‍

HSL welcomed longtime Chicago disc jockey and musicologist Terri Hemmert to its office for an exciting and music-filled afternoon. Equipped with a record player and about a dozen albums, she recounted stories of how music has influenced her life.

‍

‍

Hemmert, 76, said her love for music blossomed when a babysitter gave her a recording of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.” Then, as her infatuation with The Beatles grew, Hemmert became convinced that the best way for her to meet her music idols was to become a DJ.

‍

Indeed, she has interviewed the surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr numerous times. But Hemmert has an extensive knowledge of multiple music genres.

‍

‍

Hemmert, who also is an instructor at Columbia College Chicago, has been on the WXRT-FM airwaves since 1973, and in 1981 she became Chicago radio’s first female morning drive personality. And for most of her years at the station, Hemmert has hosted “Breakfast with The Beatles,” a morning block every Sunday during which she plays Beatles songs and offers remembrances and other anecdotes about the songs and their societal impacts.

‍

Her appearance came about as part of HSL’s support of Audacy, a free broadcast and internet radio platform for the company’s 200-plus local radio stations across the U.S., including Hemmert’s.

‍

Hemmert is living a life influenced by music, and she shared a story of how it managed to change someone else’s life.

‍

Hemmert said she once visited a man in his 20s “in the throes of depression.” She played a recording of “Dancing in the Street” (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas), then asked the man how it made him feel. “It made me feel so alive!” he shouted.

‍

‍

Hemmert was inducted in 2010 into the Radio Hall of Fame, where she joined the ranks of, among many, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Biondi — credited as the first U.S. disc jockey to play The Beatles — and some radio mainstays who transitioned to television, including Larry King and Harry Carey, a sportscaster for the Chicago Cubs and other teams.

‍

HSL was delighted to spend time with Hemmert, who embodies the famous saying, “Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

‍

‍