PROFILE: BILL FANTINI

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 developed The 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 the most important development 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.

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 has two sons, both grown, and one grandson.
 
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,