Radio Show from 1977 Finds New Life in 2010
A Radio Show recorded at WNMB in North Myrtle Beach in 1977 has found new life in 2010. The show, Dick Biondi’s Super Gold Rock and Roll, was recorded at WNMB and distributed nationwide to a network of around 65 top radio stations in the United States. It’s now being heard again on WNMB in 2010.
“Super Gold” was the brainchild of a producer who lived in California. It was Joe Weidensall’s idea to syndicate radio personality Dick Biondi across the the country with a program which would feature Biondi playing the hits of the 1950s and 1960s. Biondi, a well known and very popular DJ, was working at WNMB at the time. Previously he had been in markets like Buffalo, Chicago and Los Angeles. He was famous for his particular fast paced style of announcing and his wit, which could lean in most any direction. Biondi, while on vacation in late 1974, liked North Myrtle Beach so he decided he would live here. One August day he walked in the door at WNMB and introduced himself. General Manager Harry Dunnagan interviewed and then hired Biondi, and put him to work as the host of the Station’s morning show from 6 to 10 a.m.
By 1977, word had gotten around the nation that the former Chicago radio star was now a mainstay on the Grand Strand. Biondi pulled in large ratings for the original WNMB FM. His morning show, controversial at times, and wildly humorous at other times, had become a Grand Strand fixture.
Biondi and then Assistant WNMB Manager Bill Norman, were contacted by Mr. Weidensall. Joe’s idea was to to do a syndicated show and to produce it right here in North Myrtle Beach in the WNMB studios. Joe Weidensall would produce the program. Bill Norman would be the Associate Producer and engineer the show, and, of course, Biondi would be the host. Production began on “Super Gold Rock and Roll” in the Spring of ’77 and the initital network of stations airing it was around sixty. The participating radio stations covered most of the Major Markets in the Country including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
The show was recorded each week at WNMB in “real” time. As the music was played Dick Biondi would introduce the songs and the artists. Interviews were done each week with three different artists or bands of the 1960s. The interview list included such greats as Ringo Star, The Supremes, Glen Campbell, Bobby Vinton, and many more. After a recording session was complete, the “master” recordings on tape were shipped from WNMB to a record company in California who pressed the shows onto 33 1/3 albums and shipped it each week to the participating radio stations.
The idea to play the show again on WNMB today came to Station Manager Bill Norman after years of hearing comments from listeners about Dick Biondi. Bill says “people are always asking others if they remember hearing Dick on the radio here and they tell me stories of the things they remember. Earlier this year, I pulled all the copies of the show we had kept on file and I received some other copies from my friend Bill Batten, who had saved many of the shows. Between the two of us, we had a complete collection of the show inventory. So, I cleaned up the vinyl and put a turntable back into one of our studios. We began playing an hour of the show each Friday morning beginning at eight o’clock. The response was immediate and it was great. People remember and they want to listen again.”
There’s another interesting twist to the show history. One of the primary sponsors on the Dick Biondi show on WNMB in the 70s was Carson Hardwick, who owned and operated “Hardwick’s Beverage Mart” on highway 17 south. The same individual, Carson Hardwick, is the sponsor of the 2010 replay on WNMB. Today Carson is the owner and operator of Hardwick’s Restaurant Equipment and Supplies, which is located at highway 9 in Longs.
For allowing the syndicated show to be recorded in its studios, WNMB got to air the show on its own airwaves. It was played on Sunday afternoons. The station also received perpetual rights to the playing, so thus it has come back for another run in 2010.
Norman says “We hear from many folks today who listened in the 70s and it’s allowed us at the station to renew many friendships.”
As to Dick Biondi, in the early 1980s, he went back to Chicago and he is still on the radio there today. He hosts a program each weekday night on WLS-FM and he recently celebrated his 50th anniversary of when he first went to work at WLS. Dick Biondi has been inducted into the National DJ hall of fame.
