His name was mentioned in another thread, so I decided to create a new one here. What was his time in Memphis like? Was he popular and how long did he stay before departing for Los Angeles, or did he go somewhere else between Memphis and Los Angeles?
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Rick Dees as a Memphis radio personality
- Thread starter the golden boy
- Start date
Rick Dees was a phenomenon in Memphis at both WMPS and then at WHBQ.
He was doing mornings at WMPS, as well as the station's PD, when suddenly he also had a huge Pop hit called "Disco Duck" that went to number one across the country. Dees was fired from WMPS simply for talking about his record on-air. Not long after he was hired to work at 56 HBQ, which was part of the RKO chain (they owned some of the biggest CHRs in the country at the time). Rick Dees was a phenomenon with listers and immediately scored over an 18 share in morning drive for WHBQ, and the station rose to number one with more than a 13 share (beating WDIA, an R&B AM giant)
He was doing mornings at WMPS, as well as the station's PD, when suddenly he also had a huge Pop hit called "Disco Duck" that went to number one across the country. Dees was fired from WMPS simply for talking about his record on-air. Not long after he was hired to work at 56 HBQ, which was part of the RKO chain (they owned some of the biggest CHRs in the country at the time). Rick Dees was a phenomenon with listers and immediately scored over an 18 share in morning drive for WHBQ, and the station rose to number one with more than a 13 share (beating WDIA, an R&B AM giant)
the golden boy said:
"was he popular???" !!!! LOL
I respect Dees' success and that he hit it big in Memphis before really hitting it big, but I really don't see the point of him hosting WGN America's Retro TV nights. He's simply too jive a turkey for that sort of thing.
His schtick might have been great on radio in the 70's (or even now as a 'throwback' thing on an oldies station) but c'mon, society has moved on. I was real jocks with real personalities. I have tape somewhere of DC legend Don Geronimo making fun of a Rick Dees interview that appeared in a trade paper many years ago. He said that Dees' responses were pretty much everything that was wrong with radio then (1994) and I couldn't have agreed more. Maybe if I come across it, I'll record it and post it.
His schtick might have been great on radio in the 70's (or even now as a 'throwback' thing on an oldies station) but c'mon, society has moved on. I was real jocks with real personalities. I have tape somewhere of DC legend Don Geronimo making fun of a Rick Dees interview that appeared in a trade paper many years ago. He said that Dees' responses were pretty much everything that was wrong with radio then (1994) and I couldn't have agreed more. Maybe if I come across it, I'll record it and post it.
IMHO, in their respective primes, Don Geronimo couldn't carry Rick Dees' headphones. But that is only my HO.
robgrayson said:
I'm just a listener, but I've been here since 1972; in my opinion, only Dewey Phillips, Nat D. Williams, and Rufus Thomas had the kind of impact on Memphians that Rick Dees had. He won the town over in less than a month, and even had the Mayor doing a bit for him within weeks, IIRC.
I may have liked Ron Jordan better, but there's no mistake, Dees was another level.
robgrayson said:
And I don't disagree with that assessment (and neither does Don, probably.) What I'm saying is that at that time in the 90's when I was cultivating my ears, it was Geronimo who'd found the new way of keeping up ratings. Rick Dees was just some old jock.
Whatever he used to be in Memphis, is he still that good?
Michael said:
Well, so much for getting to sleep this morning.
I started at chapter 12 and read to the end, then started at the beginning until I got back around to where I started. And it only took 5 hours! Michael, that was some fascinating reading. I really dig on the history of radio, but I'm also glad that I wasn't around to get into it back in the heyday. Lots of loose women, drugs, alcohol and moving around. And I hate moving around!
The whole thing left me feeling pretty warm and fuzzy about the radio greats of the day, so I tell y'all what. I'll go easy on old Rigdon Dees (and try to skip past his tired canned intros on WGN Retro Night before my DVR'd Barney Miller marathons) if you guys will at least let me keep my intense dislike of Scott Shannon.
Zach said:I respect Dees' success and that he hit it big in Memphis before really hitting it big, but I really don't see the point of him hosting WGN America's Retro TV nights. He's simply too jive a turkey for that sort of thing.
His schtick might have been great on radio in the 70's (or even now as a 'throwback' thing on an oldies station) but c'mon, society has moved on. I was real jocks with real personalities. I have tape somewhere of DC legend Don Geronimo making fun of a Rick Dees interview that appeared in a trade paper many years ago. He said that Dees' responses were pretty much everything that was wrong with radio then (1994) and I couldn't have agreed more. Maybe if I come across it, I'll record it and post it.
I listened to Don and Mike a few times while traveling. Seems to me THAT show was the epitome of everything that’s wrong with radio.
As a high school kid down in Greenville, my interest in Memphis radio began with Bob McClain's stint as morning man at WMPS. He was the first guy I would get to school and say "did you hear what Bob said this morning?" When Crazy Bob left, the thought was where will they ever find someone as good as Bob? Then came Rick Dees.
One analysis that would clarify Dees' impact as a Memphis radio personality would be to visualize the percent of total market revenue Rick was responsible for versus anybody else in their respective prime in their respective markets. WHBQ was spending "Dees money" long after he was gone. I speculate you would have to go back to Dewey Phillips to find someone who had as much traceable relative economic impact in Memphis.
And Dees got the brass ring we all secretly wanted, whether we admitted it out loud or not... he made the trip from WHBQ to KHJ. It doesn't matter that KHJ was dying; the whole AM top-40 industry was dying. Rick made it, and he deserved the shot. I doubt many of us came to Memphis expecting to stay here and grow old. In my era, we saw guys regularly make the leap from Q and MPS and even Rock103 to KCBQ, WRKO, to Philly, Houston, DC, Dallas, to Chicago, San Francisco and NYC... to somewhere you could make good coin, get your name in R&R, and be the envy of your peers back home.
Rather than being slighted, Memphis radio was the better for it, because there was always a supply of new talented folks seeing this as the path to greatness. I noted recently in a posting on the Mississippi page, when the jocks that we knew "back when" moved on to their top-10 market posts, they weren't necessarily any better than they were when we got to hear them "before they were discovered". The talent that took them to the top was making Memphis radio (and Jackson, MS and Starkville, MS and Greenville, MS radio) strong back when.
One analysis that would clarify Dees' impact as a Memphis radio personality would be to visualize the percent of total market revenue Rick was responsible for versus anybody else in their respective prime in their respective markets. WHBQ was spending "Dees money" long after he was gone. I speculate you would have to go back to Dewey Phillips to find someone who had as much traceable relative economic impact in Memphis.
And Dees got the brass ring we all secretly wanted, whether we admitted it out loud or not... he made the trip from WHBQ to KHJ. It doesn't matter that KHJ was dying; the whole AM top-40 industry was dying. Rick made it, and he deserved the shot. I doubt many of us came to Memphis expecting to stay here and grow old. In my era, we saw guys regularly make the leap from Q and MPS and even Rock103 to KCBQ, WRKO, to Philly, Houston, DC, Dallas, to Chicago, San Francisco and NYC... to somewhere you could make good coin, get your name in R&R, and be the envy of your peers back home.
Rather than being slighted, Memphis radio was the better for it, because there was always a supply of new talented folks seeing this as the path to greatness. I noted recently in a posting on the Mississippi page, when the jocks that we knew "back when" moved on to their top-10 market posts, they weren't necessarily any better than they were when we got to hear them "before they were discovered". The talent that took them to the top was making Memphis radio (and Jackson, MS and Starkville, MS and Greenville, MS radio) strong back when.
sjs1959 said:
I also preferred Ron Jordan on the radio. Unfortunately off the radio Ron was his own worst enemy.
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