{"id":15010,"date":"2017-07-27T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=15010"},"modified":"2017-07-27T06:10:50","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T11:10:50","slug":"chickenman-flies-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2017\/07\/27\/chickenman-flies-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Chickenman\u2019 flies again \u2014 in podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> Dick Orkin<\/p><\/div>\n

Fifty years after Chicago radio listeners were introduced to \u201cthe most fantastic crime-fighter the world has ever known,\u201d a new generation is about to meet the legendary \u201cChickenman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty episodes of the classic serial spoof about the winged warrior, created by Radio Hall of Famer Dick Orkin, will be presented by the Earwolf<\/a> comedy podcast network, starting August 2.\u00a0The full 273 episodes in the original series will be available through\u00a0Stitcher Premium<\/a> podcasts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dick Orkin as \"Chickenman\"<\/p><\/div>\n

Orkin was production director at Chicago\u2019s former WCFL in the 1960s when he hatched \u201cChickenman,\u201d portraying the crime-fighting fowl (\"He's everywhere! He's everywhere!\") and his alter ego, mild-mannered shoe salesman Benton Harbor.<\/p>\n

Among other characters, he also played the part of the police commissioner of Midland City. In a 1985 interview, Orkin revealed that the voice he used for the commissioner was a parody of William A. Lee, then president of the Chicago Federation of Labor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Lee was a beautiful guy, but he never knew I was imitating him,\u201d Orkin told me. \u201cIn fact, he wasn\u2019t real clear on what \u2018Chickenman\u2019 even was. He used to call it \u2018that duck thing of yours.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

The Chicago Federation of Labor owned WCFL from its inception in 1926 until 1978. Earlier this month, the union coalition got back into media ownership with its participation on the acquisition<\/a> of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Reader.<\/p>\n

Orkin, 84, lives in California, where his radio production company, Dick Orkin\u2019s Radio Ranch,<\/a> has produced some of the funniest and most memorable commercials ever created.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty years after Chicago radio listeners were introduced to \u201cthe most fantastic crime-fighter the world has ever known,\u201d a new generation is about to meet the legendary \u201cChickenman.\u201d Twenty episodes of the classic serial spoof about the winged warrior, created by Radio Hall of Famer Dick Orkin, will be presented by the Earwolf comedy podcast... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15010"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15020,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15010\/revisions\/15020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}