Los Angeles. Sunshine, palm trees, celebrities, and Rick Dees in the Morning.
A staple of morning radio in Los Angeles for over 22 years, Rick Dees is part of the fabric of this town. For me, starting my day listening to his lively, hilarious radio show all these years in L.A. became an enjoyably familiar ritual. His warm, likeable personality and uproarious morning show has won him a loyal following in L.A. and around the world. Accolades such as Billboard Magazine’s “Number One Radio Personality in America” for eleven consecutive years is proof of that.
This year, on April 17, 2007, Rick Dees was inducted into the 2007 National Association of Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame at the annual NAB conference in Las Vegas, NV.
In 1981, Rick Dees began hosting the top-rated show “Rick Dees in the Morning” on KIIS FM. In 1983, he added Rick Dees’ Weekly Top 40* to his schedule. During his years at the station, he turned KIIS FM into the #1 revenue generating radio station in America with an asset value approaching a half a billion dollars. With unprecedented arbitrons and many accolades to his name, including the much coveted Marconi Award, Dees set the standard for success in morning radio. Rick Dees was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1999, and garnered a People’s Choice Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
I stopped by to catch up with this charismatic and funny man at his own brand-new state of the art studio in beautiful downtown Burbank, where he broadcasts his morning show on Movin93.9 FM.
Jane Emery: Congratulations on your induction into the Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame!
Rick Dees: Thank you so much, isn’t that amazing?
JE: Well, you’ve always been my favorite radio personality, so I think it’s fitting. How are things going here at your new post?
Rick: “This new station is a lot of fun, Movin93.9 is a real departure, because we decided to bring up a format where every hit is up tempo. And so we said let’s call it “the mix that makes you move”. So, you’ve got everybody from Christina Aguilara to Justin Timberlake to Earth Wind and Fire.
JE: I heard Justin singing his new version of Sexy Back – “They brought Rick Dees back” – pretty cool! It is great to have you back and your fans seem to follow you wherever you are.
Rick: But you know, I think there’s room enough for all of us, I just enjoy being on, being in the mix, being in the frey…
JE: As you should be!
Rick: It’s so much to fun to just go back and start from scratch and create a whole new radio show on a brand new station. That’s something I’ve never done; I’ve done a show on a station that was already there and helped the ratings and all…but to go back and start from scratch with my friends at Emmis – Jeff Samalian, Val Mackey, Rick Cummings and Jimmy Steele and for everybody to get together and say “Yeah, we’d like to do that", it’s quite a compliment so I’m taking it very seriously and having fun at the same time.
JE: Well that’s what is so great about you, people have fun listening to your show. People driving to work early in the morning, stuck in traffic, instead of being frustrated, you make them laugh. You’re a light in a daily stressful world!
Rick: Well, we go on every day and if I can make you laugh, make you feel like we’re having fun, and it’s contagious, it’s back and forth, Jane, that’s what it’s all about. Some days are funnier than others and some days are hilarious…incredible!
JE: And you always have great guests on…
Rick: We’ve had some great guests on; our first show at Movin93, we had Jack Nicholson. He came in and spent the whole show…can you imagine? And so he says “Play more old stuff, Rick…stop with the Justin Timberlake! I’ll bring ya sexy back.” (laughs) It worked out great.
Jane: Wow! Hollywood has always loved Rick Dees. And since you’ve been here at Movin93.9, you’ve also had Ian Zierling, Cesar Millan, Kobe Bryant, Nicolette Sheridan, Tim Allen and Jerry Springer, to name a few! Your shows are a blast and they seem to have a great time doing them.
Rick: Oh, it’s great.
JE: I’d like to ask what are your thoughts on the whole satellite radio thing?
Rick: Everybody asks me about satellite radio, but the problem is, there’s a huge “churn” rate with satellite radio; I mean, people are given satellite radio for free when you buy a car, but then after a year, you have to pay for it yourself, and, so many of those people are not converting to listeners. And the reason is, radio is basically free, that’s what it is in our mind…we want free radio. Television was lucky enough to say ”Well, we’re going to charge you for better quality, we’re going to charge you for more channels, we’re going to charge you for HBO. Radio, by and large, if you don’t mind having a few commercials is free, and is great! So, I think the future really is not satellite radio, I think it’s land-based radio and the real future is broadband radio, on your computer. Get a couple of better speakers and a sub-woofer, add it as an external component to your computer, and it sounds like this: (he turns up the juice on the music currently playing on the station)…So, if you go to Rick.com, which has all these channels you can bring up ‘for free’, and it’s right there on our proprietary player we call the DDN – Dees Digital Network player – so, that, I think, really is the future.
JE: Cool! I’ll definitely check it out. I know you have to leave for your 3:00 meeting at CBS, what else is going on?
Rick: Just that we’re streaming now on Rick.com, the morning show on Movin is really starting to take some traction, we have this commercial on with the dancing booties, and the billboard – it’s huge and so that’s getting a lot of response. Life is great! And our new studios here are a dream come true.
JE: I understand your son is involved in creative development with your company.
Rick: He’s in charge of creative development for our company. He’s developing tv shows and films and radio…
JE: Any reality show aspirations?
Rick: We’re working on one now called “Mind Over Music”.
JE: Well, I’m definitely going to start getting up earlier and catching “Rick Dees in the Morning” weekdays on Movin93.9!
Rick: I’ll be here everyday!
You can listen to Rick every morning on Movin93.9 fm, and the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, and on www.Rick.com
* Rick Dee’s #1 internationally syndicated radio show “Rick Dees Weekly Top 40” is heard each weekend by more than 70 million people around the world, including virtually every city in the United States, 125 countries around the world, 27 massive ships at sea, and on the Armed Forces Radio Network.
