Steve King and Johnnie Putman are stopping by for a micro-show! It’s a fraction of the usual shenanigans with all of the same fun and pushing of buttons! Tune in below for some fun stories around bad weather drivers, fun night drive photos, some classic moments in the history of Him n’ Her and we flash back at some major moments from January 1967!

Singer/songwriter Melanie, known for songs including “Brand New Key” and “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” died Tuesday at age 76. In July 2011, Melanie visited WGN Radio’s Steve King and Johnnie Putman in-studio for a career-spanning interview and some performances captured on video:

Johnnie Putman and Steve King are keeping the winter weather advisories coming as we continue into the middle of winter. Monica Eng, reporter from Axios Chicago and co-author of Made in Chicago, starts off with a tip to keep you warm: jump in a hot tub on the Chicago river, in addition to a few other more reasonable tips. Plus, it wouldn’t be right to have Monica and not talk about delicious food around town! Then, Chicago based freelance photographer Will Byington snaps his way into the studio for a plethora of helpful camera hints and hacks, outdoor survival tips, his latest nightlife stories and a tease at what he offers in his Shot Club Photo Class! Book your “phoneography” class now! Last, but certainly never least, Tom Appel, Publisher at Consumer Guide Automotive and Co-host of the Car Stuff Podcast, goes further in-depth on staying safe on the roads as many Tesla owners continue to suffer winter woes and what you may need to know if your car is 4WD or otherwise. Take notes, bring snacks and crank up your volume as you listen below!

On this slightly shortened show, Steve King and Johnnie Putman are putting out some very important information during a deep freeze. Before we get to our usual friends, WGN’s own and Host at CHGO Sports, Marc Carman tags in to provide his professional analysis on the latest sports headlines, including the Bulls’ Krause fiasco on Friday. On a rare back to back appearance, your favorite car expert and Consumer Guide Publisher Tom Appel is here to educate us on what to be aware of before hitting the icy roads and how to keep your car healthy as Chicago hits subzero temperatures. While we’re shivering away here, Patrick Crispen, Director of Educational Technology at Keck School of Medicine of USC is back home on the west coast with a heaping pile of tech and social media news covering a Facebook hacking epidemic and a few highlights from CES Tech. Enjoy the show, stay safe, warm and keep that water running!

Johnnie Putman and Steve King celebrate their return to WGN with a bang! It’s been one year since their WGN revival and we have some heavy hitters! Also celebrating a magnificent milestone anniversary is ABC7’s top meteorologist, Tracy Butler. Now with 30 years under her belt, she has been Chicago’s longest running female meteorologist and a household name along with our very own Tom Skilling! Following her is Steve Bernas, President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois for a quick look at the chaotic new Stanley Cup trend, and the chaos that comes in the form of new scams to look out for when buying one at resale values or on malicious websites. Another public panic comes from Steamboat Willie going to the public domain and Jim Engel, Cartoonist, Illustrator, & Designer, helps us understand what that means for Disney going forward as the public has its way with the character. To help close our show, we reflect with our resident car guru, Tom Appel, Publisher at Consumer Guide Automotive, on the legacy of Steve, Johnnie and Tom, as well as a few other automotive headlines.

It’s that time of year we’re all thinking of! Time to buy a new calendar, but more importantly, hang out with Steve King and Johnnie Putman for a special show closing out the year and reflecting on the.. delightful year that was 2023. We start the show with your favorite showbiz machine, Gino Salomone, Entertainment Reporter for Fox 6 in Milwaukee and The Dish Network and together they reflect on some of the heavy headlines from 2023 of the influential names that have passed on. Joseph Crispen is in studio and he brings the rest of the Crispen gang, Christine and Patrick, the official tech guru for the show! They talk about their London trip, the big AI questions and the state of streaming platforms going into 2024. Next is the musical duo, Sandi MarLisa and Eli Ingram, known as Jack and Gin, telling the world about the thrilling year they’ve had and the NYE Ball Drop Party in Panama City Beach which, according to USA Today has the #1 NYE ball drop. Saving the best for last, Wayne Baker Brooks is in studio to play some of his hits and promote his show at the Chicago City Winery on January 7th, treat yourself to some tickets to see a Chicago blues legend here!

Christmas came early for all of our nice list listeners! Johnnie Putman and Steve King bring a big bag of great guests, award-winning gift ideas, an actual bag of gifts for the show crew and some delightfully merry morsels of music to get you in the spirit!

Muriel Anderson returns once again to talk about her new board game inspired by her recent album Sailing Dreams. Next up is Suzy Bogguss, and she tags in to tell the class about her new album Prayin’ For Sunshine and give us some deep, creative insight into how many of her songs came to be. We also find out more about her new cookbook, Suzy’s Soup Night which you can purchase bundled with the album and is filled to the brim with enough recipes for a whole year! She is followed by a fellow collaborator Paul Witcoff, who often joined for New Year’s shows, and he reconnects with our hosts to open the way to something new that may come around in 2024.

Then, author and historian Jeremy Arnold demonstrates his deep love and knowledge of Christmas music and movies, much of which you can experience for yourself in his book, Christmas at the Movies which takes you through a century’s worth of Hollywood’s holiday hits. We also put THAT Die Hard debate to rest! Later, we look at some more social media shenanigans with Patrick Crispen, but we focus on some thoughtful gifts for the travel and tech savvy types in your family that are sure to drop some jaws.

Steve King and Johnnie Putman bring you another short show but this time we’re glad to have a little Rush! Bobby Rush stops by the studio joined by acclaimed Broadway director Stephen Helper following their production of Slippin Through the Cracks highlighting the best moments of Bobby Rush’s life and musical legacy. Gary Colabuono, best known as one of the founders of The Chicago Comic Con stops by to share some tales of his friend and former Comic-Con partner Larry Charet, and Gary’s directive to help raise money as Larry comes down on some hard times. Head to their GoFundMe page to donate and help Larry Charet. Later, Tom Appel, your favorite Consumer Guide Automotive Publisher and car guru charges on to the show covering a delightful experience with a recent EV test drive, some interesting speed monitoring technology, and a look at the 2024 Consumer Guide Best Buys.

The countdown to Christmas begins! The show goes by fast with Johnnie Putman and Steve King, and so will December, so consider this your last call for those Christmas gift lists! Joel Paterson kicks off the show right away and he is in the studio to play some selections from his new Christmas album, The More the Merrier and promote some upcoming shows around town! Then, Patrick Crispen is on for your regularly scheduled tech talk and this time we’re looking at some… interesting AI Christmas songs, as well as a hefty serving of tech talk covering Google’s account purge, the evolution of currency in a digital age and your reminder to enable Facebook’s two-factor authentication.

Steve King and Johnnie Putman are here for the coziest show yet! Make yourself warm and tune in as Gino Salomone fires up the showbiz train for the latest in movies and juicy celebrity gossip, including the new Bradley Cooper movie and Dick Van Dyke’s latest award. Writer Dan Callahan delights us with the tales from his latest book, Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra, a story passionately delivered in tribute to some of the greatest American singers in the last century. Then, half of The Empty Pockets are in-studio in the form of Josh Solomon and Erika Brett for some more music, tales from the tour and a tease at what is to come including a new fan club and a December 17th show at the Chicago City Winery. We slam the trunk on the show with your friendly, neighborhood car guru Tom Appel Publisher at Consumer Guide Automotive and we’re covering common EV troubles, potential auto show dropouts, and an extremely urgent recall on the latest Hondas due to seatbelt malfunctions.