Larry Lujack: "Superjock" of Chicago Radio
Larry Lujack ruled Chicago mornings on WLS and WCFL for two decades with Animal Stories, the Klunk Letter of the Day and a grumpy wit nobody could copy. His story, from Iowa to the Radio Hall of Fame.
If you had a radio in Chicago in the 1970s and '80s, you knew the voice. Larry Lujack, "Superjock," was grumpy, dry, sarcastic and very funny, and for about 20 years he was one of the biggest names on Chicago radio.
From Iowa to Chicago
He was born Larry Lee Blankenburg on June 6, 1940, in Quasqueton, Iowa. He worked at stations around the country before landing in Chicago in 1967.
WLS and WCFL
Lujack's Chicago career went back and forth between the two big Top 40 stations on the AM dial:
- WLS 890: August 1967 to July 1972.
- WCFL 1000: July 1972 to March 1976. (He'd also had a short four-month stint there in 1967.)
- WLS 890 again: September 1976 to August 1987.
When he jumped stations, listeners went with him.
In November 1983, Phil Donahue put four Chicago radio names on one stage: Howard Stern, Jonathon Brandmeier, Larry Lujack and Dick Biondi.
Animal Stories and the Klunk Letter
What people remember most are the bits:
- Animal Stories, with Tommy Edwards as "Little Tommy." Lujack read strange news stories about animals, and the two of them made fun of the stories, each other and the world. People still quote them.
- The Klunk Letter of the Day, where Lujack read a listener letter he thought was especially dumb, and then let the writer have it.
- The Cheap Trashy Show Biz Report.
He didn't do the smooth, happy DJ voice. He sounded like he was barely tolerating the job, and that was the joke.
The book
In 1975 he put out an autobiography with Daniel A. Jedlicka: Superjock: The Loud, Frantic, Nonstop World of a Rock Radio DJ.
After WLS
Lujack left WLS in 1987 and later moved to New Mexico. He came back to Chicago radio from there a few times, working remotely for other stations in the 2000s and joining WLS's "Big 89 Rewind" specials in 2007 and 2008.
He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2004 and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2008.
Larry Lujack died on December 18, 2013, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 73.
More Chicago radio and TV
Photos: stills from "Donahue" (November 1983) with Howard Stern, Jonathon Brandmeier, Larry Lujack and Dick Biondi.