Who were the instigators of the disco inferno in Chicago? Certainly not women or minorities; and probably not gays. It was, I think, a reactionary stunt spurred on by one of those pre-Howard Stern DJ's looking to gain notoriety and ratings by appealing to the worst aspects of young white dumb guys.

Your putting me into a mildly defensive position Ed. Steve Dahl was the instigator of this stunt and Yes, he was looking to gain notoriety. But the appeal of Dahl at that point for me, as it is now, is his on air persona, as an open and fairly honest host. Has been for 25 years. Yeah he's had his share of stunt and poor decisions, but he's still a ratings winner here in this city, with a very diverse audience. He also was already on the air in Detroit,and successful when Stern came to Detroit to broadcast before his rise to fame.

As far as your "young, white dumb guys" comment. Yeah we're talking about 18 -25 year old guys. Nobody was running around during this period here with the mantra of "Kill the faggot (or homo...take your pick) music" which is what I think your trying to imply was the "real truth". The station that sponsored it was a rock station and disco had permeated even groups like KISS. I'm not here to defend disco or rock but it had seeped into most forms of popular music and the "young dumb white guys" just wanted their guitars back, sans the keyboards.

I firmly believe that at the time this was NOT an event aimed at gays or minorities. In hindsight the event may have ultimately taken on that tone, but that is not the way it felt to me for the past 25 years. Yeah a bunch of white youth, got a little out of control at a baseball game. It was not a hate spewing anti minority, large scale gay bashing.

It was a reaction to some very bad, soulless preprogrammed type of music.