Prelude
Chicago disc jockey Steve Dahl was fired from local radio station WDAI when it switched formats from rock to disco. Dahl was subsequently hired by rival album-rock station WLUP, "The Loop". Sensing an incipient anti-disco backlash and playing off the publicity surrounding his firing (Dahl frequently mocked WDAI's "Disco DAI" slogan on the air as "Disco DIE"), Dahl created a mock organization called "The Insane Coho Lips Anti-Disco Army" to oppose disco. Dahl and broadcast partner Garry Meier regularly mocked and heaped scorn on disco records on the air. Dahl also recorded his own parody: Do You Think I'm Disco?, a satire of Rod Stewart's disco-oriented hit Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?.
Meanwhile, on May 2, 1979 the Detroit Tigers-Chicago White Sox game at Comiskey Park was rained out. American League rules called for the game to be made up at the teams' next meeting in Chicago. Thursday, July 12, 1979 was to have featured a single night game, to kick off a four-game weekend series, the last series before the All-Star Break. The single game date was switched to a twi-night doubleheader.
Dahl and Meier, along with Mike Veeck (son of then-White Sox owner Bill Veeck), WLUP Promotion Director Dave Logan and station sales manager Jeff Schwartz, devised a promotion that involved people bringing unwanted disco music records to the game in exchange for an admission fee of 98ยข (the fee represented the station's location on the FM dial, 97.9). The records would be collected, placed in a large crate in center field, and blown up by Dahl.
Read more about this topic: Disco Demolition Night
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