Episode #100: Harry Spero
Harry Spero is an advertising executive, songwriter, musician, and band leader based in Manhattan. His career cuts across an eclectic mix of high profile positions in the media, advertising and music industries.
Early in his career, Harry was a songwriter for the publishing company of rock impresario Don Kirshner. Shortly after he was a vice president at Midland International Records, developing the recording careers of John Travolta, Melanie, Silver Convention, Carol Douglas and many other artists.
As vice president of advertising for the retailer Crazy Eddie, Harry wrote and produced thousands of TV and radio commercials that “drove people INSANE!,” as Crazy Eddie became one of the best known brand names in the world. As head of marketing for WFAN-AM in New York, Harry helped develop the first all-sports radio station in the United States–and helped to make “The FAN” the number one billing radio station in America.
For the last 25 years, Harry has led Spero Media, an advertising agency with clients such as the New York Mets, New York Jets, WWE, New York Red Bulls, the U.S. Open, The Capital One Orange Bowl, Brooklyn Nets, SNY and many others.
At the end of the last century and into the mid 2000’s, Harry recorded 6 albums of his original compositions-- two albums with his band Loaded, three albums with a revolving cast of singers and musicians under the banner of Harry Spero and his Fabulous Friends and in 2010 Harry recorded “September” a concept album/rock opera, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. He released 2 songs as “Social Distancers” in the past five months “Is it Corona Good” and “The Pandemic Pivot”. His recordings can be found on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon.
My dad, Harry Spero, told me somewhere between Episode #30 and #40 that he wanted to interview me on the 100th episode of the show. At the time, I couldn’t imagine making it to 100 episodes, but here we are. I’m so excited to be talking with my dad for this final episode (at least for now) of the podcast. Even though I’ve been living with my parents for the past seven months and we’ve been spending a lot of time together, my dad still managed to surprise me a few times during this conversation. We talk about how Job’s syndrome has impacted my life from childhood to the present, how he and my mom have supported me in different ways over the past three and a half decades, and his impression of me as a person who is resilient and determined. We also talk about my dad’s experience being my parent, and what it’s been like for him to spend the last seven months with me under the same roof as him. I’m beyond grateful to both my parents for allowing me to share my story through them (my mom, Norine, was previously featured on Episode #27). My dad is someone who loves documenting moments, and it’s clear that this podcast episode was no different.
“It was the toughest single moment of my life... I had no more knowledge of anything, outside of the conviction of who you were and who we were as a family and knowing that you were going to get through it.”
Here are some of the things my dad and I chatted about:
How, after a two week hospital stay, my parents recognized something was up with my health
My own sense of abnormalities in my health--losing my nails, having skin issues like eczema
How some of my memories don’t come from events, but from my dad’s videos and pictures
What it meant to get my Job’s syndrome diagnosis from Dr. Charlotte Cunningham Rundles
The intention behind not sharing about my health, and how not disclosing became normal
How my skin issues impacted me and kept me from dating in high school and college
Dr. Gail Schattner, the pulmonologist who told me I had a cyst the size of a golf ball in my lung
The night before my surgery, when my dad experienced the toughest moment of his life
How I disappointed my dad in “one very major way” as a kid, and how that’s changed today
Going through eight jobs in ten years, and how the entrepreneur bug really came from my dad
Attending the IDF conference, and being in a room with other people who had my condition
What I mean when I say I want a “normal” life where my illness doesn’t overtake my identity
Visiting the Mayo Clinic last year to get a second opinion on the treatments for my lung issues
What it was like to hear that I have the best doctors in the world, but to get no new information
My determination to become a better writer (which my dad points out, I needed to become)
My class at The New School with Nancy Kelton, which got me to take my writing seriously
How my dad has felt about me living with him and my mom for the past seven months
What this time is like--ranging from being really amazing to being an interruption in my life
My dad’s thoughts on 100 episodes, and how he was part of my determination to get here
“Walking down the street, I didn’t see other people that looked like me.”
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