DICK CLARK

Known as “America’s oldest living teenager,” Dick Clark was born on November 20, 1929 in Utica, New York. As a teenager, he became an office boy and later announcer for local station WRUN.

After graduating from Syracuse University, he became a news anchor at WKTV/Utica. He moved to Philadelphia in 1952 to work for WFIL radio and television.

Clark was hosting a record-hop program on WFIL in 1956 when he was asked to take over a local television show called Bandstand. The following year, Clark convinced ABC to carry the show nationally. The show gave national television exposure to future music legends like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis. Eventually, American Bandstand became television's longest-running music/variety program.

Clark is the founder and a director of the United Stations Radio Networks, who distribute more than 50 hours of weekly radio programming to nearly 3000 radio stations. In recent years, he has hosted the nationally syndicated radio shows, Dick Clark’s Rock, Roll and Remember, Countdown America and Dick Clark’s Music Calendar. Clark also appears on television as the host of Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve.

Dick Clark was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990.

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