R.I.P.: Dick Kay, Veteran Chicago Broadcaster

Dick Kay

Veteran Chicago broadcaster Dick Kay — a fearless reporter who was well sourced and deeply knowledgeable about politics — died early Thursday at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, his family said. He was 84.

The Chicago Tribune reports Kay, who was living in the St. Charles area, suffered a brain hemorrhage earlier in the week, according to his family. Born Richard Snodgrass, Kay was remembered for his lengthy journalism career, which included 38 years at WMAQ-Ch. 5. After retiring from the NBC-owned station in 2006, he worked briefly as then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s “special advocate for health care.”

He returned to broadcasting in 2008 as host of “Back on the Beat,” a weekly talk show on WCPT-AM 820. His final show aired Saturday. WCPT general manager Mark Pinski said he was sharp until the very end.

“He’d come into the station with all these notes and papers, and he’d print stuff out. He didn’t need any notes whatsoever when he got on the air. He was the most amazing ad-libber I’ve ever seen in my life,” Pinski said. “Everything was off the top of his head. He just knew politics, and he fit perfectly with our station’s progressive disposition.”

The Tennessee native born in 1936, who earned the nickname “Doogie,” got into radio in Peoria after serving in the U.S. Navy and earning a degree from Bradley University. He adopted the on-air name “Kay” in honor of his wife. The year he joined WMAQ as a writer, Kay covered the protests that roiled the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

He became a full-time reporter, political editor and host of the public affairs program “City Desk.” He won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 1985 for a nine-month investigation into patronage in the General Assembly.