03-10 Former Polydor & MCA Executive Gina Iorillo-Corrales talks about her career in the music business!
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This latest episode of Rock And Roll Confessional is with our good friend Gina Iorillo - Corrales. We met Gina at the radio station back in the 90s. Gina grew up with in the music business with her family owning and running the Agoura Ballroom in Cleveland. She worked for Mercury / Polydor music & MCA Records, and was the first female vice-president of rock promotion of a record company.
Gina Iorillo - Corrales show Notes:
The Agoura Ballroom in Cleveland Ohio:
The Pop Shop: Defunct punk club. Was located in the basement of the old Agora at 1730 E 24th St near the corner of Payne Ave, on the urban campus of Cleveland State University. This incarnation of the Agora was actually the second of three. The club was founded in 1966 by Henry LoConti Sr, on Cornell Rd, near Case Western Reserve University, but quickly outgrew the space and moved to the E. 24th site in 1967. The downstairs club was originally called the Mistake, then renamed the Pop Shop (dates uncertain), which hosted punk bands and lesser known acts (the upstairs Agora featured more mainstream bands, including some big names like AC/DC). The Pop Shop closed Sep 1984, and a month later the building was damaged by fire. The Agora relocated to 5000 Euclid Ave, where it remains in operation as of 2018. The old Agora/Pop Shop building was razed and is now a CSU parking lot. Henry LoConti Sr. died in 2014.
Springsteen bootleg album cover
WMMS in Cleveland – one of the biggest Rock radio stations at it’s peak. WMMS (100.7 FM) – branded 100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard – is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Widely regarded as one of the most influential rock stations in America throughout its history,[a][b][26][27] the station has also drawn controversy for unusually aggressive tactics both on and off the air.[28][29][30] Owned by iHeartMedia, and broadcasting a mix of active rock and hot talk, WMMS is currently the flagship station for Rover's Morning Glory, the FM flagship for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Guardians radio networks, the Cleveland affiliate for The House of Hair with Dee Snider and the home of radio personality Alan Cox.
Signing on in 1946 as the FM adjunct to WHK, the WMMS call letters were affixed in 1968 under Metromedia ownership, having stood for "MetroMedia Stereo" and meant as a compliment to the newly established progressive rock format, but have since taken on a variety of other meanings. Created in April 1974 as "an ironic twist on Cleveland's down-and-out reputation as a decaying Rust Belt city," the station's longtime promotional mascot has been "The Buzzard".[31] In 1981, Radio & Records identified "the malevolent feathered figure" as "the best-known station symbol in the country."[32] "De-emphasized" in the fall of 2007, the scavenger was revived the following spring to coincide with the station's 40th anniversary and with the arrival of morning personality Rover.[33][34]
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, WMMS had a stable of personalities that remained fundamentally unchanged,[26][27] attained a dominant market share in the local ratings[27][35][36][37] and posted market record-high figures "never duplicated by any other station."[27][36] WMMS played a key role in breaking several major acts in the U.S., including David Bowie, Rush, and Bruce Springsteen.[26] Station employees went on to take director and executive-level positions in the recording industry, namely with labels RCA, Mercury, and Columbia.[38][39] Considered "a true radio legend," WMMS DJ Kid Leo was chosen for Rolling Stone's "Heavy Hundred: The High and Mighty of the Music Industry" (1980) and named "The Best Disc Jockey in the Country" in a special 1987 issue of Playboy.[39][40] Noted filmmakers, including Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) and Paul Schrader (Light of Day), have called on both The Buzzard and its personnel while preparing for various rock-themed productions.[41][42] WMMS was also a major driving force behind the successful campaign to bring the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Cleveland.
Rolling Stone named WMMS "Best Radio Station" (Large Market) nine straight years (1979–87) as part of the magazine's annual Readers' Poll,[26] but the station admitted to stuffing the 1987 ballot following a February 1988 front-page story in The Plain Dealer exposing manipulation.[44][45][46] Seven years later, members of the station's staff and management pleaded guilty to disrupting a national broadcast of The Howard Stern Show that originated via the local Stern affiliate, cross-town rival WNCX. A federal offense, the act nearly cost WMMS its broadcasting license.[47] Owned by Malrite Communications from 1972 to 1993, subsequent consolidation in the radio industry saw WMMS change ownership five times in seven years, and has been in iHeartMedia's portfolio (originally under the Clear Channel name) since 1999.
The WMMS studios are located at the former Centerior Energy building in the Cleveland suburb of Independence, while the station transmitter resides in neighboring Seven Hills. Besides a standard analog transmission, WMMS broadcasts over three HD Radio channels, and is available online via iHeartRadio. The WMMS-HD2 digital subchannel – which relays its signal over low-power FM translator W256BT (99.1) – airs an all-news format as Cleveland's affiliate of iHeart's Black Information Network, while WMMS-HD3 airs an alternative rock format.
Read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMMS
Learn more about Kid Leo here: Lawrence James Travagliante—better known by his on-air moniker Kid Leo—serves as both General Manager and afternoon disc jockey on Little Steven's Underground Garage on Sirius XM Radio (channel 21). He first began in radio in 1973 at noted Cleveland rock station WMMS (100.7 FM, "The Buzzard"). During his 16-year tenure, WMMS was consistently one of the highest-rated radio stations in the country. In 1988 he left to work as an executive at Columbia Records, where he served until 2002. Since 2004, Travagliante has been involved with Underground Garage. He also currently operates his own consultancy, LJT Entertainment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Leo
Meatloaf singing the National Anthem at the All-Star game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDSZxUlGZnA
One of Gina’s favorite artists to work with was Sass Jordan – Check out some of her videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL7Z4RIosrI
Sass Jordan with Taylor Hawkins and the Foo Fighters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw-v36yrisQ
Sass Jordan - High Road Easy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myXZSAQ_unY
Do you want to go camping, there are plenty of great spots in Mid – Southern California and you can check out Gina’s website to make a reservation- heck, why not! : https://campone.com/
