Year Inducted:
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2011 Inductee
While Dick Biondi may play oldies, he has always been young at heart throughout his 50-year radio career. Born in Endicott, NY, he began at an early age after reading a commercial on WMBO in Auburn, NY, and learning about broadcasting at WINR in Binghamton. His on-air radio career began at WCBA 1350 AM in Corning and doing music shows at KYSL in Alexandria, Louisiana. Career moves took him to stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, before signing on with Buffalo WKBW in 1958, one of KB’s long line of legendary night-time jocks. In 1960, while working at Chicago’s WLS, Biondi made parodies and recorded an album Dick Biondi’s Favorites-the Teenagers. He then moved to KRLA, Los Angeles’ #1 Top 40 station, where he created The Dick Biondi Road Show. He also hosted the nationally syndicated Dick Biondi’s Young America in 1964. He returned to Chicago’s WCFL in 1967 to do specialty shows Pop Goes the Music, In the Beginning, This Is Elvis, Dick Biondi Labels the Blues, Dick Biondi and Friend and a weekly “Vietnam Show.” In 1972, Biondi worked at WBZ Boston, WSAI Cincinnati and WNMB Myrtle Beach, where in 1976, Dick produced Dick Biondi’s Super Gold Rock and Roll, which was rebroadcast in 2010. Biondi was “rediscovered” while working for WNMB when featured on a “Where are they now?” type of TV program aired in Chicago.
Back in Chicago in 1984, Dick worked for WBBM-FM and WJMK-FM. In 2006 he moved to WLS-FM, where he currently hosts True Oldies. Last year, Columbia College presented Inside the Radio Studio with Dick Biondi & Herb Kent-100 Years On the Air. The legendary DJ received recognition for introducing the Rolling Stones at their Hollywood Bowl concerts, the Gavin Top 40 Disc Jockey of the Year Award in 1961, being the first DJ in America to play the Beatles in 1963, Billboard’s most popular late evening DJ in 1966. The Chicago City Council named a street in his honor, called “Dick Biondi Way,” for his longevity in Chicago radio. He was honored in an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1998.
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