CHICAGO — Dick Biondi, a fixture on the radio airwaves in Chicago for nearly six decades who gained a national audience as the “King of the Oldies,” died June 26, his family said. He was 90.
A cause of death was not given, but in April 2017, Biondi left WLS radio when he was hospitalized for what was described as a leg ailment, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The disc jockey, known as the “Wild I-tralian,” had a 67-year career in AM radio and played music on several Chicago stations from 1960 until his retirement in 2017, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
During the 1960s, Biondi helped introduce listeners in the U.S. and Canada to rock ‘n’ roll at Chicago’s top AM top-40 stations, WLS and WCFL, according to WGN-TV. According to the Radio Hall of Fame, Biondi’s voice introducing rock ‘n’ roll records could be heard in 40 states through WLS’ powerful 50,000-watt signal, WMAQ-TV reported.
Biondi was born Sept. 13, 1932, in Endicott, New York, according to a Facebook post from WLS Radio. He began his broadcasting career in Corning, New York, at station WCBA in 1950 as a sportscaster according to the Radio Hall of Fame, which inducted Biondi in 1998.
Biondi spent two years with WKBW radio in Buffalo and also was at WEBR, where he became known as “The Big Noise from Buffalo,” the Sun-Times reported.
Biondi debuted on WLS on May, 9, 1960, handling the station’s 9 p.m. to midnight shift, according to the newspaper.
At his peak, from 1960 to 1963 on WLS radio, Biondi had a 60% share of all listeners, the Sun-Times reported. Two times during that period, he was voted the top disc jockey in the U.S. by Billboard magazine.
In February 1963, Biondi became the first DJ to play a Beatles record in the U.S. when he played “Please Please Me” on WLS, Billboard reported. The song, on the Vee-Jay label at the time, did not chart nationally and only reached No. 5 on the WLS rankings in March 1963, according to the magazine.
RIP to one of my first radio idols, @DickBiondi. He died June 26th at age 90 after decades of entertaining Chicago.
— DeanRichards (@DeanRichards) July 2, 2023
Robert Feder provides the best coverage of his life and impact. https://t.co/eNmeGbSXph@WGNTV @WGNMorningNews @WGNRadio
Moving from Chicago to KRLA radio in Los Angeles in 1964, Biondi introduced “The Dick Biondi Road Show” according to the Buffalo Broadcasters Association. He also hosted the nationally syndicated “Dick Biondi’s Young America” that same year.
Biondi returned to Chicago in 1967 to play specialty shows on WCFL in 1967 like “Pop Goes the Music.”
Dave Plier, the board chair of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, said in a statement that Biondi was a “true radio legend.”
“We lost a true radio legend. Radio Hall of Fame inductee Dick Biondi was one of the nation’s most recognizable disc jockeys with an amazing career that spanned over nearly six decades, Plier said. “He was the first to make an impact on rock radio in Chicago and around the country via WLS radio’s 50,000-watt signal.”
In addition to introducing The Beatles and The Rolling Stones at concerts, Biondi also cut a novelty record, “On Top of a Pizza,” an off-key parody of Burl Ives’ 1941 hit, “On Top of Old Smokey,” the Sun-Times reported.
In Chicago, Biondi launched an oldies format at WJMK radio in 1984, according to the newspaper. He returned to WLS in 2006 on the FM side, where he remained until his retirement.
In 2010, the city of Chicago named an alley south of the old WLS studios “Dick Biondi Way,” the Sun-Times reported.
“What’s it feel like onstage? You walk out there, you’re nervous, you’re shaking. And I always wondered: ‘Do I really belong out here?’ " Biondi once told Chicago filmmaker Pamela Pulice, according to the newspaper. “When you think back to when you were 8 years old reading a commercial in Auburn, New York, and here you are standing before thousands of people, it is a high that no drug, it is a high that no romance will ever give you.”
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