interview with wbab’s joe rock

He Bleeds Black and Gold by Christine Gerani

An interview with WBAB’s Joe Rock

We sat down with WBAB personality and Long Island musician Joe Rock, 43 at the ‘BAB studios. In addition to his on-air duties, performance gigs and charity work, Joe also is very active with the Long Island Music Hall of Fame and their education initiatives. We wanted to know just how he manages to get everything done!

Christine: So Joe, how do you go from being a postal worker to one of Long Island’s most visible radio personalities?

Joe – (Laughs) You did too much homework! I was already a musician playing around the Island. I got the name Joe Rock because I just knew crazy amounts of music. I once managed a record warehouse that specialized in 45’s, if you asked me an artist I could tell you their hit single. Whenever I did music trivia, they’d be like “what are you Joe Rock?” The name stuck and when I needed a stage name at one point in my life, I choose that.

I meet Fingers on a vacation. We have this shuttle van that picks us up, he took a train, I flew. The shuttle van picks us up and we’re in the van and we just start talking and he says to me “Where ya from?” New York I say he says “me too.” He asked, “Where in New York?” I say, Long Island. We start talking, and, to make it even funnier, he asks “have you ever listened to BAB?” Sure, “I’m Fingers”, oh ok. Where are you from in Long Island, Massapequa, I just spent the last few days there at my mother’s house, so I asked him where she lives and he tells me the street and it’s one of the streets that I delivered to as a postal worker. I ask him what number, he tells me, and I tell him the name and he’s like freaking out, like who is this guy but that’s just a postal thing, you know names and addresses.

We were becoming quick friends and he was looking for a new producer for Metal Shop. Growing up people used to tell me all the time I should be on the radio and I just had no idea how to do it. I was very scattered in my life when I was younger. I did some crazy things. I went out and toured the country for a year after my parents passed and all different things.

After a while, I’m finally kind of settled and established I told Fingers I don’t know anything about metal. I had never worked in radio before but I could operate a sound board since I’d done it for music gigs. I tell him that if they give me this shot I‘ll learn everything and do it. They gave me a chance. Ted Edwards was the program director at the time he hired me for the job. I came in and I started acting like I was an intern in the place, everything they needed to do I put my hand up and say “I’ll do it”. So the first time it came up that they needed somebody on the air and no one was around and I had my hand out saying “I’ll do it” and Ted said, ok.

Christine – What year was this?

Joe- 2001. You know it’s funny, I didn’t start in radio until 2001, that’s when I began, but I talk to people all the time and they say “I’ve been listening to you since the 80’s!”

Christine- You have one of those voices that seems familiar to people that’s probably why they say that.

Joe- I think the difference was when I started out I was on Metal Shop, all the listeners there were either friends of Fingers or they really felt that way. I came in to the family as a producer and a co-host, and then I was just more mature than so many other people starting out in the business. I was already in my 30’s. People talk about target demos our target demos are guys like me, so I get it, I know. I get on the air and be myself and it connects with everybody.

Christine- Were your postal co-workers shocked hearing you?

Joe – Oh absolutely. I kept telling them I was going to leave. The big insult when you’re a postal worker is “you’re just a mailman”. I’d say to them “that may be you, not me.” Mailman is what I do to earn a living. It’s not my life. I used to tell them that all the time and now that I’m out, they probably understand what I meant.

Christine – Have you ever gone postal?

Joe – I’ll tell you this much, they joke I was really close when I came to the end. I was starting to lose my mind. It’s a very difficult job. People can’t imagine the stress that those employees are under. The management really abuses its employees, not only was radio a dream and something I loved to do so much, but it saved my life.

Christine – Tell us about your involvement with the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

Joe – As soon as it started I thought it was a great idea. I was here at BAB when they first began and was invited to come out to their meetings as a liaison for the station to the board of directors. As soon as I started I realized that these people are just like me, we’re music geeks. We know all those silly things about songs, who produced what, what year it came out, and “Did you know that even though they didn’t credit them on the album this is who’s playing”. Normally I can brag about that stuff and now I get into a room full of people that all knew this stuff, now I really got some competition!

One of things I love about this is that it’s not just about the music. If it was just about the music it would be a good enough organization on its own. But it’s an educational organization too. There’s a scholarship fund, and other educational programs. We’ve been approved to able to have internships from Stony Brook and we’re working on getting it to CW Post and other Universities so that we can teach student’s audio editing. They’ll get to work with industry professionals under real world circumstances, some of my co-workers here at WBAB are willing to work with the students. We’ll teach them audio editing and they’ll create the Music Hall of Fames radio campaign. Thirty second sound bites talking about the history of music on Long Island. We’ll get a radio campaign they’ll get college credit plus real world experience with industry professionals. Plus the product that they create is a demo that they can use to hopefully get them a job. It all really clicks like that.

There’s a very cool music school, Jimmy Rosica the bass player for the Brooklyn Bridge is involved, he has an interesting concept that he does with pitch pipes. We do exhibits. In March we did “Music and Motorcycles” at Lighthouse Harley Davidson in Huntington. We had the Girl Scout chorus come out and perform you can’t get any more educational than that! We had the Melville Chapter of the Paul Green School of Rock come in and they were so good, 10 and 11 year old kids playing classic rock that the management at Lighthouse Harley Davidson had a great idea. They help sponsor Dee Snider’s Bikers for Babies Run that benefits the March of Dimes and were doing a pre-registration event in May. They figure Dee’s going to be here and he’s a Long Island Music Hall of Fame Inductee, plus Mark “The Animal” Mendoza also an inductee from Twister Sister. What if the kids played Twisted Sister songs with them? The school thought it was great. Not only did they do it there in May at the pre-registration event but they got together to perform with them again on a Tuesday night cruise from Oyster Bay. Dee was shooting a reality show for A&E that night and they filmed them performing with these kids.

One of the good things with the kids of School of Rock is that they’re doing better in so many other aspects of their lives because they’re learning how to play music. I know one of the mothers of one of the students and she said that her son used to spend so much time looking down at the ground and not paying attention to what’s going on. Now he’s started music and suddenly he’s thinking about what he’s wearing and he’s paying more attention to school and he’s so much more outgoing and social because he started learning about music.

Christine-You are a singer songwriter, and all around musician and producer. How do you make the time to do everything?

Joe- I have a very understanding girlfriend

Christine- I’m sure you do! What’s her name?

Joe- Donna. She understands what music means to me but, I feel this is important to say here because she and I discuss it a lot. As much as I love what I get to do in my life, all the musical things and everything. It’s nothing without having the home that I have. We have a life together and we have a family together and that comes first and the music enhances that, it’s not something else beside it. She understands I make the time for the music because it’s just part of me.

Christine – So now when you’re not singing, writing, or on-air, what do you like to do?

Joe- Get on my bike and ride. I’m a dedicated Harley Davidson rider. I’ve been riding and playing in bands since I was 16 years old. There’s nothing like getting on a bike and riding. That too has gone through changes in my life. I used to be one of those nut jobs that weave in and out of the lanes. I used to wear one of those skid lids as a helmet. Now, I’ve have the same bike for 16 years, a Harley Davidson Dyna Wide Glide, a Special Limited Edition for their 90^th Anniversary that they only made in 1993 and I’ve got one! We’ve been together… it’s my longest, well almost my longest relationship! My Telecaster, one of my guitars. I’ve had that longer than I had the bike. My two longest relationships are my Telecaster and my Harley, but my most important one is still Donna. I couldn’t do all the things I do without this understanding woman in my life.

Christine – Are you currently working with other artist besides yourself ?

Joe- I’m speaking to artists. I asked the questions at one time from the perspective of an artist. Five Towns College once did this seminar where you could come and ask questions. There was a producer there I asked “What would you do if you walked into a studio and you had a completely different idea than the artist had for what you wanted to do with the record?” and he said “That will never happen.” He said “I said I sit down with every artist before we go into the studio to make sure we’re on the same page”. So I will speak with artist before I bring them in. There’s one woman who I’m going to be producing a session for. Her name is Patty Marrone and she’s going to be recording a song I wrote. It’s a blues song that’s straight ahead dirty nasty blues when I do it, but we’re doing it more jazzy, more of a Billie Holiday kind of feel for her. We’re going to get a real stand up bass, the drums will be played just with brushes, piano, and we’ll have a great jazz guitarist; Mike “Spider” Hickson. It’s really going to be a good session.

Christine- Tell us your favorite artists, who’s influenced you?

Joe- Top of the list; Bruce Springsteen. I would never have picked up a guitar if it wasn’t for him. I didn’t discover him till I was in High School, but that’s also when I first started to get serious about music. His music really just connects with me on such a level and it’s funny because when he plays Nassau Coliseum he said a few times “Long Islanders if you scratch the surface of a New Jerseyan you’ll find a Long Islander living underneath him. We’re two sides of the same tragic coin.” He’s one of the big guys. There are so many people that have influenced me… John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Joe Strummer, The Clash just so many people and some of the heavier bands too.

Christine – What do you enjoy most about being on the radio?

Joe- The listeners. When I was high school there were two rock stations you could listen to. WNEW FM “The place where rock lived’ and ‘BAB. I’m a Massapequa boy and that was it. WBAB outlasted WNEW and rose to the top but one of the things that I learned listening to the guys at ‘NEW, I really loved the fact that they always spoke about the music. And that spoke to the inner music geek inside of me. So when I get on the air here that’s what I want to talk about. I’ll talk about other things sometimes but we’re a rock station. If you’re listening to us I figure you want to hear about rock. This is your chance to relax, this is your chance to get away, to come to us and have fun together with us. This station in particular. I’ve worked at other stations and I have nothing bad to say about any of the people I worked with. I started out at ‘BAB and I came back here and this is home. The program director here said to me at one point. “You bleed black and gold” and I love that.

This station, and it may sound silly or cliché, but not only are we about the music but we’re about the listeners. It’s coming up again, the anniversary of 9/11. I was working here September 11, 2001. You know how hard it is to even try to explain to anyone who wasn’t here what happened and what we did. We had a line out in front of the station that stretched for miles with people bringing us everything. We would get phone calls from listeners at ground zero, saying this is what we need please announce it on the air. We were loading up trucks to the point where they told us they didn’t have the manpower to receive the things we were sending…you have to stop. We’re always collecting food for events, all the different charities that I get to work with because I’m in radio. The Muscular Dystrophy Association, The Have a Heart Organization that does work with kids with cancer. The Little Louis Foundation, Windows of Opportunity. I know I’m going to end of forgetting some, there’s just so many. The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Fortunato Breast Health Center at Mather Hospital are two other important charities I’m happy to work with. Breast cancer has touched my life too many times and they really help here on Long Island.

I get the chance through what I do to broadcast the little bit for these people and it pays me back because I get that feeling inside, like I’ve done the right thing.

Christine – And what do you think the future holds for radio?

Joe- Satellite’s just about dead. What I just said is the reason why we will never be gone. People want to know what’s going on in their backyard. They want to be connected to the people around them, so radio is in no danger, it’s not going anywhere! It’s stronger I think than it’s ever been and people are going to see that difference.

Christine- So what does the future hold for Joe Rock?

Joe- Just a continued life of happiness.

You can see Joe Rock and the Blue Stars at The Cedar Beach Blues Festival

Cedar beach, Mount Sinai, NY
Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 1pm! Don’t miss it!

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Don’t forget to listen to Joe Rock on Long Island’s Home of Rock and Roll 102.3 WBAB!