R.I.P.: Radio Royalty Dick Orkin Has Died At 84

The radio and advertising community was shocked to learn the passing of creative genius Dick Orkin.

His daughter Lisa posted the sad news on Facebook that Orkin, who had been battling health issues in recent years, died Christmas Eve from an apparent stroke.



Born in Williamsport, PA, in 1933, Orkin was 16 when he began his radio career as a fill-in announcer at WKOK 1070 AM Sunbury. After earning his BA in speech and theater from Franklin & Marshall College he attended the Yale School of Drama, then returned to Pennsylvania to become the news director at WLAN 1390 AM in Lancaster in 1959.

Later he joined the staff of KYW in Cleveland. In 1967, Orkin moved to Top40 WCFL 1000 AM Chicago and created Chickenman, which chronicled the exploits of a crime-fighting “white-winged warrior” and his secret identity as mild-mannered shoe salesman Benton Harbor.

Chickenman’s 250-plus episodes have been syndicated around the world and can still be heard on Internet radio, making it the longest-running radio serial of all time. At WCFL, Orkin also produced more than 300 episodes of another popular serial, The Secret Adventures of the Tooth Fairy.Inspired by the commercial parodies on Stan Freberg and Bob & Ray’s radio shows.

Orkin created the Famous Radio Ranch in 1973 to produce his own comedic radio spots. Stationed in California since ’78, the Radio Ranch produced hundreds of memorable ads for a variety of clients, ranging from Time magazine to First American Bank to the Gap, and garnered more than 200 awards in the process.

Orkin has been inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Illinois Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the Radio Advertising Bureau Hall of Fame.



In a 1985 interview with Bill Schenold, Orkin recalled the origin of Chickenman, while working at WCFL.

Chickenman happened in 1966 when the "Batman" television show hit the airwaves. The word "camp" had suddenly entered our vocabulary. Camp meant a "parody of popular comic book culture." Ken Draper asked me to produce a "spoof of a spoof." Batman was already a spoof of famous comic book super hero's. Draper directed me to use the station's talent to come up with little two and a half minute "features." 

Jim Runyon was the late morning personality. Jim featured a traffic reporter on his show whom he called "Trooper 36-24-36." The traffic reporter's name was Jane Roberts -- a well known Chicago live theater actress. Jane also worked in commercials around the city. It was comical in a way -- Jane sat in a tiny little closet that contained all the communications radios. She would listen to municipal traffic channels and coordinate the information for airing on WCFL. She would put on a rather husky, sexy voice and play herself off as Trooper 36-24-36. Jane was the only "female" talent I had available to me. And she was the best at what she did. I chose Jane to play one of the roles in a series I created called "Chickenman." 

The Chickenman series was not the only one I created. Draper wanted me to produce a character for each of the WCFL D.J.'s. Barney Pip had one called "The Purple Yoddler." Ron Britain's was called "The Green Hairnet." Each of these series were based upon the personality of each D.J. The one that caught on -- and lasted the longest though -- was Chickenman. 

I had great fun doing Chickenman. Jane played the female roles in the series, whenever we had them. Jim Runyon was the announcer for the series -- he did the famous: "well -l-l." Jim was incredible, he would adlib an ending for each episode. Jim made the work enjoyable and fun -- because we never knew what he was going to come up with. His big goal was to break us up at the ending and make us laugh. 

I only intended the Chickenman series to run for a period of two weeks -- but obviously it lasted much longer -- it went on for four or five months. Suddenly a syndication company from Texas came in and asked if they could distribute the program nationally. Naturally, we said "yes." It was then that we formed an actual company, at the station, to continue producing the series. Chickenman was produced under the stations production banner for the next five years, then I bought the show just prior to leaving WCFL in the early 1970's. I continued to produce and syndicate it on my own.