Dick Bertel, a prominent and popular broadcaster on Connecticut radio and television from the late 1940s through the early 1980s, passed away on Sept. 11 at the age of 92 at his home in Maryland.
Born Richard Bertelmann on Jan. 6, 1931, in the Bronx, he relocated with his family to Darien when he was 13. He landed his first radio job as a news writer and announcer at WNLK, a Norwalk radio station, before he graduated from high school in 1948. During his time at WNLK, he also wrote and acted in radio dramas on WNLK and also hosted “The Teen Turntable” on WGCH in Greenwich.
Bertel joined WNAB in Bridgeport in 1951, where his duties included hosting “The Saturday Night Dance Party” and interviewing celebrity musicians who appeared at the Ritz Ballroom in Bridgeport. He joined WSTC in Stamford in 1954 as a news announcer.
Bertel left Fairfield County in 1955 for Hartford, first joining WGTH as a news announcer before WTIC one year later. During his years with the radio station, he hosted the talk show “Conversation Piece” and the news program “Americana” and took teamed with Ed Corcoran on “The Golden Age of Radio,” a monthly program that revived the long-unheard radio shows from the 1930s and 1940s.
While working on radio, Bertel moved into television in 1957 as a news anchor and host of public affairs shows on WTIC-TV (which later became WFSB). He left WTIC-TV in 1974 after the station was sold, and from 1978 to 1984 managed the Hartford radio station WKSS while hosting its morning show.
In 1984, Bertel left Connecticut for Washington, D.C., to become an executive producer at the Voice of America. Later in his career, he was a news anchor for Washington”™s WTOP radio station and later anchored the news broadcasts for the NBC Radio Network and the Mutual Broadcasting System.
