This past weekend Dateline hosted a show called "Death of a Radio Star" which focused on the long unsolved murder of Steven Bailey Williams. Steven "B" made his mark at KPKE "The Peak" in Denver as Steven "B" and The Hawk. During the Radio Roulette days of "The Rocker" KRQR when it was going through multiple ownership mergers and programming changes Steven B. was one of several annoucers who held the morning drive time slot. After Peter B Collins and Michael Knight. Somewhere in the rotation that included Mark and Brian out of LA and eventually moved toward Paul Wells and The Lobster Breakfast. Steven hosted the show as a single announcer. A genuinely likeable guy with perfect pipes and seasoned success he never caught fire in San Francisco. The Dateline show made no mention of this in the news magazine. Killed off the coast of Catalina after inheriting 2 million from his Dad, his previously unsolved murder was one of LA's top cold cases.
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Death of a Radio Star on Dateline News Magazine
- Thread starter cayenne
- Start date
cayenne said:
What multiple ownership mergers? KRQR didn't go through any ownership changes at all. It was CBS then and it's CBS now. The only change in ownership was CBS's corporate parent being acquired by Westinghouse, but this was long after the station changed its callsign to KLLC.
Viacom was also player in the morphing of CBS. I recommend our readers search Viacom, Westinghouse, CBS internet facts in the 80's and 90's to see how interwoven these mergers became. It's my understanding the CBS branding remained in place for marketing and recognition qualities when many changes were happening in the boardrooms and corporate structure.
The original post remains a quiet reflection on Steven Bailey Williams and his association with The San Francisco Radio market.
The original post remains a quiet reflection on Steven Bailey Williams and his association with The San Francisco Radio market.
DavidKaye said:
I have to agree with David Kaye. When Steven B. was at The Rocker, it was most definitely, and remained, a CBS property during his time there. During that era, it was prior to the Telecommunications Act, which turned radio upside down, and KRQR had only one sister station--its AM counterpart, KCBS. They were located at 1 Embarcadero and were years away from moving in with KPIX and all the other acquired stations from which they benefited after the Telecommunications Act.
I’ll raise the white flag with a few caveats. Yes Steven was likely an Eighties Staff member. Westinghouse bought Karmazin's Infinity Broadcasting Co. for $4.9 billion in 1996, just half a billion less than it paid for CBS in 1995. This was the same year KRQR began shifting to KLLC. The station was still very much located at One Embarcadero Center and the above changes did take place in the 90’s. If you were in the building during this period there were several years of whispers, rumors and run up to the sales that impacted programming and the environment. I likely should have chosen a more oblique phrase than ownership changes. Something like political football and subterranean unrest. David is…well David. Semantics, shmantics…I’m a story teller.
Heh, OK, admit your redundant misuse of the language, David ("...I I..."). That double I, coming from someone who seldom refuses the occasion to correct others on this site, might just be the grist for some wise ass semanticist to bust you for making it all about yourself again.
Just say, "I was wrong."
So, Cayenne,
What do multiple ownership changes have to do with SBW's murder? SBW left The Rocker years before KLLC was even a thought in CBS' mind. He was hired by KRQR in 1988 and left in 1990 to start his own studio business in SF. He did some local voice work and got his biggest account, Emporium-Capwell. He stayed in SF until 1995, when he went back to Denver, then L.A. in 1998, back to Colorado in 2000, Napa in 2002 until 2003, when he moved for the last time to Corona Del Mar.
In Orange County, he helped care for his dying father. When he died, the estate was settled and Steven's horror began.
As for David Kaye...I have to agree with him again. He has not posted anything incorrect on this thread to apologize for. Cayenne seems to want to tie CBS' incarnations to SBW but there is no link there.
What do multiple ownership changes have to do with SBW's murder? SBW left The Rocker years before KLLC was even a thought in CBS' mind. He was hired by KRQR in 1988 and left in 1990 to start his own studio business in SF. He did some local voice work and got his biggest account, Emporium-Capwell. He stayed in SF until 1995, when he went back to Denver, then L.A. in 1998, back to Colorado in 2000, Napa in 2002 until 2003, when he moved for the last time to Corona Del Mar.
In Orange County, he helped care for his dying father. When he died, the estate was settled and Steven's horror began.
As for David Kaye...I have to agree with him again. He has not posted anything incorrect on this thread to apologize for. Cayenne seems to want to tie CBS' incarnations to SBW but there is no link there.
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