Dick Bartley

Dick Bartley, a popular American radio disc jockey since 21 June 1969, hosts several popular syndicated radio shows of the oldies/classic hits genre, including the current Classic Countdown since 1991 and the Saturday night call-in request show Rock & Roll's Greatest Hits since 1982.

Both shows are currently syndicated through United Stations Radio Networks; they were previously carried by ABC Radio Networks from 1991 to 2009, and by Westwood One in the 1980s. Bartley has licensed his name for the "Dick Bartley Presents Collector's Essentials on the Radio" album series; compilations of radio favorites by specific era and genre.^[1]

Bartley^[2] got his start at age 17^[3] playing "Bad Moon Rising" on WWOD.^[4] Bartley's programs use historic data from the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Programs

Both programs are four hours in length and play classic hits and oldies from the 1970s and 1980s, with some late 1960s songs thrown in. Much in the same way the oldies and classic hits formats in general have done, both programs have gradually shifted in their focus since their debuts; for instance, Rock & Roll's Greatest Hits, when it debuted in 1982, had a playlist composed of titles almost entirely from the late 1950s through the late 1960s, mirroring the oldies format at the time. The focus of each show is different:

• The Classic Countdown focuses on the hits of the current month from a particular year (currently, 1970-1984), although – like "Rock & Roll's Greatest Hits" – the program presents a "Halloween Classics" and "Summer Classics" show each year. See Classic Countdown for more information.
• Rock & Roll's Greatest Hits has a "spotlight" theme, presenting 16 examples interspersed throughout the program's four hours. Themes range from a particular year (currently 1970-1983) to artists to stylistic trends and topics ("1980s Top Artists" or "Motown Classics"). As the show has started playing 1980s songs more extensively, a good share of the current playlist had not yet been recorded prior to 1982, when the show originally debuted. The program was originally a five-hour "live" program presented on Saturday evenings, but since its move to United Stations Radio Networks, is now a four-hour pre-recorded program, with requests taken throughout the week; features of the formerly live show, including a contest to identify a clip of a song (often by a one-hit wonder), were dropped.

Both programs also feature a Christmas program, heard the weekend of/before Christmas, and a "top requests of all time"-type program the weekend of/before New Years.

During the 1990s, Bartley also hosted a third program, Yesterday Live, which featured a 1970s/1980s format similar to today's classic hits (at the time, his other shows were focused on 1950s/1960s oldies).

Awards

• Three-time winner of the Billboard magazine Radio Award for Network Program of the Year: 1988, 1989, 1990
• Three-time nominee for the National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award for Network Personality of the Year: 1992, 1993, 1995
• Winner of the 1996 New York International Radio Festival WorldMedal for The Beatles ’95 radio special
• Inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago, Illinois in 2000^[3]

Personal

Bartley grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, the son of William Bartley, an engineer at General Electric, and Nancy Bartley, who was a lay leader in the Christian Science Church. He graduated from the University of Virginia and as of 2013 lives and has studios in Falls Church, Virginia. He has two daughters, Diane Bartley and Jane Bartley. Diane graduated from Duke University. Jane graduated from Dartmouth. The radio station WWOD, which hadn't been used for years, was finally razed and is now covered with grass on Mimosa Drive in Lynchburg.

External links

• DickBartley.com

References