Records Truly Is My Middle Name

John Records Landecker's memoir "Records Truly Is My Middle Name" is available for pre-order now!

Click here to order your copy today.

The book ships on March 28th.

Jockline Daily Plugs "Records Truly Is My Middle Name"

Jockline Daily goes out to disc jockeys across the country...

FEBRUARY 26thTH, 2013 –– Landecker's "Records Truly Is My Middle Name" Available By Pre-Order March 1st. Chicago's iconic host, John Records Landecker's new book which debuts on March 28, but it will available for pre-order at www.eckhartzpress.com beginning March 1.

It's called "Records Truly Is My Middle Name" by John Records Landecker (Produced by Rick Kaempfer). It covers John's 40+ years in broadcasting (WLS, WIBG, CFTR,WLUP, WCKG, WJMK, etc), features some GREAT stories, incredible pictures, and additional stories about John from more than 30 other people that have worked with like (shown L-R,) Tommy Edwards, Steve King, Yvonne Daniels, Larry Lujack and Bob Sirott and many, many more. NOTICE: Landecker and many greats from the legendary "Big 89/WLS," will be joining Morning Show Boot Camp in Chicago in August for a special "Learning from the Masters" segment, moderated by Cumulus' Jan Jeffries. Stay tuned for details coming soon.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Tommy Edwards

Records Truly Is My Middle Name: The Soundtrack

What do George Harrison, George Carlin, John Travolta, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner, the cast of Star Wars, Tom Hanks, Mary Tyler Moore & Valerie Harper, Marilu Henner, Walter Payton, Michael Douglas, Tina Turner, Martha Stewart, and Harry Caray have in common?

All of them will be appearing on the upcoming CD companion piece to John Landecker's memoir, Records Truly Is My Middle Name.

We were in the recording studio all day yesterday working on it. Very exciting stuff. The book comes out on March 28. The soundtrack will be out before summer.

Records Truly Is My Middle Name

The first excerpt of the upcoming John Landecker book "Records Truly is My Middle Name" is in the current issue of Shore Magazine. This little excerpt explains the origin of "Boogie Check".

Just a small taste of what we just know you'll think is a fascinating book.

The Cover

The excitement is building...coming very soon.

Some Love for "Records Truly Is My Middle Name"

From Morning Mouth, which goes out to 5000 disc jockeys and radio programmers around the country. Click on the image to see the whole article.

The John Records Landecker Book

We're putting the finishing touches on John Landecker's memoir "Records Truly Is My Middle Name". We're getting very close. It's exciting. It's a really good book. Great stories, great pictures.

The media requests are coming in, and the first few "events" are being planned. Shore Magazine's Pat Colander spilled the beans about one of them in her "Adventures in Everyday Living" blog...

"The long-anticipated tell-almost-all John Records Landecker biography debuts in March so of course Chef Gary Sanders is throwing an April 7th Sunday afternoon autographing party beginning at 12 noon until 3 p.m. at Bartlett's in Beverly Shores, just down the road from the legendary DJ's Michigan City homestead."

More to come in the next week or so, including the debut of the book's cover.

Records Truly is His Middle Name

The Chicago Sun Times had a piece Sunday written by Mike Thomas that mentioned our upcoming book "Records Truly is My Middle Name" and features a picture of the author, John Records Landecker. (Photo by: Rich Hein/Chicago Sun Times)

Here's the pertinent excerpt...

The newest crop of titles, published in the past couple of months or forthcoming shortly, includes works by WGN-AM (720) agri-business oracle Orion Samuelson, Illinois politician Debbie Halvorson, TV newsman Walter Jacobson and radio broadcaster John Records Landecker.

They all postponed or had serious reservations about taking on one of the most daunting and nerve-racking tasks of their careers.

“What do I want in this?” Landecker says he asked himself during the bookmaking process. “Why am I doing this? This is stupid. Who gives a s---?”

Soon enough, however, he overcame the psychological hump that has hampered writers since time immemorial — and can seem especially towering for someone who’s baring it all in print: Will anyone care?

“You get to the point where [you think], ‘I don’t care if anybody does or not,’ ” Landecker says. His memoir, “Records Truly Is My Middle Name,” was written with the help of Landecker’s former producer Rick Kaempfer and is due out in March from the Chicago-headquartered Eckhartz Press (which Kaempfer co-owns). It includes “a fair share of drugs, sex, indiscretions [and] slightly humorous tales,” the author says, as well as more serious topics.

“It gave me a better perspective on — it sort of sounds clichéd — the real importance of events in my past … that at the time seemed so cataclysmic and in retrospect seem like a blip,” Landecker says of the writing process.

We're tellin' ya' folks, this is a good book. John has lived a life that is truly worthy of a book.

John Records Landecker

Esteemed Chicago media columnist Robert Feder gave another shout out to our upcoming book: "Records Truly is My Middle Name", a memoir by Chicago radio legend John Records Landecker (shown in this morning show photo from about ten years ago...standing next to his co-author for this book Rick Kaempfer)

Mr. Feder mentioned it as one of the big upcoming stories to look for in 2013...

"Chicago radio icon John Records Landecker will mark publication of his new memoir, Records Truly Is My Middle Name. Written with longtime producer Rick Kaempfer, it will feature contributions from Bob Sirott, Jonathon Brandmeier, John Gehron, Joey Reynolds, Jan Jeffries, Catherine Johns, Eric Ferguson, Bill Zehme, Kevin Matthews, Don Wade and others. More than 40 years after he first conquered the nighttime airwaves in Chicago, Landecker, 65, is still going strong as evening personality on WLS-FM (94.7). Anyone for a Boogie Check?"

Rick Kaempfer

Eckhartz Press co-publisher and author Rick Kaempfer is featured in the current issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine.

The piece, written by Cara Jepsen, is about his co-founding of this company, his previous writing and radio career, and his upcoming book on Eckhartz Press.

You can read it here.

Some Love from Shore Magazine

An excerpt from Pat Colander's Everyday Living blog at Shore Magazine...







Catching up with Shore Columnist, Renaissance Man and World's Best Dad Rick Kaempfer: I'm beginning to lose track but I believe when the The Balding Handbook starts shipping next week (November 16th) it will be the fourth book for his Eckhartz Press, which Rick launched about a year ago. The first was a novel Rick wrote with Brendan Sullivan called “The Living Wills,” a comic morality tale about a bowling team I thoroughly enjoyed. (Can't wait for the movie!) This season, The Balding Handbook by David Stern is going to be a hit for creative gift-givers who are victims—or members of the family of victims---of involuntary hair loss. Stern describes the five-stage grieving process including denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. On the cover, the author is shown working through Stage 4. At the end of the process, Rick says, the fully actualized bald man can emerge whole into the light. “Of course, you'll need sunscreen when you get there, but the few extra bucks you shell out to the Tropicana people is a trifle when you consider the incredible life that awaits you after reading this book. Whether you're a fellow sufferer or just a mean person that wants to give this book as a gag gift to that baldy you know (Tee hee, Get it? You're bald.) The Balding Handbook is for you.”

Next up for Eckhartz? The long-awaited story of John Records Landecker, Records Truly is My Middle Name will be published as part of John's 66th birthday celebration in March. With Rick's help---not to mention his other famous friends and colleagues including Bob Sirott, Jonathon Brandmeier, John Gehron, Joey Reynolds, Jan Jeffries, Catherine Johns, Eric Ferguson, Bill Zehme, Kevin Matthews and Don Wade---John has managed to tap into his inner playlist and remember an astonishing amount of what actually happened during the past 40 years. You heard that number correctly Boogie Checkers. John Landecker first conquered nighttime radio in Chicago, oh, I don't know, probably some time in the 1970s or 80s. I mean who cares, right? But Landecker is still going strong in the same time slot from 630 – 11 pm weekdays on Cumulus Media classic hits WLS-FM (94.7) Keep your eye on this blog for more information on this upcoming bestseller. Who knows you could be in it?

John Records Landecker

The mystery radio memoir we've been teasing on our website has been revealed by Robert Feder at TimeOut Chicago. Here is what he wrote...

Next March 28th will be a red-letter day for fans of John Records Landecker. It will mark not only the Chicago radio legend’s 66th birthday but the publication of his new memoir, Records Truly Is My Middle Name. Written by Landecker with longtime producer Rick Kaempfer, it’ll be published by Kaempfer’s Eckhartz Press. “I worked with the guy every single day for 10 years, and never heard some of these stories he tells in this book,” Kaempfer says. Among colleagues and pals who contributed additional stories about the great man are Bob Sirott, Jonathon Brandmeier, John Gehron, Joey Reynolds, Jan Jeffries, Catherine Johns, Eric Ferguson, Bill Zehme, Kevin Matthews and Don Wade. Forty years after he first conquered nighttime radio in Chicago, Landecker is still going strong — from 6:30 to 11pm weekdays on Cumulus Media classic hits WLS-FM (94.7).

We'll have more details in this space in the weeks and months to come.