I Got to Meet the "Wild I-Talian"

I drove over to the new Jewel store and found a good-sized group of people meeting a true radio legend, Dick Biondi. He is definitely older, probably in his 70s and still doing radio and live deejaying. That distinctive voice is the same as ever. Without looking at him, but listening to that voice, you could swear you were back in Palatine, IL, in the late 60s early 70s and listening to him on Super CFL.

At one time, he even released his own record called "On Top of My Pizza" to the tune of "On Top of Spaghetti". A woman said she still likes peanut butter on her pizza despite strange looks from her friends. She even still has a copy of that very limited pressing. Dick said he'd had all sorts of toppings on pizzas including cole slaw and cabbage. It has become a running gag.

I asked him if he liked Beach Music and remembered Billy Smith. He spent ten years right down in the cradle of Beach Music, the Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach, S.C., after he was fired by WCFL. He quickly mentioned General Johnson and the Tams as great Beach groups. He's sure Billy Smith will deejay like him, until they have to take the mike out of his cold dead hand. I said that Billy Smith had been fired almost as often as he had. Dick said, "No one has been fired as much as me!!"

He confirmed that he had indeed been the first deejay in the US to play a Beatles song "Please, Please Me" back in February of 1963. A representative of Chicago's VeeJay Records had brought in a copy for him to listen to. He was so impressed that he played it right away.

Dick Biondi is, as I said yesterday, back in Chicago again. Now he is the 9 PM to midnight deejay at 94.7 FM, Chicago's True Oldies. They replaced WJMK and I like it even more as True Oldies goes much deeper into the stacks of wax as it were. WJMK just played top ten songs unless Biondi did a "Forgotten Oldies.

http://www.947trueoldies.com/ You can listen to Dick Biondi online, as well as another Chicago radio legend, John Records Landecker.

Still Deejaying After All These Years. --RoadDog