- Jonathon Brandmeier
Infobox Radio Presenter
name = Jonathon Brandmeier
imagesize = 200px
caption = Jonathon Brandmeier onWGN-TV discussing his return to Chicago radio
birthname = Jonathon Francis Brandmeier
birthdate = birth date and age|1956|7|15
birthplace = Fond du Lac,Wisconson ,United States
deathdate =
deathplace =
show = Johnny B Mornings
station = 97.9 The Loop
timeslot = Monday – Friday, 5am-10am
show2 =
station2 =
timeslot2 =
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country =United States
prevshow =
web = http://www.wlup.com/Airstaff/johnnyb.aspxJonathon Brandmeier is a Chicago
radio personality and musician. He is commonly known to fans as "Johnny B."Career
Brandmeier started his radio career in 1973 at WFON in
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin . In 1981, he was brought on as theKZZP morning DJ inPhoenix, Arizona , where he became very popular from his prank phone calls and silly song parodies.WLUP ("The Loop") in Chicago hired him in 1983, where his morning show was broadcast on both their 1000 AM and 97.9 FM stations. He also had a short-lived national TV show in 1991, "Johnny B. on the Loose" and recorded three albums, "Almost Live" (1984), "Brandmeier" (1989) and "The Man Formerly Known As Brandmeier" (1994) with his band Johnny and the Leisure Suits. His most memorable songs include "We're All Crazy In Chicago" [a local Top Ten hit] , "Hey Der Milwaukee Polka", and "The Moo-Moo Song" [based on an actual event in the 80's when a local attempted to make love to a cow in the Lincoln Park Zoo] . A few of his songs are occasionally played on the "Dr. Demento Show", which is also syndicated on Sunday nights on WLUP.A management change at WLUP in 1997, however, led to the end of Brandmeier's initial 14-year run on The Loop. He briefly hosted middays at
WCKG in Chicago, and had subsequent stints in Los Angeles atKLSX andKCBS-FM , where he was syndicated to a number of other stations across the country.After some time away from radio, Brandmeier returned to mornings at WLUP in October 2005. Johnny B remains in the WLUP morning spot broadcasting his daily show and a
podcast of weekly highlights. He has also made several appearances with his band, The Leisure Suits, on what he called "World Tour 2007", which included many local bars and theaters in the Chicago area. Every December, he hosts a 24-hour telethon on WLUP with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help out terminally ill children with numerous musical and celebrity appearances on the show donating to the charity.Characters on the show
"Kent Voss":He does the news on the show and is usually Johnny's main sidekick during the shows. He goes by many nicknames, including "The Amish Hump" and "Mr. Tangerine Speedo" (a reference to the 2001 song by Caviar). Many callers will swarm Johnny's voice mail to annoy Voss with musical parodies and jokes to trip him up during the news.
Biography from website: Kent Voss was born on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi River in Clinton, Iowa. For the geographically challenged, that is nowhere near California. At the tender age of 11 he moved to the Valley of the Sun, Phoenix, Arizona. There, he first heard the dulcet tones of a particular morning DJ emanating from the radio of his pick-up truck. That morning DJ was his inspiration to get into radio. After graduating from Arizona State, he began his radio odyssey in Phoenix, where he met ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. They moved on to Seattle where Voss hosted a morning show with Kimmel as his co-host (“The Me and Him Show”). They were fired because the General Manager couldn’t stand the sight of them. Tampa was next…where again Voss and Kimmel were fired, mainly because yet another General Manager couldn’t stand the sight of them. While in Tampa, Voss tricked a woman into marrying him and joining his traveling odyssey. He moved on to Houston, Dayton, and Philadelphia doing radio shows in all 3 cities. Two sons known only as Lippy and Louie joined the caravan in Pennsylvania. When the Philly station changed formats, it turned out that Voss now had a lot of mouths to feed and no job so he headed west to California to work for his old friend Jimmy Kimmel. He wrote for the last real season of “The Man Show” and was a coordinating producer for “Crank Yankers” for 3 seasons. During this time, through Kimmel, he would meet the morning DJ that had unknowingly sent him off on this traveling odyssey. The morning DJ agreed it might be a good idea for them to work together and they did at KCBS-FM/Los Angeles. Once again, a format change brought an end to that experiment. By now Voss added a daughter to his caravan. She is known only as “Lerlene.” Mr. Morning DJ then asked Voss if he would be interested in moving to Chicago. So the Voss caravan was off… again. And the name of the morning DJ that started the whole odyssey for Kent Voss some 25 years ago? John Francis Brandmeier. But you probably know him as Johnny B. And now you know the rest of the Story.
"
Bruce Wolf ":by his own admission, is the best Radio-TV sportscaster/attorney in the history of Chicago. Bruce resides in a northern suburb with his wife, Mrs. Hoffa, and several of their children. Bruce is actually former Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. He was placed here as part of the federal witness protection program. He is the sports TV/radio legend that does the sports for the Jonathon Brandmeier show since 1985 on and off. He formerly was on WXRT, WFLD-TV, and now is on WMAQ-Tv doing the sports. He had a short-lived show Sponsored by WLUP that was on at 4:30 Am on WMAQ-TV but it was canceled a year later."Vince Argento:" He is the audio producer on the show. Also known as the announcer for Johnny's morning show.
"Guy Bauer" - Executive Producer: Guy Bauer hails from historic Monmouth County, NJ - where George Washington once slept. He graduated from high school in `99 and went on to Purdue to study Aerospace Engineering under a Navy ROTC scholarship. Once there, he found it wasn’t for him and transferred to Hunter College in New York City to study The Classics (not "Stairway to Heaven" or "Freebird"). Bauer did not take to The Classics either and found other interests like Television Production. In Spring 2001, he started on a TV pilot called "The Mother of All Shows" using $20,000 from 8 credit cards (yet to be paid back). It went nowhere but inspired him to get an internship in TV so he would have a place to pitch projects. After being turned down several times for a lack of enough college credits, he beefed up his resume by adding he was a NYU graduate student and had received the Academy Award for best student short film. It worked... and the show that hired him? Comedy Central's "Crank Yankers." After a season there, Bauer moved to Los Angeles to also work on "The Man Show"." After "Crank Yankers" ended, Comedy Central co-worker and current WLUP newsman Kent Voss recommended Bauer as Producer on JohnnyB's show at KCBS-FM/Los Angeles. He has been with Johnny ever since. Bauer also makes a weekly podcast called The Guy Bauer Half Hour and is currently looking for a hot girlfriend. His mom also does a Daily joke, which never usually makes sense but Johnny always laughs though.
"Hector Soriano":Here is the description from the site:Hector refuses to tell us where or when he was born. According to his “birth certificate” he’s a 79 year old white woman named Mable.As near as we can tell, he tunneled his way into the States sometime in the mid 90’s and now he’s busy tunneling his way into the ladies of Chicagoland.He has a passion for ice fishing and speaks a language that is different. It is called Spanish. He has no immediate plans to steal your job or overthrow the U.S. Government. He Also is the Board Operator/Assistant Producer. Hector does the traffic sometimes but usually only says who is sponsoring the traffic report and usually Kent Voss says it instead. Johnny often cuts in and laughs when Hector mis-pronounces the traffic report
"Esmeralda": Brandmeier's charming former intern, now show assistant. Listeners know her as the "hookah-smoking tramp." She occasionally chimes in during the show when Johnny calls her, and has a spot every Friday on community events. Emeralda answers the phone and will not let you be on air with Johnny if: you do not know what is required of you to win the contest, you just want to say "hi" and ask an unrelated question, or you're not even listening to the show. You can listen to Esmeralda's radio spot Saturday afternoons on Radio Depaul (iTunes -> Radio -> Public).
"Matt the intern" Having only been mentioned once ever on the show, no one knows much of anything about this awkward "McLovin".
External links
* [http://www.wlup.com/Airstaff/johnnyb.aspx WLUP airstaff page]
* [http://www.loonnews.com/ 20 Years of Jonathon Brandmeier]
* [http://www.guybauerhalfhour.com// Guy Bauers half hour podcast]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20061205053217/http://johnnybshowgram.com// The old Fan made chicago radio discussion board]
* [http://lucidsound.com/jb// Johnny B audio from Arrow 93.1/]
* [http://www.wlup.com/Airstaff/johnnyb_video.aspx/ Johnny B videos]
* [http://www.wlup.com/photo_gallery/johnny_b.aspx/ Johnny B photos]
* [http://www.wlup.com/Airstaff/johnnyb_streaming.aspx/ Stream the show 5-10AM]
* [http://www.wlup.com/Airstaff/johnnyb_podcast.aspx/ Podcast Page]
* [mailto:EMeJB@wlup.com/ Jonathon Brandmeier email]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0104703/ Jonathon Brandmeier on IMDB.com]
* [http://loonflashback.vox.com] Audio archives
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