Month: October 2024

October, 1994. I can’t believe it’s been 30 years since I experienced one of the  worst times of my young life.  It was Monday October 10^th when I came home from my job as morning show producer for US*99’s J.D. and the Katman Show.  A phone message from college pal Jim Turano told me Lee Swanson, my longtime friend and mentor was in Elmhurst Hospital and seriously ill. 

My dear friend, like a brother to me, Lee Swanson.

I quickly called the hospital and learned Lee was in the ICU unit at the end stage of his life.  He had a recurrence of cancer that was first overcome and seemingly beaten twelve years earlier.  Minutes later, I was at Lee’s bedside as he drifted in and out of consciousness.  He was not in pain and knew who I was and showed he was glad I was there.  We’d last seen each other a few weeks earlier meeting up at a local record store and catching up on each other’s goings on.  At that time there was no inkling that Lee’s cancer had returned.

I didn’t stay long at the hospital but told Lee I’d be back tomorrow.  That tomorrow never came. Later that evening Lee Swanson quietly passed away, he was only 42 at the time. Turano called me at the US*99 studios the next morning to give me the sad news. I was crushed, pulverized for sure. Lee was Yoda to my Luke Skywalker and I immediately became a tsunami of tears.  My only comfort being later when I learned I was the last person to see my friend before he slipped into a short coma and then passed away.

From the late 1980’s- (Left to right) Me, Dave Ross and our mentor Lee Swanson.

I shared this bad news with morning show co-host Trish Biondo before leaving the show early that day.  Trish passed my loss on to the rest of the show members I  know this because that night as I arrived at the J.D. and Katman 5^th Anniversary Party at Chicago’s Whiskey River club, John The Katman Katzbeck was the first to  greet me offering his condolences on the loss of my friend.  Red hot country star Joe Diffie and his band performed at the packed party that night and I made it to the event because I knew, despite my grief, Lee would want me to be at this party.

The next morning, we had a great morning show, reliving events from the 5^th anniversary party and all was O.K. with the world.  I got home and started processing my hurt feelings over Lee’s death.   Then, early that afternoon I got a call at home from Assistant Program Director Dean McNeil.  Dean told me John Katzbeck was stricken with a brain aneurysm at home and was rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment. The outlook for the Katman was bleak!  What the hell was going on?  My mom saw me take in this news on the phone and said I turned white as a sheet and looked like I was about to faint.

John The Katman Katzbeck promoting a giant pretzel.

The next few days were a slow motion blur.  US*99 listeners were informed of John’s situation as we prayed for the best possible outcome.  I attended Lee’s wake that Friday and his funeral on Saturday.  Coming to work early the following Monday morning we got the call that the Katman was not going to survive the aneurysm.  With no brain function he was being kept alive so that his organs and other body parts could be harvested to help others.   John Katzbeck was a great guy and an organ donor.  He passed away later that afternoon and the next two days we did on air tributes to our fallen co-host. We played his many country parody songs and other on air bits that made us laugh through our tears.  Listeners were as grief stricken as we were.  His passing made the local papers and we were even interviewed by a couple of Chicago TV stations. 

A memorial album honoring John and his many parody songs.

John’s wake was on Wednesday and his funeral attended by the whole radio station staff was on Thursday October 20^th.  J.D. Spangler gave a heartfelt eulogy filled with laughs, tears and warm memories.  After such an awful week, J.D. and Trish were given Friday off to rest and reflect.  Ramblin’ Ray Stevens would host that Friday show solo and moved on to replace the Katman on our morning crew.  In just over ten days I had been to two wakes and two funerals and was also given that Friday off to catch my breath.

On that day off, my best friend Bobbo took me and his young son Alex out to breakfast then we spent the rest of the morning at Brookfield Zoo.  That Sunday, Bobbo, our dear buddy Marko and I got together at a bar to watch the Bears game.  Having friends like these guys there to support me during this devastating insane time meant more to me than I could ever say. 

There would be some other friends and family who stepped up to comfort me and more intricate details of those good people and that time thirty years ago will be shared in my memoir “Raised on the Radio.”  In truth, I delayed full emotional processing of this double punch of loss for several months and it wasn’t until September of 1995 before my head and heart were cleared of my deep grief.

This all went down thirty years ago. It sometimes feels like it just happened.  Lee Swanson was practically an older brother to me and I NEVER would’ve gotten to a big time Chicago radio job as fast as I did without him.  John the Katman Katzbeck and I spent 16 months together when I joined US*99 in 1993 and as J.D. would say, we were “each other’s best audience” as we worked up morning show bits and laughs.   I’ll always miss those two guys but the memories and I have sustain me and bring a constant smile to my face.  Lee and John, you two were great to me and someday we’ll reunite for laughs, songs and good times.

NEXT BLOG- Halloween- Now and Then.

Just some of the Class of ’79, great guys one and all!

“With a friend at hand, you will see the light, if your friends are there then everything’s alright.”  (Bernie Taupin- sung by Elton John)

York High Schools class of 1979’s 45^th Reunion is in the books and what a great time it was!  Plenty of old friends, longtime friends and former classmates had the best time anyone could ask for.

First and fore most big thanks to the reunion’s organizers: Holly Maxson Kost, Linda Magneson Proudfoot, Sue Carlson Baader, Craig Nelson, Todd Beja, Frank Catalano, Tom Klatt, Lisa Fanelli and anyone else who I may be omitting. To put on a two-day event like this is no small feat.  Loads of planning, phone calls, emails, check-ins and countless ‘to do lists’ are just part of what goes on.  All I can say is there was not a disappointed alum at either Friday’s get together at Doc’s Victory Pub or Saturday night’s party across the street at Roberto’s.

Good times and cocktails at Doc’s Victory Pub with Scott Thiems, wife Sharon Allison Thiems, Dan White & Linda Proudfoot.

Sorry to say the Dukes football team lost Friday night’s game against Downers North but it was fun watching the game at Doc’s via the York Sports Network. Saturday night’s get together began with Rich Mc Laughlin reading the names of our former classmates who have passed away.  There were names to add in just the five years since we were together for the 40^th reunion.  Pastor Rich then followed that solemn moment with inspiring words and a heartfelt prayer for all of us.  If there’s one thing we all have learned in our post high school years is that tomorrow is promised to no one.  Appreciation for life and living it to the maximum is understood.

Both nights were filled with laughs, hugs, kisses, high fives and hundreds of stories of past days at York and lots more.  We’ve all done a lot of living in the 45 years since we graduated from the home of the Dukes and there was plenty of sharing of photos of kids, grandkids, talks of retirement or pending retirement and other life changes like divorces, remarriages, changes in home residences and hopes for the future.

During our reunion, I personally heard of health tales from several folks.  Everything from new knees and hip replacement operations, to bypass heart surgery, vision issues and the overcoming of cancer diagnoses.   It’s a relief to learn of the positive outcomes from these situations and humbling that I haven’t faced any of those maladies yet. Though, getting a new left leg hinge is coming for me in the next year or so.

Are some of us alumni sporting gray hair, less hair, more pounds and wrinkles than last time we met?  Sure.  But I can say that everyone at the reunion still had the glow of high school youth in their faces.  We’ll never lose that.  I don’t see these changes as signs of aging, we’re just evolving, moving forward in life’s progression.

Left to right- Dianne Turner, Joyce Bojko and yours truly at Doc’s.

One point to make is that many of us have bonds with classmates that began before our days at York started. Middle school, grade school, Elmhurst youth baseball, softball, hockey at the YMCA, junior basketball leagues, church and other local goings on being just some of the ways lots of us met.  Regarding grade schools, we all posed Saturday night with our K-6^th grade mates.  I’m proud to say my fellow Lincoln school classmates had the biggest turn-out at the reunion. Lincoln’s old building was razed a couple years back and the new school looks like a headquarters for Google.  Lincoln and almost all of the newly built schools and additions to older schools in Elmhurst have been constructed by the International Contractors Company which is co-owned by York Class of ‘77 alum Bruce Bronge.

The Lincoln school alums. We packed the place!

In my twenty years in Chicago radio andnow my time as a special education teacher I’ve done plenty of yakking, babbling and talking.  So, I took pleasure in sitting back and listening to my former classmates share the highlights and happenings in their lives.  Family, career, travel and other big experiences were the kinds of things I heard and everyone sure was happy to let others know how things were going all these years later.  Some even talked about driving by their old childhood homes in Elmhurst, some still standing and some leveled in favor of Mc Mansions.  Progress, I guess.

Doing all that watching and listening, a few classmates said some kind words to me.  Things like “I liked hearing you on the radio”, “Your Facebook posts are fun”, “I remember when you put together the White Castle slider party in Mr. Aggen’s math class,” and “I bet teaching is rewarding.”  I even was told a randy story of how a classmate was canoodling with someone years ago in Pioneer Park. The romancer told their partner, “I know the guy who named that park! It was Mick Kahler!” 

Full disclosure- I left the Saturday night party at 9:30 (I ran out of steam, old age I guess) and learned later that the wingding got so loud that the neighbors called the Elmhurst Police and they came in to ask for some toning down of the noise.  So, at age 63, the York crowd still had enough party power to have Five-O cruise in.   Way to go you guys!

Tom Klatt, a prime suspect in cranking the party to a level loud enough to bring in the Elmhurst Police!

I used to think reunions like ours were fun because we recalled the days when we were young, much younger.  But that’s not it. These reunions are special because we all had shared events for four years at York.  Classes, tests, ACT, SAT, Driver’s Ed, sports, plays, concerts, parties, dances, proms, dates, break-ups, meet—ups, part time jobs and of course the forward movement to graduation and beyond.  We were there together, it was a mutually shared experience and a damn memorable one.

Left to right- Sue Carlson Baader, Mark Carlson, Phil Williams and Brian Kinsella.

FOR MORE GREAT PHOTOS– CLICK TO THIS LINK ON FACEBOOK.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/591718297998995

So now we’re five years away from our 50  year reunion.  I know some initial plans for that get together are already in the works.  I hope and we’re all around to attend it and maybe others who missed last weekend’s blasts will make it too.  So, here’s to the York Class of 1979, wishing you continued health, happiness and as the BoDeans once sang, “Only good things.”

NEXT BLOG- Remembering a challenging week from 30 years ago.