CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Friday marked 50 years at WXRT for legendary DJ Terri Hemmert, and the celebration matched the accomplishment.
The City of Chicago officially declared Friday, Nov. 3, 2023 as "Terri Hemmert Day. XRT also recognized Hemmert by naming the station studios in her honor.
She said Friday the best part of the job has been her listeners.
"We have the most incredible audience, and not just me, but everybody here, has this long history with the audience, I mean that just doesn't happen," Hemmert said.
That, she said, is the beauty of radio.
"It's such an intimate medium and the privilege of serving Chicago for decades like all of us have here. We love the city, we love the listeners, and we get the love back in spades," added Hemmert.
An estimated 73 million viewers watched the Beatles first appearance on Feb. 9, 1964. Among them: a teenager in Piqua, Ohio, named Terri Hemmert.
“Life changer — and I wasn’t the only one,” she said.
As the country got lost in Beatlemania, Hemmert noticed something else; radio disc jockeys had a front row seat, and that gave her an idea.
“I thought, ‘If I got to be a disc jockey, I could meet the Beatles,’” Hemmert said.
It was the beginning of a journey that would take her through Elmhurst College, as well as rock stations in Oak Park and Rochester, New York.
Then, on Nov. 3, 1973, she signed on at 93.1 WXRT, a station that carried foreign language programming during the day and aired rock ’n’ roll at night.
“We were on the air from 10 p.m. to, like, 5 or 6 in the morning,” she said. “There’d be someone on from 10 p.m. – 1 a.m., and I’d come in at 1 a.m. and finish it up.”
She said the solitude of the overnight shift was broken up by the occasional person who climbed the broadcast tower above the studio at 4949 W. Belmont Ave.
“You know, we had that big antennae there, and people would climb up that antennae at night and threaten to jump, or maybe they had too many drugs,” she said.
Her mom was a music teacher, and Hemmert said she's carrying on her mother’s legacy in her own way as a longtime instructor at Columbia College — and over the course of 50 years on WXRT.
“I’m my mother’s daughter,” she said. “My mom taught me that music changes lives.”
As XRT celebrates the iconic DJ, Hemmert herself is also celebrating a new Beatles release.
It's almost like the Beatles' new, last song 'Now and Then' was made for Terri Hemmert.
"The timing is kind of eerie," Hemmert laughed.
The song, released this week, features the voices of all four original Beatles, with surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr finishing what was initially an old demo recording by John Lennon.
Its release came just ahead of Hemmert's 50th anniversary at WXRT.
"It gives me pause to stop and look back and celebrate all the poeple I've met and the music I've gotten to play," said Hemmert.
She said the track also reminds her just how powerful music can be.
"It brings people together, and it hits you in the heart. Music can make you cry, make you laugh, and it's a real privilege to serve Chicago for so many years and bring music into people's lives," noted Hemmert.
Editor's Note: WXRT is a sister station of WBBM.
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