Controversy Surrounds Dick Biondi Toy Drive In Chicago

Each year, Chicago personality, National Radio Hall of Famer, and WLS-FM nighttime DJ Dick Biondi hosts his annual toy drive to help collect gifts for underprivileged Chicago area children. This upcoming Thanksgiving weekend, Dick Biondi will do it yet again.

Chicago Radio & Media reports this weekend's event will be the 21st year that Dick Biondi has done his annual holiday toy drive for children -- doing so as a DJ for WJMK-FM, WJMK-HD2, WZZN-FM, and WLS-FM.

The 2012 toy drive will take place Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale, where Dick Biondi has been doing these events since 2008 -- exclusively so since 2009.

The event kicks off this Friday morning, as the living legend himself, Dick Biondi, will be at the mall, greeting fans. He will be at the WLS-FM booth from 7:00am-10:00pm. However, Biondi will not be broadcasting live, he’ll be voicing cut-ins about every two hours according to CRM. It will not be a live remote marathon broadcast, as it has been in previous years. Last year's broadcast was for 13 straight hours. This year, even though Dick Biondi will be on location for 15 hours.

Dick Biondi

Lars at CRM writes Cumulus Media, the owner of WLS-FM for the last 14 months, has been seemingly trying to make Dick Biondi unhappy at the station and force him out. His hours have been cut, his on air shift has been shoved back to 11:00pm-2:00am, where most of his longtime fans cannot hear him, and his time allowed to speak between songs has been dramatically cut back. The latest affront to Dick Biondi is clear on this weekend's toy drive..

Adding insult to injury, WLS has all but removed Dick Biondi's name from his own toy drive. Effective this year, the event is not called "The Dick Biondi Toy Drive." Instead the station has renamed it "THE 94.7 WLS TOY DRIVE, hosted by Dick Biondi." Notice where the bold letters are and where the emphasis is... and where it isn't.

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