UPDATED: WFMT's Norman Pellegrini Passes Away

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: Norman Pellegrini, 1929-2009: Legendary broadcaster fought for quality, class on the radio airwaves : With his vision, influence and taste, program director fought to preserve quality entertainment on WFMT-FM : By John von Rhein | Tribune critic : July 3, 2009 : Although other people have played supporting roles in making Chicago fine arts radio station WFMT-FM a unique broadcast outlet that is respected around the world, one man saw to it that 98.7 FM would remain to this day an oasis of class, style and intelligence amid the rock-and-yak-dominated dial of commercial radio. : That man was Norman Pellegrini. : "The luckiest thing that ever happened to that station," the station's late co-founder, Rita Jacobs Willens, once said, "was when Norman walked through the door. He created WFMT. His standards were what made the place." : The station's longtime program director and one of the great figures in local broadcasting history, Mr. Pellegrini, 79, died Thursday, July 2, in St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago. The cause of death was liver and pancreatic cancer, according to his longtime partner, Donald Knight. : A Chicago native and lifelong resident, Mr. Pellegrini became WFMT's program director in 1953 and held the post until he was removed in 1996 amid a series of disputes with the station's corporate overseers. : He also was the longtime host of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's and Lyric Opera of Chicago's radio broadcast series, and produced and hosted countless other programs for WFMT even after his departure from the station. : If WFMT is a unique classical radio station in the nation and the world, it is largely due to Mr. Pellegrini's vision, influence, elevated taste and uncompromising principles. : He always maintained it wasn't enough for a classical radio station just to play recordings. So he created the special mix of classical, folk and jazz, live performances, commentary and spoken word that long has been the signature of WFMT, which went on the air in 1951 as a modest mom-and-pop outlet run by Bernard and Rita Jacobs (later Willens). : More than anyone else, Mr. Pellegrini gave the station its quirky intelligence, its willingness to treat listeners like thinking, culturally literate adults. If this struck some people as elitism, Mr. Pellegrini (who preferred the term "select" to "elitist" anyway) didn't care. He ran WFMT for a radio audience willing to support quality programming, and he fought doggedly throughout his sometimes rocky tenure to preserve it. : He also fought to give Chicago classical musicians and institutions their day in the WFMT sun, according them regular exposure on the station. He was a stickler for detail, and each broadcast he hosted or supervised was as near to perfection as could be managed. : "Norm inspired everybody who worked with him to do their very best, because that was how dedicated he was himself," said former WFMT program host Don Tait, who worked for the station for 35 years during the Pellegrini era. "He was the boss, but he made us all feel this was our radio station. He made us a community." : The same could be said of the tenaciously loyal family of listeners who have remained with the station as all other classical outlets in town have either gone under or sold out to rock or pop formats. : For decades Mr. Pellegrini and Ray Nordstrand, who came onboard as president and general manager in 1970 and died in 2005, ran the station as a team. : They could not have been more different in personality. Mr. Pellegrini was the artistic, outspoken and energetic one; Nordstrand the practical, soft-spoken, somewhat stolid businessman. But they worked beautifully together, Mr. Pellegrini taking care of the music, Nordstrand overseeing the finances. : Together they built on the Jacobses' core beliefs: quality and diversity of programming, excellence unsullied by gimmicks. : And they devised a policy that makes WFMT a virtual anomaly among U.S. broadcasters: the station airs only announcer-read ad copy, as opposed to prerecorded commercials -- a practice that costs the station hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue each year. : Mr. Pellegrini's towering rages were legendary among WFMT staffers and for many made him difficult to work for. : "Somebody once said to me, 'It's that Sicilian temper of Norm's,' " Tait recalled. "Well, he was an idealist, and when he believed someone was betraying the station's ideals and standards, he didn't hesitate to speak his mind." : Mr. Pellegrini attended the University of Chicago and received a degree from Columbia College. He served as a member of the Illinois Arts Council and won special recognition from Billboard magazine and San Francisco State University. : He completed a cultural history, "150 Years of Opera in Chicago," following the 2002 death of its author, Chicago music critic Robert C. Marsh. : Mr. Pellegrini is said to have been especially proud of the honorary doctorate of humane letters he received from DePaul University in 1978. The citation read, in part: "By consistently offering the best, you have proved that a sizable and eager audience exists for the best." : A memorial service is planned for July 18 -- which would have been Mr. Pellegrini's 80th birthday -- at Mayfair Lutheran Church, 4335 W. Lawrence Ave., Chicago. Details are forthcoming.

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