I chose to push back this story due to the holidays, I didn’t want to post anything that was a little too depressing.
Most Chicagoans knew of the infamous WLS-AM DJ but since AM radio has a humongous range, he was also known to us who lived farther downstate. I often heard him during the weekday evenings on our radios while we resided in Champaign-Urbana and Springfield. As for his sarcastic demeanor, it was often oblivious to us kids with one exception, my brother and I found his tone for a commercial plugging Santa’s Village near Chicago to be rather derogatory.
I do remember the “Animal Stories” bit Lujack did when he was on the morning-drive shift. Evenings had “Boogie Check.”
He may have been a forerunner for the hateful Limbaugh in being cranky but Uncle Lar was being a wiseass, not trying to foment a right-wing revolution. The paper shuffling is about where the similarities end.
I’m guessing Lujack was a divisive figure within Chicago for certain crowds and generations. My ex-roommate Paul came from the Southside and didn’t like Lujack much, he preferred the antics of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. After Dahl was fired over the White Sox/Disco Demolition debacle, WLS hired the former WLUP star. Lujack and Dahl got along like two tarantulas trapped in a jar. It ended on the air in a rather petty manner. Personally, I’ve never understood Steve Dahl’s appeal. Paul had a greatest hits tape of Dahl’s bits which included the confrontation from the previous link. The stuff on it was funny yet I think what worked had to be culled from thousands of hours of crapola. Dahl came from the school of “if I keep on yammering, eventually something funny will happen.” Lujack wasn’t perfect neither. He just did more homework and knew when to cut his losses if a bit wasn’t working.