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| Chicago Radio Great, Dick Buckley Passes Away |
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| Written by Larz | |||
| Thursday, 22 July 2010 14:50 | |||
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One of Chicago radio's best talents has left us. Dick Buckley, the truest voice of Jazz music for Chicago since the 1950's, has passed away at the age of 85, one month shy of his 86th birthday. He was pronounced dead at a hospital in Oak Park,where he was being treated for pneumonia. Buckly was a long-time Oak Park resident.
Born in Decatur, IN on August 26, 1924, Dick Buckley grew up loving Jazz music, listening to as much of it as he possibly could on the radio. He did this even though his family & friends did not care for the art form nearly as much as he did. He began his radio career while serving in the military in the mid-40's. By the late 40's, he was working professionally in radio in Ft. Wayne, IN at WANE. Less than two years later, he moved down to Indianapolis, working as an announcer at WFMB. After losing that job due to his narcolepsy, which caused him to suddenly fall asleep during his job, he worked at various stations until the mid-50's, when he was recruited to come to Chicago to be an announcer of WAAF, working with the legendary jive-talking Jazz DJ, "Daddy-O" Daylie. He has been working in Chicago radio ever since. While at WAAF, he requested and was given the chance to host a Jazz program. The popular show moved to WNIB in the early 60's, where the popularity grew even more and lasted for a few years. Buckley also hosted shows on WAIT-AM and WXFM-FM. In 1977, Dick Buckley came to WBEZ-FM. The station became his home for over 30 years. Buckley and his extremely deep, soothing voice, entertained Chicago Public Radio listeners with hard-to-find Jazz music, as well as his extensive knowledge of the music, telling facts about the artists not easily found any where else. In 2007, Chicago Public Radio General Manager Torey Malatia decided to remove music programming from the station and focus instead on news/current events/talk/public affairs. While Buckley's show was not canceled outright, it was cut down to only one hour on Sundays. The following year, on July 29, 2008, Buckley gave his final Jazz radio program and retired, ending an era of Chicago Jazz radio. He would often begin his radio shows with the bouncy sounds of Duke Ellington's song "Skin Deep." It was how he ended his radio shows that left a lasting impression, though. He would exit by saying just one word... Happiness. 
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