Dick Orkin Signs Off
• We also lost Dick Orkin in December — Orkin died Sunday, Dec. 24 at the age of 84 in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke. Over a groundbreaking radio career that spanned nearly 70 years, Orkin was the ingenious force behind the cult classic radio series, The Adventures of Chickenman, which he created in the late ’60s when he was the Production Director at WCFL/Chicago. As Windy City media maven Robert Feder reports, Orkin portrayed the crime-fighting fowl (“He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere!”) and his alter ego, mild-mannered shoe salesman Benton Harbor. At its peak, the “Chickenman” series was syndicated to over 1,500 stations worldwide.
As Orkin recalled, “The origin of Chickenman was the direct result of the popularity of the television show Batman. It was huge. It was camp. It was fun… I sort of based the character on the Broderick Crawford sheriff character — that sort of straight, know-it-all delivery of his. It seemed like a fun thing to parody. It began with that. I wasn’t thinking about a chicken.” In early 2017 Orkin marked the 50th anniversary of Chickenman by uploading the entire 260-episode original series on Stitcher Premium subscription podcast service. Select episodes also appear on iTunes.
Orkin also produced more than 300 episodes of The Secret Adventures of the Tooth Fairy. He later went on to form his own radio production company in Hollywood, Dick Orkin’s Radio Ranch, producing hundreds of award-winning ads in his trademark deadpan style.
Orkin was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2014. He also was enshrined in the NAB Hall of Fame, the Illinois Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the RAB Hall of Fame.
