About Us

Joe Johnson
Beatle Brunch is the brainchild of Beatle fan Joe Johnson. Joe was born in New York, and grew up in Miami. He witnessed the magic of the Fab Four on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, and was living in South Florida when they invaded the town the following week. The idea for the show originated in the spring of 1992 when Joe purchased a new car that had an in-dash CD player. It was on a long drive to visit family that he brought along a stack of Beatles CDs and listened with the volume turned all the way up. In the air-tight vehicle, on the 6-speaker sound system, the songs sounded fresh, new and exciting 22 years after The Beatles split. Joe wondered why radio stations weren't featuring The Beatles in a regular radio program, and decided to do something about it. Joe, a radio deejay and producer in Miami at Jefferson Pilot's Oldies Station, Majic 102.7 WMXJ, proposed the idea of a one-hour show on The Beatles to his Program Director. He took the bait and asked Joe to mock-up a demo. The show debuted May 31st 1992 on 5 radio stations in: Miami, FL; Indianapolis, IN; Rochester, NY; Baltimore, MD; and Laconia, NH. For the first 8 years, Joe built the market base of stations one-at-a-time, adding great oldies outlets like Oldies 100 in our nation's Capitol, 3-W-S in Pittsburgh, St. Louis's Oldies 103, and Detroit's great Oldies 104.3. But now, with Beatle Brunch currently in its 12th year, syndication is now handled by Westwood One, the nation's largest radio syndication company. Joe aligned with the great folks at Beatlefest (now called The Fest For Beatles Fans) to sponsor the show, and it's been a Fab Fun ride since. Today, Beatle Brunch is heard on more than 100 radio stations along the Westwood One Radio Network. 

You can meet Joe with his roving microphone at Beatlefest celebrations throughout the year. Listen to Beatle Brunch for all the details. Beatle Brunch is a fascinating hour of music and interviews with The Beatles and those in their immediate circle, including Manager Brian Epstein and Producer George Martin. Every week on the show, you'll hear classic interview clips from the days of Beatlemania, plus the most up to date information on what The Beatles are up to today. We take a trip inside the studio to hear a song under construction, or journey to a faraway stage for a flashback to a famous Beatles concert, or a more recent one featuring Paul, Ringo, George and historic John and Yoko shows. Listen to Joe Johnson's Beatle Brunch program every Sunday in Real Audio on a station near you. 

The Beatle Brunch radio show can be heard every Sunday all across the U.S and Canada. To get Beatle Brunch played in your city, call the Program Director of your local Oldies station and ask them to add the show to their weekend lineup. It doesn't cost them anything.

Thanks for making Beatle Brunch one of the most listened-to hours of weekend programming. So popular, some stations now play it twice on Sundays!

Bill Haack
Bill Haack is our research expert who you hear credited at the end of every show. Bill has worked on the show since its beginning in various forms, from producing to network producing to even a little editing from time to time. Bill is a first generation Beatle fan who "fell" when he was six years old after seeing the group on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964. The very next day, his sister came home with the "Meet The Beatles" album and she played it until it was worn out. He was hooked. Bill has an extensive Beatle memorabilia collection which encompasses every aspect of the Beatles career. His house has been called "The Museum" by his friends and family. Every inch of every wall is covered with memorabilia, photos, posters, plates and more. Bill owns thirteen guitars, ten of them "Beatle" guitars. He even sports an original 1964 Ludwig Black Oyster Pearl drum kit with an authentic "Beatle" logo drumhead on the front. Bill has brought some of his collection to various shows and tributes to the Beatles. His friends are always telling him to open the collection to the public in a form of a rock-themed restaurant or a museum.
 

Tom Frangione
Tom was born during the same summer the Beatles were (do the math later), so you won’t hear him reminiscing about his memories of seeing them on the Ed Sullivan Show. However, early childhood memories of “yeah yeah yeahs” are as intact as a photo of him in his Beatle halloween costume circa 1965, so the seeds were planted early!

Taking up guitar in his early teens, he rediscovered The Beatles, peculiarly enough, via his admiration for Paul McCartney’s mid-70’s band, Wings. You could be sure any band Tom played in through high school and college (where he received degrees in business and music) had plenty of Beatles in the set list. In addition to local performances, Tom has even played at the reconstructed Cavern Club in Liverpool.

A “charter” attendee of some of the earliest fan conventions and fests, he could usually be found hanging around the trivia competition, where he has been known to make his mark. In fact, it was through the competitions that he and Joe became friends. Tom was the Features Editor for the long running fanzine Good Day Sunshine from 1981 through 1998. Along the way he has written numerous articles about the Beatles for other mainstream media, consulted on several books on them, and appeared on many radio programs to discuss their history and play rare recordings from his extensive archives.

Today, in addition to assisting as “script doctor” and bon vivant to Beatle Brunch, Tom’s work can primarily be found in Beatlefan magazine, and on their website.

Anthony J. Parisi
Anthony is the creator of the Beatle Brunch Club logo and Joe Johnson's Brunch Radio caricature and is proud to be part of the Brunch Radio Show gang. The Beatles have always been a huge part of Anthony's life. From early childhood (his mother says that he took his first steps to "A Hard Day's Night") to his current award winning Beatle illustrations.

Born and raised in New Rochelle, NY, Anthony J. Parisi is a graduate of Parsons School of design where he received his BFA in illustration. Anthony, an award-winning caricaturist and illustrator, likes to think of himself as a “face specialist”, but also has a knack for stylizing the human form to give one dimensional figures the illusion of fluidity and motion. Anthony's love of illustration, The Beatles and historical musical instruments (he is a self proclaimed guitar junkie) adds to the historic authenticity of every music oriented illustration that he creates.

Anthony's illustrations have been published in many magazines and newspapers, and was the official illustrator for the Philadelphia Flyers for three seasons. In 2006, five of Anthony's caricatures of the Beatles were published in a book entitled "Beatle Art: Fantastic New Art of the Fab Four". Anthony has also illustrated two children's books, "Meet the Brittles" and "Monster for President". He has also created custom artwork for Pete Best and for 1964 The Tribute.

Aside from illustrating, Anthony also enjoys writing and recording original music in his home recording studio. When not creating illustrations or creating music, Anthony can be found drawing caricatures of poor unsuspecting passers by while out with friends. Anthony currently lives in West Deptford, NJ with his wife Mary & their daughters Marisa and Melody.