WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.419 I want you to just picture this for a second. 00:00:03.759 --> 00:00:09.259 If you were online in the early 2000s, you probably 00:00:09.259 --> 00:00:12.419 have a visceral memory of this exact scenario. 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:15.380 You're sitting in front of one of those massive, 00:00:15.480 --> 00:00:19.300 heavy, beige desktop computer monitors. The ones 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:22.300 that weighed like 40 pounds. Exactly, yeah. And 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:24.219 the dial -up tone has just finished screaming 00:00:24.219 --> 00:00:26.280 at you. You're clicking around the web, maybe 00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:27.940 looking for some music or, I don't know, a flash 00:00:27.940 --> 00:00:31.160 game. And then suddenly, a window pops up. Just 00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:33.640 out of nowhere. Out of nowhere. And it's completely 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:35.700 filled with these rapidly flashing black and 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:38.119 white smiley faces. Oh, no. Yeah, they're bouncing 00:00:38.119 --> 00:00:40.380 violently around your screen. And your desktop 00:00:40.380 --> 00:00:42.920 speakers are just blasting this high -pitched, 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:46.219 incredibly mocking chorus of voices chanting, 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:49.679 you are an idiot. You are an idiot. The sheer 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:52.380 panic of that moment. I mean, it was a very specific 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:54.479 kind of digital nightmare for anyone who lived 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:56.679 through that sort of Wild West era of the internet. 00:00:57.039 --> 00:00:59.179 Right, because you instinctively lunge for your 00:00:59.179 --> 00:01:01.740 mouse. You try to close the window, but every 00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:04.719 single time you click the red X, the script instantly 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:07.459 spawns six more windows in its place. And standard 00:01:07.459 --> 00:01:11.459 closing hotkeys like Alt F4, those were completely 00:01:11.459 --> 00:01:13.920 disabled by the code. Totally useless. It was 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:16.780 brilliant but malicious because it didn't delete 00:01:16.780 --> 00:01:19.060 your files or corrupt your hard drive, but it 00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:21.560 essentially held your computer's RAM hostage. 00:01:21.859 --> 00:01:24.780 Yeah. It rapidly exhausted your system resources 00:01:24.780 --> 00:01:27.760 until the entire machine just locked up, freezing 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:30.870 you out while that looping. audio just continuously 00:01:30.870 --> 00:01:33.150 mocked you you literally had to pull the plug 00:01:33.150 --> 00:01:35.849 or force a hard restart just to make it stop 00:01:35.849 --> 00:01:39.090 yeah but and this is why we're here today looking 00:01:39.090 --> 00:01:41.010 through the sources we pulled for today's deep 00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:44.409 dive there is a wild twist to that entire scenario 00:01:44.409 --> 00:01:47.469 a really wild twist that mocking voice the audio 00:01:47.469 --> 00:01:49.310 that became the soundtrack to one of the most 00:01:49.310 --> 00:01:53.340 notorious browser trojans of its era It didn't 00:01:53.340 --> 00:01:55.739 belong to some mysterious underground teenage 00:01:55.739 --> 00:01:58.700 hacker coding in a basement. No, it didn't. It 00:01:58.700 --> 00:02:00.420 actually belonged to one of the most successful 00:02:00.420 --> 00:02:03.480 terrestrial radio DJs of the 20th century. Which 00:02:03.480 --> 00:02:05.920 is arguably one of the most bizarre origin stories 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:08.759 for a piece of malware we've ever seen. And that 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:11.180 is exactly what we are getting into today. We 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:14.060 are looking at a massive stack of comprehensive 00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:17.569 biographical data. We've got historical radio 00:02:17.569 --> 00:02:20.409 charts, legal summaries, archive articles. All 00:02:20.409 --> 00:02:23.030 of it to explore the life, the career, and the 00:02:23.030 --> 00:02:26.250 surprisingly strange legacy of Rigdon Osman Dees 00:02:26.250 --> 00:02:29.590 III. Yes. Of course, if you've ever tuned a radio 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:31.569 dial, you probably know him better as Rick Dees. 00:02:31.650 --> 00:02:34.810 Much easier to say. Way easier. So the mission 00:02:34.810 --> 00:02:37.650 for our deep dive today is to unpack how a guy 00:02:37.650 --> 00:02:40.750 who went to college for motion pictures ended 00:02:40.750 --> 00:02:44.310 up completely redefining FM radio. permanently 00:02:44.310 --> 00:02:47.449 altering U .S. copyright law and then, yeah, 00:02:47.530 --> 00:02:50.129 inadvertently soundtracking a legendary piece 00:02:50.129 --> 00:02:52.610 of Internet malware. Because if we connect this 00:02:52.610 --> 00:02:54.389 to the bigger picture, we really need to look 00:02:54.389 --> 00:02:56.770 at Deez not just as a guy spinning records. He 00:02:56.770 --> 00:02:59.830 is a brilliant case study in media adaptability. 00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:03.300 I mean, when you trace his career from the absolute 00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:06.800 peak of the 1970s disco era all the way to the 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:10.199 modern streaming landscape of March 2025, his 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:12.840 journey actually reveals the underlying mechanics 00:03:12.840 --> 00:03:15.919 of how pop culture spreads. It really does. It 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:18.939 shows us how a personality manages to stay relevant 00:03:18.939 --> 00:03:22.580 across radically different, often hostile, eras 00:03:22.580 --> 00:03:25.199 of entertainment. So to understand how we eventually 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:28.159 get to the digital viruses and the massive modern 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.169 streaming deals. We really have to look at how 00:03:31.169 --> 00:03:33.349 he built that foundation. Where it all started. 00:03:33.590 --> 00:03:35.629 Yeah. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 00:03:35.629 --> 00:03:39.090 1950, raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. And 00:03:39.090 --> 00:03:41.250 reading through his early years, I was struck 00:03:41.250 --> 00:03:43.710 by how early the broadcasting bug bit him. He 00:03:43.710 --> 00:03:45.750 started young. Very young. He didn't wait around. 00:03:45.889 --> 00:03:48.469 He started his radio career at a local Greensboro 00:03:48.469 --> 00:03:51.870 station, WGBG, while he was still attending Grimsley 00:03:51.870 --> 00:03:54.150 High School. Which is that classic, almost extinct 00:03:54.150 --> 00:03:56.490 radio hustler origin story. Yeah, you don't really 00:03:56.490 --> 00:03:58.719 see that anymore. Not at all. Getting in the 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:00.900 booth before you even graduate high school, it 00:04:00.900 --> 00:04:04.099 gives you an intuitive feel for the medium that 00:04:04.099 --> 00:04:06.520 you just can't teach in a classroom. And he does 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:08.340 end up going to the University of North Carolina 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:10.680 at Chapel Hill. He gets a bachelor's degree in 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:13.159 motion pictures, TV and radio. Right. But rather 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:15.639 than heading straight to Hollywood, he just grinds 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:18.199 his way through the southeastern United States 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:20.399 radio circuit. Putting in the reps. Exactly. 00:04:20.990 --> 00:04:24.910 Stints at WCAR in Chapel Hill, WSGN down in Birmingham, 00:04:25.089 --> 00:04:29.680 Alabama, WKIX in Raleigh. But his real launchpad 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:32.180 onto the international stage happened in the 00:04:32.180 --> 00:04:36.879 mid to late 1970s when he landed at WMPS AM 680 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:39.300 in Memphis, Tennessee. They called it the Great 00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:42.160 68. The Great 68, yeah. And the timing of him 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:44.519 arriving in Memphis in the late 70s is everything. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:48.160 The disco craze is absolutely sweeping the nation. 00:04:48.220 --> 00:04:51.180 It's dominating the culture, the fashion, and 00:04:51.180 --> 00:04:53.629 most importantly... The airwaves. Okay, we have 00:04:53.629 --> 00:04:55.750 to pause here because, okay, let's untack this 00:04:55.750 --> 00:04:57.329 whole situation because it goes completely off 00:04:57.329 --> 00:05:00.769 the rails. It really does. It's 1976. Rick Dees 00:05:00.769 --> 00:05:03.550 decides to write and record a satirical novelty 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:06.970 song called Disco Duck. Disco Duck. Now, on paper, 00:05:07.129 --> 00:05:09.889 you would assume a joke song about a duck doing 00:05:09.889 --> 00:05:12.750 a disco dance would just be a local morning show 00:05:12.750 --> 00:05:14.930 goof. Right, something you play for cheap laughs 00:05:14.930 --> 00:05:17.449 for the morning commuters, right? Exactly. You 00:05:17.449 --> 00:05:19.949 play it a few times, people chuckle, it fades 00:05:19.949 --> 00:05:23.050 away. You would think so. It has all the hallmarks 00:05:23.050 --> 00:05:26.189 of a localized throwaway gag. But this track 00:05:26.189 --> 00:05:29.149 explodes. I mean, it sells more than six million 00:05:29.149 --> 00:05:31.389 copies. Six million. It hits number one on the 00:05:31.389 --> 00:05:33.889 Billboard Hot 100. It even gets a brief feature 00:05:33.889 --> 00:05:36.110 in the movie Saturday Night Fever. Oh, yeah, 00:05:36.209 --> 00:05:38.430 there's that scene. Yeah, the scene where a group 00:05:38.430 --> 00:05:40.930 of older folks in a dance studio are learning 00:05:40.930 --> 00:05:43.850 to, quote, move their feet to the disco beat. 00:05:44.250 --> 00:05:48.399 And that is the song playing. It's wild. It earns 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:51.339 a BMI award for record sales in one year. And 00:05:51.339 --> 00:05:54.060 Deez actually wins a People's Choice Award for 00:05:54.060 --> 00:05:56.519 favorite new song. The cultural penetration of 00:05:56.519 --> 00:05:58.819 a song like that is just staggering. But I think 00:05:58.819 --> 00:06:00.660 what's fascinating here is the corporate irony 00:06:00.660 --> 00:06:03.860 that immediately followed this massive mainstream 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:05.939 success. Oh, this is the best part. You have 00:06:05.939 --> 00:06:08.759 a local radio DJ holding a platinum number one 00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:11.550 record in the country. Naturally, rival radio 00:06:11.550 --> 00:06:13.769 stations in the Memphis market flat out refused 00:06:13.769 --> 00:06:16.370 to play Disco Duck. They blacklisted it. They 00:06:16.370 --> 00:06:19.209 did. They did not want to give free airtime and 00:06:19.209 --> 00:06:21.709 cross -promotion to a direct competitor. Wait, 00:06:21.750 --> 00:06:24.290 I get not wanting to help a rival station, but 00:06:24.290 --> 00:06:27.110 if Disco Duck is literally the number one song 00:06:27.110 --> 00:06:30.029 in the entire country, aren't those rival stations 00:06:30.029 --> 00:06:33.310 actively angering their own listeners by refusing 00:06:33.310 --> 00:06:35.889 to play the biggest hit of the moment? They absolutely 00:06:35.889 --> 00:06:38.829 were, but radio at that time was fiercely territorial. 00:06:39.370 --> 00:06:41.889 didn't give the other guy an inch. Wow. But the 00:06:41.889 --> 00:06:44.430 incredible part, the part that defies all business 00:06:44.430 --> 00:06:47.589 logic, is that WMPS station management, Deez's 00:06:47.589 --> 00:06:51.810 own bosses, also expressly forbade him from playing 00:06:51.810 --> 00:06:53.810 the song on his own show. It is the ultimate 00:06:53.810 --> 00:06:56.509 catch -22. He writes the biggest song in America, 00:06:56.610 --> 00:06:59.670 and nobody in his entire broadcast market will 00:06:59.670 --> 00:07:02.670 play it, including himself. And the climax of 00:07:02.670 --> 00:07:05.089 this whole situation is just hilarious to read 00:07:05.089 --> 00:07:08.220 about. Deez is on the air one morning, and he 00:07:08.220 --> 00:07:11.060 casually mentions to his listeners that his song 00:07:11.060 --> 00:07:14.019 is almost number one, but his own radio station 00:07:14.019 --> 00:07:16.879 won't let him play it for them. And we know what 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:19.759 happens next. Management fires him. They literally 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:22.600 fire their most popular personality, claiming 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:25.180 his on -air comment was a conflict of interest. 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:28.399 It's a perfect example of radio management completely 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:31.139 misreading the room. They thought the power resided 00:07:31.139 --> 00:07:33.920 in the station's frequency, not in the personality 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:36.060 behind the microphone. And before we move past 00:07:36.060 --> 00:07:38.500 this era, I have to share this amazing behind 00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:40.819 -the -scenes secret from the sources. Oh, please 00:07:40.819 --> 00:07:44.319 do. Rick Dees, the man who conceptualized and 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:47.660 wrote Disco Duck, couldn't actually perform the 00:07:47.660 --> 00:07:50.220 duck vocals on the track. No way. He literally 00:07:50.220 --> 00:07:52.930 couldn't talk like a duck. So the signature duck 00:07:52.930 --> 00:07:54.790 voice on the record was performed by a guy named 00:07:54.790 --> 00:07:57.829 Ken Pruitt, who recorded it at Shoestring Productions 00:07:57.829 --> 00:08:00.689 in Memphis. Which creates a massive logistical 00:08:00.689 --> 00:08:03.110 problem when the song becomes a national phenomenon 00:08:03.110 --> 00:08:06.060 and you have to go on tour. Exactly. Pruitt ended 00:08:06.060 --> 00:08:08.459 up moving away before the song exploded. Oh, 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:10.620 man. So when Deez took the act on the road, which 00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:13.480 was this massive tour build as Rick Deez and 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:15.819 the cast of Idiots that played everywhere from 00:08:15.819 --> 00:08:18.319 Disney World to New York City, he had to hire 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:20.899 a completely different guy, Michael Tesney, to 00:08:20.899 --> 00:08:24.379 stand on stage and do the live duck vocals. It's 00:08:24.379 --> 00:08:27.060 such a surreal image. Isn't it? But if we look 00:08:27.060 --> 00:08:29.860 at the trajectory of his career, this whole incident 00:08:29.860 --> 00:08:32.320 proves something vital about Deez's understanding 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:34.879 of the media business. He didn't let getting 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:37.700 fired over a novelty song derail his momentum. 00:08:37.940 --> 00:08:40.980 Not at all. He waited out a 45 -day non -compete 00:08:40.980 --> 00:08:43.419 clause in his contract, and then he immediately 00:08:43.419 --> 00:08:48.559 jumped to WMPS's direct rival, WHBQ AM560 in 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:51.080 Memphis, doing the morning show for RKO Radio. 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:52.600 Right across the street, basically. Exactly. 00:08:52.919 --> 00:08:55.500 It proved that genuine audience loyalty will 00:08:55.500 --> 00:08:57.600 almost always trump corporate management's attempts 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:00.200 to control the narrative. The listeners simply 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:03.100 changed the dial and followed him. And his success 00:09:03.100 --> 00:09:07.500 at WHBQ was so undeniable that station owner 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:11.539 RKO General decided to take a huge swing. They 00:09:11.539 --> 00:09:13.799 wanted to replicate that magic in a major market, 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:16.419 so they offered Deez the morning radio show in 00:09:16.419 --> 00:09:20.059 Los Angeles at KHJ AM. The big leagues. Now, 00:09:20.059 --> 00:09:22.899 he definitely helped their ratings, but the landscape 00:09:22.899 --> 00:09:25.379 of broadcasting was violently shifting beneath 00:09:25.379 --> 00:09:27.779 their feet. right at that time. We are talking 00:09:27.779 --> 00:09:30.559 about the mass migration from AM to FM music 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:33.919 radio. Right. AM music radio was dying out, losing 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:36.820 ground incredibly fast to FM's superior sound 00:09:36.820 --> 00:09:39.950 quality. Cage J ended up switching formats entirely 00:09:39.950 --> 00:09:42.230 to country music. Yeah. And this is where Deez 00:09:42.230 --> 00:09:43.970 shows that adaptability you mentioned earlier. 00:09:44.129 --> 00:09:47.450 He pivots again. In July 1981, he takes the morning 00:09:47.450 --> 00:09:51.309 position at Key IIS FM. And this transition is 00:09:51.309 --> 00:09:53.570 the inflection point where Deez stops being just 00:09:53.570 --> 00:09:55.809 a successful broadcaster and becomes an absolute 00:09:55.809 --> 00:09:58.769 industry titan. A giant. You mentioned AM music 00:09:58.769 --> 00:10:00.830 dying out. And Deez understood that to survive 00:10:00.830 --> 00:10:02.929 on FM, he couldn't just play the hits. He had 00:10:02.929 --> 00:10:04.789 to make the morning drive time show an event. 00:10:04.970 --> 00:10:07.250 Right. Appointment listening. He revolutionized. 00:10:07.399 --> 00:10:10.679 morning advertising, built deep parasocial relationships 00:10:10.679 --> 00:10:14.480 with his listeners, and transformed KISFM into 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:17.120 the number one revenue generating radio station 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:19.820 in all of America. Number one in the whole country. 00:10:19.980 --> 00:10:22.879 Under his tenure, the asset value of that single 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:26.159 radio station rocketed to approaching half a 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:28.720 billion dollars. Half a billion dollars for a 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:31.340 terrestrial radio station. It's insane. It's 00:10:31.340 --> 00:10:34.399 wild to even conceptualize that kind of localized 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:37.259 value today. But for me, Looking through the 00:10:37.259 --> 00:10:39.279 sources, here's where it gets really interesting. 00:10:39.580 --> 00:10:42.559 It's not just the money. It's the strategy. Okay. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:46.740 In 1983, Deez launches the weekly Top 40 Countdown 00:10:46.740 --> 00:10:49.440 program. Now, you would assume a show of that 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:51.559 magnitude, which came to define pop music for 00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:54.240 decades, was born out of some grand strategic 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:56.519 corporate vision in a boardroom. That would be 00:10:56.519 --> 00:10:58.500 the logical assumption. But actually, it was 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:00.799 born out of a delightfully petty dispute. Of 00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:04.279 course it was. Key SFM used to air Casey Kasem's 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:07.220 American Top 40. But the station got into a huge 00:11:07.220 --> 00:11:09.059 argument with the network over playing network 00:11:09.059 --> 00:11:11.279 commercials, and Kies just dropped the show. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:14.340 Just dropped American Top 40. Just dropped it. 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:17.919 Dees sees the massive void left behind, steps 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:20.879 right up, and creates his own countdown. He launched 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:23.360 it on the weekend of October 8th and 9th, 1983, 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:27.700 on just 18 stations. And from those 18 initial 00:11:27.700 --> 00:11:30.860 stations, the growth was staggering. The weekly 00:11:30.860 --> 00:11:33.860 top 40 became an absolute juggernaut. He understood 00:11:33.860 --> 00:11:36.000 the mechanics of syndication better than almost 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:39.179 anyone. The show was eventually syndicated in 00:11:39.179 --> 00:11:42.519 over 200 countries worldwide. It aired on the 00:11:42.519 --> 00:11:44.750 Armed Forces Radio Network. reaching military 00:11:44.750 --> 00:11:47.610 personnel globally. Incredible reach. And he 00:11:47.610 --> 00:11:49.330 didn't just syndicate one version of the show. 00:11:49.429 --> 00:11:52.009 He adapted the format to ensure maximum coverage. 00:11:52.190 --> 00:11:55.549 They produced hit radio editions, hot adult contemporary 00:11:55.549 --> 00:11:58.350 editions for stations targeting older demographics, 00:11:58.669 --> 00:12:01.970 plus dedicated 80s and 90s editions. Wow. In 00:12:01.970 --> 00:12:04.250 December 2008, it even made history by becoming 00:12:04.250 --> 00:12:06.450 the first English -speaking radio show to air 00:12:06.450 --> 00:12:09.210 in China. Today, it stands as the longest continuously 00:12:09.210 --> 00:12:11.830 running pop music countdown in the world. That 00:12:11.830 --> 00:12:14.299 is just an unparalleled run. And it wasn't a 00:12:14.299 --> 00:12:17.159 straight uninterrupted line either. After 23 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:21.399 years of dominance at Key IASFM, Dees left in 00:12:21.399 --> 00:12:24.600 February 2004. There was no official explanation 00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:27.399 at the time, and he was replaced by Ryan Seacrest. 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:29.379 Which is really the ultimate changing of the 00:12:29.379 --> 00:12:31.580 guard for that era of pop culture. But he never 00:12:31.580 --> 00:12:34.419 actually stops. He bounced to Can Vien Move in 00:12:34.419 --> 00:12:37.980 93 .9 in 2006, right up until they flipped to 00:12:37.980 --> 00:12:41.340 a Spanish format in 2009. And he actually spent 00:12:41.340 --> 00:12:44.080 his last moments on air brilliantly redirecting 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:47.440 his audience to his website, RACK .com, ensuring 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:49.379 he didn't lose his listener base. Always adapting. 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:52.120 Always. He returned to Kiai's sister station, 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.899 KHHT, in 2011. And fast forward to March 2025, 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:58.500 his holding company strikes a massive deal with 00:12:58.500 --> 00:13:00.899 iHeartMedia. They're streaming his current programming 00:13:00.899 --> 00:13:03.340 alongside a dedicated classic channel featuring 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:05.740 his archives from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. He 00:13:05.740 --> 00:13:07.720 even re -entered briefly with his old co -host 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:10.399 Ellen Kay on CoST FM to promote it. When you 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:12.299 look at that timeline, what stands out to you? 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:14.879 Because to me, he essentially engineered his 00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:17.320 grand to survive every major extinction -level 00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:19.330 event in the audio industry. That's a great way 00:13:19.330 --> 00:13:22.070 to put it. From the AM to FM shift to the rise 00:13:22.070 --> 00:13:24.970 of digital streaming, he navigated all of it. 00:13:25.049 --> 00:13:27.090 And his hustle wasn't just confined to the radio 00:13:27.090 --> 00:13:29.710 booth. If you were consuming pop culture in the 00:13:29.710 --> 00:13:33.090 80s and 90s, he was everywhere. Everywhere. He 00:13:33.090 --> 00:13:35.269 hosted a late night show on the ABC television 00:13:35.269 --> 00:13:37.990 network in the early 90s called Into the Night, 00:13:38.129 --> 00:13:41.269 starring Rick Dees. Now, it only ran for one 00:13:41.269 --> 00:13:43.409 season and was canceled due to low ratings, but 00:13:43.409 --> 00:13:46.370 getting a late night network show is an insane 00:13:46.370 --> 00:13:48.980 milestone. Absolutely. He hosted the syndicated 00:13:48.980 --> 00:13:51.580 series Solid Gold. He even performed the title 00:13:51.580 --> 00:13:54.100 song for the Bill Murray comedy Meatballs. And 00:13:54.100 --> 00:13:56.440 his voice acting credits from that era are equally 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:58.700 surprising when you dig into them. Oh, they are 00:13:58.700 --> 00:14:01.580 fantastic. He voiced Rock D's in The Flintstones, 00:14:01.860 --> 00:14:05.799 Rocket Rick in Jetsons, the movie. You can hear 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:07.899 him as the radio DJ during the opening credits 00:14:07.899 --> 00:14:11.659 of the 1983 film Valley Girl. He played the iconic 00:14:11.659 --> 00:14:14.759 Los Angeles disc jockey Ted Quillen in the movie 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:17.320 La Bamba. He really was the definitive DJ voice. 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:20.240 More recently, in 2020, he actually provided 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:22.179 the voice for Peter Griffin's impression of him 00:14:22.179 --> 00:14:24.700 in a Family Guy episode. And in August 2021, 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:27.120 Nexstar Media Group brought him on as the voice 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:30.860 announcer for their Rewind TV network. But operating 00:14:30.860 --> 00:14:33.320 at that scale and having your hand in that many 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:35.860 different revenue streams, this raises an important 00:14:35.860 --> 00:14:38.080 question about the dark side of that massive 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:41.480 success. Right. It's not all fun and games. Omnipresence 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:44.139 and immense wealth inevitably invite friction. 00:14:44.679 --> 00:14:48.559 In 1991, for example, Dees found himself in serious 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:51.259 legal trouble. A former business partner sued 00:14:51.259 --> 00:14:53.559 him regarding the diversion of profits from his 00:14:53.559 --> 00:14:56.220 massively successful Top 40 Countdown program. 00:14:56.440 --> 00:14:58.720 Ouch. The court proceedings were intense, and 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:00.820 the judge actually found that Dees and his business 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:03.519 manager acted with, quote, malice and oppression. 00:15:04.039 --> 00:15:07.279 Dees was successfully sued for $10 million in 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.179 damages. A $10 million penalty in 1991 is staggering. 00:15:11.460 --> 00:15:13.419 It's a fortune. But it really shows how high 00:15:13.419 --> 00:15:16.169 the stakes were. Dees was operating at a scale 00:15:16.169 --> 00:15:19.230 where every move he made had massive financial 00:15:19.230 --> 00:15:22.649 and legal implications. And actually, that willingness 00:15:22.649 --> 00:15:26.009 to push boundaries and take huge swings didn't 00:15:26.009 --> 00:15:28.269 just get him sued in that instance. No, it didn't. 00:15:28.289 --> 00:15:30.629 It forced him to literally change U .S. copyright 00:15:30.629 --> 00:15:32.830 law. This is one of the most consequential pieces 00:15:32.830 --> 00:15:34.889 of his legacy, and it has nothing to do with 00:15:34.889 --> 00:15:38.769 playing records. So back in 1984, Dees released 00:15:38.769 --> 00:15:41.350 a comedy album called Put It Where the Moon Don't 00:15:41.350 --> 00:15:45.029 Shine. On that album, He wanted to do a parody 00:15:45.029 --> 00:15:47.210 of the classic Johnny Mathis song, When Sunny 00:15:47.210 --> 00:15:49.970 Gets Blue. Which is a very well -known, incredibly 00:15:49.970 --> 00:15:52.149 earnest ballad, the kind of song that practically 00:15:52.149 --> 00:15:55.409 begs to be made fun of by a morning zoo DJ. Exactly. 00:15:55.669 --> 00:15:58.210 And Dees wanted to parody it with a 29 -second 00:15:58.210 --> 00:16:01.409 spoof titled When Sunny Sniffs Glue. Just 29 00:16:01.409 --> 00:16:04.250 seconds. Right. So, following standard industry 00:16:04.250 --> 00:16:06.830 protocol, Dees and his record company reached 00:16:06.830 --> 00:16:08.710 out to Marvin Fisher, the owner of the copyright, 00:16:08.950 --> 00:16:12.009 to ask for permission. Fisher flat out said no. 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:14.360 He refused to grant permission for the parody. 00:16:14.519 --> 00:16:16.960 He wasn't having it. But Dees, true to form, 00:16:17.100 --> 00:16:19.220 just went ahead and recorded and released the 00:16:19.220 --> 00:16:22.679 29 -second spoof anyway. Predictably, Fisher 00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:25.399 sued Dees for copyright infringement. And this 00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:27.179 is where the legal precedent that shapes our 00:16:27.179 --> 00:16:29.940 modern entertainment industry is set. The trial 00:16:29.940 --> 00:16:31.879 court looked at the case and found that Dee's 00:16:31.879 --> 00:16:35.279 song, When Sunny Sniffs Glue, was clearly intended 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:38.539 to poke fun at the specific breathless style 00:16:38.539 --> 00:16:40.620 of singing that Johnny Mathis was known for. 00:16:40.740 --> 00:16:43.360 Right. Therefore, it was legally categorized 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:46.019 as a parody. That decision was appealed, but 00:16:46.019 --> 00:16:48.000 it was firmly upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:51.360 of Appeals in 1986 in the landmark case of Fisher 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:54.120 v. Dee's. It's amazing that a 29 -second joke 00:16:54.120 --> 00:16:56.500 about sniffing glue became cited legal precedent. 00:16:56.759 --> 00:16:59.279 But the broader implications are massive. That 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:02.000 ruling helped establish the robust fair use protections 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.980 we rely on today. It fortified the legal framework 00:17:04.980 --> 00:17:07.240 that allows comedic artists, late -night hosts, 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:10.640 and internet creators to mock existing copyrighted 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:13.220 works without requiring the original creator's 00:17:13.220 --> 00:17:15.460 permission. It changed everything. Without Fisher 00:17:15.460 --> 00:17:17.980 VDs, the landscape of modern comedy and parody 00:17:17.980 --> 00:17:20.460 would be incredibly restricted. So when you step 00:17:20.460 --> 00:17:22.630 back from all these seeming disconnected events. 00:17:22.910 --> 00:17:25.890 Yeah. You have to ask. So what does this all 00:17:25.890 --> 00:17:28.970 mean for his legacy? How do we synthesize a career 00:17:28.970 --> 00:17:31.890 that goes from a disco duck to a half billion 00:17:31.890 --> 00:17:34.509 dollar radio station to a Supreme Court level 00:17:34.509 --> 00:17:37.210 copyright battle? It's a lot to take in. Well, 00:17:37.309 --> 00:17:39.069 we have to bring the story full circle right 00:17:39.069 --> 00:17:42.319 back to our hook about the malware. Because that 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:45.400 very same 1984 album, Put It Where the Moon Don't 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:48.339 Shine, is exactly how an analog comedy sketch 00:17:48.339 --> 00:17:51.220 mutated into a digital nightmare. The origin 00:17:51.220 --> 00:17:54.220 of the You Are an Idiot Trojan. Yes. On that 00:17:54.220 --> 00:17:56.839 1984 album, amidst the song parodies, there's 00:17:56.839 --> 00:17:59.420 a prank call segment. It's titled Candid Phone 00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:02.829 Dog Funeral. And during that specific segment, 00:18:02.869 --> 00:18:04.849 there's a brief vocal jingle featuring a high 00:18:04.849 --> 00:18:07.470 -pitched mocking chorus singing You Are an Idiot. 00:18:07.490 --> 00:18:09.450 There it is. Fast forward nearly 20 years to 00:18:09.450 --> 00:18:12.289 2002. A man named Andrew Regner takes that exact 00:18:12.289 --> 00:18:14.910 audio clip from the Rick D's comedy album, samples 00:18:14.910 --> 00:18:17.670 it, and builds a website around it called youandidiot 00:18:17.670 --> 00:18:20.500 .org. And as we discussed at the top of the deep 00:18:20.500 --> 00:18:23.140 dive, that website functioned as a devious browser 00:18:23.140 --> 00:18:26.240 -based trojan, the pop -up bomb that relentlessly 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:28.859 exhausted a computer's memory by spawning endless 00:18:28.859 --> 00:18:31.859 windows of flashing smiley faces. Yeah. What's 00:18:31.859 --> 00:18:34.480 fascinating here is the paradox when you really 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:37.460 think about it. Rick Dees is a man who built 00:18:37.460 --> 00:18:39.880 an entire empire strictly through terrestrial 00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:43.240 radio, traditional syndication models, and physical 00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:46.019 vinyl comedy albums. The old school way. Yet 00:18:46.019 --> 00:18:49.069 he accidentally achieved this bizarre form of 00:18:49.069 --> 00:18:52.150 digital immortality when a throwaway audio clip 00:18:52.150 --> 00:18:55.730 from a prank call in 1984 became the inescapable 00:18:55.730 --> 00:18:57.730 soundtrack to one of the early internet's most 00:18:57.730 --> 00:19:00.710 infamous memes. He crossed the chasm from an 00:19:00.710 --> 00:19:03.089 analog broadcaster to a digital virus without 00:19:03.089 --> 00:19:06.890 even trying. To recap this genuinely wild journey 00:19:06.890 --> 00:19:09.369 for you, Rick Dees was never just the voice talking 00:19:09.369 --> 00:19:11.569 over the intros of pop songs. He was a multi 00:19:11.569 --> 00:19:13.990 -platform pioneer. He earned a Grammy nomination 00:19:13.990 --> 00:19:17.329 for his 1983 comedy album, Hurt Me Baby, Make 00:19:17.329 --> 00:19:19.690 Me Write Bad Checks, and later received the Grammy 00:19:19.690 --> 00:19:22.089 Governor's Award. A huge honor. He's an inductee 00:19:22.089 --> 00:19:24.670 in the National Radio Hall of Fame, the National 00:19:24.670 --> 00:19:27.009 Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the 00:19:27.009 --> 00:19:29.509 North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. and the Tennessee 00:19:29.509 --> 00:19:32.269 Radio Hall of Fame. The list just goes on. He 00:19:32.269 --> 00:19:34.630 won Billboard Radio Personality of the Year 10 00:19:34.630 --> 00:19:37.549 consecutive times and has a star on the Hollywood 00:19:37.549 --> 00:19:40.930 Walk of Fame. He fundamentally shaped U .S. copyright 00:19:40.930 --> 00:19:44.309 law regarding parody, defined the FM morning 00:19:44.309 --> 00:19:47.410 show format, built the longest -running pop countdown 00:19:47.410 --> 00:19:50.410 in the world, and inadvertently provided the 00:19:50.410 --> 00:19:53.569 voice for an iconic piece of early 2000s malware. 00:19:54.039 --> 00:19:56.339 It is a massive footprint that touches almost 00:19:56.339 --> 00:19:59.200 every corner of modern media, which leaves us 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.920 with a final thought to mull over. Rick Dees 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:04.539 inadvertently changed copyright law by mimicking 00:20:04.539 --> 00:20:07.640 a famous singer, and he achieved internet immortality 00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:09.859 because a coder sampled and stole his voice for 00:20:09.859 --> 00:20:13.119 a malware script back in 2002. Today, as we enter 00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:15.960 an era of generative AI where any broadcaster's 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:17.960 voice can be cloned with eerie perfection in 00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:20.380 a matter of seconds, how will the law evolve 00:20:20.380 --> 00:20:22.880 to protect the audio identities of the next generation 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:25.680 of creators? That is the big question. We solved 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:28.259 the parody problem in the 80s, but the battle 00:20:28.259 --> 00:20:31.119 for who owns the very sound of a voice is just 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:31.579 beginning.