Famed Chicago Radio Host Larry Lujack Dies At 73

Famed Chicago radio personality Larry Lujack has died.

Luack's wife, Judith, says her 73-year-old husband died Wednesday evening at their home in Santa Fe, N.M., of esophageal cancer.

In his 20 years at WLS-AM and WCFL-AM until 1987, Lujack was an immensely popular disc jockey in large part because listeners in Chicago and elsewhere in the country had never heard anyone like him before. Unlike the saccharine, upbeat broadcasters who dominated Top 40 radio at the time, Lujack was sarcastic, funny and grumpy. And that resonated with listeners who felt the same way. 

Longtime Chicago media critic Robert Feder says similarly "real'' radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern and Don Imus owe a debt of gratitude to Lujack.