Jonathon “Johnny B” Brandmeier

He was born John Francis Brandmeier in Fond du Lac on July 15, 1956, to a German father and a Lebanese mother, and was on the air at hometown WFON-FM at fifteen after asking the boss what to do and being told to "just keep it on the air." Every morning his mother left Reader's Digest jokes beside the cereal with a note that said "Have fun, John"—a line he quoted in his Hall of Fame speech.

At eighteen he moved through Oshkosh, Appleton, San Jose, Rockford, and Milwaukee's WOKY, where a Los Angeles talent hunt put him in a top-five group that also included Howard Stern. At Phoenix's KZZP he tripled the morning numbers in six months. In 1983 Chicago's The Loop won a national bidding war and made him the city's morning star, complete with a bar band called the Leisure Suits and parody singles that still turn up at weddings. He won a Marconi Award in 1995; Illinois declared a Johnny B Day in 2013. Later stops included WGN and national syndication.

The professional peak belongs to Phoenix and Chicago. The origin story is a Fond du Lac FM stick and a kitchen table.