By Rick Kaempfer
MORE THAN A REGULAR GUY
G
uy Bauer is the founder of Guy Bauer
Productions, a "creative and crafty"
video production house based in
Chicago that has done work for the likes of
GE Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Ford,
Dell, and the Travel Channel. He oversees a
staff of ten from his office on LaSalle in
downtown Chicago. But only a few years
ago he was producing a daily radio show in
Chicago for Jonathon Brandmeier at the
Loop. When he first got the call to work with
Johnny in 2004, he had no idea who he was.
"I was working on the show Crank
Yankers on Comedy Central in Los Angeles,"
he explains. "Kent Voss (Brandmeier newsman) also worked on that show. I had done a
radio show in high school, and Kent also
came from radio – having worked with
Jimmy Kimmel, so we really hit it off and
became friends. At the end of the fourth sea-
that radiothon was crazy because things
were hitting and hitting and hitting. That's
when I recognized Johnny's genius. I thought
'OK, I get it now. This is why this guy is who
he is'."
In 2009 when Brandmeier and his entire
show were laid off, Guy didn't return to New
Jersey. He stayed in Chicago, and he had a
very good reason for doing so. "The woman
who would become my wife didn't care for
New Jersey, so I stayed and tried to find a job
here. I sent out 150-200 resumes, but you
have to remember the recession had just
kicked in, and it was a brutal time to be looking for work. I didn't go on one interview. I
had been working non-stop since I was 19,
and had a pretty darn good resume, but I
didn't even get a call back. Then in January
2010, I read an article in Money magazine
about websites that offered freelance gigs,
Guy Bauer
son, we were laid off, so I moved back home
to New Jersey. Kent called me up one day
and said ‘Hey, I know you like doing radio –
would you be willing to come back to LA to
produce a radio show for a guy named
Jonathon Brandmeier?' I had never heard of
the guy, but I was out of a gig, so I flew back
to LA to meet [K