Dick Summer

About Dick Summer

To the great surprise of his parents who were expecting a future doctor or lawyer, Dick Summer was born on a brutally cold Brooklyn February night. Some would say the cold weather was the original reason for his lifelong feelings of rejection, because after all, it’s not easy for a newborn baby to nurse through a thick wool sweater. Shortly after his birth, Dick spent four years at Fordham University. More rejection. Fordham called it graduation, but Dick felt they just didn’t want him hanging around anymore, and he knew his parents felt pretty much the same way, so he decided to go to work at a big New York radio station called WNEW. Needless to say, they ignored him. But since Dick had developed a deep seated desire to eat, he finally managed to find work behind the microphones of a number of smaller stations all around the country. And then one night, a strange and wonderful thing happened.

Dick was trying to find something interesting on the radio while driving to work at a station in Indianapolis, when a familiar voice came booming in all the way from Boston. It belonged to a friend he had met working at a station back in Albany New York. Bruce Bradley had made it to that Boston Boomer called WBZ! And Dick said to himself, “Self, if Bruce can make it there so can you.”  So Dick sent an audition tape to the WBZ Program Director, Al Heacock who promptly ignored it. So Dick sent another tape, with the same result. This went on for almost a year, until finally one day Dick got the gig. Of course out of concern for blowing their highly prestigious reputation, WBZ hid Dick away as best they could on the all night show. But Dick didn’t care. He loved it. He was having so much fun.

Then late one night, the most beautiful, sexiest, curviest woman Dick had ever seen with his eyes open, walked into the studio. Her name was Barbara. She was the “Continuity Girl,” and she had to make some quick changes to the commercial log. It turns out that she made some very long changes to Dick’s personal log, because she stood there and smiled at him, which according to Boston’s strict moral code at that time meant that she had to marry him. Soon after Barbara didn’t reject him, Random House and Bantam Books didn’t reject him either when they published a surprisingly successful series of Dick’s stories called “Lovin’ Touch.” And then came, “The Call.” It was WNEW on the phone and they wanted him. Unfortunately they didn’t want him for long. A change in management sent Dick back to Boston to program WMEX. The only thing Dick got right as a program director was hiring a DJ by the name of John H. Garabedian. So Dick returned to New York and started waking folks up on WPLJ, and later put them back to sleep on WNBC, all the while becoming one of your more annoying and frequently heard voices on national television commercials.

Dick Summer is a 2015 Inductee to the Massachusetts Broadcasting Hall of Fame.  The preceding biography is from their website.   

Remembering Dick Summer

Our friend, Dick Summer, passed away May 14, 2024.  He was 89.  Read his obituary here.  

On May 20th, we aired a special show paying tribute to our friend.  You can listen again to it below, and hear from our General Manager Bill Dickerson, and Dick's friend of over 50 years, our Engineer Tim Braddock.  We will also take you back to 1964 with an air check from WBZ Boston.  

Good Night with Dick Summer

"Good Night" puts a smile on your face, tells you a bedtime story, chucks the day's problems, gives you a verbal back rub and tucks you in for a safe, sound, good night's sleep.  We proudly feature two episodes of "Good Night" every weeknight in the 11PM hour, here on NBZ-FM.

There's even more in store for you at dicksummer.com!