Dick grew up in the shadow of WHOO-FM 96.5’s studios and tower in Orlando’s Pine Hills area and, in 1962, began to make regular visits to the station to observe the deejays and goings-on inside a radio station. It didn’t take long to get the "radio bug". In 1964, he was hired as a board operator at beautiful music WHOO-FM 96.5 and then its Top 40 WHOO-AM 990, where he went by the name Dick Shannon. From 1966-1970 at WLOF-AM 950, he was Dick Shane . He followed that job with one at Orlando’s "Top Gun" country WABR-AM 1440 in 1970 as Dick Shannon before returning to WLOF in 1973. Dick left radio in 1980 and moved his career into research and development with Lockheed Martin in Orlando. He has also become an historian on firefighting and Orlando fire history.