“The Voice that Rocked America – The Dick Biondi Story” Red Carpet premiere Sunday
It’s been 12 years in the making, capturing 50 years career of radio legend Dick Biondi. Time to roll out the red carpet for the premiere of Dick Biondi: The Voice That Rocked America. And that’s exactly what will happen Sunday at the Des Plaines Theater.
It will certainly be a gala event. Hollywood impersonators (Ellie Weingardt at Joan Rivers, Ronnie B. as Elvis, Cliff Tartaglia as Rod Stewart, Eddie Bloom as Mick Jagger, et al.) and the Chicago HoneyBears will be on hand to greet attending revelers. John Kozoil will perform the Jimi Hendrix-style version of the “Star Spangled Banner.” A mini-concert by The Stingrays will kick off the celebration at 5:00 p.m., followed by the premiere screening at 6:00 p.m., they’ll be a Q&A with filmmaker Pamela Enzweiler-Pulice.
“Dick Biondi gave the 60’s generation a voice we desperately needed,” said Pulice. Like so many other teenagers, “At age 13, I felt alone until I heard Dick on my transistor radio. His sense of humor—and the music he played—truly saved me. To show my appreciation, I started the West Suburban Dick Biondi Fan Club in 1961 at my junior high school in Villa Park, Illinois. “I followed his many appearances throughout the Chicago area, and over time, Dick and I became friends. Dick generously allowed me to film him along with his legendary musician and media friends, and I am incredibly proud to share this important piece of radio history with the world.”
Having known Biondi since his WLS days, Pulice approached him with the idea for this project. And Dick said, “Let’s do it!” Even though she had a small production company previously, she approached the project with trepidation. “I was scared,” she said. Biondi had turned others down, but he gave me a leap of faith.” And now it’s done.
The career of Dick Biondi started up upstate New York when he pretended to be a radio DJ practicing on his porch talking to a wooden microphone. Encouraged by his parents to “chase your dream,” his travels would take him to Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Buffalo, New York. Finally, on May 2, 1960 he would arrive in Chicago. That was the day that WLS flipped the switch to rock and roll!
With WLS being a clear-channel station, their 50,000-watt signal could be picked up from coast-to-coast at night. Biondi’s ability to talk to his audience made them believe every song he played was a hit; he soon became the number one disc jockey in America, capturing a 60% share of the national audience. He’s credited with being the first disc jockey in the United States to play the Beatles, putting “Please Please Me” (which was on the local Chicago Vee Jay label) on the turntable, as well as breaking dozens of others records nationally.
The film explores the impact Dick Biondi had. He became the voice of the youth – their friend, someone they trusted, someone who spoke to them, someone they believed in. Not only the impact on his radio listeners, but on the music industry as a whole. We’ll hear from Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Gene Chandler, Brian Wilson, Tony Orlando, the Buckinghams’ Dennis Tufano, Cryan’ Shames’ Tom Doody and a host of others who tell how it was Dick Biondi who broke their records nationally. We’ll hear from fellow radio broadcasters and journalists who discuss the impact Dick Biondi had on the industry as a whole. And, most importantly, we’ll hear the story from Dick Biondi himself. Even though he passed away in 2023, as Pulice had started producing this story back in 2014 she was able to get significant interview footage with Biondi.
While his stints at WLS and WCFL in Chicago in the 1960s in the heyday of AM radio Top 40 rock and roll are legendary, Biondi would leave Chicago, only to return again and again as broadcasters recognized he truly was “the voice of Chicago radio.” As radio evolved and migrated from format to format, as one of radio’s original “screamers,” Biondi enjoyed a long career becoming “the voice of oldies radio.” Inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1998, Biondi was still on the air in Chicago at age 85 on WLS-FM in 2017.
If you can’t make it to the screening, Dick Biondi: The Voice That Rocked America is now streaming. You can find it on Amazone Prime, Apple TV, YouTube Movies, Google Play and Fios by Verizon.
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