Once one of Chicago’s pre-eminent radio personalities, Jonathon Brandmeier agreed late Friday to return to Chicago’s airwaves after an absence of more than 4 1/2 years.
Brandmeier, 49, is set to again become the new morning man at WLUP-FM 97.9, which is the role in which he first made a name for himself locally after arriving from Phoenix in 1983.
But even as WLUP officials were confident enough to finally confirm what had been the subject of rumor over the last few days, the signing of Brandmeier still wasn’t complete.
Rick Cummings, president of the radio division for WLUP’s owner, Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications, had yet to sign off on the deal as of Saturday afternoon, when he was said to be visiting Disneyland.
This prevented The Loop from making an official announcement of the three-year contract even as the station confirmed Brandmeier is expected to arrive in town from Los Angeles within a few days.
“It’s the most exciting announcement in Chicago radio in five or 10 years,” said Marv Nyren, 45, vice president and general manager of both WLUP and WKQX-FM 101.1, where Mancow Muller is morning man.
“The one thing that [Brandmeier] brings is instant name recognition and popularity probably second to none in the history of Chicago radio,” Nyren said.
“There are the Wally Phillipses of the world, the Larry Lujacks of the world, [Steve] Dahl in his prime–in his prime–and Mancow that drew the attention that Johnny did, and the good news is he is still plenty youthful.”
Known as Johnny B. to his hordes of faithful fans, Brandmeier owned FM morning radio in the 1980s. His frat-boy humor, combined with comedic stunts that included pranks calling movie stars and poking fun at his Wisconsin roots, captured a huge, youthful audience that advertisers adored.
Nyren, who still claims he doesn’t have a start date for Brandmeier but expects him to debut in a Merchandise Mart studio down the hall from Muller’s in the next three weeks, had insisted right up until the moment Brandmeier signed the agreement that they still were considering several options concerning a new morning show. He also maintained the station still was open to further negotiation.
Brandmeier’s history includes aborted deals in 1997 and 2001 that reportedly were all but signed until the second before they collapsed.
Viacom’s Infinity Broadcasting has had Brandmeier under contract and continued to pay him despite pulling him off Los Angeles’ KCBS-FM in March.
Infinity allowed Brandmeier to enter discussions with Emmis, but initially indicated it did not intend to release him.
Brandmeier contended he had an out, and a ranking Infinity source said Saturday the company, which briefly entertained the notion of having Brandmeier replace Howard Stern on WCKG-FM 105.9 in Chicago, will not move to keep him off WLUP. Infinity has made no announcement concerning its own morning plans at WCKG when Stern bolts for satellite radio in January.
The acquisition of Brandmeier is the keystone in Emmis’ effort to rebuild the rock station into what it was in his heyday.
Playing off that history, The Loop last month launched a new ad campaign recalling one from its glory days with the return of plus-size dancer Eustachio Robert Marena doing his thing to an Aerosmith tune.
This time Marena was accompanied by pneumatic new “Loop Rock Girl” Erica Gustafson, who is supposed to recall Lorelei Shark, the spokesmodel who fronted Loop ads in the 1970s.
Brandmeier stunned observers and thousands of devoted fans when he left Chicago radio in early 2001 after negotiations for a contract renewal fell apart at the 11th hour. At the time, WCKG was piping in his morning show from Los Angeles during middays and, according to Arbitron, he ranked No. 1 locally with men between the ages of 25 and 54, his target audience (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
When those talks imploded, Brandmeier told an interviewer: “On paper, it was a good deal–and I know I should base these decisions on some kind of logic–but why would I start doing that now?”
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philrosenthal@tribune.com
