Dick Buckley was born in Decatur, Indiana on August 26, 1924. He grew up feeling that he was "the only jazz fan around." During World War II, he trained as a bombardier in San Angelo, TX to serve in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) between 1943-\'46. It was during his military career that he began his radio career. "Till I was 21 or 22, I wasn\'t aware my voice was exceptional. An Armed Forces station needed an announcer and said, `We\'ll give you experience.\' That was the start."\n', '

He subsequently attended Indiana University where he played trombone for the marching band. At odds with his father, who wanted him to be an electrical engineer, he enrolled in a broadcasting school and remained in broadcasting thereafter. During broadcasts, he would occasionally refer to himself as "a reformed trombonist."\n', '

For a 1989 Sun-Times article by Bob Herguth, Buckley said "I grew up with radio. It was just that my tastes progressed to jazz bands. My mother, Ella May, who\'s 96 and lives in Plymouth Place in La Grange, still doesn\'t understand where she went wrong in my taste in music."\n', '

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