Rick Dees Biography-Wiki
Florida is an American entertainer, radio personality, comedian, actor, and voice artist. He is popularly known for his internationally syndicated radio show The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown and for the 1976 novelty song “Disco Duck”.
Rick Dees Age|Birthday
Rick was born on March 14, 1950, in Jacksonville, Florida. He is 70 years old as of 2020. He celebrates his birthday on March 14 every year. His full names are Rigdon Osmond Dees III.
Rick Dees Education
He graduated from Greensboro’s Grimsley High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree in motion pictures, TV, and radio.
Rick Dees Wife
His first marriage was with Nancy Carmody in the year 1970 after dating for some time. They stayed together for a couple of years, but until they filed for their divorce in the year 1976. After all that he continued with his life and remarried voice actress Julie McWhirter in 1977 and they got one kid namely Kevin Dees.
Rick Dees Net Worth
He is an American singer and radio host who has a net worth of $35 million dollars.
Rick Dees Radio
Rick began his radio career at Greensboro radio station called WGBG. He worked for several radio stations throughout the southeastern United States. They include; WCAR (now known as WXYC) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, WSGN in Birmingham, Alabama, and WKIX in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The success at Memphis radio station combined Rick’s TV appearances and hit music, which motivated the station owner RKO General to offer him the morning radio show in Los Angeles at 93KHJ AM. He helped their ratings, but AM music radio was rapidly losing ground to FM.
Rick left KHJ when KHJ switched to country music taking a morning position at KIIS-FM in July 1981. In a short time, Rick went back to KIIS-FM into the #1 revenue-generating radio station in America, with an asset value approaching half a billion dollars. He left the station in 2004 because of a contract dispute after 23 years on radio station KIIS-FM. He was replaced by Ryan Seacrest.
In August 2006 Rick went back to Los Angeles radio on KMVN, Movin 93.9, hosting the morning show along with Patti “Long Legs” Lopez and Mark Wong. Movin 93.9 changed the format on April 15, 2009, dismissing its radio personalities and changing the format to Spanish contemporary music.
This is after leasing the station to Mexico City business Grupo Radio Centro. Rick was one of the last voices on the station before the flip, redirecting listeners of his show to RICK.COM. Rick went back for the second time, and this time he worked at KIIS’s sister station KHHT (now KRRL) On April 20, 2011, following the station’s formatting shift to a Gold-based Rhythmic AC. Rick’s show at KHHT lasted for a year.
Rick Dees Comedy
His other comedy albums I’m Not Crazy, Rick Dees Greatest Hit (The White Album), and Put It Where The Moon Don’t Shine have also enjoyed worldwide success. He is an inductee in the North Carolina Music Hall Of Fame, the Tennessee Radio Hall Of Fame, has received the Billboard Radio Personality Of The Year award for 10 consecutive years, received a People’s Choice Award, and has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Rick Dees Weekly Top 40
Rick began his Weekly Top 40 countdown program, still currently in syndication, in September 1983. The show was created after Rick’s station KIIS dropped American Top 40 in a dispute over the playing of network commercials. The show has been heard each weekend in over 200 countries worldwide and the Armed Forces Radio Network.
The weekly top 40 is distributed domestically by Compass Media Networks and internationally by Rick Entertainment International (through Radio Express). The Weekly Top 40 became the first English-speaking radio show to air in China in December 2008. The syndicated Countdown is available in a number of different editions including Hit Radio (for contemporary hit radio stations), Hot Adult (hot adult contemporary radio stations), 80s Edition and 90s Edition on terrestrial radio stations around the world.
Rick continues the distribution of his Rick Dees’Weekly Top 40 Countdown globally to terrestrial radio stations. He is also streaming in the U.S., making it the longest continuously running Hit Music Countdown in the world. He continues to host the syndicated Daily Dees daily show.
Rick Dees Films and television
In television, Dees hosted his own late-night show on the ABC television network in the early 1990s, Into the Night Starring Rick Dees, which ran for one season and was canceled due to low ratings. He has guest-starred on Roseanne, Married. with Children, Cheers, Diagnosis: Murder and many other hit shows.
In addition, Dees hosted the syndicated series Solid Gold from Paramount Television, and his voice has been enjoyed on numerous animated features, including The Flintstones, where he starred as Rock Dees, and Jetsons: The Movie, where he played Rocket Rick. In feature films, Rick Dees starred in La Bamba, portraying the iconic Ted Quillin, the Los Angeles disc jockey who helped launch Ritchie Valens’s career.
Rick Dees Disco Duck
During his time at WMPS AM 680 (“The Great 68”) in Memphis, Tennessee, during the disco craze of the mid- to late-1970s he was introduced to the international entertainment arena. During this time wrote and recorded “Disco Duck” in 1976, which sold more than 6 million copies. This song can be heard in Saturday Night Fever in a brief scene. A group of older people was learning to “move their feet to the disco beat”.
While this platinum recording earned Rick a People’s Choice Award and the BMI Award for record sales in one year, Rick was expressly forbidden from playing the song on air by station management (rival stations refused to play it for fear of promoting their competition). He was then fired from WMPS when he mentioned that his song, “Disco Duck”, was almost #1, and his own radio station would not let him play it.
The station manager stated that it was a conflict of interest. Rick did not perform the actual duck vocals on the song since he could not “talk like a duck.”The duck vocals were recorded by Ken Pruitt at Shoestring Productions in Memphis, Tennessee. Ken moved away before the song became popular.
Michael Chesney of Memphis did the vocals for the duck for the concert tour. Michael had done some comedic voices for Dees prior to Disco Duck. The tour moved from Disney World to New York, NY, billed as Rick Dees and The Cast of Idiots. After a 45-day non-compete clause, his contract was satisfied, and he was hired by RKO Radio to do the morning show at WHBQ AM 560 in Memphis.
Rick Dee’s date of Death
Rick Dees is not dead he is still alive and in good health, All the rumors about his death are all lies.
Rick Dees Awards
He has earned many accolades, including the Marconi Award, induction into both the National Radio Hall of Fame and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall Of Fame. He received a Grammy Award nomination for his comedy album Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks in 1984, and has since received the Grammy Governor’s Award.
Rick’s other comedy albums I’m Not Crazy, Rick Dees’ Greatest Hit (The White Album), and Put It Where The Moon Don’t Shine have also enjoyed worldwide success. Rick is an inductee in the North Carolina Music Hall Of Fame, the Tennessee Radio Hall Of Fame. He has received the Billboard Radio Personality Of The Year award for 10 consecutive years. Rick has also received a People’s Choice Award and has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Rick Dees Fisher v. Dees and other legal trouble
Dees (and his record company) made a request of Marvin Fisher in 1984, the owner of the copyright in the music of the song “When Sunny Gets Blue”, for permission to use the song in a parody of the performance by Johnny Mathis. Fisher refused to grant permission for the use.
He decided to go ahead and do a parody even without the permission of the copyright holder, using about 29 seconds of the song is a parody album titled Put It Where the Moon Don’t Shine. Fisher sued Dees for copyright infringement. The court trial found that the parody song, titled “When Sonny Sniffs Glue,” was clearly intended to “poke fun” at the style of singing where Johnny Mathis was well known, and thus was not infringing.
The decision was upheld on appeal, in Fisher v. Dees 794 F.2d 432 (9th Cir. 1986) In an unrelated 1991 case, he was successfully sued for $10 million in damages. The court found Dees and his business manager acted with “malice and oppression” in diverting profits from Dees’s Top 40 countdown program and gave the judgment to a former business partner.
Rick Dees App
Click here https://rick.com/
Rick Dees Songs
- John Revolting
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983 - Jane Fondle
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983 - Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983 - Attack Of The Fly
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983 - Listener Survey
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983 - Candid Phone “7 11”
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983 - Talking Cars
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983 - Meatballs
- Auto Alert
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983 - Disco Duck Disco Duck · 2018
- Stewardess “Upright Position”
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983 - Talent Agent “Bernie Shelley”
Hurt Me Baby Make Me Write Bad Checks! · 1983
Rick Dees Movies
- Dan Savage’s New Threat to Rick Santorum 2011
- Jetsons: The Movie 1990
- La Bamba 1987
- The Gladiator 1986
- Stanley, the Ugly Duckling 1981
- Record City 1978
Rick Dees TV Shows
- Solid Gold 1980 – 1988
- Lucky Luke 1983 – 1985
Frequently Asked Questions About Rick Dees
Who is Dees?
He is an American entertainer, radio personality, comedian, actor, and voice artist.
How old is Rick?
He is 70 years old as of 2020.
How tall is Dees?
According to our sources, we have no information regarding his height but we promise to update the information as soon as it is available.
Is Rick married?
Yes, he is married and he is married to Julie McWhirter.
How much is Dee’s worth?
He is an American singer and radio host who has a net worth of $35 million dollars.
How much does Rick make?
He has not revealed her annual earnings.
Where does Dees live?
He lives in Toluca Lake California.
Is Rick dead or alive?
He is still alive and in good health.
Where is Rick Dees now?
Rick is currently an entertainer, radio personality, comedian, actor, and voice artist.