Don Bleu (real name Rick Kelleher) was one of the most popular personalities in Bay Area radio, but Twin Cities listeners remember him as "True Don Bleu" from KDWB in the glory days of Top 40 AM radio. A native of East Grand Forks, Minnesota, Bleu began his career in 1966 when his University of North Dakota classmate Shadoe Stevens encouraged him to try radio.
He signed on at KILO in Grand Forks, and soon became the night-time disc jockey. After a term at KQWB Fargo, he moved to the Twin Cities and KDWB in 1968, where for the next ten years he was one of the top jocks in the region, even touring the state with his own group, True Don Bleu and the Upper Division Back to the '50s Rock and Roll Revue.
It's January 28, 1974 and it's cold in the Twin Cities. But Don is warm and playing records in the KDWB studio. [ LISTEN ]
This scoped aircheck starts with the Secret Sound contest and the contestant fails to guess the sound. Don does his Norwegian accent. It's St. Paul Winter Carnival Days, and also "KDWB, the New Music Explosion." True Don is being attacked on the air by the Winter Carnival Vulcan and is painted black. This causes him to interupt the playing of Elton John "Daniel." TDB does a live spot for a book "Dust On The Sea." News is done by Gary Johnson (edited). There is the trademark "Hi Twin Cities, How're You", and a promo spot on the KDWB super shooters, with a John Wayne character.
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Emmy Award 1982In later years, he hosted the Don Bleu Show on KOSF, a music station in San Francisco, California. He was named to the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting's Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2005, and inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2007. Bleu initially worked at KIOI until 2011, when he moved to KOSF. He was let go from KOSF, doing his last broadcast on June 26, 2015.
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Twin Cities Radio Airchecks.
