The First Time I Heard Dick Biondi on the Radio

I was 12 years old in the spring of 1960 when I turned on the radio to listen to the Farm Report on WLS.  For almost 40 years the Prairie Farmer station had featured recipes, hog calling contests, the Saturday night National Barn Dance, and other homespun entertainment for the farm community. But on May 2,1960 the Prairie Farmer vanished, and in its place was a new 24-hour Top 40 station known as The Bright New Sound.  Loyal listeners got the shock of their lives, but for Baby Boomers like me, it was the answer to our prayers.  At last we had our own music station and cool deejays known as the Swinging Seven—and they were playing OUR music! Radio historian Scott Childers of WLSHistory.com recalls the ruckus it caused.

“They would get calls from people saying,  “What’s this Elvis Presley, and all this crazy rock ’n roll on the air?”

And who was this new voice that came blaring out of my transistor radio?

“This is the Wild I-Tralian, Dick Biondi!” 

Dick Biondi was so unique, so goofy, and so sincere, I was instantly hooked! From that night on, I was glued to my transistor radio from 9-midnight listening to the Wild I-Tralian slurp his coffee, sing off key, and crack corny knock knock jokes.  And later I started a fan club for him.  I’d never heard anyone so outrageous, and so exciting as the self proclaimed, “world’s ugliest disc jockey.” 

While we kids loved him, Biondi was our parents’ worst nightmare. This screaming wild man was keeping children awake on school nights.  Some banned him.  Others threatened to withhold batteries. But nothing could stop the waves of youthful listeners from hiding transistors under our pillows, pretending to be asleep, afraid we might miss a moment of Biondi’s crazy antics.

 “And it was not just in Chicago,” says former WLS disc jockey Bob Sirott.  “All across the country kids grew up listening to Dick Biondi.” 

Dick was so popular that in 1961 his boyhood dream came true and he became the most listened to disc jockey in America. I met Dick that year, and it was the beginning of a 50 year friendship that led to my decision to make a movie about it. 

I’ll never forget the excitement, the fun, and the joy that was and still is Dick Biondi. And it all started the moment I heard his voice on the radio. A year later I’d meet the famous Dick Biondi at a local shopping center. But I’ll save that story for another time.

Pamela Enzweiler-Pulice is Director of the independent documentary film about the legendary radio personality. “The Voice That Rocked America: The Dick Biondi Story” is streaming on Amazon Prime and major streaming platforms.  Learn more at www.DickBiondiFilm.com.

Endicott, NY "Home of the Square Deal"

Written by Chuck Parr

I grew up in the same area of upstate New York as Dick Biondi.  It was known as the Triple Cities. Endicott - Johnson City - Binghamton.  Home to Rod Serling.   Where IBM was born in 1914.  A place of many shoe factories during the first half of the last century.  

I was born around the year that Dick ventured off on his long and lustrous Radio Rock&Roll career.  I never met Dick until decades later at one of his location broadcasts in my current hometown of St Charles IL.   

The area where Dick and I grew up was a magnet for Italians and Slavic and Ukrainian immigrants at the turn of the last century.  Many came to work the shoe factories    Hard work.   Good work.  Dirty work.  Stinking work tanning animal hides.   Cutting, trimming, polishing.   A company who treated employees like family, Endicott Johnson ( EJ Shoes) was founded there.  They provided very nice leisure facilities for their employees to enjoy on their Sunday day off.  Swimming pools.   Carousels.   Band Shells.  Ball Parks.   Good housing.   Company picnics.  It was idyllic when the factories boomed through the 1950s.  

People who grew up there learned a certain ethic - treat people right.   Be fair.   Work hard.  Get  paid fairly for your work.    

Along the main thoroughfares of the towns where EJ factories were located the company erected large Arches that reminded employees each day that they lived and worked in an area that was known as the "Home of the Square Deal". 

Those were the kind of people I grew up with.    Who I went to school with.  Who I worked with on summer jobs.  Hard working fair minded and good humored.  

Rolling the calendar Back to the summer of 1969, I was working in a well known restaurant in the triple cities , The Endwell House, earning college money for my sophomore year.  

The summer weekend of Woodstock I was washing pots & pans and dishes and scrubbing kitchen floors and cleaning grease traps in a kitchen run by a strong minded woman named "Rosie".  She was a firm but fair woman.   When she told you to do something you did it and never asked why or delayed.   She was robust when she laughed.  She was silent when angry and burned a hole right through you.  She taught me all the useful Italian swear words and expressions I still use til today.  

We heard about Woodstock. Saw the TV pictures.   Heard the radio news.   We even knew some people who trekked that weekend.   They all got wet and muddy and high.   We joked ..."what fools!"  We knew the better place to be  that weekend was making people nice meals and catering to people enjoying  their evening out or during a weekend brunch.   

Rosie Biondi knew how to work hard ...how to be fair ...how to laugh ...how manage a kitchen ...how to raise a good son cut from the same cloth!   SHE WAS THE REAL DEAL!