January 6 Steve Darnall hosts The Big Bandstand, a one-hour weekly show of swing music on KRTU-FM in San Antonio, Texas. his first foray into college radio. His program continued thru the school year. ending in June.
June 12 Chuck donates his collection of over 48,000 vintage radio programs to become the core radio collection of the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
June 12 Museum of Broadcast Communications opens at River City in Chicago.
June 12 Radio Classics Special, WBBM, Chicago. Chuck hosts first remote broadcast from Museum of Broadcast Communications, 7.9 p.m.
June 13 Nostalgia Broadcast Center moves from Morton Grove to the Pierre Andre Memorial Studio where Those Were The Days is broadcast live every Saturday at the Museum of Broadcast Communications at River City, Chicago.
June 13 Ken Alexander, staff announcer for WN1B, also becomes the announcer for Those Were The Days
June 14 Old-Time Radio Classics, WBBM, expands, adds Saturday and Sunday evening broadcasts, 8-10 p.m.
June 28 Chuck interviews actor Ernie Winstanley of the original Lone Ranger cast, at the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
August 18 Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bob Herguth profiles Chuck Schadcn:
Nostalgia king of Chicago. He’s on WBBM seven nights a week with old-time radio shows. His Saturday afternoon Those Were The Days program on WNIB is 17 years old. Also has a monthly cable TV show; owns Metro Goldwyn (sic) Memories, a showbiz nostalgia shop …publishes Nostalgia Digest and Radio Guide; is a founding director of the new Museum of Broadcast Communications.
STATS: Born in Chicago, grew up in Norridge, lives in Morton Grove. Schools were James Giles Elementary in Norridge, Steinmetz High and the U. of L at Navy Pier, where he majored in journalism. Age 53, married, two daughters. Was newspaper editor and marketing exec.
NOSTALGIA START: “I got interested in nostalgia before it was nostalgia. I listened to radio shows when I was a kid, and when TV came in I watched like everybody else. But soon I felt TV didn’t challenge my imagination. I wanted to provide my own pictures. So I turned back to radio and found all the shows were gone. I started researching and collecting, and I soon decided if you collect, you want to share.”
LIFE GOAL: “If I can keep doing this, I will be a really happy person. I love it. I’ve been able to take an avocation and turn it into my vocation. Not many can.”
Ken Alexander
September 26 Ken Alexander becomes “permanent guest host” of Those Were The Days whenever Chuck is absent.
October 15 Publication date for first edition of The Cinnamon Bear Book, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the beloved radio series. Compiled and edited by Chuck Schaden, the book is illustrated by Brian Johnson with contributions by Carol Mueller, Todd Nebel, George Littlefield, and Susan Schaden.
October 24 Bob Atcher, country singer and a favorite Chicago radio-TV personality, performs and is interviewed on TWTD at the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
October 28 Chuck interviews actress Alice Faye at the Whitehall Hotel in Chicago.
November 1 Publication date for Chuck Schaden’s Nostalgia Calendar for 1988. The calendar, with full-page photos of radio stars, is designed by graphic artist Brian Johnson and features a day-by-day glimpse of show business milestones.
