Disco Demolition Night (Episode 57)

On a hot July evening in 1979, thousands of Chicagoans gathered in Comisky Park for a double-header between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. After a lackluster season, White Sox owner Bill Veeck was hoping to fill seats with a promotion called "Disco Demolition Night", in which spectators could get a discount ticket if they brought a disco record to be blown up by local radio celebrity Steve Dahl. 

On this all-American episode, we're discussing the national game (baseball) and the national music (rock 'n roll, baby), along with riot police, disco, explosions, radio talk shows, blow-dried hairdos and one very pissed-off radio DJ. 

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Sources for this episode include: 

"Disco Demolition Night" by A. Behrens for ESPN Chicago, 2004

“When Fans Wanted to Rock,the Baseball Stopped: Sports, Promotions, and the Demolition of Disco on Chicago’s South Side" by C. J. Young for The Baseball Research Journal, 2009

"The Death of Disco Did Not Take Place: Disco Demolition Night and The Rhetorical Destruction of Disco" by J. Williams for the Richard Macksey Journal, 2021

“Disco Demolition 25th Anniversary: The Real Story", 2000

"Disco Demolition Night was Not Racist, Not Anti-Gay" by S Dahl for Medium, 2016

"Disco Demolition: The Night They Tried to Crush Black Music" by A. Petridis for the Guardian, 2019