Larry Lujack

Larry Lujack (June 6, 1940 – December 18, 2013), also called Superjock, Lawrence of Chicago, Uncle Lar, and King of the Corn Belt, was a Top 40 music radio disc jockey who was well known for his world-weary sarcastic style. Some of his more popular routines included Klunk Letter of the Day,^[1] the darkly humorous Animal Stories^[2][3] with sidekick Tommy Edwards as Little Tommy, and the Cheap Trashy Show Biz Report.

Professional life

Lujack initially came to Chicago to work for WCFL-AM. He spent a few months there before being hired at WLS. While at WCFL, Lujack closed the air studio curtains during public visiting hours.^[4]

His Animal Stories routine came about because WLS was still receiving farm magazines long after the station changed to a rock-music format 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.^[5][6] A perfectionist about his work, Lujack would review every word he said on the air after each broadcast by listening to an audio cassette skimmer tape which would record only when the microphone was open.^[4]

Lujack retired initially in 1987,^[7][8] shortly after his son John from his first marriage died in an accident.^[9][10][11] In 1997, Lujack moved from Palatine, Illinois to the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico and, in May 2000, began working again, for then-WUBT (WKSC-FM) in Chicago, via a remote Integrated Services Digital Network (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 reteamed 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 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^[12] and 2008^[13] when 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,^[14] the National Radio Hall of Fame on November 6, 2004,^[15] and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame on April 15, 2008, during their annual convention in Las Vegas.^[16]

Personal life

Born in Quasqueton, Iowa and raised in Arkansas,^[17] as Larry Lee Blankenburg,^[18] he later changed his last name to that of his football idol, Johnny Lujack. He attended the College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho, and Washington State University and was a radio disc jockey, starting in 1958, at KCID in Caldwell.^[19] His entry into radio came when he was a biology major at College of Idaho and at the time was a matter of finances; he was looking for a part-time job. He originally intended to go into wildlife conservation.^[5] He subsequently worked at several other radio stations, including KJR (AM) in Seattle,^[20] but is best known for his antics on Chicago AM radio stations WLS and WCFL.^[21] He can be heard on WLS at the start of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Lujack had three children from his first marriage and a stepson from his second. Lujack lived in Palatine, Illinois until he retired from broadcasting, moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1998.^[22]

Away from the job, he was a golf enthusiast. After triple coronary artery bypass surgery in 1991, Lujack marked his calendar for the date his doctor told him he could return to the sport. Not just a fair weather golfer, Lujack suited up in winter clothing and snowshoes to play Chicago area golf courses in winter. On January 23, 1985, He played a full 18 holes at Buffalo Grove, Illinois; the temperature was 27 degrees below zero with a windchill of -75 degrees. Lujack collapsed afterward.^[23]

Lujack died December 18, 2013 at a Santa Fe, New Mexico hospice after a year-long struggle with esophageal cancer. He is survived by his second wife of 41 years, Judith (née Seguin); a son, Anthony Lujack; a daughter Linda Lujack-Shirley,^[22][24] two grandchildren and a stepson, Taber Seguin.^[25]

Radio stations

^* KNEW and KJRB refer to the same radio station.

^{^} After WCFL switched to beautiful music format in 1976, Lujack remained on staff, as he had a high-paying contract. When WLS made him an offer to return to work there, the two stations each paid half of Lujack's remaining WCFL contract.^[5][19]

^** WLS continued to pay Lujack for five years after his 1987 departure to keep him from competing with them in markets where ABC had local radio outlets.

Works

• Lujack, Larry; Jedlicka, Daniel A. (1975). Superjock: the loud, frantic, nonstop world of a rock radio DJ. Chicago: H. Regnery Co. ISBN 978-0-8092-8302-6. OCLC 1500182. 
• Lujack, Larry; Edwards, Tommy (2007). Uncle Lar' & Li'l Tommy's best of animal stories. Lake Forest, IL: Animal Stories. OCLC 232150780. 

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Larry Lujack.

• Larry Lujack at the National Radio Hall of Fame
• Scott Childers' The History of WLS Radio The Rock of Chicago, the 1980s. Read about Lujack in the context of WLS history.
• Audio of Larry Lujack and the end of Rock on WCFL-March 15, 1976 on YouTube
• audio file-Reel Radio "The Legendary Lujack" Composite
• Video of WLS-AM "Animal Stories" Promo featuring Lujack and Edwards on YouTube
• audio file of Lujack's first day on the job at WLS-1967
• Real Oldies 1690 AM WRLL. Through Sept. 17, 2006, hear an automated version of the station where Lujack and Tommy Edwards (Little Tommy of Animal Stories) hosted mornings from October 2003 through August 15, 2006.