User:Teblick/Bill Bivens (announcer): Difference between revisions

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”’William C. Bivens”’ (March 24, 1915 – January 15, 1984)<ref name=”rs”>{{cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Jim |title=Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920s to the 1980s–A Biographical Dictionary |date=October 17, 2024 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0739-9 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GLcuEQAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA34&dq=%22Bill+Bivens%22+announcer&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22Bill%20Bivens%22%20announcer&f=true |access-date=November 17, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> was an announcer in the era of [[old-time radio]].

”’William Bivens”’ (March 24, 1915 – January 15, 1984<ref name=”rs”>{{cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Jim |title=Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920s to the 1980s–A Biographical Dictionary |date=October 17, 2024 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0739-9 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GLcuEQAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA34&dq=%22Bill+Bivens%22+announcer&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22Bill%20Bivens%22%20announcer&f=true |access-date=November 17, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> was an announcer in the era of [[old-time radio]].

== Early years ==

== Early years ==

William Clyde Bivens^[1] (March 24, 1915 – January 15, 1984^[2]) was an announcer in the era of old-time radio.

Early years

Bivens was the son of Mr. and Mrs. W.C. Bivens.^[3] When he was 13 years old, he was the youngest Eagle Scout in the Piedmont Council.^[4] He also operated a ham radio station and earned money for his hobbies by mowing lawns and working in a grocery store.^[5]

Career

Bivens began his career in radio in 1928, when he was a teenager^[3] known as “Baby Bill”,^[6] working after school and on weekends at WRBU in Gastonia, North Carolina.^[3] For his $4-per-week salary he worked from 4 to 10 p.m., when the station went off the air. He began each day’s shift with a stop at a music store, usually picking up approximately 50 78 rpm records and taking them to the station.^[6] On Sundays he swept out the studio while a church service was broadcast. The Great Depression brought a reduction in pay to $3 per week.^[5]

In 1932, he left that station to join the staff of WFBC in Greenville, South Carolina, when it began broadcasting. At the end of 1934, he moved from WFBC to work at WJSV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.^[7] After a week’s orientation he officually joined the WJSV staff on January 8, 1935.^[8] An article in The Greenville News when he announced his departure from WFBC called the move “a distinct promotion for Bivens, a deserved one …”.^[7] He rejoined the staff of WFBC in March 1936, after that station increased its power and became affiliated with NBC.^[9] From 1937 to 1941 he worked at WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina.^[2]

He went from Charlotte to New York City, where he was a network announcer^[2] for programs that included the Vox Pop interview program, The Fred Waring Show,^[10] and The Harry James Show.^[2] With Vox Pop, he bought prizes, selected participants, and worked as advance man in addition to announcing. He began working for Waring on March 24, 1942. That role included announcing for morning shows Monday-Friday of each week and a broadcast on Monday evenings. Each 30-minute broadcast was preceded by about three hours of rehearsal.^[5] His work on the James program required him to move to California,^[11] interrupting his work on the Waring shows.^[5]

Bivens also worked as a newsman in Washington, D. C., where he “covered everything from the birth of a chicken to the birth of a baby”.^[11] That job kept him on call all of the time, especially when something newsworthy occurred on Capitol Hill. When he interviewed Representative Sol Bloom at the top of the Washington Monument, he became the first man to broadcast from that location. His work in Washington included covering President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats, which Bivens said amounted to little more than introducing the president. Another of Bivens’s duties was being the stand-by replacement for Arthur Godfrey on his radio program, which originated from Washington. “We were never sure when he would come in for work,” Bivens said, “so if he didn’t show up I went on for him.”^[11]

He returned to Charlotte in 1965 to work at WBT-FM.^[2] There he introduced the live stereo disc jockey programming format to listeners of that station. He was on the air live for four hours and 45 minutes each evening, Monday – Friday, with another recorded hour thrown in to give himself a break.^[12]

Later years

A heart condition caused Bivens to retire in 1968. He remained in Charlotte “in a house cluttered with mementoes of his career”.^[6] He occasionally did some freelance work.^[6]

Personal life

In 1937, Bivens married the former Marjorie Robinson. They had three children.^[4]

References

External links