John DeBella Nominated for Radio Hall of Fame Induction

The Radio Hall of Fame has nominated John DeBella for induction as part of their class of 2023.

MGK Program Director Bill Weston joined The John DeBella Show on Thursday morning to make the announcement.

The accolades just keep pouring in for John ahead of his retirement on June 30. He joined the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame in April with his own plaque on the Avenue of the Arts in Center City.

Additionally, his career will come to the center of attention at a luncheon hosted by the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia and MGK’s special sendoff happy hour at Parx Casino next week.

He also hopes to go out with the biggest Veterans Radiothon ever on Friday, June 16 to properly wrap up the impact he’s had on the community during his career.

The Radio Hall of Fame “honors those who have contributed to the development of the radio medium throughout its history” in the United States.

A committee narrowed down the initial list of about 2500 suggestions to determine the 24 nominees for 2023. 

Roughly 800 voters who’ve made an impact in the industry will induct six of the 24 nominees. A selection committee will also decide on the other two additional inductees.

The Radio Hall of Fame will announce the winners on July 24, and the induction ceremony will take place on Nov. 2 at the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel.

John DeBella will retire after a legendary career spanning over 48 years, 41 of them in the Philadelphia market, going all the way back to his days on The Morning Zoo on MMR and extending to the past 21 years at MGK. 

He earned a nomination for the “on-air success and the audience relationship” that has made him as central to radio in Philadelphia as any personality.

He taught listeners to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” and his legacy will last long after his upcoming retirement.

Pull for the Radio Hall of Fame to give John DeBella another honor for his timeless impact.

As part of his 41 & Done daily segments, John DeBella takes us through some of his most memorable radio moments.

This series comes on the heels of John DeBella's retirement announcement. After 41 long years in radio, John has decided to retire at the end of his contract on June 30^th. His career has been legendary. So legendary, in fact, it's hard to cram it all into one short summary. So, to honor and look back on 4 decades of stellar radio, 41 & Done was born.

Before he hangs up his headphones and calls it a career on June 30th, he's going to take a look at some of his best radio moments every morning during the John DeBella Show. From the traditions of days past to the epic rock stars he's interviewed, you're gonna hear some interesting stuff. You'll be surprised at just how much he's crammed into his time in the radio business.

It's an ode to his hard work and a fun way to send John off to his retirement (that isn't TOO sad).  After all, a career this significant deserves all of the recognition it can get. Hear John's memories live each morning, or keep an eye on the WMGK website for daily 41 & Done recaps.

Pete was in town on a tour for his "Psychoderelict" album. At about 11:45 at night, Pete came walking up to the radio station for an interview with John. He saw John, pointed, and said, "I know you." And that's when John knew this would be good.

It was the longest and probably best interview of his career, according to John. Well at least, that's definitely what he was thinking in the moment. It was then he realized his lifelong idol was sitting at the table across from him and he was just as drunk as John was. Pete kept a copy of the interview on his own desk for years.

For this edition of 41 & Done, our very own John DeBella tells the story about the Morning Zoo’s dinner with Foreigner's Mick Jones and Lou Gramm. Find out why to this day, John's wife Lisa's favorite rock star of all time is Mick Jones from Foreigner because he was her champion.

For this edition of 41 & Done, John tells the story of a listener who used The Morning Zoo and The John DeBella Show to get through some really tough times. Becoming family with listeners has been one of the greatest honors of John's career.

John sat with the press at the absolute top of JFK Stadium. At some point, there was an intermission in the show. All of a sudden, there was an announcement: “John DeBella, would you please come to the backstage area? Please come to the backstage.” He gets to the backstage area where Gilmour says, “come here, come here. We’ve got a problem.”

There happened to be some musicians in there helping with the show, so they had some instruments set up. When in Rome, right? Instruments, Mungo Jerry, a captive audience. DeBella figured, why not ask? So he convinced him to do a song. And the whole group is going along with it. Everybody in the restaurant was listening to it.

For this Friday edition of 41 & Done, John celebrates Hawaiian shirt Fridays. It was a tradition he wanted to let go of. Something he was maybe a little embarrassed by. For years, DeBella avoided all things Morning Zoo.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, John loves comedians. The first time comedian Bob Marley came into the studio, DeBella did not know what to be prepared for. But there is no one comic like Bob who provides enough gold for a flashback. We laughed just as hard at it as we did the first time listening back to these. When John saw him in the club the first time he came really close to yelling out “Stop, stop!” Because he was in so much pain from laughing.

In 1978, Warner Brothers decided to throw a debut party for the new Doobie Brothers album, Minute by Minute. The Doobie Brothers had been on A roll for the past couple of albums. A couple of years earlier, they had the single “Takin’ It To The Streets” out and Warner Brothers decided to have a “takin’ it to the streets” party. They closed off the intersection of Mulberry and Mott streets in the middle of Little Italy in Manhattan. These parties were always special, but DeBella was used to going to them. John assumed that this would be like any other party, but for some reason, this one became a huge Hollywood event. There were more actors at this party than there were radio and record people. 

When you do this for a living, you don’t necessarily on a daily basis understand how involved people are with the radio program. Since he made the retirement announcement, though, John has gotten e-mails from people that have brought him to tears. Here is one that reminded him why he loves radio.

During the course of the year, the Morning Zoo did the Atlantic City broadcast and also a week of shows in London. When in London they heard about this guy. He had the “Graceland Chinese restaurant.” Graceland? What the heck did those two things have to do with each other? They went to the restaurant and Paul Chan, who was the owner, was also a huge Elvis fan. And performs an Elvis show every night. In his restaurant. 

In 2011, The John DeBella Show got to speak to Christopher Walken. And in that conversation, John asked him about who does the best impression of him. Because everybody at that time was doing impressions of him and, well, the conversation went like this…with a big surprise. 

Any night of the week, you could go to a club and see any a band that was coming through town. DeBella’s friends and him frequented this place called The Action House more than any of the others. It was close by. They wouldn’t check our ID and we could drink. Yeah, they were underage drinking. Someone said they heard good things about this band that was playing at The Action House that night.

When The Morning Zoo would do the shows in Atlantic City, Warren Zevon would come. When people would come in, they would come in the afternoon before they were going to appear. They’d get themselves settled in and then they would rehearse with the Flaming Caucasians and they would figure out what songs they were gonna do the next day. The Caucasians could do anything. There was nothing you could throw at that band that they could not do.

You have to have this piece of context before you listen to the interview. Paul McCartney once told a story about how him and John Lennon were walking down the street and a cab came by. It was Keith and Mick inside. The two of them said, “Hey, give us a lift!” So, they jumped in the cab with them. They started talking about music. At the time, Paul was working on, “I Wanna Be Your Man.” The Stones were looking for a song. Listen to Bill set the record straight. 

So this one particular year DeBella was going to stay at a hotel most musicians hung out at. A man was outside the hotel waiting for John to arrive. He said, “Don’t check into the hotel. Bob Marley has made arrangements for you to use one of his properties.” They drive a little further up the road and off the beaten path, and they pulled up to this really nice house. If Bob Marley wants to take care of you, you’re gonna let Bob Marley do that.

John was doing his business. Some guy, drunk out of his mind, comes in and needs the urinal also. The thing was 20-some-odd feet long, but where does he stand? Right next to John.  Standing is really in question, as well, because he was weaving from side to side. DeBella made the mistake of turning and looking to his left to make sure the guy wasn’t going to tip over. At that very moment, the guy turned his head and saw John. In 1984, John’s notoriety in town was really beginning to build. So he wasn’t the most anonymous person on the planet. As he turns and sees John, there was a look of recognition. 

On this one particular day, when Roger Daltrey was there on the show, John said, “Tomorrow, Kenny Jones is going to be here, and Pete was here the other day. You’re here today and the one person we unfortunately weren’t able to get a hold of was the ox. So we have his phone number here. So what we’d like to do is call him.” 

John touts Chris as hands down, one of the most interesting characters he has ever had on his radio show.  Their bond was definitely one that was destined to happen. Over the years, the two got close by swapping rock stories. He is one of John’s favorite recurring guests ever.

John was not gonna let an opportunity pass. John thought if he could get Jon Anderson to sing, it would be epic. When they came down to Atlantic City, they thought they were coming to do a live radio show. Or, a live show from a radio station. They didn’t realize that the show itself was being broadcast as well.

Things went relatively smoothly at first. But, John was definitely dressed wrong for the club. Not that he looked unhip. He was wearing too much clothing. It was hot in the club and he was sweating bullets. To calm himself down, he decided to drink Jack Daniels. So we’ve got nerves, overdressed, hot room, bourbon.

When he came in, this was at the time when most radio stations and people weren’t putting comics on the air. Most of America really didn’t know about him. But he had just been on The Tonight Show. It was one of his earliest appearances. We got him to appear in Atlantic City as well years later because he always loved Philly. This clip is likely from 1984/85. Jerry Seinfeld in the studio.