Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Praise Radio

From this morning's Radio Ink, great to hear that people didn't forget what made them popular. During their Hall of Fame introductions...

Bon Jovi credits the now defunct WAPP in New York City for giving him the break that record labels were unwilling to give him. “After sending that cassette to every label and manager I could think of, I thought, ‘Who is the loneliest person in the music business? … the DJ. There was a new station in NYC called WAPP. It was so new, that there 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 songs on the cassette and the frustration of not getting any label to listen to it. Chip did listen to it, and he told me he thought it should be included on their ‘Homegrown’ record of local original music.”

John Lodge and Justin Hayward from The Moody Blues also heaped praise on radio and spoke about some of the personalities that helped the band succeed. “I’d like to thank American radio for supporting us for five decades. And the belief in us has just been tremendous and has given us encouragement to keep going, and doing everything we love to do, and that’s make music. We’d like to thank also some of our friends at radio, Howard Stern. And the great Scott Muni (of WNEW and later, Q104.3) in New York. Hawyward said, “I would also just mention, like John and some of the radio personalities, Scott Muni and Howard, and Alison Steele (WNEW FM). She was a wonderful, wonderful DJ.”

The Cars also thanked radio when they were inducted. The Cars thanked WBCN in Boston and Maxanne for discovering and playing “Just What I needed” in heavy rotation, before they even had an album.