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In 1956, when Dick was 13, The Charlotte News published a feature story on his home radio station and the Manager of WWOK 1480 Radio called him to congratulate him on the article and invited him to visit the station. That visit became an internship as music librarian and coffee runner for the announcers. He eventually landed a job at the station as a disc jockey playing mid 1950s Rock 'n Roll hits from the WWOK "Nifty top Fifty" music list. He also worked part time during the weekends at the NBC Radio affiliate, WSOC.
Dick proudly received a WBT/WBTV scholarship in 1958 to the Ninth North Carolina High School Radio-TV institute conducted by the Department of Radio Television and Motion Pictures at UNC-Chapel Hill. Attending the Institute became life-changing experience for him. He adjusted his career goals from being a "holler-and scream teenage rock DJ" toward becoming a well-rounded professional broadcaster.
After graduating from East Mecklenburg High School in 1960, he attended his first and only college choice, UNC-Chapel Hill, and majored in RTVMP. During his years at Chapel Hill he worked his way through college by working on the production crew of the Chapel Hill Studios of WUNC-TV. (Channel 4 was the only UNC station back then.) A benefit of being a crew chief at WUNC-TV included the opportunity to travel to all ACC campuses on weekends to operate television camera for the C.D. Chesley Network which televised ACC basketball and football sporting events. He also continued to enjoy being a night and weekend "Rock Jock" at Durham's popular but low power top 40 station, WSSB 1490. Dick worked during all his summer college breaks. He returned to Charlotte each summer to be on the production floor crew of WBTV and he did voice work on weekends as "duty booth" announcer for both WBTV and WBT Radio. They used live announcers back then. Imagine that!
He became a producer-director at WUNC-TV upon graduation from UNC, but the eager draft board stalked him regularly. After a brief stint at WDNC, CBS Radio in Durham, NC, he joined the U.S. Air Force. The recruiter in Durham arranged for him to be placed directly in his chosen career field of broadcasting. For two years, Dick produced, directed and narrated Air Force training films at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Texas. At night, he "moonlighted" as Program Director of KNTO, a Wichita Falls "Beautiful Music Station" (think Percy Faith and Montovani.) This was his first Program Director job. He's been a Program Director since 1967. He was deployed overseas to Thailand in 1968 where he received the Air Force Commendation Medal for duties performed as AFTN "Top of the Morning Show" host and Radio Program Director of the network lead station of the American Forces Thailand Network.
Following his Air Force discharge in 1970, he returned to the Raleigh-Durham area as Program Director of WDNC (AM & FM) in Durham. Later he became Production Manager and announcer for then NBC-TV affiliate, WRDU-TV, Channel 28. His ultimate career goal was finally achieved in 1976 when he joined the announcing staff of 50,000 Watt legacy AM station, WPTF in Raleigh. He served at WPTF/WQDR as Production Manager, Interim Program Director, Computer Operations Director and host of various talk shows and "The WPTF Record Vault," a popular music history program. He spent 22 years on the air and in management at WPTF.
Dick knew WCPE Manager Deborah Proctor when both of them worked together at WRDU-TV 28 in the early 1970s. When Deborah put WCPE on the air, Dick soon became a WCPE Volunteer, and eventually Chairman of the WCPE Advisory board. Dick had always wanted to work with WCPE, so when the Program Director position became available in 1998, he joined the staff.
In 1956, when he asked the engineer at his first radio station, WWOK, what he could do to repay him for the training he received in broadcasting, the engineer responded, "Pass it on." He's been doing just that ever since. Throughout his career as Program Director he has taught and coached employees. He's been a guest lecturer at area schools and universities. He has lead Explorer Scout Posts in broadcasting and continues to train WCPE Volunteer Announcers and Interns.
Dick's mother was a teacher and classical pianist who nurtured his interest in classical and popular music. He was trained by a jazz pianist in Charlotte and performed and arranged music for his own dance band while in high school.
Current interests include dogs (3 canine companions own him,) photography, history, computers (he wrote the WCPE traffic software system) and organizing reunions. He has put together successful reunions for his Air Force AFTN alumni, WPTF alumni, and has conducted several WUNC-TV/RTVMP reunions of his early 1960s UNC college friends which he calls "Swain Hall Geezer-Coot Fests." His Reunion project for 2009 was for his Sheppard AFB friends who were stationed in Wichita Falls, TX with him producing Air Force training videos at SETV-Sheppard Educational Television.
He lives in the historic district of downtown Raleigh.
