He Doesn’t Do Jack
That afternoon Infinity Broadcasting, which owns seven radio stations in town, switched its oldies outlets in New York and Chicago to the canned genre-busting format called Jack FM. The change provoked a hue and cry among listeners and media observers alike. The next morning the New York Post ran the headline “Bloodbath at CBS-FM” (Bruce Morrow, better known as WCBS DJ Cousin Brucie, had also lost his job after more than 20 years), and on June 7 Chicago Tonight host Bob Sirott asked his audience, “I don’t really want to live in a world where Dick Biondi is not on the radio–do you?”
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But by 1973, with Top 40 stations shifting from AM to FM and DJs losing their autonomy, Biondi had begun to fall out of favor. “Oldies” wasn’t an established format yet, just something a few shows specialized in. He left WCFL, lost his job at a Cincinnati station after a few months, and ended up at WNMB in South Carolina for a decade. He didn’t return to Chicago until 1983, after Bob Sirott featured him on one of his Where Are They Now? TV specials. After a year with WBBM, he was tapped by Infinity head Mel Karmazin to be the signature voice of WJMK, which was launching as Chicago’s first oldies station.
Clubland 3, Entropy 0
