Gogol Bordello, a Gypsy punk band was over the top for me and the Yes show where they did three complete albums was also incredible. Honestly, some of the recent shows I have attended at The Cap have blown my mind. Jimi Hendrix, New Year’s Eve 1969 and Iron Butterfly with Led Zeppelin as the opening band were two very memorable shows. Hard to pick one particular show to go back to. What are some of your fondest memories from these performances? If you could go back to one show from your youth, which would it be and why? You have mentioned in other interviews that your connection to music dates back to your high school days, during which you played music consistently as well as attended concerts at the Fillmore East every weekend and even went to Woodstock.
It is real spur of the moment, free-form radio.
It was actually one of the upper executives of the company that owns The Peak who came up with the idea of letting me loose on the air. The good thing is that I have never been told by Chris Herrmann, The Peak’s program director or by the management of the radio station that I can’t or shouldn’t play something.
Just as the show is free form, there is no set formula for coming up with what I’m going to do After 6. That segment of my show has developed into going with a theme, saluting a particular artist or just going with the flow of the music to recreate when the disc jockey was truly in control of his own show. What I am trying to do After 6 is recreate that free from radio while at the same time remembering who my audience is and not getting too self-indulgent or go too far off the deep end. With the way radio has evolved, that’s pretty much unheard of today. As a disc jockey back then, I was hired because I knew a lot about music and I was able to play whatever I wanted to play on the air. When I started in radio, there were no playlists or specific formats to follow. What are some things that help you come up with songs to play on the spot? For example, is it what you were listening to that day, who you ran into, what you are going through personally, or simply what music is going through your head at the time? On your “After 6” segment at The Peak, there is a loose approach to what music you play, as there are never any set playlists going into it. He was a very warm, gentle soul with an angelic voice.
When he passed away a few years ago, I was very sad. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t doing this with every interviewer. Robin opened up on a very personal level about that and by the end of the interview, he was sitting at the piano and playing songs for me and telling me stories about the music. Interviews are held at all different venues and that particular one was in a very luxurious hotel plete with a piano! It was at a time when the Saturday Night Fever album was atop the charts and many rock & roll fans were turning their back on the Bee Gees for getting so involved in the whole disco scene, especially through their music. What was it that made this interview so special?
However, you have said that Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees was one of your favorite interviews of all time. Through the years you have spent time with many iconic musicians and celebrities, the likes of Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Elton John, and Wilt Chamberlain. When I returned home for the Christmas holiday break I did some fill-in work at the station and when it was time to go back to school in January, I decided to hang on to a weekend gig there and commuted back and forth from DC to New York to keep my job so I would have it when school ended.that turned into a lasting relationship with ABC who owned WPLJ and the various networks that kept me employed all through the 1970s and 1980s.īelow is Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora in his first band in 1980 on Jimmy's Show "Sights and Sounds" At first, it was just a summer job and at the end of that summer, I left the station to finish school (American University in Washington DC). I think the relationships I made during that first summer were key. What initially turned this stint into your first major gig? You got your job in the early 1970s in New York through a stint one summer at WABC-FM, which turned into a 13 year long run with WPLJ as well as various affiliates within the ABC network. Take a first-hand look as we dig into the career and experiences of broadcasting legend Jimmy Fink, and be sure to come out to his After 6 Holiday party at Garcia's on December 7 with featured band Scars on 45! Doors open at 5PM! We spoke with Jimmy about his start in radio, his most compelling interviews, the origin of his immense love for music, and more.