This listing is for The Loop Files: An Oral History of the Most Outrageous Radio Station Ever Paperback Book Rick Kaempfer. 

Title: The Loop Files: An Oral History of the Most Outrageous Radio Station Ever 

Author: Rick Kaempfer

Publisher: Eckhartz Press

Publication date: November 15, 2023

Format: Paperback

Language: English

Print length: 356 pages

ISBN-13: 979-8988332473

For that period of time when all the stars aligned, when rock and roll and comedy and radio were all simultaneously kings, when the 1927 Yankees of Radio all gathered in the same hallway at the same time, the Loop created something that will never be forgotten. That story is told in the pages of this book by the people who were there.

WCKL (97.9 MHz) is a non-commercial FM radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, featuring a Christian contemporary format via the K-Love network. Owned and operated by Educational Media Foundation (EMF), WCKL serves the Chicago metro area with a transmitter located atop the John Hancock Center. One of the oldest surviving FM stations in Chicago, this station signed on the air on April 7, 1942, as W83C. Throughout the station's early existence, it changed callsigns, formats and owners before relaunching itself on March 14, 1977, as WLUP "97.9 The Loop", a nod to the Chicago Loop. As WLUP, the station aired various formats ranging from classic rock, pop rock, pop alternative, and adult alternative formats. It changed ownership several times before being sold to Merlin Media in 2011 and subsequently entered a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Cumulus Media in 2014. This LMA was terminated after Cumulus entered into bankruptcy proceedings, prompting Merlin Media to sell the station to EMF, which relaunched the station as part of the K-Love network on March 10, 2018. The classic rock format and "Loop" branding was retained on the second HD subchannel of WKQX. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WCKL broadcasts over four HD subchannels and is available online. WCKL-HD2 carries Air1 programming, WCKL-HD3 carries "Boost Radio" Christian hip hop and WCKL-HD4 features Radio Nueva Vida programming.

The call sign was changed to WLUP on March 14, 1977. The station adopted an album-oriented rock (AOR) format and was rebranded as "The Loop", referring to the nickname of Chicago's central business district. Jay Blackburn was Program Director and Tommy O'Toole served as the station's first morning host and was the first Loop DJ to sign on the air. The first song O'Toole played on "The Loop" was "Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens. The original Loop air staff included Tommy in mornings, William "Captain Billy" Martin in middays, Lester "Les" Tracy in afternoons, and Bob Shannon evenings. Other early Loop DJs included Greg Budell, Ford Colley, Don Davis, and Glory-June Greaif. Heftel Broadcasting Corporation, owned by Hawaiian Congressman Cecil Heftel, purchased the station effective March 5, 1979, for $3 million. Lee Abrams was hired as consultant. The rock format was kept in place, but emphasis was put on harder-edged rock. Jesse Bullit was the program director. Steve Dahl, who had been unemployed since WDAI (94.7 FM) went to a disco format in December 1978, began hosting mornings on March 19, 1979. On July 12, 1979, Dahl staged one of the most famous promotions in radio and sports history, Disco Demolition Night. Garry Meier, known over the air at the time as "Matthew Meier", was an overnight DJ, and was later teamed with Dahl as the morning newsman. Soon thereafter, Meier became Steve's full-time sidekick, and used his real name, Garry Meier. In 1979, Jeff Schwartz became head of sales and Mitch Michaels was hired as afternoon DJ. Michaels became program director shortly thereafter. Sky Daniels was also hired in 1979, and served as disc jockey and music director. Chuck Swirsky provided sports reports for a period in the early 1980s. Buzz Killman was newsman. On February 6, 1981, Steve Dahl was fired for what WLUP's management and Dahl said was a contract dispute, though Heftel Broadcasting said it was for violating "community standards". Garry Meier left the station as well, to remain Dahl's sidekick. A series of morning men including Matt Bisbee, Mark McEwen, and the team of R.J. Harris and Pat Still tried their hand until Jonathon Brandmeier was hired in late 1982. Kilman remained as newsman, and Bruce Wolf joined the station as a sports reporter in 1982. Greg Solk became program director in 1983. Dr. Demento was carried on WLUP from 1978 through 2010, just prior to when Dr. Demento ceased over-the-air broadcasting. Steve and Garry returned in 1986 to host afternoons. In late December 1986, Heftel Broadcasting merged with Statewide Broadcasting, owner of WCFL (1000 AM). In April 1987, WCFL became WLUP, and the FM station was assigned the WLUP-FM call sign. WLUP (AM) became a partial simulcast of WLUP-FM, and Steve and Garry moved to the AM station. In 1988, WLUP-AM-FM were sold to the newly formed Evergreen Media. By 1989, the AM station would evolve to mostly talk with a few rock songs mixed in per hour. In the early 1990s, WLUP aired a popular television commercial featuring a fat man dubbed "Joey Bag O' Donuts" dancing. In the time span since the original commercial was aired, the footage of the dancing fat man in the commercial has been used by numerous other radio stations across the country and abroad. In September 1992, Steve and Garry returned to mornings on WLUP-FM. In September 1993, the pairing of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier broke up. Shortly thereafter, Dahl moved to AM 1000, which had recently added ESPN sports programming and changed call letters to WMVP. On September 27, 1993, the station's lineup was overhauled, and it shifted towards a hot talk format. Garry Meier moved to middays on WLUP-FM, Brandmeier would move to afternoons, and Kevin Matthews moved to mornings for a time (though Brandmeier would later move back to mornings, and Matthews would move to middays). Danny Bonaduce hosted evenings, Ed Schwartz hosted overnights, and Seka hosted a program Saturday evenings. Liz Wilde was hired to host evenings in March 1995, but her show was cancelled by November of the same year. In February 1996, sister station WYNY in New York City simulcasted WLUP for a day as part of a week-long stunt of simulcasting sister stations nationwide before flipping formats to rhythmic adult contemporary as WKTU. In June 1996, WMVP (1000 AM) dropped their sports format and returned to simulcasting WLUP. WLUP switched to a format featuring a "blend of pop rock, pop alternative, and adult alternative" music on September 30, 1996. Brandmeier remained the morning man and Dave Fogel was brought in for afternoons. In 1997, Evergreen and Chancellor Media merged. In order to stay under federally mandated ownership limits, Evergreen opted to sell WLUP to Bonneville International in July. On July 21 at 5 a.m., after stunting with all-The Who songs as part of a Who concert that previous weekend, WLUP switched back to a rock format. The first song under the relaunched "Loop" was "Rock and Roll" by Led Zeppelin. Also that month, Jonathon Brandmeier would be released from the station due to the ownership change. In June 1998, WLUP shifted to classic rock and adopted the slogan, "Classic Rock That Really Rocks". During this period, full-time on air personalities included Byrd (now with WDRV Chicago), Steve Downes, Eddie Webb, Pete McMurray, Seaver, Cara Carriveau, Sari, and Mark Zander. In October 2004, Emmis Communications traded three of their stations in Phoenix to Bonneville for WLUP-FM and $70 million; the swap was completed in December of that year. While under Emmis ownership WLUP evolved into a mainstream rock format, but in January 2011 it reverted to classic rock. In 2005, Emmis brought back Jonathon Brandmeier to do mornings on The Loop and hired Zakk Tyler to host afternoon drive. Erin Carmen began hosting middays in 2006, remaining with the station until 2009. Brandmeier also exited WLUP in 2009. On January 15, 2007, Chicago's NBC owned-and-operated station, WMAQ-TV (channel 5), began a new weekday morning show called Barely Today which aired from 4:30–5 a.m. The new morning show was simulcast on WLUP-FM and hosted by Bruce Wolf, who was the former weekday morning traffic/sports anchor for WMAQ. The show would be cancelled five months later due to poor ratings. Through 2010, WLUP served as the de facto flagship station for Dr. Demento, the nationally syndicated comedy and novelty music show. The show remained produced in California at host Barret Hansen's home studio; WLUP had been given special dispensation to carry the show for free to ensure carriage in a large market, whereas he charged money to his other affiliates to license the show. WLUP cancelled the program in 2010, prompting Hansen to withdraw the program from syndication and move the show exclusively to a paid online offering for the rest of its run. On June 21, 2011, Emmis announced that it would sell WKQX, sister station WLUP-FM, and New York's WRXP to Merlin Media, a group headed by former Tribune Company executive Randy Michaels. Emmis, who would retain a minority stake in Merlin Media, would grant Merlin a local marketing agreement to operate WKQX and WLUP-FM from July 15 until the sale to Merlin officially closed on September 1. On May 3, 2012, Merlin added a satellite-fed version of the smooth jazz format on WLUP's HD3 subchannel (97.9-HD3). Radio personality and WEBN alum Maxwell Slater "Max" Logan (Benjamin Bornstein), best known for his years as host of The Maxwell Show at WMMS and WNCX in Cleveland, took over as the WLUP-FM morning host on July 30, 2012. Former personality Zakk Tyler (Dominic Zaccagnini) also returned. On January 3, 2014, Merlin Media announced a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Cumulus Media that would see Cumulus take over operations of WLUP-FM and sister station WIQI as well as inherit Merlin's LMA for WKQX-LP. The deal included an option for Cumulus to purchase the stations from Merlin. The deal saw Merlin relinquish operations of its last remaining radio stations. The deal also sees an expansion of Cumulus' Chicago reach; the company already owned and operated news/talk station WLS (890 AM) and classic hits station WLS-FM (94.7 FM). On September 12, 2014, WLUP released morning hosts Maxwell (Benjamin Bornstein) and John Czahor and afternoon host Patrick Capone. On September 15, 2014, a new weekday lineup was announced, with Lyndsey Marie hosting middays, Tim Virgin hosting afternoons, and Pyke hosting evenings. Virgin previously worked at The Loop in the mid-1990s. Mornings remained open. On March 30, 2015, Mancow Muller joined WLUP as its new morning show host. WLUP's first ever "Rock Girl", Lorelei Shark, was the official spokesperson and the face of The Loop in the late 1970s and 1980s. In 2005, the Loop Rock Girl was reintroduced, with Erica Gustafson being the new holder of the title. Another prominent Loop Rock Girl prior to the station's 2018 closure was April Rose Haydock, who also served in that role in 2007. 

Thanks for checking out our stuff! We have many related items listed, so be sure to SEARCH our other listings for similar items! Add items to the CART to combine orders for SAVINGS on Shipping & Multi-order Discounts! Reasonable offers are HIGHLY considered, UNREASONABLE offers are not... Sorry :-)! UNLESS specifically stated as NEW or LIKE NEW, almost all the items are in used Very Good condition. Still have a ton of "not listed" inventory, so if you're looking for something specific, please inquire as we may just be able to find it for you. We ship with tracking 6 days a week via all carriers at the level of service you select, so the faster you pay, the faster we ship! Global orders shipped via eBay International Shipping (EIS). We will leave 5 Star feedback once the transaction is completed. Thanks again for your visit and even more so if you purchase something! I'm sure you will be as happy as we are! ©2026