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National Radio Hall of Fame Inductee Discusses Five-Decade Broadcast Career
February 08, 2018
For a time in the 1970s, John Records Landecker was among the most listened-to voices in the country. As the nighttime DJ for Chicago radio station WLS, Landecker’s voice was broadcast over a 50,000-watt clear channel signal to millions across the country.
Landecker was 25 years old, and his career was just getting started. WLS was one of the premiere Top 40 stations in the country during Landecker’s tenure, and he was named “Radio Personality of the Year” by Billboard magazine three times during the 1970s.
Landecker was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in November 2017.module-gallery-index.htm?siteModuleId=827F5A03-C37C-B011-28CD2E849FABE2BB
On Thursday afternoon, Assistant Professor of Multimedia Journalism Len O’Kelly, himself a veteran radio broadcaster, brought Landecker to Grand Valley’s Allendale campus to discuss his career.
Landecker, who attended what was then called Grand Valley State College in the 1960s, chatted energetically with O’Kelly and read excerpts from his recently re-issued autobiography Records is Truly My Middle Name.
Reflecting the book’s title, Landecker explained the frequent confusion about “Records,” which, he asserted, is not a nickname, but a family name that his parents gave him as a middle name.