Bob Whitney – 2014
In 1959, Bob Whitney was hired by Balaban Broadcasting as a programmer for its Dallas station and was subsequently promoted to National Program Director of the company’s radio group. Shortly thereafter he moved to St. Louis and began work on transforming Balaban’s WIL from an MOR station into a top 40 outlet.
Whitney hired on talent like Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy and Bob Dayton (Robin Scott) to jumpstart the new format, and added Gene Hirsh and Nelson Kirkwood to the newsroom to bolster that department.
WIL, under Whitney’s leadership, held its own in the early Top 40 wars of St. Louis. Later in the decade, he worked for other broadcasters at other stations around the nation before beginning a career in video production. In 1970, local independent station KDNL-TV began broadcasts of his syndicated musical video program, “The Now Explosion.”