[1] After his death, Ward Quaal, the president of the last company for which MacCormack worked, described him as "a natural talent and one of the truly great performers of broadcasting's first 50 years.
[6] He was also the announcer for Easy Aces, Hymns of All Churches, Myrt and Marge, The Story of Joan and Kermit, The Wayne King Show, Woman in White,[5] Bouquet for You,[7] Caroline's Golden Store,[7]: 65-66.
In contrast to the primary sports-and-talk formats of WBBM and WGN, MacCormack read romantic and sentimental poetry and played classical, big band and Broadway music.
The album, The Torch Is Burning, consisted of spoken-word interpretations of classic big band era popular songs, backed by a string orchestra arranged and conducted by Russ Garcia.
While some perceived him as an aloof, effete romantic, his real-life personality was a gregarious ordinary beer drinking Joe who could walk the streets of Chicago blending in with every other blue collar man (despite owning one of the shiniest black Cadillacs in town, a self-earned perk).
MacCormack often incongruously interspersed romantic on-air poetry readings with talk of running down to the corner to buy the early edition of the morning paper which he would read while munching down a corned beef sandwich (listeners recall that his long-time engineer, who was with him the night he died while a record was playing in the first hour of the show commented on-air that MacCormack died after choking on a corned beef sandwich).
Late in his career MacCormack teamed up with recently widowed Nelson Eddy for a live concert in Chicago, leaving his flowing toupee at home and letting his fans see him as the simple radio announcer "behind the curtain" that he really was.
[13] MacCormack is cited as a member of the eclectic (and fictional) "orchestra" in The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's recording, The Intro and the Outro, where he is credited with playing the harmonica.