Connie Szerszen

WIND Chicago Illinois
September, 1977
[ LISTEN ] (13:27)
Connie Szerszen is an American female radio personality. Szerszen is a native Chicagoan of Polish ancestry.

While she was talent coordinator at WCFL, Szerszen was discovered by air personality Penny Lane, who called WCFL one day, and soon talked Szerszen into auditioning as a dee-jay for WSDM-FM, "The Station With the Girls and All That Jazz Smack Dab in the Middle."

Den Pals, Connie is standing 2nd from left.
In October 1969, Szerszen started her broadcasting career at WSDM-FM. As one of the “Den Pals”, who were sort of a take-off on the Playboy Club’s “Bunnies,” Connie and the other girls were asked to pick an “air name” and since she started so early on Saturday morning, she chose “Dawn.”

Promoted as “the world’s most sensuous disc jockey”, Connie meant it to be a parody. Everyone on the station sounded so sexy (that may have been part of the plan), that she didn’t really feel like she fit that mold. So she played with it.

Connie made every attempt to bring humor into her show rather than sex appeal - she had features on the show like “The Bachelor Boy Household Hint of the Day,” read the funnies on the air, and reported celebrity gossip between songs. She eventually did the morning show before leaving for WIND.

WSDM audio from 1970 featuring MusiCraft commercials voiced by DJ Dawn, Connie Szerszen.
On Christmas Day, 1971, Connie started DJ'ing at WIND. Program Director, Bob Moomey, had hired her as a week-end DJ.

In March of 1974, Westinghouse Broadcasting sent out a press release stating they had the “first female personality on AM radio to have her own prime time radio show.” No major market, Chicago, New York, nor Los Angeles, had ever done this. Women had only held positions in “news” or on the graveyard shift, or as sidekick to a man. When Al Mitchell became the new program director at WIND, he switched Connie from week-ends to her own 6-10 PM full-time shift.


January 9, 1975 and Connie is on-the-air at WIND. [ LISTEN ] (5:22)

"TOP 56 OF '76"
Midwest Magazine 1977
A Daily News article published in 1972 stated "AM Program directors conceded that she had a good voice, but added that women were unsuitable for AM air work because of their unstable employment record (they sometimes get pregnant)," and later in the article..."Another prospective employer told Connie that a woman's voice doesn't have the authority needed for AM radio."


Connie with Elton John, Bobby Vinton, and Tom Jones.

On the lighter side, on her first day at WIND, on her very first show, it seemed no one could hear Connie's voice. Someone had turned the mic around so she was speaking into the back of it. Since it had a foam cover, not even the engineer could figure it out.

The Chicago Sun-Times Midwest Magazine made her a cover story, crediting her as "The Woman Who Invented Strip Radio." CBS-2 in Chicago did a feature story on her show for its 5 PM newscast with Bill Kurtis on May 7, 1976 and broadcast on Channel 2 News in Chicago.

Szerszen was also an on-air personality for several other Chicago stations, including WJMK, WJEZ, WJJD, and WUSN "US-99." She appeared on local TV shows and guest-hosted WCIU-TV's Kiddie-A-Go-Go in October, 1970.

With Stevie Nicks at the Playboy Mansion.
When ABC7 was searching for a hostess for its daytime talk show, Program Manager Jeff McGrath interviewed Connie and viewed her guest appearance on the NBC show, Tilmon's Tempo, with weather forecaster/pilot Jim Tilmon. All went well, until he informed her at the end of the interview that they would also be talking to a woman from out of town named Oprah Winfrey. Connie lost out.

Spiderman!
On June 14, 2011, ABC7 featured Connie on Chicago Close-Up as a pioneering female DJ. Connie Szerszen is known to her listeners as the Top Rock Girly Jock and Polish Princess and ends her shows with "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła", the first line of the Polish national anthem.

TOP ROCK GIRLY JOCK
Autobiography of Connie Szerszen, Chicago's Pioneer Woman in Radio.
America's 1st Female Rock Jock on AM radio in Chicago! 1st Female in America to Broadcast Live on HD radio in 2005.
Over 200 photos and memorabilia of Chicago radio stations WCFL, WSDM, WIND, WJJD, WJEZ, WJMK and WJMK-HD2. Order Connie's book HERE for only $19.95!

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