RIP: Larry Lujack

8 comments

• rockstar666

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  11 years ago

  I didn't hear he died. I also go way back with him.
• Tiredtraveler

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  11 years ago

  I remember listening to WLS in my first car. It had a Tube radio that was the best AM radio I ever had. There was also a very strong station out of Detroit/Windsor- 800, St Louis (KMOX-1120)(Cards baseball), Denver and OKC (country). You could listen to all over the Midwest.
• magicrat

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  11 years ago

  Moto..I live in North Carolina and could get WLS after the local frequencies were turned down at 6? How's that for being old! First time I ever heard the Beatles was on WLS...I think they played I Want to Hold Your Hand every 15 minutes
• former_stripper

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  11 years ago

  WLS was amazing and would you believe they played the Beatles a full year before they became popular in the USA?
• Club_Goer_Seattle

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  11 years ago

  I have a hobby of listening to distant AM radio stations, known in short wave terminology as "DX." When I lived in L.A., I could even sometimes get WLS. This was in the 1970's. I well remember it as a top 40 format station, but I'm not familiar with Larry Lujack, in particular. (The reception was just clear enough to pull in it, discern what type of programming it had and hear the station identifications. It was difficult to listen to for any amount of time, due to the high volume of static.)
  
  I can't get WLS now, in Seattle. There are too many stations closer, that crowd the 890 frequency.
  
  @ magicrat: Living on the west coast, in those years, was optimal for that hobby. A lot of stations had to reduce their wattage at sunset, and many weren't 24 hrs. then. As you mentioned, the early evening hours were good listening time. And, at midnight in each time zone came, you could reach more distant stations each hour, as many of the smaller stations went off the air then. So, 9 p.m., west coast time, was an ideal hour to begin listening for DX.
• motorhead

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  11 years ago

  Club_Goer
  
  Lujack actually started his career in the west. He went to college in Idaho and worked at his college radio station in the late 50's. And he worked some in Spokane and Seattle in the early 60's before moving to Chicago in the mid 60's.
  
  WLS is all talk radio now. Rush Limbaugh and stuff like that.
• AnonymousJim

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  11 years ago

  A know a lot of radio guys -- don't ask -- and all were heartbroken over Lujack's passing. One actually worked with him off-and-on at WLS. Called him his biggest inspiration.
  
  Respect.
• minnow

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  11 years ago

  Although Larry Lujack somehow escaped my radar, I definitely recall 890 WLS, and how impressed I was to be able to pick it up from great distances at night. The farthest for me was Daytona Beach, a wow for the poster who picked it up in CA. Some other powerful AM stations include(d) 700 WLW Cincinnati, 770 WABC New York, a couple of 600ish stations in CA. I don't recall the identifier, but there's a 740 station out of Totonto, I think, that can be picked up fairly good at night in SW ohio.