Everybody was Kung Fu fighting… HUH!
Those cats were fast as lightning… HA!

     On a frosty winter night in 1974, a 10 year old boy in Huron, South Dakota with a typical attention span of… oh, about a minute… is listening very intently.

Oh-oh-oh-oh… HUH!
Oh-oh-oh-oh… HA!

There in the dark, with my trusty Minnesota Vikings mini football helmet radio tucked under my pillow, I carefully scan the dial for a familiar signal far… far away. 

(jingle singers)W-L-S, CHICAGO!!!!!!  (static)

The control knobs on the radio were where the ear holes for the helmet would’ve been.  Ironic, since they had to be positioned just right in order to actually hear anything. 

(static) Time for the  “Boogiecheck”.  I’m your host, John “Records” Landecker high atop America’s 50 thousand watt blowtorch and I’ve got the job you want!

I’d whisper back, “Oh yea!  You got that right!”  And so began a lifelong love affair with Radio. 

Fast forward to 1995.  My dream of becoming John “Records” Landecker has led me on a roller coaster ride that’s lasted ten years now.  I sat in my office in the Program Director’s chair thinking about the half-dozen stations and various job titles I’d held.  All I knew for sure was… I was tired.   Sick and tired of doing morning radio and I wanted off.   Being on the air is the greatest job in the world when you’re young and single, but I had a family now and the bills along with the lack of sleep were really piling up.

Just then I got the call that would change my life.  It was Mark Bolke from KDWB in Minneapolis.  He’d been looking for an on-air Music Director and we’d talked several times.  I’d interviewed a few weeks prior and hearing his voice at that moment suddenly put me on top of the world.  “Today’s the day I’m making the announcement.”  I was thrilled!  He went on to say, “It’s come down to you and one other person and I wanted to call and let you know… I decided to go with him.”

A few weeks later, the station I worked for was sold and the new owners immediately fired everyone in the building except the office manager.   I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the best thing that could have ever happened. 

My original Radio mentor was Milt Herrick.  He ran the local station in my hometown.   Milt once shared with me rather prophetically, “Radio is sorta like marriage.  You’ll get into it for one reason, but you’ll stay in it for so many more.”  My old boss, Jeff Kurtz said, “The day’s coming when stations will only need one or two announcers, but they’ll always need someone who deeply cares about  local business owners.  You wanna be directly rewarded for helping people succeed?  Sales is where it’s at!”  So after much soul searching and prayer… I decided to step off the roller coaster and become a Radio Account Executive.  My former peers still think I’m crazy.  I only wish I’d done it sooner.

My direct number is 605-373-6320.

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The tremendous freedom that comes with this job is very, very, addicting.  If there’s a business owner I’d like to help, I set the appointment.  If there’s an ad campaign I’d like to create, I create it.  If I think I’d like to give myself a raise, I give it.  William Blake once wrote, “I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s.”  My system just happens to exist within the business I love… Radio.  And for that I am so very, very, thankful to the good Lord above.