Bob Kingsley | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1939-03-19)March 19, 1939[1] |
| Died | October 17, 2019(2019-10-17) (aged 80) Weatherford, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation | Radio personality |
| Known for | |
| Spouse | |
| Awards | National Radio Hall of Fame member |
Robert Gibson Kingsley[3] (March 19, 1939 – October 17, 2019) was an Americancountry music radio personality and a member of theNational Radio Hall of Fame. He was best known as the host of two nationally syndicated radio programs:American Country Countdown (ACC) andBob Kingsley's Country Top 40.
Kingsley first worked on the radio while stationed inIceland with theUnited States Air Force. He worked as a disc jockey and program director for country music stations in the 1960s and early 1970s. Kingsley became a producer ofACC in 1974 and hosted it from 1978 to 2005, and then, with his wife Nan, producedBob Kingsley's Country Top 40 from 2006 until his death.
Kingsley came down withpolio when he was a school-aged child, and he enjoyed listening to the radio while he recovered: "That's all I had was that radio there. I could move my arm, my hand, just enough to turn the dial... The soap opera stuff during the day I wasn't a big fan of, but in the evening whenThe Green Hornet andThe Fat Man and all those great old radio shows were on... I was – what, six or seven – and it stayed with me."[4]
While serving with theUnited States Air Force in 1959, Kingsley began his radio career atTFK, the Armed Forces Radio Service station inKeflavik, Iceland. He struggled at first. "I murdered the copy, absolutely murdered it. I'll never forget it. I wasn't very good, but I was hooked," Kingsley said many years later.[5]
After leaving the military, Kingsley went looking for radio jobs, carrying demo tapes that he had made with an old tape recorder. After a DJ friend told him he needed a better demo tape and gave him access to a studio to record one, Kingsley found a sales job at a radio station inPalmdale, California. The station went off the air in the evenings, and they let Kingsley practice in the studio after he finished his work for the day. Kingsley said that he only sold commercials to one account in the six months he worked there.[4] He jocked atLos Angeles country stationKGBS for a few years, and then in 1970 became program director atKLAC, which had just droppedmiddle of the road (MOR) music for a country format.
Kingsley rose to national prominence in 1974 when he became the producer of the nationally syndicatedAmerican Country Countdown (ACC).[6][7]Tom Rounds, a radio executive withWatermark Inc., createdACC as a country music version ofCasey Kasem'sAmerican Top 40, and Rounds had gotten Kingsley's name by word of mouth.[4]
Kingsley succeeded the program's original host,Don Bowman, beginning in May 1978.[8] Concurrently, Kingsley was providing voiceovers forDrake-Chenault Enterprises and its automated country music programming service. Under Kingsley's watch,ACC wonBillboard's "Network/Syndicated Program of the Year: Country" 16 years in a row, the only on-air personality and music program in any format to achieve this continued success.
In 2006, Kingsley signed a new distribution deal withJones Radio Network (later acquired byDial Global, which was subsequently acquired by Cumulus Media). The new countdown program was calledBob Kingsley's Country Top 40 and his two-minute program was calledBob Kingsley with Today's Hit Makers. In 2015,Nash Icon (the media brand and network of country music stations owned byCumulus Media) announced it would begin distributing classicACC programs for syndication under the nameAmerican Country Countdown Rewind With Bob Kingsley, starting that May.[9][10] With BKCT40 signing a distribution deal with Skyview Networks (which also distributes the programming of formerACC syndicatorABC) since Bob Kingsley's death, Cumulus/WW1 has discontinuedACC Rewind. Skyview continues to offer reruns of Kingsley's countdowns through its own network. Through an arrangement with Nan Kingsley and theCountry Music Hall of Fame, CT40 replays currently air Saturdays on Nashville'sWSM Radio.
Kingsley's wife, Nan, helped to produceBob Kingsley's Country Top 40. The couple moved from California toWeatherford, Texas, west of theDallas-Fort Worth area, in 1995. There they owned the Bluestem Ranch and Kingsley raisedcutting horses.[5]
In October 2019, Kingsley was diagnosed withbladder cancer, forcing him to cedeCT40 hosting duties for what was intended to be a temporary leave of absence.[11] Kingsley died at his home in Weatherford on October 17, 2019, at the age of 80.[12]
Kingsley wonCountry Music Association National Broadcast Personality of the Year honors in 2001 and 2003. He received the 2012 President's Award fromCountry Radio Broadcasters.[13] In November 2016, Kingsley was elected to theNational Radio Hall of Fame.[3]Blair Garner,Ralph Emery andGene Autry were the only country radio personalities inducted before him.[14]
The month after he died, a celebration was held in Kingsley's honor at theCountry Music Hall of Fame; attendees included country music starsGarth Brooks,Dierks Bentley andTrisha Yearwood.[15]
