Garry Meier is a radio legend. He will tell you that it all began with a dead butterfly. One day he walked out of his house and saw a beautiful dead Monarch butterfly lying on the ground. He scooped up the lifeless harbinger of things to come and sent it to his then favorite disc jockey, Larry Lujack, the biggest jock in Chicago at the time. Larry was always talking about reincarnation and he claimed he was going to come back as a butterfly. In a note accompanying the butterfly Garry said, “I think I found your dead uncle. Sorry for your loss”. Larry read the note on the air. For Garry it was a “flashpoint” moment. Fascinated with radio, he knew what he was destined to do in life when he heard his material on the air.
What followed is an amazing career beginning as part of one of the most successful number one radio duos in the country. That fifteen-year run garnered international publicity, as well as an Emmy for the TV show Greetings From Graceland.
His wit and absorbing energy led him to his own show, interviewing a wide range of people from book authors to movie stars and everyone in between. The world and all of its contents were up for examination. He was also tapped by WGN television for the development and performance of TV segments featuring items of public interest. It greatly contributed to the expansion of his working knowledge of the intricacies and timing of both television as well as radio.
With his love of news and world events, he was pursued by WLS radio in 1996 and proceeded to take their then ailing show from twenty fifth place to number one in it’s market. These ratings remained in place until his chosen departure in 2004. During that time he won five A.I.R. Awards for Best Afternoon Show in Chicago and was awarded the National Radio and Records Award for Best Local Afternoon Talk Show Host in America. His segments have appeared on local and national television including World News Tonight. He has since hosted radio shows on WCKG, WGN AM and WGN.FM. Consistent with his previous record, he became the number one afternoon talk show while on WGN AM and had the number one podcast downloads on WGN.FM.
Garry has also been recognized multiple years by Talkers Magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential Talk Show Hosts in America”. In 2014 he was #32 out of 100 chosen nationwide.
A highlight of his career was being inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2013.
He loves what he does, carrying all of his inventory in his head and feels that even with all of his success, the best is still yet to come.