Bill grew up
the youngest of six sons in a blue-collar family in suburban Philadelphia. He graduated Haverford High
School with six years of participation on the wrestling team, two years of
football, and A’s in public speaking. In his freshman year of college in 1965,
Bill joined the then-all-student staff of Temple University’s
WRTI-FM, where he discovered his love for broadcasting. He became totally
immersed in the radio station as a news anchor and producer of a weekly music
documentary program. By the end of that year, Bill had discovered the
difference between education and schooling … and the importance of both. While
he learned a great deal through his experience on college radio, he had only 12
credits to show for his two semesters of classes.
The following
fall, Bill transferred to Saint Bernard College in Cullman, Alabama,
from which he graduated cum laude in December 1968. His first semester at the
college was dedicated to getting himself back on the academic track. Not only
did he erase the deficit, he later signed up for extra credits and summer
classes that enabled him to complete his matriculation a semester ahead of
schedule. Officially, he has a B.A. in English. He also earned nearly as many
credits in Education, which has served him well.
From the start
of his second semester at Saint Bernard in January of 1967 until his
graduation, Bill also worked a minimum of 35 hours per week on the local radio
stations in Cullman.
Shortly after
graduating, Bill returned to the Philadelphia
area in April of 1969 to take a position as account executive at WPBS-FM. He
credits this experience selling advertising time for giving him a well-rounded
understanding of the overall needs of any broadcasting operation. It also
confirmed his suspicion that he would prefer to be a writer, producer, and
performer.
His resolution
to return to the airwaves was tested, however, by the standards, competition,
and politics of breaking into the fourth-largest media market in the United States.
From December 1969 through September 1971, Bill found only part time employment
as a radio host and producer. He supplemented his income with a series of odd
jobs and work at delicatessens. But at the end of that period, and only two
weeks after being hired at WIOQ-FM as a weekend anchor, he was elevated to a
full time position at this highly rated station. Soon, he also was named News
and Public Affairs Director.
Within a year,
there was a major reorganization at WIOQ that resulted in the dismissal of
three-quarters of the air staff. As one of the survivors, Bill’s
responsibilities were greatly increased. In addition to his duties as a
producer of news and public affairs programming, he became a music host at the
station. In the five years that followed, Bill often captured the No. 1 audience
ratings for several demographic categories. His role at the station again was
expanded in 1974, and he became Operations Director. He still was in charge of
all information programming, and also supervised all air staff and participated
in format and policy decisions. It was then that Bill realized how his study of
teaching techniques could be applied to management. He developed a nurturing
style, supporting and encouraging staff as he coached them toward the standards
expected by the listeners. Several applicants were hired only after Bill
critiqued earlier, unsuccessful demo tapes and provided the guidance that
brought their performance up to snuff.
Unfortunately,
due to circumstances far beyond Bill’s control, WIOQ’s level of business
success did not match its programming achievements. By the time Bill resigned,
the company was six months behind in his pay. He immediately found an
opportunity at WYSP-FM, but he again was back to only part time employment. So,
he also took a job teaching at the American
Academy of Broadcasting.
Within two weeks, his talents and the value of his course of study in college
were recognized, and Bill was named Dean of Faculty. His duties included
teaching a survey course in journalism and communications, counseling the 350
students, and supervision of 28 instructors. Between AAB and WYSP, he was
working about 70 hours per week. That continued for six months.
There is an
advertising slogan, “Most people who test drive a Saab buy one.” The same could
be said for Bill. Through his part time work at WYSP, that company also
realized the value of his talent and experience. In May of 1979, he was named
News Director and morning anchor. It is a position he held with six different
morning-show teams, under five different program directors and three general
managers. It also led to the next major break in his career.
Bill developedThe Rock Report, a daily music-news feature that was so successful
locally it was added in October 1979 to the slate of shows on NBC’s new
youth-oriented Source Radio Network. With the aid of two assistants and
a corral of occasional correspondents, Bill conducted or supervised all
research and interviews and personally did all of the writing, voicing, and
production. Within months, his program earned the highest clearance rate on the
system. It was carried by 200 of the network’s 210 affiliates, including
stations in all of the top 10 media markets in the United States.
Of course,
that captured the attention of the competition, and Bill was contracted in May
1982 to write and produce Lifelines, a daily lifestyle feature for the
fledgling ABC Rock Radio Network. He also continued his work on WYSP
until January 1983, when he resigned to focus entirely on his new network
program. Despite his association with the local radio station, Bill
independently produced both of the syndicated shows from a studio in his home.
Then came one of the
most important developments in his career.
In December
1984, Bill was contracted by ABC as a free-lance news anchor for all six of its
radio networks. This required great versatility and adaptability, because of
the diversity of formats that were served. It also provided exposure to some of
the best news writers and editors in the business, as well as the opportunity
to serve as many as 16 million listeners every time he turned on the
microphone. While it was not a staff position, Bill was called for an average
of about 200 days of work per year. Because of the union rates and benefits he
received, he suffered no financial hardship. Yet, he often took other
free-lance anchor work during that time at WABC and WYNY in New
York and WXPN in Philadelphia.
Rather than
uproot his family, Bill commuted to Manhattan
daily from his home near Philadelphia.
After more than ten years of this five-hour round-trip, he decided to limit his
work at ABC to weekends only and find other employment closer to home. Even
after securing his next job, Bill continued to work his reduced schedule in New York for another
year and a-half.
In April 1994,
Bill joined in an experiment being conducted by the Suburban Cable Company out
of facilities in West Goshen,
Pennsylvania. NewsChannel
was a multi-media news operation that partnered with several smaller newspapers
in the region to provide local news to the towns where it operated cable
television services. It was dubbed an attempt at narrowcasting. All
subscribers would receive the national news segments. Then, the signal would be
split to provide separate state-news reports to Pennsylvania
and New Jersey
viewers. A further split would send very focused local-news reports to each
individual city or town on the system. The format in which all of this was
produced presented a great opportunity for Bill to develop new skills. There
were no live anchors. The screen was designed to look like a newspaper page.
Bill was trained to write headlines, to illustrate the stories with photos and
graphics, to layout the page, and to write copy according to Associated Press
newspaper style. Obviously, he already was quite familiar with delivering the
voice-over of the scripts he wrote. He soon was named an associate producer and
put in charge of the other workers on his shift in the newsroom. Despite steady
growth and loyal viewership, however, management felt the operation was not
profitable enough. The plug was pulled in October 1997, and NewsChannel
went dark.
Again, Bill
plied his talents for free-lance clients. He did writing and production for a
new tourism hotline in northern Delaware,
taught a news-writing course at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, and he
worked fill-in at WXPN-FM and WHYY-FM. As happened so many times before, the
part-time exposure led to a full-time job.
In January
1999, Bill took the position of News Director at WHYY, one of America’s
premier NPR stations. He was responsible for staffing, training, scheduling,
work assignments, oversight and editing of all writing and production,
mentoring of all interns and volunteers, creation and completion of special
projects, setting and maintaining standards & practices, acquisition of
equipment and supplies, community relations for the department, annual budgets,
communication and coordination with other departments, vendor and industry
relations, and advancing the company mission. Under his supervision, the news
department nearly doubled in size to a staff of about 20; including news
anchors, reporters, and producers. Bill wrote and anchored daily radio
newscasts, several special-feature reports, and all election-return programs.
He also hosted radio and television “town meetings” and served the affiliated
WHYY-TV with documentary narration and vacation relief as anchor of the nightly
news program, Delaware Tonight. He launched and executive produced the
reporting service Pennsylvania Public Radio, which was syndicated
statewide. Bill’s work and his willingness to aid and counsel other news
departments earned him the respect of peers across the country. Every year, his
department was recognized with several major awards. Among those for which Bill
specifically was cited are:
Public
Radio News Directors Incorporated
- Best Newscast 2001
Society
of Professional Journalists, Philadelphia
Region
- Best Newscast 2001
- Public Service 1999, Welfare Reform
Pennsylvania
Associated Press Broadcast Association
-Outstanding News Service 2000
-Public Affairs 1999, The Next Mayor
Bill says,
however, that he never set out to win awards. He describes his primary
objective simply as, “to provide my audience with the information needed to
govern themselves.” He says the greatest award he ever received was the words
of the listener who called to thank him for his public affairs series on the Philadelphia mayoral race
in 1999. She said, “It really helped me make up my mind who to vote for.”
Still, as Bill
moved deeper into his management duties, he grew further removed from the work
he always has loved. When he first started at WHYY, he was doing six newscasts
every afternoon. By the end of 2002, his workload in the office left time for
only one time on the air per day. Eventually, he decided to seek a new path,
and he left the radio station.
His first stop
was La Salle University, where he joined the adjunct
faculty in August 2003 as an instructor of public speaking. Here was an
opportunity to draw on his talents and expertise in a whole new manner. Bill
soon came to realize that he had found a venue where he could nurture writing
and speaking skills, coach students on demeanor and attitude, and provide
guidance that could alter and improve their entire lives. “It proved to be
extremely demanding and challenging work,” says Bill, “but it is one of the
most rewarding experiences of my career.” Comments in the end-of-term
evaluations by his classes include: “He really knows what he is talking about.”
“He helped me get over my fears.” “He was always willing to listen and help.”
“I learned a lot.” Bill hopes his course in life eventually will give him other
opportunities to stand at the front of a classroom.
The next stop
was Temple University, where he was hired in
October, 2003, as afternoon news anchor on public station WRTI-FM. This is the
same station where he had his debut in 1965, but it was not exactly the
same. Paid professionals now operate WRTI, with student volunteers serving as
support staff and reporters. Bill found it to be a very satisfying combination
for him. His primary duty was to present the news, with no managerial
responsibilities. And, he got to edit and coach eager protégés.
Bill returned
to national radio in March, 2005, serving as a free lance anchor of business
reports for the Wall Street Journal Radio Network. In addition to hourly casts on this
220+-station operation, the position also requires researching and writing
custom reports tailored to individual affiliates with financial news about
their specific markets. For nearly two
years, Bill joined staff as writer and producer of daily tech-news podcasts
that are featured on WSJ.com. It should
be noted that these 5- to 8-minute briefings captured 49% of all the hits
received by the 16 different podcasts produced at the time for Dow Jones &
Co.
Since returning to free lance status in January of 2009, Bill also has been doing public relations for various small businesses. In addition to writing & distributing news releases and maintaining media contact, he produces podcasts for use on video-sharing sites, clients' Web sites, and in email campaigns. Of course, he continues to do voice work for several companies...much of it produced in his home recording studio.
Bill and his
wife live in Bala Cynwyd, PA. Shirley works nearby as cook at the
rectory of Saint Mathias Church, serving lunch and dinner to the priests and
all staff there. She also is an artist whose oil paintings on canvas have been
featured at local showings. They have two grown sons and two grandsons.
Bill is
personable, professional, and articulate. His personal mantra is, “Follow
directions properly, verify the job is done correctly, and seek constructive
criticism.” He says his writing must be
very precise in order to meet the demands of presenting the news objectively
and accurately, while the need to capture and retain the attention and interest
of his audience requires that it be colorful and creative. Bill has learned the
importance of evaluating his audience and custom tailoring his message to
them…a valuable lesson that has served well the vast diversity of listeners he
has addressed over the years.
