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Dick Biondi Celebrates 55 Years in Chicago

R

radioman148

On May 2, 1960 Dick Biondi started his great Chicago career on WLS. Now 55 years later Biondi is still on the air on WLS-FM.
Granted not every single year was in Chicago, but most of them were and Biondi calls Chicago home.

Congratulations to the "Wild I-Tralian!"
 
radioman148 said:
On May 2, 1960 Dick Biondi started his great Chicago career on WLS. Now 55 years later Biondi is still on the air on WLS-FM.
Granted not every single year was in Chicago, but most of them were and Biondi calls Chicago home.

Congratulations to the "Wild I-Tralian!"
Click to expand...

I just checked the WLS-FM website. They've got Biondi stuck into the 11p.m. to 2a.m. time slot. Talk about disrespect! It looks like they're trying to push him out the door.
 
Here in southern California, we got to hear the Wild I-Tralian on the old KRLA-1110. In 1961, Bill Gavin's Gavin Report called Biondi the best top-40 DJ of the year. In 1963, while at WLS, Biondi became the first American DJ to play a Beatles song. He played Please Please Me each night for two weeks but it didn't get much reaction. Biondi left WLS in a dispute over certain commercials---I'm not sure of the details---and started the 9-to-midnight shift on KRLA on July 1, 1963. Again, he began playing that Beatles record...and again, it didn't get much reaction. And then came 1964.....

Biondi left KRLA after less than three months and returned to Chicago. He came back to KRLA in August of 1965, in his familiar 9-to-midnight slot. He began taking requests and his ratings grew so rapidly that KRLA soon did away with their weekly Tune-dex record survey and went to an all-request format. In 1966, Billboard named Biondi as the nation's best late-night DJ. In 1967, he went back to Chicago.....again! We in Los Angeles still remember him singing "Biondi blue horizon." :)
 
In the summer of 63, a few months after he left WLS, I was surprised and happy to hear Dick Biondi on KRLA while visiting Southern California. Glad to know he's fondly remembered out there.
 
On May 2, 1962, Dick Biondi was beginning his third year at WLS. (Actually he would have another 364 days to go before he could call it a full year.) Somebody known as leadsquirter posted a 13-minute aircheck of Biondi's "2nd Anniversy Show"---yes, that's how leadsquirter spelled it---on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BjfOTlbYGA
 
TheFonz said:
I just checked the WLS-FM website. They've got Biondi stuck into the 11p.m. to 2a.m. time slot. Talk about disrespect! It looks like they're trying to push him out the door.
Click to expand...

Well he's 82 and very lucky to be healthy enough to be working. I think 3 hours is plenty for him. Evening might be best for him. As they seem to use him for appearances during other hours of the day. He has the name recognition there. Not many jobs out there for Senior citizens. Most have to work part time these days.
 
Congratulations to Biondi, who knocked around the small markets of New York state as a young man. He later spent a small portion of his career at Buffalo's 50 thousand watt flamethrower, WKBW, where he was heard "in 17 states and two nations" and aboard most ships that sailed the north Atlantic. To be doing what he loves at 82 is quite an accomplishment. Good for him. To say he's damn lucky would be an understatement. But that's just the way the cards are dealt for some folks in the business, where most people these days are RIF'd at 55.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Biondi
 
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