THE MOODY BLUES, BON JOVI: Talk about radio's role in their success
Radio was the star at this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony as The Moody Blues, Dire Straits, The Cars and Bon Jovi all acknowledged the role it played in their success.
A portion of Jon Bon Jovi's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech in which he thanks radio for their help in his rise to success:
"By 1982 I had written and recorded a bunch of songs, but one of them stood out, it was called 'Runaway.' And after sending that cassette to every label, every manager I could think of I thought, 'Who is the loneliest man in the music business? The DJ.' There was a new station in New York City called WAPP. It was so new that there wasn't even a receptionist so I was able to walk in and get the attention of John Lassman and the DJ, Chip Hobart. I told them about the song on the cassette and the frustration of not getting any label to listen to it. Well Chip did listen and he told me he thought it should be included on their homegrown record of local music. A few months later, 'Runaway' was playing on the radio, not only in New York, but in Tampa, in Chicago, in Detroit, in Denver and in other markets."
Unbeknownst to Jon, both John Lassman, now at KQRS in Minneapolis, and Chip Hobart, now retired, were backstage Saturday. When Bon Jovi met with members of the press, Jon was surprised to see them and invited them onto the podium to thank them publicly once again and to acknowledge their role in his success.
John Lodge and Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues singled out four American disc jockeys -- Mancow, Howard Stern (who was there inducting Bon Jovi) and the late Scott Muni and Alison "Nightbird" Steele of the also deceased legendary New York station WNEW-FM.
John Lodge of The Moody Blues thanks American radio during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech:
"I'd like to thank American radio for supporting us for five decades. Their belief in us has just been tremendous and it's given us encouragement to keep going and doing everything we love to do, and that's make music."
For The Cars, it was a jock on Boston's former rock powerhouse, WBCN, who opened the doors for them.
Elliot Easton thanks Maxanne Sartori from WBCN for helping The Cars become successful:
"In the very early days of the band we had an angel in the form of a lady named Maxanne Sartori. She began to play our demo tape in heavy rotation. It actually started being reported in heavy rotation. It actually started being reported in radio tip sheets like The Gavin Report and the rest of them. So it would say something like 'The Cars - Just What I Needed' and then the column where the record label would normally be it said, 'Tape.' So that really got the attention of the A&R staffs and labels. Maxanne did that and we will forever be indebted to her for her incredible support in getting this thing going."