Anyone who grew up with a transistor radio under their pillow in the early 1960s in Chicago — or anywhere in the entire Midwest for that matter — remembers Dick Biondi.
Chicago would have more than a few exceptionally talented and engaging radio personalities over the decades, but Biondi holds a special place in Chicago radio history, and in the hearts and imagination of his now aged listeners. The “Wild I-tralian” ushered in a new era in Chicago radio as rock ‘n’ roll music, already popular with Elvis Presley, was about to explode as the Beatles and the British Invasion swept through America
Biondi was there front and center. Before most people in America knew the Beatles existed, he was the first American DJ to play a Beatles record on air; Please Please Me, in late February 1963.
A couple months after being fired from a lower watt station in Buffalo, New York in the spring of 1960, Biondi was hired by the already iconic 50,000 watt radio giant WLS, known then primarily for its news, agricultural reports and the popular National Barn Dance.
WLS was looking to launch a total programming revamp, called the “Bright New Sound,” and Biondi was one of two DJs hired to usher in that new sound. With his unique blend of energy and quirkiness, he would soon change everything, both at ‘LS and in music radio, bringing an entirely new audience to the station, an entirely new vibe in broadcast radio and playing a seminal role in the development of rock ‘n’ roll radio in Chicago.
Jim Summaria, who grew up in Oak Park and attended OPRF through his sophomore year, recalls how “My sister and I would listen to Biondi in the late evenings in the early 1960s before bedtime, because he was funny, was Italian and most importantly played the hit songs of early rock ‘n’ roll.”
“It was a perfect nightcap to our day and helped us fall asleep in a good mood,” he said.
Now 66 years later, it’s difficult to adequately convey the nature and feeling of the times in which Biondi rose to fame. White American kids were falling in love with a music that had its roots in the Black south, and the rules and etiquette of both the music and rock ‘n’ roll radio were being written as young people listened in rapt attention to a cultural kaleidoscope that Biondi happily threw himself into and invited his listeners to follow.
Many tens of thousands did, and WLS’s Top 40 format took on a status with Chicago teens unimaginable just a year or two before.
On Tuesday night, Nov. 17, Biondi will be celebrated with a showing of the documentary, The Voice That Rocked America – The Dick Biondi Story. The film was directed, filmed, and narrated by Chicago filmmaker Pamela Enzweiler-Pulice, founder of Reel Stories Productions.
Before the film screening, attendees can enjoy a bit of local rock ‘n’ roll history, with Oak Park native and OPRF Class of ’73 graduate Joe Cantafio of Jade 50s fame performing before the film screens.
Few people still living have had a better seat for the classic rock ‘n’ roll experience than Cantafio. At 22, he became the music director of “Dick Clark’s Good Ol’ Rock and Roll Show,” and performed on stage with rock pioneers Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, The Shirelles, Del Shannon, Little Anthony, Johnny Rivers and The Drifters, among others. Cantafio also worked as music director with “Wolfman Jack’s Rock and Roll Show” that featured Dion, Tommy James and The Crystals.
The Lake Theater doors open at 6 p.m. Nov. 17. There will be a question-and-answer session following the screening. General admission tickets are $9 and $7 for seniors. They are available at the Classic Cinemas Lake website— https://classiccinemas.com/f/the-voice-that-rocked-america-the-dick-biondi-story/2488?location=lake