Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Valley Legacy

With “America’s oldest teenager” no longer here to show everyone how it’s done, his friends and colleagues remembered him Wednesday.

“In November, we celebrated his 82nd birthday here at the La Quinta Resort, and we sat around telling old stories,” Frank Furino, president of F.V.F Enterprises, said. “It was that connection that went beyond work. He was my second dad.”

Dick Clark was a music industry mogul, timeless tv host, and powerhouse producer.

“Dick Clark has his hands in pretty much everything,” Clarence Barnes, the programming director at KCLB, said.

Clark died Wednesday in Santa Monica at age 82. Clark went to St. John’s Health Center on Tuesday night for an outpatient procedure, but suffered a massive heart attack. Local people reminisce about the man who hosted “American Bandstand” and helped the nation celebrate New Year’s Eve for nearly 40 years.

“Mutual Radio wanted to do a weekly countdown show with Dick, and they wanted me to produce it,” Furino said. “We just stayed connected, and it became more family than work.”

“It had a little family feel to it. He had a lot of employees there that had been with him for a long part of the ride,” KESQ reporter Marc Blaine said.

Those employees noted Clark’s vivacious worth ethic.

“He’s one of these guys who just never stops,” Barnes said. “Dick Clark is one of the hardest-working people. When he had his stroke, he worked through his training.”

“He wanted what he wanted when he wanted it, but he was fair and a compassionate man,” Furino said.

He was a man who people said changed the industry.

“When I got into the business, it was a people business. It’s become, over the years, a product-delivery business,” Furino said. “You won’t see that kind of personality again.”

Though Clark won’t appear again live, his face will never leave TV’s memory.

By Wednesday night, a lot of flowers had been left on his star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. There was no immediate word on funeral services.