerosmith uses the joke ‘My get up and
go must have got up and went’ in their lyrics,”
Steve points out with a chuckle. “I thought I’d
get that in there for the Illinois Entertainer
crowd.”
The power of these shows comes from the
incredible imagination of the original creators,
and in the visual images it stimulates in the
minds of the listeners. “You can’t help but be
moved by it,” Darnell says. “It’s 'theatre of the
mind.'”
On Saturday, May 2, 2020 [at presstime this
show will be rescheduled], from 1-5 pm, it will
become even more than that. It will become
"theater of the mind" --on stage. Darnell is
Steve Darnall
hosting a star-studded 50th-anniversary show
at the Irish American Heritage Center (4626 N.
Knox in Chicago), which will include music
from great bands like the West End Jazz Band,
the Flat Cats, the Dooley brothers, and
Diamond Jim Greene. That music will help
transport you back to a different time and
place. The event will also include live recre-
ations of classic scripts, featuring famous
voice-actors like Trace Beaulieu (Mystery
Science Theater 3000), Freaks and Geeks), Tim
Kazurinsky (Saturday Night Live), Rich Koz
(Svengoolie), Patty McCormack (The Sopranos,
The Bad Seed, Frost/Nixon), Kevin Murphy
(Mystery Science Theater 3000), and Jim O’Heir
(Parks and Recreation).
“We’ll also have quite a few local Chicago
broadcasters,” Darnell promises. “I’m still
finalizing that list, but it will include, of course,
Hall-of-Famer Chuck Shayden (the original
host of the show), and people like Dean
Richards, Dag Juhlin and many other well-
known voices.”
Tickets
are
available
now
(www.eventbrite.com/e/those-were-the-
days-50th-anniversary-celebration-tickets-
69190012189). The cost is $50, but that money
goes to a good cause. “The proceeds will go to
WDCB,” Darnell explains. “We owe them a
debt of gratitude. When WNIB (original home
of the show) went off the air (it is now WDRV
– the Drive 97.1 FM), WDCB graciously
offered us a new home. And we will forever be
in their debt for that. With their help, we are
keeping the Golden Age of Radio alive.”