Donna Halper
Donna Halper started her career as an English teacher in Boston, but left the post in late 1973, shortly before qualifying for her tenure… the music was calling her. “I was offered a full-time radio job in Cleveland,” she explains. “I had been doing part- time announcing at a local station about 5 miles from Boston, but my heart was in radio and I wanted to be in broadcasting full-time. I left Boston in late 1973, much to my parents’ surprise and that of my students.”
It was in her role at Cleveland’s WMMS, as music director and assistant programme director, that Donna first came across Rush. In this role, she worked with record promoters from all over, and indeed outside, the country. “We had a couple of promoters who were obnoxious, but most were very kind to me and they treated me well,” says Donna. “But I don’t delude myself – they befriended me not because of my winning smile or my charm, but because I was the music director at one of the most influential album-rock stations in the USA.”
Donna was not like other programme directors, which presented a bit of a dilemma to some of the less scrupulous promoters. “I was a non-smoker, non-drinker, non drug user,” she laughs. “I’m the only person I know who got fired for not smoking dope!” Her actions were not so much frowned upon, as confusing. “One [A&R man] welcomed me by bringing me some weed, for example, and when I refused it, he interpreted my refusal as rejecting the quality of his marijuana which, he assured me, was top of the line…” In addition she was a woman, which helped not at all. “The General Manager hated me – he expected me to type his letters and do office work – something he never expected the man who was the music director before me to do, plus he refused to give me equal pay to what that guy had gotten.” Few would disagree however, that Donna could give as good as she got: she didn’t become chair of the Prisoners’ Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in Ohio by accident. “It kept me busy and helped me to feel useful,” she explains.
Donna had a good working relationship with several promoters, not least Bob Roper at A&M – “He would send down stuff, so we started to play Canadian music,” says Donna. It was this contact that led to Rush being played on WMMS – “the rest shall we say is history,” says Bob. Continues Donna, “Rush probably saved my career in a way. I took a lot of heat from certain people at the station. But when I discovered Rush and got their career started in the States, suddenly everybody thought I was marvellous!” Donna’s early intervention earned her “big sister” role with the band, in particular with Geddy and Alex.
At the end of March 1975, Mercury Records hired Donna as East Coast director of A&R, so she moved to New York, continuing to spread the word to the best of her ability. In 1980 Donna formed her own radio programming and management consultancy, and has since written several books on the history of radio programming and the role of women therein.
Donna will always be remembered as the person who “discovered” Rush.