Pamela Enzweiler-Pulice is on a mission to finish her documentary, “The Voice That Rocked America: The Dick Biondi Film,” about legendary Chicago radio disc jockey Dick Biondi.
As a teen growing up in Villa Park, she was nearly attached to the transistor radio that connected her to Biondi’s voice. She formed a fan club, wrote a newsletter and went to a mall in west suburban Hillside where Biondi was flown in by helicopter to greet fans.
Biondi formed his bond with millions of teens from his perch at WLS 890-AM in Chicago, where he was a Top 40 powerhouse in the early ’60s and commanded a then-uneard of 60% share of listeners across 38 states and Canada.
Enzweiler-Pulice eventually became friends with Biondi, who gave his blessing to the documentary; she interviewed him multiple times before he died last summer. She undertook the film project 10 years ago, and has raised $175,000 to date in funding. She still needs $30,000 more to cover the remaining expenses such as licensing fees, color correction and sound balancing.
As such, she’ll be screening the film at a fundraiser Nov. 14 at the Beverly Arts Center. The evening will also include a performance by the Fab-tones and a discussion about the film.
“I did this for Dick, and it’s also my dream,” said Enzweiler-Pulice,now based in Oswego.
The film chronicles a time that’s hard to imagine in the current era of streaming music that’s largely diminished the role of traditional disc jockeys. It follows Biondi from when he was a kid in New York talking into a wooden microphone, to his first gig in Louisiana (where he was appalled by Jim Crow laws), to when he began to draw millions of listeners and have a genuine effect on the careers of artists outside the Top 40 that he chose to play. Biondi was the first to play The Beatles on the radio in the United States and helped boost the careers of Little Richard and Chuck Berry.
In he documentary, Enzweiler-Pulice interviews a host of industry notables who shed light on Biondi’s career and reach, including former Sun-Times media columnist Robert Feder, Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, and “Late Night with David Letterman” bandleader/sidekick and veteran musician Paul Shaffer, who donated to the project.
“If you were a young person in the early ’60s living in Chicago, you listened to Dick Biondi at night, period, because that’s what all your friends were talking about the next day,” said Feder, who wrote Biondi’s obituary for the Sun-Times.
Biondi, a proud Italian who was nicknamed the “The Wild I-Tralian,” was fired 25 times over the course of his 67-year-career; he often quarreled with radio station management. The film recounts a fistfight Biondi had with an executive who wanted to add more commercials to his program. He finished out his career in Chicago, playing the hits he started off with that had matured into golden oldies.
Dick Biondi and local fan club president Pamela Enzweiler-Pulice in 1962 at a festival in Oak Park
Provided
Enzweiler-Pulice owned a video production company that shot weddings and other events before she retired in 2009. She dreamed of taking on the documentary but was “scared to death” of trying something new.
“When Dick got on board and encouraged me, I took the leap of faith,” said Enzweiler-Pulice, who narrates the film and shares her personal story.
“It took me a long time to find my voice and pull this whole thing together. And we’re almost there. Raising money has been the hardest part of this whole thing,” she said.
For Enzweiler-Pulice, it’s a passion project, not a money-maker. And she wants to share Biondi’s story as widely as possible. A public television station in Northwest Indiana has agreed to air the film when she finishes it. She’s been in talks with WTTW and hopes that station will air it, too.