Rick Kaempfer

Rick Kaempfer worked for The Loop from 1987-1993, served as the executive producer for the John Records Landecker show on WJMK from 1993-2003, and returned to The Loop in 2004 to produce Spike, Dobie & Max. That was his last radio job.

Since then, Rick has become a writer, author, and publisher. In October of 2004, Kaempfer co-wrote (with John Swanson) The Radio Producer’s Handbook (Allworth Press), a textbook about how to produce a radio show. At one point, it was being used as a textbook in 65 universities across the country. Rick has since written seven additional books, including three novels, $everance (2007, ENC Press), The Living Wills (with Brendan Sullivan, 2011, Eckhartz Press), and Back in the DDR (2022, Eckhartz Press). For ten years Rick also served as a humor columnist for Lee Publications (nwi.com, Shore Magazine, NWI Parent Magazine, etc.), and converted his popular column Father Knows Nothing into a book in 2014. He also co-wrote Records Truly Is My Middle Name with John Records Landecker (2013), a book about soccer “Grün Weiss Vor with Todd ‘Fritz’ Schneider (2015), and a very popular book about the Chicago Cubs, EveryCubEver (five editions, released every year beginning in 2019).

Rick has also been a media writer for decades. In the 1990s, he wrote a media column for Chicago Advertising & Media, and feature articles for Chicago Airwaves, as well as LoopScoop Magazine. From 2007-2013 he conducted weekly media interviews called Chicago Radio Spotlight, an archive of which is still available online (chicagoradiospotlight.blogspot.com). And since 2013, Kaempfer has been the media writer for the Illinois Entertainer. He has interviewed over 300 members of the Chicago media over the past 30 years, many of which are excerpted in this book. After the retirement of media writer Robert Feder, Rick also added a weekly media column to his portfolio. It’s published every Friday morning, and called Media Notebook (medianotebook.blogspot.com)

Rick keeps a hand in the audio world as the co-host of the podcasts Minutia Men (since 2016) and Minutia Men Celebrity Interview (since 2018) with his Eckhartz Press co-publisher David Stern and Free Kicks with Adam & Rick (since 2017) with Director of Coaching for Illinois Youth Soccer, Adam Howarth.

In 2023, Rick directed his first film. It’s a documentary about Kevin Matthews’ Ed Zeppelin band called “More Please”. It debuted on October 5, 2023 at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles. Rick’s son Tommy served as the film’s editor.