By Rick Kaempfer
REWOUND RADIO REVISTS CHICAGO TOP 4O RADIO OF THE ‘ 60s & ‘ 70s
O
nce again , Rewound Radio ( rewoundradio . com ) is spending the entire Labor Day Weekend featuring classic shows from WLS and WCFL from the 1960s and 1970s . Ted Gorden Smucker is the man behind the plan .
“ When I was a kid , I loved radio and TV ,” Smucker explains , “ and when I was probably around sixth , seventh grade or so , I got a cassette recorder , one of the first in our area , and I ended up recording a lot of things off the radio . I would record WLS , WCFL , and others . I recorded all these DJs who were playing the music I loved at the time , and I thought , boy , when I grow up , I want to do that . Well , I grew up and realized that I wasn ' t going to make much money doing that , because I didn ' t have the kind of voice or delivery that the that the big guys had , and then after graduation from college , I moved to South Bend and moved into television . And I worked in South Bend at WSB TV , which is the CBS affiliate there in sales for over 30 years , retired about three years ago .”
After he retired , Ted returned to his first love . “ I decided that I would revisit my old hobby of gathering and listening to recordings of the DJs that I listened to 40 , 50 , even 55 years before . I realized that there were a lot of guys that had collected these tapes , just like me . I started contacting those folks and making some swaps . And as I got deeper and deeper into it , I realized that I had amassed a fairly good collection of Chicago air checks . Well , about three or four years ago , I started listening to Rewound Radio ( rewoundradio . com ), which every Saturday would play the DJ Hall of Fame and WABC air checks . They primarily focused on WABC because they were based in New York . I approached Allan Sniffen , who is the proprietor of Rewound Radio , and asked , ‘ Are you ever going to make a weekend of WLS and WCFL like you did for WABC ?’ He said , ‘ If you want to do it , go for it .’ So , I started amassing as many air checks as I possibly could from Chicago , and this will be the third year that I ' ve been doing this project . And each year , there seems to be more and more interest in it . It ' s been exciting for me to be a part of that .”
This year ’ s celebration has taken on an additional significance . “ This year , WLS is celebrating their 100th anniversary , and WCFL is being inducted into the Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the 20th of October . So , this is a big year for both LS and CFL . I was fortunate to have gotten permission from Scott Childers to use some of the history bits that he and Jeff Davis had worked on for WLS ’ s anniversary . We also have some old WCFL interviews from 1979 . And we ’ ve got Dick Biondi and Joel Sebastian and Jimmy P Stagg , who all are gone now , of course , but we ' ll , we ' ll play segments from them . In addition , Tommy Edwards sent me an Animal
Stories to run that is not on any of the albums . Plus , Lisa Orkin , whose father was Dick Orkin , gave us permission to run a handful of Chicken Man episodes , so those will be fun for those who remember Chicken Man . You ' ll recognize some of these other names , too . Fred Winston will be on . J . J . Jeffrey , John Landecker , Larry Lujack , Ron Riley , Steve King , and Kris Eric Stevens . Then on the WCFL side , we ' ll have citizen Bill Taylor . Bill will be with us at the Rock and Roll Museum induction ceremony . Chuck Knapp , who worked at both LS and CFL , will be at the
induction ceremony , too .“. If you haven ’ t heard these Chicago weekends at Rewound Radio , it really is like going back in time . Everything sounds just as it did when it originally aired , including the music , weather reports , and even the commercials .
“ I get a lot of emails from people who listen , and the connections are amazing ,” Smucker says . “ I ' m going to give you a couple examples . Clark Weber ’ s daughter Peggy , the first year she listened to the rewound . She was in tears . It brought back so many memories , and she was so thankful . Sandy Bailey , Bill Bailey ’ s widow , has listened and is very excited about the next upcoming event , because again , she gets to hear her husband , who is no longer with us , on the radio again . It ' s emotional for the families . John Landecker wrote me a note and said , ‘ Ted , I cannot believe this . I don ' t know how you did it , but this is just fantastic . It felt like I was listening to WLS back in the day . I was listening to Tommy Edwards , and I would have sworn he was on the air live right then .’ Well , I thought that was a real compliment . But what ' s really funny is Tommy and I were working together on a Lujack special later , and he said to me that rewind was incredible and then added , ‘ I was listening to John Landecker , and I would have sworn he was on the air live right then .’’’
It will be on all Labor Day weekend at rewoundradio . com . You can also ask your Alexa device to play Rewound Radio , and she will . september 2024 illinoisentertainer . com 19