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actually, it's not that melodramatic...but he's moving stations and timeslots (WCKG to Jack FM/afternoon drive to mornings) starting Monday. last show on ckg is this afternoon.

 

i remember my dad listening to him and gary on both WLS and then i listened to them every summer on LOOP AM clear down in central illinois. fast forward a couple of years and my first week living up north was literally the first week he started afternoons on wckg...he's pretty much been a staple in my 45 minute drive home since 1996. a lot different than stern, his show was a little more cerebral and while howard was a perfect pick-me-up in the AM, steve perfect for a drive home.

 

after years of partying, he was sober when he started on CKG and it's been interesting to listen to him stay that way and refine his craft over the years. i remember when he first started, almost daily he would be reminded of crazy stuff he did while under the influence earlier in his career. i've listened to his kids grow up and his youngest actually became an on-air guy before CKG dumped it's format last week...the parity to me 'growing up' and starting a (albeit younger) family has made listening that much more interesting.

 

totally rambling, but when a constant in your life kind of changes...it makes you feel kind of reflective. my drive home will be alot different. those outside of chicago may have no clue who he is, but this is the same guy who orchestrated that whole disco demolition deal back in the 70's. i'm a total chicago radio geek and, funny enough, had actually gone back to listening to brandmeier in the mornings over the past few months...sucks to have to choose.

 

they've been playing best of clips from his CKG days all week and i heard the clip of when he had tweedy in the studio for what seemed to be an hour around the release of summerteeth. i remembered hearing that when it originally aired and i was really just first getting into the band.

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I am sad he is going off the PMs since I get to listen to that more than AM. Frankly I thought the entire lineup on CKG was pretty entertaining (minus the dreadful Opie and Anthony and the crap they had on after the younger Dahl); I am particulary sorry to see Stan and Terry go, since I thought there show was particularly entertaining. Even Garry Meier's return to the air was okay by me.

 

I have been listening to Steve since the very early days (early 80s anyway). He has had his ups and downs, but always was relatively entertaining I thought and many times had on interesting musicians, including Jeff Tweedy one day.

 

LouieB

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those outside of chicago may have no clue who he is, but this is the same guy who orchestrated that whole disco demolition deal back in the 70's.

That alone makes him one of the greatest Americans of our time.

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. those outside of chicago may have no clue who he is, but this is the same guy who orchestrated that whole disco demolition deal back in the 70's.

 

 

I always felt uncomfortable with the whole 'Disco Sucks' thing.

 

It always had a nasty undercurrent of racism and homophobia in it. You shoouldn't define yourself by what you don't like.

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I always felt uncomfortable with the whole 'Disco Sucks' thing.

 

It always had a nasty undercurrent of racism and homophobia in it. You shoouldn't define yourself by what you don't like.

 

i don't follow the racism and homophobia undercurrent...but i'm interested to hear you elaborate.

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Nile Rodgers comments on the 'Disco Sucks' incident in 1979 (excerpt from a BBC documentary)

 

Run by rock crony radio-dj Steve Dahl the 'Disco Sucks' campaign, an outgrowth of racism and homophobia?, reached its peak when, during a pause in a baseball game at Chicago's Comiskey Park Arena on July 12th 1979, 10.000 disco records were blown up and the crowd rioted shouting 'death to disco.' The effect was immediately felt on the disco community, record company execs invested less in disco, several disco radio stations went rock, and suddenly the word 'disco' was something very negative...and in the US almost taboo.
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as much as i love nile rodgers...of course he is going to say that, that stunt nearly took away his bread and butter. but the sheer factor that there was such a diverse range of both race and sexual orientation of the people who both made and enjoyed the music/lifestyle...how could it really just be targeting black, gays, etc.?

 

doesn't wash for me, but that's me.

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i don't follow the racism and homophobia undercurrent...but i'm interested to hear you elaborate.

 

 

It really isn't that hard to follow.

 

The face of disco (outside of the BeeGees) was Black Women (Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, etc.) and gay men (Sylvester et al.)

 

Disco rose out of the gay clubs in NYC and was embraced by the Black music scene.

 

I alway looked at EARLY Disco as being the heir of R&B as Punk was the heir of Rock. They both got watered down for mass consumption and taste.

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as much as i love nile rodgers...of course he is going to say that, that stunt nearly took away his bread and butter. but the sheer factor that there was such a diverse range of both race and sexual orientation of the people who both made and enjoyed the music/lifestyle...how could it really just be targeting black, gays, etc.?

 

doesn't wash for me, but that's me.

 

 

Probably because you sported a Disco Sucks t-shirt... :monkey

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It really isn't that hard to follow.

 

The face of disco (outside of the BeeGees) was Black Women (Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, etc.) and gay men (Sylvester et al.)

 

Disco rose out of the gay clubs in NYC and was embraced by the Black music scene.

 

I alway looked at EARLY Disco as being the heir of R&B as Punk was the heir of Rock. They both got watered down for mass consumption and taste.

 

KC and the Sunshine Band -- not gay

 

Plus there were many black men -- Disco was born of soul music -- so you got EWF, Kool, Commodores etc etc.

 

Sat night fever was the face of the movement for me -- all white guys (and one white chick).

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It really isn't that hard to follow.

 

The face of disco (outside of the BeeGees) was Black Women (Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, etc.) and gay men (Sylvester et al.)

 

Disco rose out of the gay clubs in NYC and was embraced by the Black music scene.

 

I alway looked at EARLY Disco as being the heir of R&B as Punk was the heir of Rock. They both got watered down for mass consumption and taste.

 

yeah, i get the train of thought now and just find it a huge stretch...at the height of it's popularity, when the disco sucks movement was at full steam, it was hardly just a gay/black thing...even KISS did a disco song. it's origins are a moot point.

 

honestly, i was way too young to give a shit about disco when that all happened, let alone wear a t-shirt. i was at the age where i liked just about everything. but, knowing the history behind it...the whole thing is a lot less nefarious than a racist/homophobic deal...savvy radio guy picks a piece of popular culture and makes fun of it to a huge audience.

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i thought the thing about JACKFM was that there was no people on it so it was music all the time. weird.

 

he'll be the only live on-air personality...it'll go back to all music after his show is over each morning. the format was getting killed in morning drive figures.

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that makes sense. I know that in the AM JACKFM had this really annoying girl that would come on and talk about traffic "Jack-ups." Maybe I can start listening now.. I almost always do radio on my drive to work.

 

you need to get a subscription to Sirius :ninja

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you need to get a subscription to Sirius :ninja

 

:lol Bababooey.

 

it's really kind of funny, that up until he hit his stride in chicago on CKG, that howard had such a tough time catching on in the chicago market. people in chicago have always seemed to want their radio personalities to be local and had such an aversion to just listening to what was popular in other bigger markets.

 

they may have left/switched timeslots and come back...but come monday, the morning landscape will be Jonathon Brandmeier, Eddie and JoBo, Steve Harvey, Lin Brehmer, Tom Joyner, Don and Roma and Kathy Hart (now of Eric & Kathy). a lot of those are local and the same people in the morning slot when he left 11 years ago.

 

just another reason i love this town...most folks here are determined that the city have/keep it's own identity, to the point it's crazy sometimes.

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For the record (if there is one), when I saw the Nile Rodgers talk about this in the documentary that I can't remember the name of, he sounded to me like when the hair metal dudes complain about the grunge movement.

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