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RIP Bill Brown

I had the chance to work with Bill during his brief stint as PD at CBS-FM before the Joe McCoy era.
Great pipes, great jock and a genuinely nice guy.

Charlie Curtis (Chris Charles back then)
 
I remember Bill Brown back to his days at the Drake-formatted WOR-FM in the late 60s and early 70s. There was always the "Brown Bag" at lunchtime every day on CBS-FM. IIRC, Bill Brown was the only jock who was on CBS-FM from the day it started, July 7, 1972 to the day it was JACK-ed, June 3, 2005.

RIP, Bill! :(
 
Heard about this yesterday, :( hoping it was a mistake, found out we lost a wonderful Radio Legend and I had the pleasure to meet and talk to him. Bill was on a time I could listen a lot. His voice was wonderful and I loved to talk to him. He would be busy, but if I did call, he would make it quick and say Thank for your call, always a pleasure. I loved the Brown Bag, in fact I sent in some, he liked it and it was read on the air and I was sent a tote bag, I still have and use. I always wondered where he was and how he was. Bill is now in Radio Heaven and in Peace, sending prayers to all who loved him like me. :) I thank God I had the pleasure of meeting him once!!!
 
I remember listening to Bill Brown on CBS-FM when he was in afternoons where he did the "Brown Bag" show. That show was great since I was young at the time when it was an oldies station. That brought back some memories. He was on right after Ron Lundy and then after Bill Brown, Bob Shannon came on afterwards. This was the highlight of his career when he was on CBS-FM. I missed him listening to it at noon time. There was the last song that he played on CBS-FM before "Jack" came along was "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass. His last words on the station goes like this:

"Do you ever feel the urge to scream Rescue Me?! I'm beginning to get that feeling; here's Fontella Bass."

And then, he left the station for good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsGzJGEw-k0
 
at first I did not get it, but when the station changed it was a hint, and he sounded hurt. I was hoping he would at sometime maybe go on Sirius or call up Mark's show letting us know how he was, maybe he was sick and never told anyone, but he had a great voice, and I was happy to have met him once. I wish I had a pix taken with him that day but it was a quick thing, he had to get inside the museum, I did not want to bother him. That was the day also I met Ron Lundy :)

2 Radio Legends on the air in Radio Heaven!!! and a few more with them!!!
 
I always wondered if they had writers for the DJs at WCBS FM since they were always saying something interesting, amusing or funny. I am sure it was the due to having great DJs but they did a much better job than most radio stations. I am referring to Dick Heatherton, Biil O'Brien, Jim Harrington, Bob Dayton, Bill Brown and Mike Fitzgerald since that is the era I heard WCBS FM, I moved from the general area I am not familiar with WCBS FM after the late 1980s. It would have been great if they put WCBS FM on their huge AM signal.
 
Bill Brown was a class act - had a chance to meet him numerous times and talk to him by phone as well. He was always warm, friendly, business like, and professional. He was one of the legends. Was very sad to her he is no longer with us. It was quite abrupt the way his stay there ended. One wonders exactly what he knew before signing off that June 3. My theroy is he knew something very bad was about to happen but did not know exactly what or even to whom..JUST A THEORY...The rest of the people signing off before clearly knew NOTHING till it happened.

In most cases when "sudden" format changes happen, the staff knows a month or two before. They even know they will be out of work but they agree to keep quiet and their severance packages are contingent upon keeping the secret. The problem with CBS FM was that when the higher ups made the decision they had to execute it quickly because of the backlash they would get before doing the change... They wanted to make sure that noone would be talking them out of it...Something as notorious as a CBS FM format change would not be able to be kept secret long while lesser known stations would have an easier time being they have less visibility.
 
Wasn't Bill Brown and Bob Shannon given 5 minutes to clean out their desks while a CBS security guard watched over them? :mad:
 
stevations said:
Here is Bill Brown and Bob Dayton from Friday afternoon, October 15, 1977.... Bill Martin does the news.
Click to expand...

Actually, Oct. 15 in 1977 fell on a Saturday (just as it is this year) . . . and in a way this is also a backhanded tribute/memorial to former CBS staff announcer Martin, who'd passed away June 19 at age 90.
 
There is an ad on the tape....not uploaded....about a sale that ends the 15th, then mentions the sale ends today.....Mention of Bing Crosbys death, was that in 1977?......does the news sound like it was on a saturday? Did they do the hourly news on weekends? Maybe the month is wrong? The post about clearing out their desk, that is common in lots of businesses and does not imply wrong-doing by a employee....just a precaution by employers.
 
Marckd said:
Bill Brown was a class act... One wonders exactly what he knew before signing off that June 3. My theory [sic] is he knew something very bad was about to happen but did not know exactly what or even to whom... JUST A THEORY... The rest of the people signing off before clearly knew NOTHING till it happened...
Click to expand...

There is an account on the other popular message board that discusses New York Radio - whose Rewound Radio ran old Bill Brown airchecks all weekend long; good job there - that on the morning of June 3, 2005, the reason CBS-FM scheduled a live remote for then-morning deputy Micky Dolenz (love him or hate him, he clearly was no "morning mayor") was so that CBS engineers could instill the automation software for the new "Jack" format that would be launched in just hours. Bill Brown likely saw this and suspected something was up. I understand his final time on CBS-FM he had a fitting vamp on Fontella Bass' "Rescue Me" - not even the "good day, goodbye" we have been accustomed to hearing Bill close his shows with...

Markieo: Agreed with stevations that the "clean out your desk" routine is likely standard operation procedure. Even the great John Bell - a 25-year+ employee with WHTZ - was subjected to this on his last day with the station.
 
From stevations:
There is an ad on the tape....not uploaded....about a sale that ends the 15th, then mentions the sale ends today.....Mention of Bing Crosby's death, was that in 1977?......does the news sound like it was on a Saturday? Did they do the hourly news on weekends? Maybe the month is wrong?
Click to expand...

The posted You Tube aircheck is definitely from Saturday afternoon 10/15/1977 - scoped from roughly 2:30-2:45pm to 3:05pm-3:10pm.
There are several references on the aircheck to "Weekend 101".
Internet search is your friend: Bing Crosby died on Friday 10/14/11 in Spain. The other stories (hijackings, etc.) could also be searched. Also, yearly calendars can also be searched to verify the date and day of the week.
The weather forecast read during the news states "Sunday" when referring to the next day's weather.
CBS-FM ran news hourly on the weekends until a few years ago - it was cut back gradually to every few hours, now I believe not at all.
 
It was sad a HAPPY Morning for me turned out to be a SAD afternoon, It was rude that they did not give the DJ's a chance to say Goodbye, but they did not care :-( The DJ's were wonderful and I am sure they would have like to leave on good terms, not the way they did it. I am Happy It came back, and hope this never happens again, these guys are family, Remember that!!! Don't anyone have a heart anymore? :mad: Bill did not deserve this or anyone there!!!
 
@pjc1961: The only TOH news you'll ever hear on CBS-FM nowadays is during the daily morning show - and anchored by a WCBS-AM anchor, at that...

Oh, how we pine for those "Pep Talks" from back in the day... :-[
 
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