Chicago radio legend Dick Biondi dies at 90

Legendary radio personality worked at several Chicago stations in a career that spanned 67 years 

Known as “the Wild I-Tralian”, Richard Orlando Biondi – known locally on-air as Dick Biondi, died peacefully in his home on June 26 at the age of 90, according to his family who shared the news on WLS-AM’s Facebook page.

Born in 1932 in Endicott, N.Y., Biondi began his long 67-year radio career in Binghamton, N.Y. and worked in several cities in the 1950s, including WKBW and WEBR in Buffalo. In 1960, Biondi arrived at WLS-AM as the new evening discjockey just as the station flipped to Top 40, being heard across the country on the 50,000 powerhouse and was known to play the first Beatles record on the air in the U.S. at WLS before they came to the states a year later. 

After two separate stints at Los Angeles’ KRLA between 1963 and 1967 (where he introduced the Beatles and Rolling Stones at the Hollywood Bowl), Biondi returned to Chicago via WCFL and then had a short stint at WMAQ-AM before departing Chicago again in 1972 where after stints in Boston and Cincinnati, he would have a decade-long run at WNMB in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he also produced and hosted syndicated show Dick Biondi’s Super Gold Rock and Roll.  

Biondi returned to Chicago a third time, hired by WBBM-FM (B96) to be their new morning personality in 1983. However, ratings were poor as he wasn’t as great a fit for the Top 40 station as he was twenty years earlier at WLS. A year later, Biondi was one of the new faces hired for the just-launched WJMK-FM Oldies 104.3 FM, and was with the station throughout its entire duration until June 2005, when it flipped to Jack FM. Biondi however, was still under contract so they shifted them and other personalities to WJMK’s HD2 digital subchannel until July 2006 when they all were let go. 

In November 2006, Biondi joined WLS-FM in an evening time slot though years later he was shifted to a late-evening one until November 2015, when was shifted to weekend mornings. Biondi was last heard on the Chicago airwaves in 2017, when he was hospitalized from a leg infection but vowed to return. Biondi never returned as WLS-FM released him from his contract in 2018. 

Throughout his career, Biondi has been honored with numerous accolades, being inducted into the Radio Hall Of Fame in 1998 and the Buffalo Broadcasting Hall Of Fame. In 2010, the State of Illinois proclaimed May 1 “Dick Biondi Day” in a proclamation from then-Governor Pat Quinn. No matter where he worked, Biondi always signed off with his signature line: “God bless, bye, bye, Duke. Thanks a million for dialing our way.”

A private funeral service was held.