Like anyone else, I was a teen-ager who loved music. At age 14, however, there were few ways I could feed my jones for live music.
Radnor High School in Lower Merion had irregularly scheduled punk rock shows I could go to.
There were all-ages shows at RevivAnd then, miraculously, there was the Hooters.
The Hooters, for the uninitiated, was a rock band with Beatles-esque pop and two-tone, English Beat-reggae influences. Also worth mentioning, they were five cute guys. They played high schools.
In a grass-roots effort to build a fan base on their own, without major label support, they got the idea to play area high schools in a marketing blitz like no other. They called it "the lasagna tour," since almost all of the high school cafeterias served a lasagna dinner before the show.
The plan worked. When their 1983 release, "Amore," hit stores - in LP and cassette - it sold more than 100,000 copies nationwide, mostly to Delaware Valley residents.
I know; I bought one of those copies. And I also got to see the Hooters play.
About 30 times. In my possession is a scrapbook, with various clippings and many embarrassing photos of me and my friends in the requisite off-the-shoulder tops and asymmetrical hair and jelly bracelets, totally excited to be going out to the rock show.
Now, more than 15 years later, the scrapbook stands as a shrine to my fandom, and teen-age dedication to rocking out. And the bad hair too, of course.
I wasn't the only one suffering Hooter mania. WMMR gave "Amore," an independent release, frequent airplay, and even sponsored a contest, offering a free Hooters concert at your school, that drew more than 20 million postcard entries. The station had to rent a warehouse to store all the cards. Teachers and principals complained to WMMR that students wrote postcards instead of doing their homework.
For the record, Shawnee High in New Jersey sent the most postcards, and won the concert.
Longtime WMMR personality Pierre Robert was a fan and supporter back in the day. "Lots of bands made indie records that 'MMR played, it was part of the fabric of the station. The band would get a following, it'd help the nightclub, it would help the fans get a local taste for music, and help. . .the bands get signed. Everyone benefited, it even helped us be on the street."
And, the kids were happy.
