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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBefore you read the words written below about the life and times and accomplishments of a man named Ken Nordine, who died Saturday at his North Side home at the age of 98, it would be a good idea for you to listen to whatever you can find at www.wordjazz.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What you will discover is the one-and-only voice of Ken Nordine, one of the few people in the history of radio to use the medium to its fullest potential, rather than as a forum for blather, confrontation, inanities and noisy nonsense. He made a kind of vocal music as the voice of thousands of commercials and as the force behind a new art form he created and called \u201cword jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may never have heard the Ken Nordine name, but there is no doubt you have heard him. He was often referred to simply as \u201cThe Voice,\u201d and you will read elsewhere that he possessed \u201cthe voice of God.\u201d As complimentary as that may be, it is hyperbole. Nordine\u2019s voice was as distinctive as any, but it also carried a palpable and unforgettable humanity. For the Chicago Blackhawks, he gave voice to these four unforgettable words \u2014 \u201cCold steel on ice\u201d \u2014 that remain firmly embedded in local minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those many hockey commercials were crafted by Chicago\u2019s Coudal Partners advertising\/marketing firm through the 1990s and into the next century. Kevin Guilfoile, now a successful novelist and screenwriter (castofshadows.net), was intimately involved in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWorking with Ken was a thrill and an inspiration,\u201d Guilfoile said Saturday. \u201cHe was a one-of-a-kind master poet, performer and producer \u2014 one of those rare people with a brilliant singular vision and also the creative and technical chops to make that vision a reality all by himself. There was something so pure about his art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was also a pleasure to work with. When I heard the news of his death, the first thing I did was call (firm president) Jim Coudal, and Jim said, \u2018There was nothing like answering the phone when Ken called.\u2019 That\u2019s so true. Just hearing your name said by that voice could give you chills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nordine was born on April 13, 1920, in Cherokee, Iowa, the son of Theresia and Nore Nordine. His father was an architect\/builder, and some of his work sparkled along the lakefront during our 1933-34 World\u2019s Fair. This is where the family settled and where Ken attended what is now Lane Technical College Preparatory High School and the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He started work in 1938, making $15 a month running a mimeograph machine at the studios of WBEZ, when that radio station programmed exclusively for the public schools. He then moved on to announcing jobs at stations in Florida and Michigan before returning here to become a staff announcer for WBBM-FM and to start making radio commercials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One writer described his voice as an instrument that “muses and oozes like molten gold.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n