Author: SmorgShow

This is the second in a series of installments this month.

So, as we approach 9/11/07 – the 25th anniversary of the first Chris and Dave Smorgabord show, I’ve been reflecting back on some of the early emotions I experienced at that time.   As I mentioned in the last posting, Dave and I were paired up and assigned the key Saturday night prime-time slot.  This was “cruising” night – you know, anyone who was anyone had a driver’s license and was out cruising the streets of the western Chicago suburbs.   As the old slogan went, “WDGC-FM…150-watts of music right in your face”, we had a 15-mile radius, capable of reaching as far south as Bolingbrook, as far north at Addison, Hillside to the east, and Batavia to the west.      We had to be good – or suffer extreme humiliation at school on Monday morning since pretty much anyone at DGN High School had the potential of listening to us.    We also had the rest of the WDGC staff waiting for us to fail – most of them jealous that we had been given one of the top 3 timeslots.   However, much of the worst was behind me by this point since the senior graduation class of 1982 was out of there.   Plus, Dave was a senior so collectively we were starting to be big fish in a small pond, as it were.

The first thing we did after learning about our pairing was record a series of sound effects and radio promos, we picked an opening show theme song, and wrote some very rough scripts of quick bits to do on-air.  We did some of these in my basement recording studio, and others in the WDGC studio after the station went off air for the day.    Everything else was pushed aside during those last two weeks leading up to opening night (which might explain my grades during the first semester of my junior year).  We also felt we needed business cards.    This was in the old days when you had to visit a printer and sketch out what you wanted.   We thumbed through a book of logos to put on the cards and for some strange reason we settled on palm trees (for our second season in 1984 we had karate guys).   You can see what we finally ended up with at another section of this website.    

And that was pretty much it as I recall… we were ready for our big debut.  

Check back during the week of 9/10 and read about some of my memories of opening night, initial feedback from the audience, and a story about that special package we received from a fan after the first show.

– Webmaster Chris

As we head into the Labor Day weekend, I thought I would submit my first post on the topic of our fast-approaching milestone date.   It’s really hard to believe that in just a couple of weeks, we will hit the 25th anniversary of the first Chris and Dave Smorgasbord show.   I didn’t realize until recently while going through some old scripts of the old shows that our first broadcast as a radio duo was actually on September 11, 1982.  

It was about this time 25 years ago when I was finishing up my last summer broadcast before heading into my junior year at Downers Grove North High School.    I was still trying to find my voice and style during that summer when I had my first solo radio show.  I had the afternoon time slot and Dave Jackson followed me on the broadcast schedule.  I believe I had just finished up some wacky bit when Dave said he enjoyed listening to me all summer and thought it would be good to do a show together with me in the fall.   I was shocked.   Dave was a year older than I was.  No one at this stage of my high school radio career wanted anything to do with me, let alone actually compliment me on my show.     Dave was a respected member of the WDGC staff, so I knew this would be a good move for me to be paired up with him.   I quickly accepted and we submitted our request to management.   The next big shocker was that we were slotted in the enviable timeslot of Saturday nights from 8-10pm.  

We had less than two weeks to prepare for our first show.   We quickly consulted Peet McCain on what we should call the show.  He coined the name “Smorgasbord” to reflect a hodge-podge of things, where we could pretty much do anything and it would fall nicely within the scope of the name.   And so the Smorg show was born.

Check back often as I submit more memories as we reflect on the start of it all.

-Webmaster Chris

After launching the SmorgShow Podcast in 2010, Dave Jackson resurfaces and becomes part of the ongoing team to bring you new content on the new platform.

Greetings, all!   I apologize for not posting sooner, but it has been a very busy few months.  I can’t believe we are heading into May.  First off, I made a job switch and I am back in the Market Research industry after a few year hiatus.   So it has been busy just trying to learn the new job.

Most recently…last weekend in fact…Peet came up to visit and we had a great weekend catching up.  Nothing formal…no videos…no creative writing…just guys bonding.   But the big news out of all of it was that we managed to track down Dave Jackson after losing touch in 2004.   We had heard that he was going through rough times health wise, but learned that he received a new kidney after a considerable amount of time on the waiting list.  So Dave ‘Buck’ Jackson is back!!!   We had a good talk and we will be getting together at the Downers Grove Omega sometime in May.   Gotta run for now, but wanted to share the good news.

-Webmaster Chris

I recently found this video clip on my daughter’s video camera. I forgot all about this. It’s rather silly but it captures me in full fatherhood entertainment mode. Kudos to the special effects team.

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere , And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms.

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.”

–Author unknown

Season’s Greedies to all!   This will be my last post for 2006.   Looking back, it was a relatively non-eventful year.   Every so often it is good to have one of those.   

Looking ahead to 2007, expect to see more changes to the website.   Some of you have already commented on the recent changes made.  The most obvious change being we have moved to a full-screen display for most of the pages.  We will continue to fine tune the layout and make navigation much easier.   For next year, expect lots of skeletons to come out of the closet.   ChickenTongue Productions has just invested in a major systems overhaul making it much easier to post vintage audio and video clips from yesteryear.   And it couldn’t have come at a better time:  2007 marks the 25th anniversary of the Chris and Dave Smorgasbord Show.   25 years!  Amazing how time flies.    We will be celebrating that milestone all of next year.

Until then, please have a very Merry Christmas and a safe, Happy New Year.  

– Webmaster Chris

Greetings once again.  I was out of commission for a while due to a crashed PC.  I don’t mean just your everyday, casual no-big-deal kinda crash.  I mean the ultimate death crash.  After speaking with Dell customer support (which was outsourced to El Salvador) for over two hours, the drive was definitely non-accessible.   Everything lost – pictures, music, everything.  Yes, I know – how can it be that someone who is so technically inclined did not back up any of this valuable stuff?  I am still asking myself that question.  Anyway, I was back up and running just in time for Cyber Monday!    All will be good for the economy.  

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.   Check back soon and often.

-Webmaster Chris

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!  Many folks who attended my party last week have written to me asking for the recipe for the birthday cake shots that were served.  Here you go.  Thanks to Kelly for the contribution!!

Birthday Cake Shots (aka Chocolate Cake Shots)
-1/2 shot vodka

-1/2 shot Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur Slice

-Have ready one slice of lemon per shot

-Place on a small plate two tablespoons of sugar per shot

-Take one slice of lemon, dip both sides in sugar, lick sugar off lemon (do not swallow yet)

-Take the shot, swallow, and bite the lemon slice.    

MMMMMMMM – Enjoy!

Thanks for checking in.   I thought I would finally jump on the blog bandwagon now that it seems everyone is doing it.   The big theme this month is my 40th birthday.  I just had the most awesome celebration with my closest friends going back over 30 years.   Man does that make me sound old or what?  The weekend kicked off with a slight scare – I got a text message from one of our guests who was traveling up from the Kansas City area telling me that she heard about a Portillos beef recall on the radio.  Of course, that is what we were serving, so I was in a panic trying to get the scoop.   All ended well when we learned our beef was safe.

What an exciting first blog entry, huh?   More to follow, I promise.  Cheers!

– Webmaster Chris

Rap Song ’91 (1991) – It was my first year truly on my own (that is, no roommate and paying the bills all by myself). I was living in a downtown Chicago apartment right in the middle of all the action. However, Jerry and I were getting a little tired of all the uptight Streeterville girls and their attitude. So Jerry and I put together this song in about 20 minutes. We rap about bein’ dissed by one too many chicks.  This is taken from the ‘City Boyz’ video collection. Recorded in my downtown studio apartment in the fall of 1991.

The Days of Adolescence (1989) -My farewell song to the 1980’s.  A song about growing up and saying goodbye to teenage life. Just before entering the 1990’s I decided to write a song that captured the essence of that period. I tried to incorporate all the main highlights and low lights from that period of my life. Every thing mentioned in this song really happened. Lyrics wise, probably my best song. I just re-mixed it with some fancy new software to double my voice during the chorus and to get rid of Don Henley in the background. Couldn’t really do too much about my being off key.

Strong Strong Man (1989) – We really loved to make fun of Rick Astley videos back during this time. So Jerry and I became ‘The Overconfident Jerks’ and did a cover of the classic Rick Astley number. We recorded this at Stratford Square Mall (1989). It was a pretty cool operation for its time. You could pick among thousands of songs and lay down your own voice tracks over the music. For about $10 you walked out with a cassette tape of your song. Here it is for your listening enjoyment.

The SmorgShow Podcast has its origins that go back to the early 1980’s. Chris Bockay and Dave Jackson first teamed up on high school radio station WDGC 88.3 FM in Downers Grove, IL. The show pushed the limits on what was considered acceptable community standards for a high school radio program.

Enjoy these audio clips from some of our favorite episodes of the original Chris and Dave Smorgasbord show, which aired between 1982-1984. We will continue to add new content from our archives as time goes on.

Reunion Documentary

This features Chris and Dave’s return to their old stomping grounds for the WDGC-FM 50-Year Alumni Reunion. This includes the footage from the broadcast that afternoon where the radio duo shared some of their favorite memories of the station.

Life after WDGC finds me at NIU campus in DeKalb, IL. I stayed away from radio during my first year, but decided to join the staff of NIU radio station WKDI-FM in the fall of 1985, my sophomore year. As a newbee to the station, I land the Sunday morning 6-9am time slot. Not exactly the best time for a college student, nor does it typically provide the best audience size. But I take it anyway, and I drag Dave Jackson with me for my first show. Here is one bit where we are on the air together. My college radio career lasted exactly two weeks. I did not like the fact that I could not do my own thing – I was forced to abide by strict station format – no personality radio. Oh – did I mention – this wasn’t even a real radio station. It did not broadcast over the airwaves. It was more like cable radio. Only those in the college dorms could pick it up.

Season 3 Episode 9 – Chris and Dave: The Final Chapter. On this last broadcast of the Chris and Dave Smorgasbord, we invite WDGC-FM General Manager Fred Moore on the show to present several appreciation awards to him including a sentimental plaque, a very seedy tie, and a collection of all of the Chris and Dave Smorgasbord bits that got us in trouble, suspended, or would-be suspended if Fred had actually been awake at the time we did them live on the air. We felt safe giving him the ‘goods’. After all, isn’t there a statute of limitations?

Season 3 Episode 8: The second-to-last Chris and Dave broadcast. This time we broadcast live from the moon! Of course we didn’t really think anyone would believe this – we were just having fun. I think we got a real kick out of doing the fake broadcast from the Carlisle six weeks prior that we decided to do something totally ludicrous that even the most gullible of listeners wouldn’t fall for it.

Chris and Dave’s live ”broadcast” from the Carlisle Banquet Hall in Lombard (06.29.84).  This was actually a fake remote broadcast with actual party sound effects to create the illusion of a real party taking place. Dave and I put together the background atmosphere soundtrack at the College of DuPage radio station sound effects library that morning. The show was apparently so realistic that listeners actually started to show up in droves to the Carlisle looking for Chris and Dave and the free food.  The Carlisle called the radio station to complain as we were packing up for the evening.  This was our little “War of the Worlds”.  Too bad we didn’t get this good of a turn out for our real remote show from the Barn three months earlier! We actually got this idea while listening to all the other radio stations broadcasting from the Taste of Chicago. We thought it would be cool to have our own “Taste of the Smorg”. This is the entire broadcast from that evening.

Chris and Dave took a break from one another during the 1983-1984 school year. Each did their own separate show. For a very brief period, Dave teamed up with Jerry and the result was a disaster. The chemistry was lacking and both seemed frustrated with how the show was going. So this bit was Chris’s attempt to get the two together to hash out their differences.

Part 2 of 2: The Dating Game broadcast from Dave Jackson’s solo Sunday night show “Open Mind”. Find out who Kathy picks for a dinner date at Ponderosa (winner of the Salad Bar contest as determined on the prior episode).

Part 1 of 2: This is a recording from Dave Jackson’s “Open Mind” Sunday night radio program. Chris joins as a special guest and hosts the Dating Game with Dave. Kathy Kelly, host of CATV’s Suburban Showcase, takes calls during the program and picks one lucky winner to take her to Ponderosa, which Chris and Dave judged as the restaurant having the best salad bar in the western suburbs.

It sure seemed like a lot of money to a 17-year old. That was what I owed the Park District for renting out the Barn for that evening. Note that this is the SECOND NOTICE. I think it actually ended up making it to THIRD AND FINAL NOTICE before I had enough money to pay it off. Peet had his own bill to worry about – $179.00 for the pizzas. This bill might actually be the starting point of my establishing a credit record.

Backed by local band “Denied Remarks”, Chris and Peet perform “Stuck in the Slammer Blues” to a crowd of 15 live at the Naperville Barn.

After about 45 minutes we realized no one was going to show up. We left the stage and this punk rock band took over. These guys were $#%holes. They were pissed off at the world. What were they pissed off for? They were getting free air and stage time. Plus they didn’t have $150 worth of pizzas to deal with. The guy in this photo spent the entire instrumental trying to raise the screen with Peet’s face being project before finally flipping it off and giving up.  Tough guys!

We had given away 200 seats on the air for this live broadcast. Both Lisle and Downers Grove cable stations were there to tape the show for a later broadcast. We had 3 local bands open for us. We spent about $100 to rent the place and Peet plopped down an additional $150 or so for pizzas. This was to be the show to push us in the upper stratosphere of high school radio fame! What could possibly go wrong??

March 17, 1984 – Peet’s 20th Birthday, and the day the largest snowstorm of that season hit. Naperville got 12 inches of snow dumped within a 10-hour period. Since most of our audience relied on their parents for transportation, a total of 7-10 people showed up. There was some good news – No one gave us the finger that night. Needless to say, for the next three months, Peet and I had pizza as an ingredient in everything we ate (sandwiches, salads, cereal, etc.).

I drew the sketch that is shown here in study hall (where I got most of my creative ideas). I forgot to add the actual people – yeah, that’s it – that was what the problem was!

Sympathy for the Deejay (1984) was written during Chris’s suspension from his radio show and was sort of a protest song about our General Manager, Fred Moore, not allowing us to express ourselves creatively as we wished.  In hindsight, nothing could be further from the truth.  Fred actually turned a deaf ear to most of our antics.  He was such a good sport for reading the rules he gave us during our final show which we lifted and used in this remixed version of the song.

This song is dedicated to WDGC-FM General Manager Fred Moore.

Our 2nd Remote Broadcast at the Tivoli Bowling Alley was a huge success.  At first it was a bit intimidating walking into the bowling alley/pool hall where the town burnouts called their home.  We set up our equipment, and they all sat down waiting for us to entertain them.  We decided to make them part of the show, so if we failed to please, they had everything to do with it.  It ended up being a blast, especially when the charming young lad in front of me recited this lovely holiday poem.

Tivoli Bowling Alley – Yes, I know what it sounds like he is singing here. So did many other people who called up when this was on the air wondering why a high school radio station would allow such profanities to go out over the airwaves. When we explained what the title of the song was, each complainer seemed a bit embarrassed after we asked “what did you think he was saying?”

Two performances of Peet’s classic blues number were performed at the Tivoli that night – one acoustic, and the other one with the full blues band. Jerry brought his saxophone out for this and it rocked the house.

This is classic Jerry Malauskas, and actually one of my favorite moments from the Tivoli broadcast. Jerry sings a cover of that old Simon and Garfunkel song. The crowd is polite for the most part, but when Jerry struggles to find the right guitar chords, they begin to get a little noisy. We gave him the spotlight and he delivered. I don’t believe I have an actual shot of the performance, but I did find a picture of Jerry and it was actually taken at a bar, so I think it is relevant for this.

This was always a great way to run out the clock on a late-night show. One of the more popular features of Season 2 (Smorgasbord Saturday Night) was Talent Line. It wasn’t anything too original, but it allowed our listeners to call in and have 15 seconds of fame. Co-hosting this season with me was Geoff Beran.

Here is a really rare gem. Wayne Lela, Downers Grove local and resident of the Tivoli Hotel, made a run for President of the United States. He didn’t do so well in the New Hampshire primaries, but he began his campaign on the Chris and Dave show. This is an exclusive interview with Wayne during a summer broadcast of the Chris and Dave show. Wayne also had a classical music radio show on our radio station late night Sundays.

A 33-year old “moral conservative”, Mr. Lela would regularly tune in to high school station WDGC-FM to monitor rock and roll lyrics, language, and program content. He would then submit a list of complaints to Fred Moore (and quite possibly to the FCC). Surprisingly, Wayne never gave Chris and Dave a hard time – and there were certainly opportunities for him to do so! He even made an appearance at our Tivoli Bowling Alley remote broadcast and played the drums. It’s funny listening back to this broadcast now at age 41.

At the time of this broadcast I was 16 and I knew next to nothing about politics or what a “conservative” or “liberal” really meant in terms of policy. Wayne considered himself a conservative, yet now knowing a great deal more about politics, there is very little conservatism in Mr. Lela’s 1984 platform described during this broadcast. You can occasionally find some of Mr. Lela’s social commentary out there on the internet. Funny how it all started back on the Chris and Dave show. By the way, Ronald Reagan went on to win that election.

This was one of the earliest recordings I have on record of Jerry Malauskas doing his own radio show. Jerry had accidentally left his hat behind in the studio one day and I learned that someone on the staff had gone “number one all over it”. I phoned Jerry to tell him about it.

The next weekend, I turned on his radio show and he was actually talking about this incident in great detail. Fortunately I had a tape recorder on hand and I captured the bit. I love how at the beginning of the story Jerry says he doesn’t want to “name any names”, but he pretty much reveals everyone’s identity as the story unfolds.

 Absolute Nonsense

Baba Gonesh Double Feature: “Thought for the Day” and “Comedy Camel”. 

This is the bit that got us in big trouble toward the end of our 3rd show. Listening to it now, it is quite tame relative to the other things we did, but I don’t think Fred Moore had warmed up to us quite yet. Plus, this predates all our other questionable bits so maybe we were still operating at a low baseline.

I had finally managed to create a 7-second delay system to prevent any profanities from going out over the airwaves when we put callers on the air. I created the delay system using two reel-to-reel tape decks. The first tape deck recorded the on-air comments live. I then fed the tape from that machine over to the second tape deck that was used for playback on the air. It took about 7 seconds for the recorded tape from the first tape deck to reach the playback heads of the second tape deck.

This allowed us to take phone calls live on the air by recording it. If the caller swore or said something inappropriate, we would be able to stop the tape before it got on the air. Well, we abused the technology and this is what it sounded like. This is actually a re-broadcast of the original bit during our final show on the air. We followed it with a re-enactment of Mr. Moore calling us to deliver his 9 commandments.

This is a clip from one of our more favorite on-air moments from Season 1.  This enthusiastic bunch of pre-teens called up on our second show.  Their band was called the HPs (abbreviation for Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss). This gave us the idea that the phone should be used more during our shows making the program more interactive with the audience. 

It was strange many years later when I had a child of my own, I would read this story to my daughter and I found myself delivering the lines in the same rhythm as this band’s delivery here. In fact, 28 years later we re-created the song in our own style.

Slime (1982) – My first and only song about the environment. I’m not sure why I did this other than it was just an easy parody on the Alan Parsons Project song, “Time”.

This song really should never have been recorded. In fact, it technically wasn’t. I had written a poem in study hall on Groundhog Day back in 1982. I never put it on an official recording until the 20th anniversary version of ‘Cow Dung and Chicken Tongue’.

What you will hear in this clip is Dave and me during the last 10 minutes of our final radio show on August 17, 1984. This was our “encore” after pretending to sign off for good. We actually waited a few minutes after “signing off” (with dead air) before returning to the air to perform this number. It really is terrible, but worth including here.

The Black Cow (1981) – I’m not sure what we were thinking when this was written.  This is the very first all-original Chris and Peet song.  A bitter love song by two guys who hadn’t even had a date yet at the time this was recorded.  I was 14 or so when I recorded this the first time around. When I did the re-recording of this, my daughter figured out the tune and so she is accompanying me on this version. I think the words are as relevant today as when they were first written.

One of our very first parody songs. A song about cleaning up. Like the picture of the army of dust mites that I found? These things are in your pillow. Enjoy the song.

In 1982, we released a collection of our very own songs (mostly parodies of others) as a collection called “Cow Dung and Chicken Tongue”.  It was released again in 1984 once our voices had settled down from puberty.  It was later reissued in 2002 as a 20th anniversary edition with extra bonus tracks from the post radio years.