Countdown: Top 10 reasons we love Dick Clark

Dick Clark reigns supreme at 82

Dick Clark -- famed TV producer and "New Year's Rockin' Eve" host -- died from a massive heart attack this morning ... TMZ has learned.

To see the other reasons we love Dick Clark:http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/20/showbiz/dick-clark-countdown/index.html

This is part of the article which shows one of the reasons I loved Dick Clark and looked up to him.

9. "He broke color barriers"

Maxine Porter, the legal steward for the late Bill Pinkney of the R&B/soul group, the Drifters, put it this way: "What artist of color didn't have some association with Dick Clark over the years?"

Clark is widely credited with integrating his audience on "American Bandstand" and, according to Porter, Pinkney was one of those musical artists of color who credited Clark with their start.

"The first comment I heard him make about Dick Clark was, 'You know, we were one of the first black acts, if not the first, on his show in Philadelphia before he went national," she said.

"As a little girl, watching television in Mississippi, I was not exposed to blacks in any positions of power or affluence," said iReporter Elnora Fondren Palmtag of Clarksdale, Mississippi.

"Dick Clark was an inspiration when he fought for the integration of his show, first for the performers on his show and later adding dancers of different races. I know he helped to launch the careers of some great black performers, but you may not see the impact he had on the poor underprivileged children of the ghettos around the country who did not know that they could be more than what they could see around them."