Host
I'm not sure which bit me first: the radio bug or the sports bug. As a young boy growing up in west suburban LaGrange Park in the 50's and 60's, the radio was always on at home. And often it was turned to Cubs and White Sox baseball games in the summer. I was lucky that when I was in high school ( Lyons Twp. High School, LaGrange ), a brand new student radio station ( WLTL-FM ) was started up during my junior year. Before I knew it, I was a DJ hosting the Friday night "top 40 record count-down" show. How did I get the on-air shift so quickly with zero experience? Simple. I was the only one who offered to do it!
Besides, in that year of 1967, my Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the summer were already booked. Doing what? Well, I found out that for just one dollar, I could buy a ticket to the bleachers at Wrigley Field. ( The expensive portion of the excursion was the $1.35 for the round trip ticket from LaGrange to the Union Station on the Burlington train --- now the "Metra" --- and the 25 cents needed for each way on the "L" from the State Street subway Howard line --- now the "Red Line" --- to the Addison Street stop at Wrigley Field! Sounds cheap, but the $2.85 for the day was equal to one or two lawn mowing jobs earlier in the week in my neighborhood! ) That year the Cubs were just starting to get exciting under new manager Leo Durocher, and the crowds were tiny; but were growing larger every home stand. I sat with a small group of fans in the left field bleachers. In those days there were sometimes as few as a dozen fans in the entire left field bleachers and a total ball park attendance of a couple thousand fans. We tried our best to "make noise" in 1967, but the crowds were nowhere near the soon-to-be capacity crowds of '68 and '69.
So, trying my best to put my parents decision back in grade school to buy me a brand-new bright-and-shiny coronet for the school band to good solid practical use; I picked-up a cheap beat-up army bugle and smuggled it into the bleachers and did my off-key best to lead the "charge" calls for the few fans who bothered to spend a buck and come in to the games. Soon, as the Cubs started winning, and the crowds swelled into the 40,00 range, and our little group of fans was named by the ( four ) Chicago daily newspapers: "The Left Field Bleacher Bums". That summer, both my suntan and my bugle playing improved --- as did the Cubs. Occasionally, I would also play the horn --- in a humorous way, they tell me --- on Chicago's king of radio morning show: The Wally Phillips Show. Soon, however, it was time to leave the "Bums" and go off to Carbondale for a planned four years of much higher education.
Again, propinquity reigned, as a new student radio station ( WIDB-AM ) was just starting up at Southern Illinois University at the time when I enrolled. Soon, I was hosting the morning radio show on the new campus station. And again, it was very simple to get the non-paid gig, as I was the only guy who actually offered to wake up and be in the little studio at 6am in the morning for free! Fast forward to April 1991, back in Chicago, a new "all talk radio" format was being attempted at the old and famous WLS-AM. I offered to host their only sports talk show --- which was to be called "Fan Talk" --- every Saturday and Sunday night. I had learned that if you offer to show up on time...and work cheap, almost anyone will give you a chance.
After 18 months with "Fan Talk", Diamond Broadcasting in Chicago --- the long time owner/operator of WXRT --- decided to try out a new radio station devoted entirely to the great sports fans of Chicago. They would name it The Score. I was invited to be the first on-air person hired for the new station; and to do a Saturday and Sunday four hour afternoon show. This was fine with me, as I would, therefore, be able to keep my "day job" in mechanical sales for a large suburban Chicago mechanical contractor--- which I would keep for a 27 year career. As of this moment in 2008, I have now been on the air at the Score on weekends, morning drive for 5 years, evenings, and currently the Noon - 2pm weekday shift. I would not have lasted two weeks in Chicago on the radio if it were not for YOU ... the greatest sports fans in the world, in the greatest sports city in the world. Chicago sports fans talking to Chicago sports fans. Fans talking to fans. Fan Talk. Thanks for inviting me into your home, your car and your office. ( And it's true, I've never had a press pass and have never been in a locker room! ) ---"Murph"
