FRIDAY 9AM

            How can you give an introduction to a man that has done everything in the entertainment business like the legendary Dick Clark? Richard Wagstaff "Dick" Clark was born in 1929 in New York. In 1945, he got his first experience working at a radio station that was owned by his uncle and managed by his father. He quickly worked his way up from the mailroom to weatherman and news announcer.

            In 1951, he began a long television career hosting a country music program, while at the same time continuing jobs in radio, until becoming the fulltime host of "Bandstand" in 1956. A year later, the program was renamed "American Bandstand" and picked up nationally on ABC. "American Bandstand" is one of the longest running television programs. It ran continuously on ABC until 1987, when the show moved to the USA cable channel until 1989.

            While remaining the host of "American Bandstand", Dick Clark kept busy hosting many successful game shows. Most notably, "The $10,000 Pyramid", "The $25,000 Pyramid", and "The $100,000 Pyramid". His versions of the popular daytime gameshow won 9 Emmy awards for best game show. Clark himself won 3 Emmy awards for best gameshow host.

            Dick Clark has also maintained a very successful network radio career throughout the decades. He started nationwide in 1963 with "The Dick Clark Radio Show". This show was produced for less than a year and was only picked up by a dozen or so affiliates. But Dick Clark's network radio career would do much better in the 1980's. He started the successful "Dick Clark's National Music Survey" in 1981 as competition to Casey Kasem's popular "American Top 40".

            "Dick Clark's National Music Survey" continued with Dick Clark as host until he left the Mutual Radio Network in 1986. Charlie Tuna took over hosting duties for the show and it continued for a short time afterward. Dick Clark meanwhile jumped to another show, "Countdown America", then later to the show "Dick Clarks US Music Survey" which he continued hosting weekly under his own United Stations Radio Network until his stroke.

            Lucky for us, while hosting his popular new music weekly program, Clark also hosted a program based on the music we all remember him so well for. He started the oldies based radio show, "Dick Clark's Rock Roll & Remember", back in 1982. The program continues to this day, and can be heard Friday's beginning at 9am here on WQMA.

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