Illinois R&R Hall Inducts WXRT's Terri Hemmert

WXRT's Terri Hemmert

The Illinois Rock & Roll Hall of Fame held its fifth annual induction ceremony Sunday in Chicago for the first time, moving from Joliet to the Harris Theater in Millennium Park. The event honors artists, labels, stations and DJs with Illinois roots, including Survivor, American Breed, Curtis Mayfield, classic-rock station WDRV-FM 97.1 and longtime WXRT-FM 93.1 personality Terri Hemmert. 

Hemmert, 78, is the radio centerpiece of this year’s class. An Ohio native, she began overnights at WXRT in 1973 and became Chicago’s first woman in rock morning drive. She has spent more than 50 years on the air championing the Beatles, the blues and local acts. She says she got into radio “to meet the Beatles,” later interviewing Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. 

In the 1970s she slipped Cheap Trick onto overnight playlists; the Rockford band entered the Hall in its inaugural 2021 class. “We broke bands like Cheap Trick, for example,” she said.

She joined a line of Chicago radio names already in the Hall: Larry Lujack, John Records Landecker, recently retired Bob Stroud and WGN-AM 720 morning host Bob Sirott, a 2023 inductee who was emcee Sunday. “I think they did that so I’d be sure to say yes when they ask me to emcee this every year,” Sirott said. He started as a rock DJ at WLS-AM 890 in the 1970s.