R.I.P.: Former WBAP Host/Pilot Dick Siegel

Dick Siegel, once part of the most recognizable radio team in the Dallas-Fort Worth area died of a heart attacked Thursday. He was 75.

WBAP Website

Siegel was teamed with Hal Jay on WBAP-AM 820 from 1981 to 2003 for the top-rated morning radio show in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Hal and Dick, as they were commonly known, had 3 million listeners within 100 miles of their Fort Worth-licensed station.

They had countless other listeners around the nation as WBAP's clear-channel signal reached pretty much from coast to coast and border to border.

With Hal in the studio and Dick in his helicopter providing traffic reports, the duo shared an uncanny camaraderie. Besides news, weather and traffic, Hal and Dick supplied listeners with an endless stream of jokes and hilarious fictitious characters. They even had their own comic strip in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called "The Adventures of Hal 'n Dick."

Although his radio reputation was built as a helicopter pilot, traffic reporter and comic, Siegel had been a weekend disc jockey at KLIF radio in Dallas before moving to WBAP.

In an interview last May with gosanangelo.com, Siegel recalled "I flew that helicopter by myself," Siegel said of his D/FW radio days. "I had the stick between my knees, I was writing down traffic notes on a clipboard, and I had another clipboard mounted to the instrument panel with all my jokes on it. Five radio and TV stations had helicopters flying around (giving traffic updates), plus the police and EMS helicopters. I had a radio going back to my control tower at Meacham Field, plus all the other radio chatter from the other stations.

"If you lose a part or something else goes wrong with your engine, you've got eight seconds to land before you crash. You've got to know where all the other helicopters are, where the electrical high line wires are and which direction the wind's blowing. There's no way you can do all that if you drink."

One close call Siegel remembers came when his helicopter lost a part, forcing him to land at the Interstate 30 and Interstate 35W Mixmaster in Fort Worth, where multiple highways overpass and merge.

"I got down through the wires and landed on one of those grassy areas next to an overpass," Siegel said. "A police helicopter landed, and they came running over to see if I was OK. I had just quit smoking a week earlier, but the first thing I said to the police officer was to ask him for a cigarette."

Siegel's reputation with his helicopter landed him in some unusual spots. He once was called to fly Elvis Presley from a concert to his hotel after he was mobbed by fans after a Fort Worth performance. He also shot the flyovers of Southfork Ranch during the introduction of the TV show "Dallas."

Once while providing traffic reports in D/FW, Siegel even rescued a woman and her two daughters from a car that was about to tip over a bridge railing during a flood.

"He balanced the helicopter on the trunk to steady the car," Paula Boyer said. "He told the two kids to climb out and get in with him, and they did. The mom was scared to get out of her car. Dick finally said, 'Lady, I've got your kids, and that's all I need. But I'd like you to get in, too. I can't wait any longer.' She finally got in with Dick. As soon as he flew off, the car toppled over the rail."

For that rescue, Siegel received the Pilot of the Year Award in 1989 from Helicopter Association International. The award recognizes an outstanding single feat by an active civilian pilot.

Several fictitious characters visited Hal and Dick during their shows, but "Sam from Sales" was the original WBAP character and the most popular, lasting 16 years. He was a high-pressure salesman with funny stories about his large family of cousins.

"Sam from Sales" was actually voiced by John Hanson, a former WBAP production manager. "He'd walk up and down the hallways at WBAP, impersonating Eddie Murphy from that movie "Beverly Hills Cop," and he was hilarious," Siegel said. "Hal and I both said, 'We've got to get that on the air.'"

KLDE Photo

Hal and Dick were so popular that, from 1981 to 1994, they were the only Dallas/Fort Worth area radio team to do the afternoon drive-time show in addition to the morning show. They also kept their audience after WBAP switched its format from country music to news/talk in 1993. Jay still does the morning show after 30-plus years, and according to Arbitron Ratings, WBAP still is the top news/talk station in D/FW.

"We were on so much, the audience thought they knew us personally," Siegel said. "They knew when I went through all my divorces and all my ex-wives' names."

More recently, Siegel played oldies in rural West Texas. KLDE-FM 104.9 reaches a 70-mile radius around Eldorado — from Sonora to Ozona to Big Lake to San Angelo.