Hartford broadcasting legend Dick Bertel, the retired Voice of America executive whose warm yet authoritative presence had made him a star on WTIC Radio, Channel 3, and WKSS over three decades, has passed away. He was 92.
Dick was a highly respected broadcaster during the second half of the 20th century, an age when the profession was at its peak. Versatility was his trademark. With a combination of abilities that is nearly unknown today, Dick moved seamlessly between a variety of radio and television assignments and could handle complex news coverage, host entertainment programs, and manage operations, all with a unique blend of soothing gravitas, charismatic panache, and disarming good humor.
He honed his talents at the Travelers Insurance Company's WTIC Radio and Television operation in Hartford, Connecticut, one of the most highly respected broadcasting organizations in the country. Legally named "Richard E. Bertelmann", Dick literally made a name for himself there. At a time when most broadcasters used noms de plume on the air, he had previously adopted the name "Dick Richards" for his on-air work. WTIC's management was concerned listeners might confuse him with Floyd Richards, one of their well-established personalities. So as a condition of his job offer, he developed a distinctive new on-air name, "Dick Bertel", instead.
Just 25 years old when WTIC hired him in 1956, he worked among staffers who had been present when the AM station was founded in 1925 as well as others who had fostered its sterling reputation during the '30s, '40s, and '50s including mainstay personalities such as Fred Wade, Bernard Mullins, Ross Miller, Bob Steele, Bruce Kern, Ed Anderson, George Bowe, and Jean Colbert.
In the '60s and '70s, he would also work alongside a new generation of memorable WTIC talent, notably Bill Hennessey, Brad Davis, Al Terzi, Bill Hanson, Arnold Dean, Bob Ellsworth, George Ehrlich, Art Johnson, Lou Palmer, and Bill Henry. In collaboration with over a hundred coworkers, together they would launch Channel 3 which was established in 1957 as WTIC-TV and quickly became Hartford's dominant television outlet for news and entertainment.
During Dick's period there, WTIC's on-air staff moved fluidly between the radio and TV studios but none more so than he. Over the course of a routine week, Dick would anchor newscasts, announce station identifications, and lead public affairs shows on Channel 3 while at the same time on WTIC Radio, play popular music, interview prominent people, deliver news reports, and host magazine-style shows as well as conduct classical music programs on WTIC-FM. This constant exposure on Hartford's leading media outlets literally made Dick Bertel a household name, intimately familiar to hundreds of thousands of people in Connecticut and beyond.
His ability as an interviewer was especially highly prized. Over his six-decade career, he would encounter several presidents of the United States; many governors, U.S. senators, and Congress members; major movie, Broadway, and television stars; artists, popular musicians, composers, bandleaders, singers, and comedians; authors, scientists, historians, inventors, and other subject matter experts; inspiring athletes and legendary sports reporters; civil rights leaders and other activists; prominent people in the news media; and many ordinary people whom he coaxed into telling their uniquely compelling stories.
His reputation preceded him. One day a representative of the Voice of America, the preeminent international broadcasting agency of the federal government, asked Dick for a copy of one of his WTIC interviews to rebroadcast the discussion worldwide and invited Dick to submit similar content whenever he could. Thus began a four-decade long relationship with VOA that ultimately became the capstone of his career with a move to Washington, D.C., a long-term assignment to Europe, and opportunities to engage with some of the most influential people in the nation's capital.
At VOA and Hartford radio station WKSS, Dick also demonstrated previously unrecognized abilities to conceive and execute business development strategies as well as effectively manage teams to achieve challenging goals. And later in life, he tapped into a gift for teaching that infused purpose into a long, pleasant retirement. In many ways, his story illustrates what it was like to work as a broadcast personality as the industry evolved during its first century.
