Rick Dees

In the early 1980s, as radio became increasingly competitive—with every major music format fragmented to serve more and more specific groups of listeners—stations in large markets were content when they drew 3 or 4 percent of the total listening audience. Led by Rick Dees, a fresh-faced deejay out of Memphis, Tennessee, KIIS-FM garnered 10 percent and more of the Los Angeles audience. Dees, who arrived at the station in 1981, parlayed a friendly, versatile voice, an ear for mimicry, improvisational wit, edgy humour, and a strong camaraderie with his sidekicks into long-term success. In 1976, while he was at WMPS in Memphis, Dees had a novelty hit, “Disco Duck,” and he later recorded several comedy albums, hosted television’s Solid Gold (a dance-oriented Top Ten countdown program) in 1984–85, and in 1990 hosted an unsuccessful late-night television show on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network.