Steve and Johnnie

Johnnie Putman and Steve King welcome back everyone’s favorite musical guest, The Empty Pockets! Josh Solomon and Erika Brett stop by to perform and share more tunes and upcoming shows! The big one is on December 19th at the City Winery and don’t forget to go to Will’s Place in Skokie to get your Thanksgiving pies!

Tom Appel, Publisher of Consumer Guide Automotive and Host of the Car Stuff Podcast checks back in after much time off for a segment on reliable vehicles that may be more affordable for most sitting around the $30,000 mark, in addition to the usual recalls and test drives.

Be sure to stay tuned on The Steve and Johnnie Show Blog to stay up to date on the latest and upcoming videos of in-studio performances!

After a much needed recovery, Steve King and Johnnie Putman have returned after a few weeks off air! It may be a little colder and darker, but rest assured that this show is a return to full strength!

Starting off the show is a little weather check in with WGN-TV’s Meteorologist Mike Janssen that preceded the weekend’s wildly varied snowfalls, which may be a sign of what is to come this winter.

We check in again with one of Chicago’s top reporters, Monica Eng as the ongoing ICE occupation continues to terrorize, make false claims and illegally detain legal citizens in Chicago.

In the first of many musical guests this holiday season, Nikki O’Neill and Rich Lackowski return to the studio to share more tales and tracks from her band’s latest album “Stories I Only Tell My Friends.” We are also treated to Nikki’s rendition of a holiday classic! You can catch The Nikki O’Neill Band at Art Makers Outpost on Saturday, Novemeber 15th!

Also returning this week is the Director of Educational Technology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Patrick Crispen! We’ve got all the show notes at the Steve and Johnnie Show blog for you to follow along as Patrick covers a new T-Mobile emergency feature for certain phones in a pinch, some more bad groups using public data maliciously, such as ICE, and Patrick shares his picks for reliable tech news sources

Rounding out the show is a special edition of Sports Between the Sheets featuring guest News Anchor Lauren Lapka!

Johnnie Putman and Steve King continue “Spooktober” following a sad elimination for the Chicago Cubs. We lament over another loss but we also take some time to pay tribute to a number of losses including some of Chicago’s very own.

Our first guest is Joe Berton, President of the Military Miniature Society of Illinois and we are talking about their 50th show which showcases a vast medium of historical miniature art and the talented artists behind them and the history of the medium itself. The 50th show takes place at the Marriot Schaumburg October 17-18.

Following another classic scary story, we jump into some fun photography time with rockstar photographer Will Byington! Will teaches the class about some handy iPhone photo tips covering exposure lock, burst mode and why a live photo is an underrated tool for capturing groups! With spooky season currently underway, it’s also helpful to learn some tricks for getting great low light photos.

Rounding out the show is Patrick Crispen, Director of Educational Technology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC with his latest tech and hacking news covering the removal of ICE tracking apps, Bose ending all internet streaming for their SoundTouch smart speakers, and so much more including TikTok, Meta’s AI Glasses. You can follow along with the show notes on Steve and Johnnie’s blog!

It’s time to step into October and get spooky with Steve King and Johnnie Putman! We are starting the show with an important PSA as ICE continues to terrorize Chicago, but we hope you will enjoy a fun scary story from the mind of Arch Oboler to balance it out.

Our first guest is the incredible Tommy Emmanuel for a much overdue reunion to promote his new album Living In The Light set to release October 10th! The album features the track Scarlet’s World, which he debuted here 2 years ago! We reintroduce him with a live version of that track and you can watch the full video here! We learn all about his songwriting process, how he handles playing his older songs, and working with legends like Chet Atkins and George Benson.

It’s also Consumer Guide Automotive Publisher Tom Appel’s turn to update us on all things automotive with his latest test drive and vehicle recalls. We also learn about some of the actual music manufacturers use when testing out a vehicle’s sound systems and we get a sneak peek at what’s to come on his Car Stuff Podcast.

News Anchor Gabe Salgado checks the pulse of Chicago sports and gives us some spark of optimism as our Bears, Blackhawks, Cubs and Sox continue to deliver what we have all come to expect. Tune in below for all of the above, plus an entertainment review by producer, photographer and avid theatergoer, Julian Saldierna, of the opening night of The Lion King at the Cadillac Palace Theatre and Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest blockbuster ‘One Battle After Another’.

Johnnie Putman and Steve King welcome friends from all over for another special show as October rolls around and we pay our respects in honor of a lost friend.

We welcome Becca Starke, Steve and Johnnie’s Panhandle Producer for when they are broadcasting from Panama City Beach, Florida. She stopped by Chicago to hang out with the class!

Before getting to our special guest, we honor the memory of a dear friend of the show following the news of her passing. Alice Selke was delighted to receive tons of birthday wishes from listeners all across the country for her 107th birthday.

It was our privilege to have Paul Cebar in studio to discuss his brand new self-titled album! We are treated to some fantastic live performances of some of the new tracks and we get a little insight into the man behind the music as well as a number of performances going on in and around his hometown of Milwaukee.

We check in for our regular tech updates and the week in hacks with the Director of Educational Technology at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, Patrick Crispen. We get the scoop on Microsoft ceasing all support for Windows 10 users, the latest from Apple and the kind of threat a SIM card farm may be for telecommunications networks. Tune in to the show blog for the show tech notes!

Summer is officially over! Don’t worry, Steve King and Johnnie Putman are here to stay and they brought a bunch of friends!

Our first guests are Ed Janz and ABC7’s Roz Varon, who both have long careers in Chicago broadcasting, and they talk about a benefit concert in honor of their late daughter, Sara Janz. “Stars for Sara” takes place on Oct. 21 at the Des Plaines Theatre and features tons of big stars, including Carl Giammarese of The Buckinghams and Jim Peterik with The Ides of March! The funds go to the “Sara Janz Take Your Shot Memorial Scholarship.”

Next up, we have Terry White and Rob Pierce of the Yellowhammers to promote Terry White’s new solo album You Won’t Have a Name.

We are also treated to a few special performances of songs with some stunning visuals to follow, so make sure you stay tuned on the Steve and Johnnie show blog!

Last, but never least, it’s our car guy Tom Appel, who is the Publisher of Consumer Guide Automotive and Host of the Car Stuff Podcast! With Tom, we’ve got all the latest test drives, recalls and automotive news, including a big shakeup at the Ford headquarters in Michigan, where a majority of the American auto industry calls home.

Johnnie Putman and Steve King are starting off September feeling a little older and wiser with this shortened show! We lament the Sox, welcome some new faces, and we celebrate Johnnie for completing another year around the sun!

Our first guest is Robert Loerzel, an author, journalist, and photographer from Chicago and we welcome him to the show to talk about his latest book about The Uptown Theatre, fittingly titled The Uptown: Chicago’s Endangered Movie Palace. The conversation covers the history of the theater, some of the iconic performances and guests that graced its stage, including some of Johnnie’s favorites growing up in the area and the efforts to restore the Uptown Theatre.

We then turn to the world of AI and hacks with our friend, tech guru and Director of Educational Technology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Patrick Crispen. We take a deep dive into the fake news of a massive Gmail breach that didn’t actually happen and how to protect yourself from an actual scare. Along with some tips and warnings about Facebook messaging viruses, voice hackers and a number of other things that you can follow along with on the show notes!

So much more news along the way including the passing of The Turtles’ Mark Volman, a preview of the Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Sunday, September 14th (also in our “Best Of” replay the night before) and we talk with news anchor Gabe Salgado and guest producer Sammy Martino about the week in sports and their outlook on the Bears’ season opener.

Steve King and Johnnie Putman ring in September with a few friendly faces and celebrating the one thing all Americans love: labor!

Our first guest is Grammy and Emmy Award winning country musician John Berry, best known for his #1 single “Your Love Amazes Me.” We get to know the background behind some of his hits and a song called “All Come Together” he put together to benefit survivors of Hurricane Harvey with a number of fellow musicians. He’ll be in Chicago on September 12th at Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights.

Fans of this show may be familiar with 107 year old Alice Selke of Hoffman Estates, but this time we shine a light on her grandson Don Selke. He started Super CFL Radio, an internet radio station as a tribute to 104.7 WCFL with all of the music hits from the 60s and 70s.

We then flip through to our next guest John Dudley, writer of Big Shoulders an “urban fantasy” comic book series set in our very own “City of Big Shoulders.” He is proud to debut the launch of his new series that serves as a love letter to Chicago with fantastic artwork by Scott Gray.

Rounding out the show is our favorite car guru and Publisher of Consumer Guide Automotive, Tom Appel. This segment is a special one for him as he takes us through the trials and tribulations of buying a used car with his daughter, along with many of the things we should all be aware of when buying used cars.

We also discuss our first jobs, chat with news anchor Sylvia Snowden about the “dangers” of wearing socks to bed and we learn that beating the computer senseless sometimes just doesn’t fix it.

Steve King and Johnnie Putman are lucky enough to be graced with the presence of one of Chicago’s living legends!

Carl Giammarese, one of the founding members of The Buckinghams, comes by for a special show to debut some music from of his brand new solo album, Let The Music Play. We hear some great stories of his youth on the North side of Chicago, the past 60 years of his career, and we get the answer to Steve’s 60-year question: What is the chorus singing in the background of ‘Kind of a Drag’?

We then shift over to the world of technology with Dr. Patrick Crispen, the Director of Educational Technology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, for a whole list of updates. We learn that AOL is bringing their dial up internet service to an end, Coco Robotics is bringing their food delivery bots to Chicago, and we dig through the details of the government’s stake in Intel, one of the biggest computer chip manufacturers. Plenty of other stories among the headlines can also be found in Patrick’s show notes.

We also have tasty and not so tasty food combinations, Tommy Emmanuel news, and we get the sports outlook from our news anchor and sports master Gabe Salgado as the Bears close out the preseason on a positive note.

Johnnie Putman and Steve King like to change things up once in a while and along with some regular players, it’s another show full of surprises.

WGN-TV’s Meteorologist Mike Janssen managed to step away from the cameras and talk the past weekend’s hectic weather woes.

After recently setting up a trust, Steve and Johnnie aim to educate the class on how it all works. Julie Kolodziej is the Principal Attorney & CEO of JPR Law and she is on the show to talk estate planning, the difference of trusts and wills, and how to navigate all of the hurdles of leaving your legacy to the family in the right places.

Our dear friend and former WGN agricultural business broadcaster Max Armstrong to talk.. you guessed it, farms and tractors! The Half Century of Progress Show is taking place in Rantoul, Illinois and Max is talking tractor history, what attendees can expect and many of his favorite tractor trucks he has driven and worked on over the course of his life.

Tom Appel, Publisher at Consumer Guide Automotive joins for some regular automotive updates! The big news is what many are calling a “Model T moment” for Ford, with the reported investment at $5 billion. Along with the usual test and recall briefings, we also talk about the final days of Klairmont Kollections, a musuem with nearly 300 vehicles that are being auctioned off in September.