1 of 1- Claude
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John Lennon "Beatles more popular than Jesus"
In August 1966 just before turning 19 and leaving home for the Army, I was working weekends at a small 1000 watt daytime station when this statement was made. Our station made the decision not to play any more Beatles songs and man, did the phones light up when we had to announce this! I don't remember how long we kept this policy but I don't think it was very long. Were any other DJs on the board working in radio at that time? Audience reactions?
- memphis boy
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Re: John Lennon "Beatles more popular than Jesus"
just from documentaries I've seen I'm sure there were many stations in the bible belt that did boycott the Beatles. One station in Alabama sponsored a Beatle Burning of records and memorabilia. Too bad since his statement was taken out of context. Lennon wanted to say something funny but Epstein told him it was too serious to get funny. He got his humorous dig in when he said "If I'd said we were more popular than TV I'd would have gotten away with it."
- Claude
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Re: John Lennon "Beatles more popular than Jesus"
I forgot to mention that our little station was located in southwest Virginia very near the TN state line. The Bible belt for sure.
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