Dick Biondi

Radio legend Dick Biondi, who’s been missing in action since early April, said he’s looking forward to getting back on the air as soon as his doctors get him “back into fighting shape.”

Biondi, 84, was said to be recovering from a leg ailment for which he was hospitalized earlier this month. No other details have been disclosed.

“I want nothing more than to get back to entertaining the greatest radio audience in the greatest city in the world!” Biondi said in a statement released Saturday by Scott Miller, his longtime friend and former producer.

It was Biondi’s first public comment in the two months since he took leave from the Saturday and Sunday morning show he hosts on Cumulus Media classic hits WLS FM 94.7.

Brian Thomas, program director of WLS, said he had no further update on Biondi’s status but was “hoping to have him back in June — possibly as early as next weekend.” Jeff Davis has been filling in for Biondi.

Biondi, a broadcasting dynamo whose 67-year career has spanned the history of rock ’n’ roll in America, came to prominence as nighttime personality on Top 40 powerhouse WLS AM 890 from 1960 to 1963.

In addition to the National Radio Hall of Fame, he is enshrined in the radio exhibit of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Illinois Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame, among numerous other honors. In 2010 the city of Chicago celebrated the 50th anniversary of his start on the air here by naming the alley south of the old WLS studios near East Lake Street and Garland Court “Dick Biondi Way.”

Here is the text of Biondi’s statement:

I have heard from so many people regarding my absence from 94.7 WLS. I wanted to take a moment to say thank you! Thank you to the fans, Cumulus Broadcasting staff and management of WLS for showing me how much I mean to you. I will tell you, you all mean the world to me as well.

As for an update, I am at home recuperating from this leg issue. My doctor has assured me they doing all they can to get me back into fighting shape and I look forward to getting back on the air as soon as they say I'm ready! I want nothing more than to get back to entertaining the greatest radio audience in the greatest city in the world!

God Bless
-Dick Biondi