In My Darkest Hour
Obituary "The End Complete"
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In my younger days, I'm talking 7th to 10th grade, I was a straight up metal head. I used to wear torn jeans and Metallica t shirts and listen to the metal station that came on at night in Chicago. The station's call letters escape me now, but I do remember there was a DJ named Scott Loftus because once I called up and won concert tickets. The tickets were to a ZZ Top concert though, so I never claimed them.
This mystery station ran the gambit of hard rock to metal. This means they would play everything from Enuff Z'Nuff to Morbid Angel. I never got into the Sunset Stripish hard rock bands. No, the heavier the better for me. Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica were my favorites, as well as death metal bands like Death and Obituary. You need stuff like this to listen to when you're young. You have so much confusion and aggression that sometimes you just need to pound it out.
Obituary's "The End Complete" was one of the first death metal songs I fell in love with. At times on their album (of the same name) the music would slow down like they were driving a really heavy truck up a steep hill. Then the truck would reach the peak and come racing down the other side of the hill faster than ever before. I've actually experienced that first hand in the Rocky Mountains, except instead of a truck it was a Toyota Corolla. My brother told me he saw some metal band once that just played real slow dirging songs. When somebody yelled out "Play faster!" they replied "We can't! We're not that good!".
I still have an affinity for heavy metal, but I just don't pay much attention to it anymore. It seems like i'm not hearing anything new anymore (with the exception of Mastodon). So turn up "The End Complete" and harken back to a simpler time, a time when I would sit alone in my basement writing down the names of bands I heard on the radio and then desparately trying to find them at the record store in the mall. Basically the days before the internets existed.
posted by dusted21 at 11:36 PM
55 Comments:
actually it wasn't a metal band - it was a punk band: killdozer.
they were playing a REALLY slow, grinding version of *cinnamon girl* at the time.
m
Just came across your blog after Googling for info on Scott Loftus. The station was Y108, though I can't remember the exact call letters either. During the day they played work-friendly lite rock, but one night in March '93 I checked the station just in case they were playing something decent and heard Dream Theater's "Pull Me Under."
What I found, of course was that Loftus and his associate DJs were now running the station from 7 PM to 5 AM, and as you said they played the full range of metal. It lasted for less than a year, when Y108 became a Spanish station on New Years Day '94. Loftus went to 103.5 (still The Blaze until that June), and while he was the only DJ kept after the transition in June he was just a peon there and couldn't play anything decent.
It must've been Fall '99 I heard Scott Loftus on the Loop. I almost had to pull over and cry tears of joy. He didn't last long there either, and I've been wondering what he's been up to...
--T.J.
NP: Iron Maiden, "Caught Somewhere in Time"
yeah i kind of remember being in chicago in recent years and hearing him on the loop. i also remember putting Y108 one night and imagine my shock when all they were playing was spanish music!
thanks for the info, man!
I was in my late teens when Y108 was on and loved listening to Scott Loftus. Before Y108, he was on a station called WVVX 103.1 in Chicago. It was the only station playing heavy stuff. I was really into Metallica, Megadeth and more obscure stuff like Sacred Reich, which they played once in a while. I still remember hearing Savatage's "Somewhere in Time" on one of those stations on Christmas Eve one year when it was snowing. It seemed like the perfect song for the car ride home from church. It's funny -- I only googled Scott Loftus because I saw that someone had the same last name on a completely unrelated website. Isn't the web great? You brought back some good memories. Thanks
yes, yes and yes! i remember his show being the first place i ever heard the likes of sacred reich, exhorder and death (particularly the great song "lack of comprehension"). the only other place i could ever hear such music was the local college radio station (st. xavier's university), but that was only once a week for an hour or two and didn't even come close to the span that loftus played.
Oh yeah...St. Xavier's station is where I heard some really obscure stuff like Scatterbrain, Tourniquet and Wally Pleasant, which actually turned out to be music that I still really like.
Also, I would hear about all the good concerts on VVX and WXAV (I think that's what the St. Xavier station was). Remember the Thirsty Whale? It was a tiny club in River Grove, IL just outside of Chicago city limits. The stage was 3 feet high, the ceiling was about 10 feet high. When you crowd-surfed you could touch the ceiling if you wanted to. I remembered being at the front of the stage and the guitar was a few feet away from me. The Whale was demolished about 10 years ago and I think a McDonald's is there now.
I got kicked out of the Whale twice for crowd-surfing during a Sacred Reich concert. Ah, memories!
Fuzzy memories from a smokey past reminiscent of the That 70's Show gang toking it up in the basement but here we go.
I'm citing some date circa 1986, but only because I was a high school freshman that would fall asleep at night listening to Loftus spin the best that metal had to offer. His show on VVX sounded like crap coming over my one speaker boom box but I didn't care at the time. It was total bliss.
If I remember correctly, they used to call his show RPM. But they later attempted to change what people knew them as because when there were ratings being done, us listeners knew them as RPM and not the WVVX that was being rated.
There was another station back in the 80's that played metal all day but they were nowhere near as pure and real as the nightime RPM show. They were, if there ever was one, a top-40 metal station. Z-rock seems to ring a bell but I'm not sure.
Low point of the y-108 show: Playing that god-forsaken Meatloaf garbage "I would do anything for love" I don't know what that was about.
However, Some of my best memories from his show were when the Bulls won another title and the Freddie Mercury tribute they ran. Queen was definitely appreciated by fans of all music genres and Freddie is one of those singers that just cannot be replaced (a la the Paul Rodgers fronted Queen of today).
I am here because, like many of the others, I was bored and googled Scott Loftus.
Wow...I am also bored and googled Scott Loftus. Remeber the other guy that was on VVX on the weekends? His name was Glenn and he drove a shortbus as his day job? He was great. I miss the good ole' days.
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Damn, looks like we created a monster! Hopefully Scott will get bored, Google his own name or something and come across this. We still remember ya, man!
--T.J.
WVVX 103.1
Scott Loftus and Glenn the Phone Man.
Wow.. I was in 5th or 6th grade and used to sit around with my friends waiting until 8pm when the show finally came on.
I too am here because I googled Scott Loftus out of boredom.
I actually thought he was kind of a sell out because all he did was ever talk smack about The Blaze (which royally sucked), then he came running to it the moment he lost his job.
I still remember he played Sepultura his first night on the Blaze and sounded nervous as hell, like he was going to get in trouble for playing it.
if it wasn't for the VVX's death metal show (was it Sunday's at 8 p.m. or something) I wouldn't have gotten into carcass or cannibal corpse. it's awesome that so many people remember this stuff. i laughed out loud when I read that one dude listened to the station with one blown speaker. damn. remember that show "One Up The B-Side" named after Ozzy's song of the same name?
I also googled Loftus,I remember some of the songs they greated for rpm (where the inmates run the prison).One was smoke a bowl shuffle.I still have some cassettes of the old shows(poor quality)The banter between Glenn the phoneman and Scott was amusing.They used to play alot of Savatage,etc...I called and spoke to Scot when I heard him at the Loop years ago and he appreciated the blast from the past,but he could not remember the smoke a bowl shuffle(1985).I remember at christmas time they played stuff off banging around the christmas tree(members of Tankard)Where is Scott now?
> Where is Scott now?
Somewhere out there... (sigh) Scott, Google yourself or something!
--T.J.
wow - I too googled "Scott Loftus" I'm 29 now but remember listening to WVVX all the time. I could barely get it to play on my boombox - I had to angle the stupid antenna just the right way but it was soooooo worth it just to hear "Loftus......Scott Loftus"
hahahaha. I miss those days.
I miss Scott Loftus. I hope that one day while I'm flipping radio stations in the car that I come across his voice on the radio. I believe that that day will come, but it's the waiting that's hell. I need my Loftus fix. Joyce
Hi everyone. I am Glen Freedman . I sat in the studio as Scott Loftus' sidekick for 3 years as Glen the Phone man. I was just tooling around the computer tonight and decided to google Scott. I was both amused and amazed when I stumbled upon your site . I am 43 today and married with a 7 year old daughter and I work at the East bank clb giving boxing lessons where I have been since 1995. I got a kick out of some of your comments and will be checking your site every once in a while. Keep ROCKIN, sincerely Glen The Phone man. P.S. I also drove a regular size school bus back then, not just a short bus.
LOL, another drive-by googler looking for Scott Loftus! I'm 40 yr-old, got my first taste of this "newish" band 'Metallica' from their song "Call of Ktulu"... a very long epic metal romp. That's from Scott and Glen's WVVX era back to probably 1984-5?, thanks guys for getting me into that "new" band! LOL!
I also remember them playing "Bongski's in the Boy's Room", a spoof of "Smokin' in the Boy's Room", complete with water bong bubbling noises... What a scream! Scott, hope you find time to drive-by this thread too! You are one in a million!
Dave.
Another random Googler...
Yeah, the 103.1/WVVX/RPM (Real Precious Metal) memories are flooding back.
I remember the show started out when I was in 8th grade ('84 or '85) I'm almost positive I started listening to it during the first week it was on the air. Probably like the second or third night it was on. It was on from 9pm until 1 am, broadcasting in glorious mono out of Highland Park. After a while, they got the 8 to 9 hour as well. I would listen to the whole damn show sometimes, but most nights I fell asleep to it.
I still remember the itro they would play with the Barry Manilow song and the ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and Steve Dahl reading the news report of the protest when WMET became WNUA...
This was also the first place I heard a little obscure band called Metallica. "Fade to
Black" was definitely the song.
Good to see Glen posting here and that he's doing well. The verse from the "Smoke a Bowl Shuffle" still cracks me up. "I'm Glen the Phone Man/I was born to Rock/Chicks dig me/For my 12-inch *referee's whistle sound effect*
Scott and Glen were great, but I remember liking the weekend shows with Paul Kaiser (was that his name?) better because I was more into stuff like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, etc. and he seemed to play that much more. I remember hearing Maiden's version of "Cross-Eyed Mary" for the first time when he played it.
The reason I'm posting is because several years ago I bought a used copy (vinyl) of Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy" and the clerk at the store told me that it had belonged to Scott Loftus and I was wondering if there was any truth to that statement. This would have been at least ten years ago. The store was in Buffalo Grove at the corner of Dundee and Arlington Heights roads.
I have no idea why this random thought popped into my head today, but Scott, if you happen to catch this, I'm really curious. And if you want the album back, make me an offer. It's still in great shape.
WOW! Do all us "Head Bangers" just randomly google Scott be cause of some subliminal messages hidden in those "Inmates" songs?
Great to hear from Glen. I too remember those LONG nights with the coat hanger out the window, using the speaker as a pillow so MOM wouldn't hear that I was listening to the radio. I called that station 100 times a night! Boy did my mother hit the roof when she got the phone bill! Turns out...Highland park was long distance. Remember the ticket give aways? If the winning #was 13 (wich it usualy was) If you were 3 all you had to do was stay on the line and Glen would pick up again and say 5...7...9... I LOVED THOSE DAYS!!!!!!!!
All right, this page used to be the first hit on Google if you searched for - Chicago "Scott Loftus" -, but it's now number five. C'mon, we gotta get it back up there! Uh, somehow...
This is hilarious...I also googled Scott Loftus after coming across Rebel Radio Chicago, an AM station that started back in '94. I used to listen to VVX 103.1 back in my metal days (I think everyone's is 7th to 10th grade, except for the really hardcore) and won tickets to Megadeth, Danzig, and a few others I can't remember. Then Y108 took over...the stations were supposed to 'work together' but it ended up being just a takeover. Y108 became some lame station and good metal disappeared from the Chicago area radio waves. Thanks for the memories! I don't listen to much metal anymore either, but check out In Flames or Unearth for more of a good, classic sound. Rock on, broheim!
Quick VVX memory...one time in 7th or 8th grade I called in and requested "Quest for Herb" by Murphy's Law (damn...I was already cool at that age). Being a young innocent at the time I thought the song was called 'Quest for HERB (the name)', like they were going on a mission to find some guy named Herb. Of course the girl DJ (who sounded very hot to me in junior high) thought it was hilarious but was nice enough because she knew I was a kid and played it.
This is too funny. I listened religously to VVX. I've never heard another radio station as good as that. It was a great mix of hard rock, metal, local, even christian metal! Anyone remember Ross Cluver on Sunday nights after Paul Kaiser and "One Off The B-Side"! That show still kicked ass. I remember getting turned on to all sorts of bands on that. Then "John" had the heavier show although the name escapes me. He turned me on to all the best thrash and early death metal bands back in the day. They did a lot for local bands too like Sweet Sybil, Radakka, Smash Alley, Theatre, Insania, Nikki Foxx, etc..Let's see besides Glenn the phone guy who was always hysterical, there was Ralph Rassmussen, Kim Kelly, Glorianne the phone girl, and Cece Hurran. What memories!
Kim Kelly... That's not the same Kim Kelly who's a DJ in Vegas right now, is she?
Just found out that Scott Loftus died in a car accident back in the summer of 2005...must have happened on the highway to hell! RIP http://smanofsteel76.wordpress.com
/2007/02/15/1031-wvvx/#comment-9695
Oh, Christ on a stick. :( :( :( Any other sources for this? Where did it happen?
I remember one night calling in and talking to Scott. He was the coolest guy in the world. As a typical teenage girl I was talking about a bad breakup with my boyfriend. A few guys called into the show asking for my phone number. As a naive teen I gave out my phone number on the air. My parents were so mad when my phone rang off the hook until 3am. Crazy highschool memories. Please let me know if it is true Scott that was killed. After I read the previous post I wanted to cry. email: honeypot5778@yahoo.com
Thanks,
Chris
Yeah I know where the G-String is but where is Scott Locust?
The weird and wacky world of "scott Loftus"
Yeah Dude! Those were the days, WVVX/RPM rocked. I remember playing hell to get the signal in Cicero back in '85. Sometimes it was good, most times it was static. But it was great when it came in - Loved Scot Loftus. The intro to RPM was great, WMET before it changed format would have the saying "Enough is Enough" said through hard rock songs. Fitting that when MET started to suck RPM did it to a Manilow song.
Miss the hell out of those days.
Keep Rockin' Dudes!!!
Wow, what a great thread. Brings back lots of memories. I stumbled upon it when I was wondering whatever happened to Scott. Does anyone remember Metal Vision? That was the one off tv show Scott and Glenn did at like 1:00 in the morning on one of the local tv stations (like channel 44 or something). I taped it and watched the hell out of it!
Hmm, never caught Scott Loftus on TV. There was a guy in Naperville about five years ago who did a good metal show on public access; played a very good variety. Dream Theater, Cannibal Corpse, Die Krupps, you name it.
Wow, I did a search on good ol Scott and found this instead. Oh how I loved VVX and then Y108. I had to fully extend my antenna and wrap it with foil and then no one could move in order to get a clear signal….hahahahaha Good times! If most of you were nightly listeners then you may remember me, not by name but I was the girl who won a set of autographed Metallica drumsticks. Then after a week of callers saying they didnt think I deserved them because I wasnt “excited enough” I called back in and explained how EXCITED I was but asked listeners to keep in mind that I never expected to win so I didnt have a speech prepared…lol I was in shock at the moment and also I was about 15 maybe 16 years old living with mom and its 1a.m so I couldnt exactly scream like a lunatic. It was so late I couldnt even call a friend, I had to contain myself til morning which made sleepig that night rough! Scott understood and asked the listeners to put it to rest. I STILL have the old tape of that on air conversation about those sticks and STILL have the sticks, a good almost 20 years later. So maybe now you all know how much I have cherished them….lol I just listened to that old tape not too long ago and will cherish that forever also! Man I miss that radio station. Scott if youre out there, you are greatly missed and we would love to hear from you somewhere, somehow. Seems silly but you were a huge part of most of our youth. Not many DJ’s I remember but you are one I will never forget!
I remember when WVVX first came on the air. Scott Loftus, Paul Kaiser, Ron Simon (both from WRRG), Glenn The Phone Man, and Mike the Overnight guy. Later The G-ster from WLS came on and did a late-night metal show after Loftus. Kim Kelly also was there until the end, and also Tony "Shark"Labarbera.
In 1986 there was rift with some of the VVX crew, and they went to launch WZRC on 106.7fm, that was Z-rock. Later Scott Davidson and ex-Z-rockers former G-Force (now called Rebel radio) to compete for heavier listeners of WVVX.
The irony after Loftus and gang left WVVX, Scott Davidson's Rebel Radio crew took over and pissed on Loftus. It was weird back then, a lot of tension between the hard band radio guys and thrash metal guys. Only in Chicago right?
Well Scott Davidson has nothing on Loftus ~ he created heavy metal radio in Chi-town.
I have been listening to Scott Davidson on Rebel Radio for 15 years and now they are on full time on AM 1500 wpjx. Whenever I call and make a song request he is very cool and knows metal music better then anyone I know.
Rockin' Ron Simon is still supporting Lynch these days who sound great! I heard Ron is on-air at a digital hard rock station~KDKT-US. So many memories from the Thirsty Whale for sure. Anyone remember Bongskies in The Boyz Room?
Hi, I just found your blog after Googling "Scott Loftus". I remember him on Y108 (advertised as 107.9, Y108!). I especially liked the "Thursday Night Thrash Attack" when we'd hear D.R.I., Suicidal Tendencies, Overkill, Exodus, and many other adrenaline-fueled metal bands.
Those guys all played the devils music.
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t231/poorjon/obvious_troll.jpg
Yes, thanks for acknowledging us. I am back with former Z-rock staff: Madd Maxx Hammer, Wild Bill Scott, and the Tiptonizer...
Rock out with us!
Rockin' Ron Simon
www.kdkt.us/
Does anyone remember the group Theatre? I can google Joker, Enuff and Vandal and come up with something but never these guys,
Dream Theater, of course; again, "Pull Me Under" was playing when I first came across Scott's enterprise on Y108. I don't recall a band called just Theatre, though.
Dream Theater, of course; again, "Pull Me Under" was playing when I first discovered Scott's enterprise on Y108. Don't recall a band called just Theatre, though.
RPM, Real Precious Metal. Very cool, and I think they weren't even in stereo! It was 831-1031 for those tickets. my brother, RIP, would listen every night and make tapes not just of music but of Scott & Glenn the Phoneman talking. Kim the Phone Fox. I also recall Scott deciding he didn't want to play MOD's A.I.D.S. anymore, not comfortable with the anti-gay message.
I googled "Scott and Glen" and bongski's and found this site. I have fond memories of staying up late studying at Great Lakes Naval Training Center and listening to their awesome show, back in 1985. What a blast! I've never stopped missing it.
That is awesome! I listened to you guys religiously. I lived near Orland Park & would tune in each night & stayed up until sleep pulled me under. I'm probably 3 inches shorter than I should be due to lack of sleep from all the late nights. Just kidding. But nothing has come close to the awesomeness of vvx!
I sang backup with a bunch of others girls on “Scott and Glenn are Coming to Town”.... Xmas song they recorded with Holland. Good times. No Chicago radio compares to RPM.
Sweet! When was that, VVX or Y108?
VVX - 1985
I remember Scott real well. Used to talk to him a lot when he was at WVVX and later Y108 and was close to winning a contest to sit in the studio with him and even be a guest DJ at Y108 but then he suddenly left there to go to one of those wimpy downtown radio stations so it never happened. Later I did DJ at Elmhurst College on there radio station on Metal Fridays. Sadly Chicago radio outside of WVVX has sucked. People claim WMET was once good but I remember them playing basic rock even in the early 80s And even since Loftus disappeared we have had nothing. Rebel Radio plays soft metal all the time so I gave up on them.
I remember Scott and WVVX. Only radio station worth a damn. Although they played mostly Glam rock and hair bands even though there were real metal bands back then putting out great stuff like Venom, Sodom, Destruction, King Diamond (Who many feared due to him being a real Satanist and still is) and Possessed and Overkill and other metal bands that they really never played except for maybe one hour a week on Thursday Night Thrash Attack. But even still the station was much harder than anything else we had at the time as The Blaze was a joke of course
I think it is sad that a major market like this has had only one true metal station in all of these decades. And you have to go way back to the 80.s for WVVX. This city needs True Metal radio station SO bad and always has!
Outside of WVVX we have had nothing. Unless you count The Blaze or Rebel Radio lol which are no different than your average mainstream corporate stations that fear playing actual metal and will not take metal requests anymore than WXRT, WLUP or WCKG. Good news is these days with the internet you can find and play metal anytime you want.
For a brief time around in early '98 I think, on Saturday nights there were *four* metal stations available to me out in Plano: Rebel Radio (Scott Davidson, Marc Valentino and company), one down in Will County (Vikki LeBrock), North Central College's (WONC) metal show, and Freak's Radio Anarchy on 103.5. One of them's playing some barkcore shit? I had *three others* to check. Ah, coming out of the dark time...
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