Q+A: Rick Dees

Jerry Fink, Las Vegas Sun

Monday, April 16, 2007 | 7:35 a.m.

Rick Dees took to broadcasting like, well, a disco duck to the dance floor.

The 57-year-old announcer, who grew up in Greensboro, N.C., started on radio in 1966 when he was in high school. Now he hosts the morning show on the popular Los Angeles radio station Movin' 93-9 (KMVN 93.9 FM) and a globally syndicated radio show, "Rick Dees' Weekly Top 40."

Dees wrote a number of songs, including the 1976 novelty hit "Disco Duck," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts and was featured in the movie "Saturday Night Fever."

He also has appeared in a number of films, including "La Bamba," playing the role of legendary radio announcer Ted Quillen, who is credited with helping launch the brief but brilliant career of Ritchie Valens. Quillen, a member of the Nevada Radio Hall of Fame, is a Las Vegas resident.

On Tuesday Dees will be inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame during a luncheon at the group's annual convention in Las Vegas. He is already a member of the Radio Hall of Fame.

Dees recently called the Sun to talk about the award, his career and the future of radio technology.

But the man with the million-dollar voice couldn't resist schmoozing with his interviewer and blowing a little smoke:

"Hey, Jerry, it's Riiick Deees ," he said, putting on his best radio announcer voice. "Hey, I'm proud that you want to talk to ooold Rick Dees. Look at this Jerry, it's 1:07 (p.m.). If you weren't The King of Las Vegas I'd be gone because I've been up since 3:45 (a.m.). Jerry Fink has the deed to the city of Las Vegas in his back pocket. I'm serious. Every time I'm there I hear about you. I don't know how you get all the stuff you do, but it's just fabulous."

Q: Thank you. You know, it's a small world. You played Ted Quillen in the film "La Bamba," and the real Ted Quillen lives here in Las Vegas.

He does? Wow. I've never met him. They said play somebody different from you in the movie. I said I'm just going to find out as much as I can about this guy and so I gave it my best to play him. I guess it came off. It was fun.

Tell him that Rick Dees loves him. And you know who loves you is a guy named Randy Morton (president of the Monte Carlo; former vice president of hotel operations for Bellagio). He's a friend of mine. He runs a lot of the hotels up there. I told him I was going to be talking to you and he said, "Wow, that's pretty cool."

Thank you again. But more important, do you still receive checks for "Disco Duck?"

I do. I can't believe that song sold 6 million copies. You know, it's funny. I went into a store this week and the girl recognized me from the radio and doing television commercials and all. She said, "You ought to do an album sometime." I said, "Well, it's funny. I've done several. I was lucky enough to write a couple of songs during the 'Saturday Night Fever' days. I wrote 'Meatballs,' with Bill Murray, the theme song for the motion picture." She said, "Really? Have you ever had a hit?" I said, "Well I had a song called 'Disco Duck.' " She's 24 years old. She says, "What?" I said, "Disco Duck." Then I realized I released it three years before she was born.

With your radio and commercial work and your farm in Kentucky, you're a busy guy.

I love it. I was lucky enough to be co-founder of a television network, Fine Living, that's in about 15 million homes now. I just started a company called Burn Lounge, for the digital distribution of music.

How does that work?

Imagine MySpace on steroids. Burn Lounge is virtual music stores online with 2 or 3 million songs - everything ever recorded. If it's "Fink's Burn Lounge" you put your music on there, sell the music to your friends and family and other people that want to download music. You get points every time they download and you can just trade those points in, like S&H green stamps, and get a Bose Wave radio or plasma TV, or if you want to start a chain of stores yourself you just pay like 29 bucks. It's like Amway.

Tell us about the award you will be receiving here in Las Vegas.

Isn't that great? It's the National Association of Broadcasters. They contacted me several months ago and said we'd like to put you in the Haaaall of Fame. I said, "Well isn't that reserved for Mickey Mantle?" They said, "This is the broadcasters hall of fame," so I said, "Wow, well bring it on." So we're going to have a big party on the 17th, in Vegas of course. So I'm bringing over all of my friend and it should be a lot of laughs.

The business has changed a lot since you entered the field. How have the changes affected you?

Well, the consolidation has been staggering. It used to be one company was allowed to own seven AM and seven FM stations. Now, my gosh this one company owns 1,250 stations, and so many of them sound alike and so many of them are on tape, and every tape you hear is a person who was fired.

Is this driving listeners to satellite radio?

No. Satellite's over, unless there's something I don't know. I think the real future is broadband radio (available on computers). Satellite radio is inferior quality.

As the broadband grows - in other words the thickness of the pipe on the Internet - I just don't know how you could not pick up from your computer and put on the speakers in your house 100 percent hi-definition sound and have it for free when satellite radio has to be an add-on to your system in your car, a lot of cars, and the bandwidth is short on some channels and bigger on others, depending on usage. And then there's the delay and on top of that you can't pick it up in tunnels. I just think the technology for satellite was a great idea at one time, but now it just doesn't seem to hit.

I can see some people would pay $19 a month so they can get HBO and all the other ESPN channels and all that because that programming is very compelling. I don't know very much compelling programming on satellite. They're just playing music. It's just tough to pay 14 bucks a month for that.

What about Howard Stern?

Howard Stern is a talented guy. He does a different style than I do. Porno does sell. I can't take anything away from his talent. Pornography, he's gifted with that. But his audience is drastically reduced from what it used to be. I don't care what they say. It is.

Did you ever consider going to satellite?

I talked to them when I was off the radio at one time. I would still be willing to go on it. I don't mind putting my programming on satellite radio. The more the merrier. But I just wonder if people want to pay $14 a month to hear Rick Dees when they can pick him up on land-based stations for free.

What's the future of the technology?

There's going to be a tremendous explosion of broadband Internet radio entertainment. If you'll go to rick.com or disney.go.com you'll see the future of what's going to come up on computers and all. Your mobile phone is going to be everything. People are getting rid of their land-based telephones at home. You'll be able to get all of your music, all of your messages, your e-mail and everything from that one little device, which will become thinner and thinner. That really is the future.

Are you going to discuss these topics at the convention?

Oh, no. I'm just going to talk about drinking and stuff like that. I'm just going to say, "Thank you so much," and, "Drinks are on me."

archive