During its rock-and-roll heyday, WFIL-AM (560) aired an annual fund-raiser, the 56-hour Helping Hand Marathon.
For the 1975 edition, Famous 56 landed John Lennon to sit in for one day. He stayed the weekend, taking calls, singing, playing the harmonica, and philosophizing with disc jockey "Banana Joe" Montione, then a wide-eyed 21-year-old "Boss Jock."
Montione was also a wise 21-year-old Boss Jock. He took home the master tapes and kept them in good shape. Today at Christie's auction house in New York, the four 10-inch reel-to-reel tapes - which have not been replayed on the air in 29 years - will go on the block. Christie's estimate is $50,000 to $60,000.
Montione, now a DJ and radio exec in L.A., says the timing of Lennon's appearance was auspicious. It was May 1975, just after his so-called Lost Weekend and reconciliation with wife Yoko Ono. Five months after the WFIL session, son Sean was born, and the ex-Beatle pretty much became a househusband until he was murdered in 1980.
"He asked me, 'Don't interview me. Teach me how to be a DJ.' I said, 'That's OK, as long as you teach me how to be a Beatle,' " says Montione, 50, who was at WFIL from 1974 till 1977 and at WMGK-FM (102.9) in 1995-96.
The stint was vintage Lennon. When told that a survey indicated that 98 percent of the public wanted the Beatles to reunite, Lennon replied: "I'd like to meet the 2."
Lennon picked up Montione's harmonica and played the intro to "I Should Have Known Better." He handed the harmonica back with: "That's worth a few bucks." (That's also for sale, with an estimate of $800 to $1,200.) Montione is also offering an autograph addressed to the DJ's parents in Pittston, Pa. (Estimate: $1,000 to $1,500.)
Lennon wrapped the charity gig by introducing Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" with: "This is what did it" - meaning influenced him and the Beatles to start a band.
Why sell? "It's come to the point, after 29 years, [where] I can hear him saying, 'Well, Banana, you've had 'em long enough. Let everybody else hear them,' " Montione says. Hear a clip at www.bananajoeradio.com.
