Radio Legend Giannis Petridis filled the RDE Conference room with radio professionals and fans who have been listening to his daily music show for the past 50 years.

The show first aired in 1975. It was about more than music, it also reflected the tensions that were changing Greek society at that time.

“When I started, Greece was a totally different state,” said Petrides.

“I played what had never been heard, not because it was forbidden but just because no one was playing it up until then.”

“Giannis taught us how to listen to music,” said session host Leonidas Antonopoulos the Head of Kosmos Radio 93,6 and Kosmos Jazz, at the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, ERT.

 The mostly foreign (English, American, Italian, French) language pop and rock music gave listeners “food for thought… the music was free and the thought was free… we could hear what was happening elsewhere in the world through the music.”

“I would buy foreign magazines about music that were only available in one square, I wanted to know as much about the music and the thinking as I could.

“From the very first moment it was a show based on information and research, there was no internet back then. To me it was a magical way to take information and tell the stories of each and every song.

“I wanted to link the artists with the history and culture from their country.”

He still takes the same approach in his show today, but he may link the new sound with an older artist or may play an original and the latest cover of the same song.

“I still feel like I am 20 years old, I feel the excitement of the music or the story of the presenter. I am still in a teenager’s shoes.”

Through tears of joy as he recalled the love of his job, telling the audience, “I still embrace the news of the day and the artists of the day. I was never married, so I am dedicated to my job.”

Petridis is known for forecasting the success of up and coming singers, but he admitted that he got one wrong. “After listening to her first songs, I was not expecting that Madonna would last… I was wrong! She is a phenomenon!”

“The future of radio is to difficult to predict,” he said. “radio has survived despite the internet, I believe it will survive but it will be different.”