Richard Cassidy
Director of Content Operations
Dick Cassidy has been a broadcaster since he was a teenager following in the footsteps of his father, who was a classical music host in Los Angeles for 45 years.
Dick started with a neighborhood radio station broadcasting to neighboring houses in Inglewood, Calif., during his teen years. At Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, he took charge of the university station KXLU as manager, chief engineer, and program director. He then joined Metromedia in 1966, where he was chief engineer for stations in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
In 1971, Dick heard "they're hiring" at this "new public radio network" NPR. He was first chief engineer, then Vice President of Engineering, for NPR until he decided to strike out on his own in 1984. He ran his own broadcast engineering consulting group for the next decade with clients including ABC, Seiko, and Tribune Broadcasting. A call for information technology (IT) help from WAMU 88.5's chief engineer brought Dick to WAMU in 1997 to serve as the Director of IT and New Media. He spearheaded the inauguration of WAMU 88.5's successful bluegrass Internet radio station, BluegrassCountry.org, in 2001.
