Dick Orkin, the creative genius who hatched “Chickenman” and hundreds of hilarious radio commercials, is winging his way back to Chicago.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications will host An Afternoon with Dick Orkin June 27. Bob Sirott will moderate the event, which is open to the public.
Orkin, 81, was inducted last November into the National Radio Hall of Fame, which is housed at the museum, 360 North State Street.
As production director at the legendary WCFL in 1967, Orkin created the “Chickenman” serial spoof about a crime-fighting fowl, and portrayed both the title character and his alter ego, mild-mannered shoe salesman Benton Harbor. It became a worldwide sensation through syndication and recordings, and remains accessible on radioechoes.com.
He went on to form his own radio production company in Hollywood, Dick Orkin's Radio Ranch, creating some of the funniest and most memorable ads ever heard.
“Stan Freberg and Bob & Ray pointed me in the direction that advertising could be even more creative and entertaining than radio programming,” Orkin told me in a 1982 interview. “I don’t have any fault with the notion of commercialism; I find fault with the lack of creativity in selling.”
For ticket information, see museum.tv.