He has been a pioneer for our "radio days". At a time when in Greek radio (which was limited to state radio stations) you could only listen to greek or "easy-listening" music, he was the first one who dared to dedicate a daily music programme to good Rock, Pop, Soul, World, Punk or even Country music.

His first program (back in 1975) was called "Rock Club" and "Pop Club".
During the 80's and for a short period of time, his program stopped from being broadcasted daily and  it was named "Mera Para Mera" ("day after day"). Fortunately, this didn't last for long and Yannis came back to the radio in daily basis and "Apo tis 4 stis 5" ("From 4 to 5") was born.

Yannis is the owner of one of the biggest private records collections in the world (much more than 100.000 records!) and the manager of "VIRGIN" records in Greece.

For 20 years (1978-1998) he was the Chief Editor of the best greek music magazine "Pop & Rock". He is also the only greek journalist who has the right to vote for the "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame" (the famous museum about rock music).

I have been listening to Yannis almost everyday since 1981 (20 years)!
Thanks to him, I have discovered music (and still do). Music is a very important part of my life, so, Yannis is a part of my life too.
He is my Music Guru :)

In 1995, in order to celebrate his 20 years on the greek radio, Yannis asked his listeners to vote for the 100 most important albums for the years 1975-1995. 
Here is the Top 10 of that list:

1. Never Mind the Bollocks - Sex Pistols 2. Never Mind - Nirvana  3. The Wall - Pink Floyd 4. Closer - The Joy Division 5. The Joshua Tree - U2 6. London Calling - The Clash 7. Physical Graffity - Led Zeppelin  8. Purple Rain - Prince  9. Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen 10. Thriller - Michael Jackson © 1995 by Yannis Petridis To listen to the audio sample you will need Real Audio Player

Just for the record I voted as my favourite albums: 
Mike Oldfield - "Ommadawn", Dead Can Dance - "The Serpent's Egg", Simple Minds - "Sons and Fascination" , David Bowie - "Scary Monsters"  & Simple Minds - "New Gold Dream".