Bill Gavin (November 6, 1907 – January 27, 1985) was an American radio personality and publisher of the influential ''

Gavin Report The ''Gavin Report'' was a San Francisco-based radio industry trade publication. The publication was founded by radio performer Bill Gavin in 1958. Its Top 40 listings were used for many years by programmers to decide content of programs. The ...

''.

Life and education

Gavin was born in

Chetek, Wisconsin Chetek is a city in Barron County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,172 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 2,221 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The city is located partially within the Chetek ( ...

in 1907. He attended the

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

and the

University of California-Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

. Before his radio career, he was a teacher,

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and singer. He briefly traveled with an all-male vocal group called ''The Blenders.'' He died of cancer in 1985 at the age of 77.

Career

He created the ''

Lucky Lager Lucky Lager is an American lager with U.S. brewing and distribution rights held by the Pabst Brewing Company. Originally launched in 1934 by San Francisco-based General Brewing Company, Lucky Lager grew to be one of the prominent beers of the ...

Dance Time'' radio show in 1955 with the

McCann-Erickson McCann, formerly McCann Erickson, is an American global advertising agency network, with offices in over 120 countries. McCann is part of McCann Worldgroup, along with several other agencies, including direct digital marketing agency MRM//McCa ...

advertising agency. Gavin founded the

in 1958 with information from the show. It was a publication that "monitored air play for

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

records, and later expanded to other categories; it asused as a programming aid by radio stations and record companies." The publication gathered information from various

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

s and was used to measure song popularity. Gavin was called the "most powerful man in the business." It was also said that "every

record company "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

subscribed to and quoted the

...Everybody copied him, but he originated the thing." In 1983, after being diagnosed with cancer, he sold the Gavin Report to the staff and became publisher emeritus. Gavin is also noted for his progressive stance in regards to

race relations Race relations is a sociological concept that emerged in Chicago in connection with the work of sociologist Robert E. Park and the Chicago race riot of 1919. Race relations designates a paradigm or field in sociology and a legal concept in th ...

. He worked to help

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

s break into the radio business by playing black artists and hiring black

Disc-Jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music festivals), mobile DJ ...

s at a time when it was unpopular to do so.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gavin, Bill American radio personalities 1985 deaths American publishers (people) 1907 births University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire alumni 20th-century American businesspeople People from Chetek, Wisconsin