Station Owner Bernard Waterman Dies At 96

Waterman

Condolences to family and friends of BERNARD WATERMAN, who owned radio stations in the 1950s and 1960s before he built WATERMAN BROADCASTING into a TV operation in FLORIDA and VIRGINIA in the 1970s.  WATERMAN died NOVEMBER 12th in SANIBEL ISLAND, FL at 96.

WATERMAN, then Sports Director at WMAY-A/SPRINGFIELD, IL, and his wife EDITH (who survives him and was married to him for 71 years) bought WAAB-A/WORCESTER, MA for $163,000 in 1956, adding an FM in 1961, then bought KTSA-A/SAN ANTONIO from GORDON MCLENDON for $1.5 million in 1965 and built KTFM there in 1968.  He sold WAAB-A-F to ATLANTIC RECORDS' AHMET and NESHUI ERTEGUN and JERRY WEXLER's WAAB INC. in 1968 for $650,000 and a $25,000 non-compete agreement.  KTSA and KTFM went to CBS RADIO's INFINITY BROADCASTING for $90 million in stock in 2000.  In 1977, WATERMAN BROADCASTING bought NBC affiliate WBBH-TV/FORT MYERS, FL, adding NBC affiliate WVIR-TV/CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA in 1986 and, in an LMA, ABC affiliate WZVN-TV/NAPLES-FORT MYERS in 1994.

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