BobLassiterAirchecks.com

These two incomplete pieces of tape have two different dates…but both are from Lassiter’s 1990 Christmas Show. The reason for it we don’t know - but it doesn’t matter; they keep Bob’s Christmas spirit alive as always.

UPDATE: Here are some photos from key places in Bob’s Christmas stories. A big thanks goes out to Kerry Bennett for the Haddon Ave postcard. Click on the thumbnail to view the full sized photo. Enjoy!

1. Haddon Ave. in Collingswood, NJ. The sign for Boswell’s Gifts can be seen in the bottom right hand corner.
2. 1958 ad for the Lady Schick Razor.
3. Lit Brother’s Department Store in Philadelphia.
4. The Enchanted Colonial Village display at Lit Brother’s.
5. The William Sloane House YMCA in NYC.
6. Bluebeard’s Castle in the Virgin Islands.

DOWNLOAD - December 22, 1990

DOWNLOAD - December 24, 1990

COMMENT on this Entry!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: December 22 & 24, 1990
• Time: 7:19; 50:13
• Format: mp3
• Size: 8.4MB; 11.4MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

As the Supreme Court considers how to weigh the testimony of children, particularly in child-abuse cases Bob recalls his own childhood and his parents’ divorce - and how, when his mother wanted custody of him, she influenced her young son to falsely testify that his father was an abuser. But the question isn’t whether there’s abuse, it’s whether young children can be credible witnesses. A pretty dark look at Bob’s young life.

DOWNLOAD - The Testimony of Children

COMMENT on this Show!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: January 18, 1990
• Time: 1:18:05
• Format: mp3
• Size: 17.8MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

This show is in two segments. In the first, Bob asks the audience what criteria should prohibit someone from owning a gun. Opinions range from “people with psychological problems” to “convicted felons” to  One genius says “talk show hosts.” The second segment - which we don’t have much of - is an interview with some kids in the Chicago schools, brought in for the sake of equal time after Bob interviewed some Lawnhead kids who went to school in the suburbs.

DOWNLOAD - Gun Control/City Schools

COMMENT on this Show!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: January 17, 1990
• Time: 46:09
• Format: mp3
• Size: 10.5MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

Oh, boy, talk about taxes, the budget, and social security! Doesn’t THAT make for exciting radio? It’s not a very long clip, though, and it does open with Bob reading a very compelling piece of hate mail.

DOWNLOAD - Taxes and Hate Mail

COMMENT on this Show!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: January 16, 1990
• Time: 22:43
• Format: mp3
• Size: 5.2MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

We’ve all heard people who complain about how prisons have too many luxury items - that putting cable TV and weight rooms into maximum security prisons makes them less of a punishment. But Bob doesn’t buy it. First, he says, denying them any form of recreation or distraction leaves them nothing to do but plan their next crime. Second, it’s simply inhumane to deny them basic amenities. The middle part of the show is an interview with two police detectives about the wisdom of placing criminals in prison, as well as whether their Vice Squad jobs really make us safer.

DOWNLOAD - Prison

COMMENT on this Show!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: January 11, 1990
• Time: 1:45:04
• Format: mp3
• Size: 24.1MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

Bob’s picture shows up in an article on WLS in the Chicago Tribune, and he decides to celebrate with a round of open phones. Among the topics are affirmative action, college as trade-school, Tasty Kakes, Louis Farrakhan, Bob’s chair, and much, much more.

DOWNLOAD - Lassiter in the Tribune

COMMENT on this Show!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: January 9, 1990
• Time: 2:06:54
• Format: mp3
• Size: 29.2MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

There are two different discussions happening here. First is some discussion about racism in society (which involves Al Sharpton somehow - it’s not really clear). Then, after Bob interviews U.S. Attorney Robert Merkle in Tampa about the indictments of General Noriega, he delivers a short monologue about the Noriega situation and declares an open program to talk about either race OR Noriega.

DOWNLOAD - Racism and Noriega

COMMENT on this Show!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: January 4, 1990
• Time: 1:16:01
• Format: mp3
• Size: 17.4MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

After invading Panama, the invasion force couldn’t find General Noriega, so the next day President Bush (41) declared a million-dollar bounty on his head. Bob has a question: is $1 million all Noriega’s worth to the U.S.? In that case, why didn’t we just offer that from the start, instead of wasting much more money - not to mention time and hundreds of lives - on a military invasion that couldn’t suss him out anyway?

DOWNLOAD - Bounty for Noriega

COMMENT on this Entry!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: December 21, 1989
• Time: 1:07:06
• Format: mp3
• Size: 15.3MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

On the day that U.S. forces invaded Panama to capture General Manuel Noriega, Bob takes our government to task - not for invading Panama, but for creating a Panama that allowed Noriega to happen…then suddenly deciding to care about conditions in Panama, when it was in our economic and political interests to do so. (There’s a brief snippet of Bob Grant, at WABC New York, mixed in too.)

DOWNLOAD - Invasion of Panama

COMMENT on this Entry!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: December 20, 1989
• Time: 1:32:50
• Format: mp3
• Size: 21.2MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

After Bob had a raging success in Tampa by inviting callers to a forum called “The Lassiter Group,” Bob replicated the experience in Chicago with four newspaper columnists: Richard Roeper and Carol Ashkinaze of the Chicago Sun-Times, and Mike Conklin and Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune. This is the show on which they first met: but their actual meeting isn’t on the tape. We hear what came immediately before and immediately after.

DOWNLOAD - The (Chicago) Lassiter Group?

COMMENT on this Entry!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: December 18, 1989
• Time: 37:05
• Format: mp3
• Size: 8.48MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

Declaring a war on drugs was a political goldmine, but Bob says it’s time to ask if it’s really a winnable war. Indeed, does it even stand a chance? He doesn’t say so himself, but the issue on this show really becomes whether drugs should be legalized.

DOWNLOAD - Legalized Drugs

COMMENT on this Entry!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: December 15, 1989
• Time: 1:00:53
• Format: mp3
• Size: 6.96MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

Essentially an open phones program, but there are two dominant topics. First, the Bears are threatening to move away from Chicago if the city doesn’t agree to a publicly financed, domed stadium, and people are pissed - at the Bears, not the city. Second, apparently it’s a clear night in Florida, because lots of Bob’s old listeners in Tampa and elsewhere are calling in to say hello.

DOWNLOAD - Bears and Tampa

COMMENT on this Entry!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: December 14, 1989
• Time: 27:23
• Format: mp3
• Size: 3.13MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

There are two different topics discussed on this show. In the first part, Bob discusses adultery: how it affects all of us, not just the people involved, and why it should preclude letting gymnast Nadia Comaneci into the U.S. In the second, Bob talks only to people under 18, asking them how they feel about year-round school as a way of fixing our broken educational system.

DOWNLOAD - Adultery and Year-Round School

COMMENT on this Entry!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: December 12, 1989
• Time: 1:13:24
• Format: mp3
• Size: 8.4MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

Put simply, it’s a show about black people, who still have to deal with racism every day and everywhere in this country. If you are white, but tomorrow you woke up black, your whole world would fall apart, says Bob. You won’t believe some of the responses he gets.

DOWNLOAD - The Plight of Black People

COMMENT on this Entry!

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: December 1, 1989
• Time: 51:02
• Format: mp3
• Size: 11.7MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General

It’s a show about the children! Lassiter sees assaults and sexual harassment on the part of the youngsters in our neighborhoods and points out that we’re all guilty. But what are you going to do about it? What can you do about it?

DOWNLOAD - Think of the Children

• Station: WLS 890AM
• Date: December 12, 1990
• Time: 50:04
• Format: mp3
• Size: 5.73MB

Courtesy of Keith Newman & the General