On April 23, Radio Ink shared the news that a longtime Philadelphia rock ‘n’ roll radio star had been inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance’s 2023 Walk of Fame. That honor sparked rumors that, just maybe, it signaled a potential retirement announcement from the onetime Morning Zoo frontman at WMMR-FM.
Today, 71-year-old Queens, New York native John DeBella, who has been associated with Beasley Media Group Classic Rock sibling WMGK-FM in Philadelphia since June 10, 2002, is retiring.
DeBella’s 21-year tenure at WMGK, which was owned by Greater Media at the time of his hire, came one year after he departed the afternoon slot at former crosstown rival WYSP. That role was a seven-year endeavor, began in 1994 at a station that served as the home to a bitter, longtime rival’s morning show — Howard Stern.
That’s because, from the early 1980s through the early 1990s, DeBella was the king of Philadelphia morning radio, as a Zookeeper leading a program vastly different in tone and reverence from the WHTZ “Z100” Morning Zoo hosted by Scott Shannon during that era. Upon Stern’s arrival at WYSP via simulcast with WXRK-FM in New York, Stern went to war with DeBella. It was at times ugly, and lasted years.
Today, Stern is no longer on the FM dial, having gone to what is today SiriusXM in the 2000s. DeBella has remained a mainstay at WMGK.
His early career involved stints in Pittsburgh (he hosted the morning show at WPEZ in its final months before becoming “3-W-S” in 1980); his lone 1970s mention in Radio & Records came in January 1979, when the WLIR/Nassau-Suffolk lineup was updated. DeBella was a weekend host at the soon-to-be influential Progressive and Modern Rock station.
Six years later, he was a bonafide star in Philadelphia at WMMR. And, with a Morning Zoo recipe that was decisively more rock than pop, it perhaps inspired Emmis Communications to team “bad boy” afternoon host Don Geronimo with voice impression whiz Mike O’Meara for a Morning Zoo at its then-Top 40 WAVA-FM in Washington, D.C.
While Shannon is the originator of the Morning Zoo format, having created the Q-Zoo at WRBQ-FM in Tampa in 1982, DeBella helped spread it beyond the stations Shannon launched it on and had a connection to, including KKBQ-AM & FM in Houston, where John Lander also featured John Rio as the goofy “Mr. Leonard.”
While DeBella’s Morning Zoo was more outlandish than goofy, Beasley considers him a pioneer of the wake-up show format. In Philadelphia, in particular, DeBella’s program was a vastly different choice from “Hot Hits” WCAU-FM and its music-intensive presentation or the more straightforward AM choices found across the Delaware Valley radio dial in the early 1980s.
Commenting on his final day at WMGK, scheduled for June 30, DeBella said, “After 47 years on the radio, I really can’t believe it’s coming to an end. I’ve been extremely lucky to be able to work at a job I love, in a city I love, with a family that has supported and sacrificed a lot for me to fulfill my dream. BTW…my wife likes to shop on Amazon, so she might try to return me.”
Longtime champion Bill Weston, the Beasley Media Group Vice President of Talent Development and Program Director for both WMMR and WMGK, shared, “Through 5 decades in the business, 40 years in Philly and the last 20 anchoring WMGK’s broadcast day, John DeBella has simply made our lives better- through a shared love of humor, music and entertainment. His career tally has to be close to 10,000 shows and you can bet he put his heart and soul into each and every one of them.”
Beasley Media Group President Bruce Beasley commented, “We are so very proud of John and his many accomplishments over the past four decades. The radio industry and the City of Philadelphia are better off because of him. We wish him the very best in his next chapter!”
OTHERS SHARING ACCOLADES FOR JOHN DEBELLA, WHO IS RETIRING ON JUNE 30 AS WMGK/PHILADELPHIA’S MORNING SHOW HOST:
“I’d like to sincerely thank John for his huge contributions to Beasley and the Philadelphia community over the years,” said Beasley Media Group Chief Content Officer Justin Chase. “His creative genius has made such a positive impact on the radio industry overall. We are privileged to be a part of his legendary career.”
“Simply put, John DeBella has defined morning radio in Philadelphia for 40 years,” said Beasley Media Group Philadelphia Vice President and Market Manager Joe Bell. “He’s a true radio icon!”
