[Description by Art Roberts]

“The third great program director I had the pleasure of working with is John Rook. In 1967, a rumor was racing around the station that John was being hired, and his orders were to clean house. Get rid of everybody. I had at least a dozen calls warning me that the “party was over.” Now, I have always believed that rumors were forty-percent fact, which leaves a lot of questioning room. Besides, there were two people I dearly liked and trusted, Mike Joseph, a consultant, and Joe Kolsky, a record executive with Roulette Records. They both called to me tell me that John had an undeserved reputation.
Art Roberts was born in New York City and passed away March 6, 2002 in Reno, Nevada, following a stroke. He was 70. This aircheck features 49 minutes of Art’s midday show from August 1968.
He was a brilliant programmer who would guide the station to new heights. I believed them. When John arrived, I asked if we could have lunch. He thought that would be a good idea. We walked down the block to the Executive House Hotel to get away from the crowd, and sat down in a quiet corner. I told him about the barrage of negative calls, and what Mike and Joe had to say. We talked about WLS, where it was and where he felt it should be, his programming philosophy, and how I might help him reach his goal. We walked back to the station, friends. And have remained that way to this day. John turned us into “The Big 89″. As he predicted, the station did soar to new heights.”

–Art Roberts, Thinkin’ Out Loud, ©2000 Bar 5 Publishing