Posted by chicagomedia.org on July 13, 2008 at 15:25:08:
Flashback: Disco Demolition Night, 1979
The box score for the most infamous promotion in sports history - six hurt, 39 arrested, and a forfeit awarded to the Detroit Tigers. The only death was symbolic - disco as an ascendant musical force.
Steve Dahl, still stirring up the airwaves as a radio host in Chicago nearly three decades later, looks back with a wide range of emotions on the landmark event he helped create - Disco Demolition Night.
"I'd say a combination of amazement, shock, horror, pride and disbelief," said Dahl, 53.
Five presidential administrations later, disco-era acts such as KC and the Sunshine Band have become familiar sights at Florida Marlins games. What would Dahl do if he were in charge of Marlins promotions?
"Maybe salsa demolition," he said by e-mail. "Just kidding about the salsa thing."
The idea on July 12, 1979 was to kill disco music for good by piling up records in center field at Comiskey Park and blowing them up between games of a doubleheader. Fans were invited to come with 98 cents admission and at least one disco record.
Dahl secretly doubted many people would pay attention to the scheme he hatched with radio colleague Garry Meier and Mike Veeck, son of then Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck.
"I was afraid no one would show up," Dahl recalled.
Wrong. Hundreds of fans stormed the field to dance on the iconic grave of Donna Summer and Co. Then they refused to leave. The host White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game of the doubleheader.
Dahl's passion was fueled partly by his Christmas eve firing in 1978 by WDAI in Chicago, which changed format from rock to disco. He was working for WLUP when he staged the ill-fated promotion. Today, WJMK-104.3 hosts his radio show, which combines personal stories of his life with music and parodies. Dahl has talked, for example, about his struggle with alcoholism, saying he stopped cold turkey in 1995 after a bender at the White Sox opener.
Unwittingly, Dahl helped the Tigers win in 1979. They entered this season as one of the favorites to reach the World Series, but stumbled through much of the season's first half. "I'm always available as a closer if the Tigers need me," he said.
(Palm Beach Post)