Chicago Disco Demo T-Shirt Giveaway Gets Pushback

Amid objections to Thursday’s T-shirt giveaway commemorating the 40th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night, a radio stunt going awry, the White Sox issued a statement saying the promotion is “only meant to mark the historical nature of the night 40 years later,” reports The Chicago Tribune.

An on-field melee broke out at packed Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979, following an on-field stunt exploding thousands of disco records presided over by future National Radio Hall of Fame honoree Steve Dahl, then 24.

The field unplayable, the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game of their scheduled doubleheader with the Tigers.

Steve Dahl - 1979

While many view what happened at old Comiskey Park that night as horseplay run amok, other ascribe less benign sentiments to what transpired and what fueled it.

Some see the event as not just a demonstration against disco music but against the groups that first embraced the dance music, namely African Americans, Latinos and gay people.

“We blew up disco records, made fun of the Bee Gees and ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ It goes no deeper than that,” Dahl said in an email Wednesday. “Perception is not always reality. Especially when that perception uses the prism of today to look at events 40 years ago.

“Sometimes a stupid radio promotion is just a stupid radio promotion.”

Dahl said he is a longtime White Sox fan “and I don’t want to cause problems for them,” noting two of his three sons have worked for the franchise, that he has been a season ticket holder “and will always cherish being at the 2005 World Series with all three of my boys.”

Of Thursday night’s T-shirt giveaway, he said: “I was just looking forward to having a fun night at the park with my family, my grandkids and my friends and fans. What happened?"