Bob Kingsley
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Bob Kingsley is an American country music radio personality and host of the nationally syndicated programs "Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40" and "Bob Kingsley with Today's Hit Makers."
For 27 years, Kingsley was the voice behind the nationally syndicated countdown program, "American Country Countdown" and the two-minute daily "Bob Kingsley with America's MusicMakers." He stepped down from both programs in December 2005, after renegotiations with ABC Radio Networks (which distributed the two programs) failed.
Career
Kingsley, while serving with the Air Force in 1959, began his radio career at TFK, the Armed Forces Radio Service station in Keflavik, Iceland. He jocked at Los Angeles country station KGBS, 1961–69, then in 1970 became program director at KLAC, which had just dropped MOR for a country format.
Kingsley rose to national prominence in 1974 when he became the producer of the nationally syndicated "American Country Countdown"[1][2] program started a year earlier by Casey Kasem and Don Bustany. Kingsley succeeded the program's original host, Don Bowman, beginning with the May 6–7, 1978 show.[3] Concurrently, Kingsley was providing voice-overs for Drake Chenault Enterprises and its automated country music programming service.
Under Kingsley's watch, "ACC" became a top-rated syndicated radio program, winning numerous awards. That list includes Billboard magazine's "Network/Syndicated Program of the Year: Country" for 16 years in a row, the only air personality and music program in any format to achieve this continued success. Kingsley won Country Music Association National Broadcast Personality of the Year honors in 2001 and 2003.
In 2006 Kingsley signed a new distribution deal with Jones Radio Network (and was later acquired by Dial Global and was acquired by Cumulus Media). The new countdown program is called Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40. His two minute program is called Bob Kingsley with Today's Hit Makers. In 2015, Kingsley-era ACC programs received new life when Nash FM (the media brand and network of country music stations owned by Cumulus Media) announced it would begin distributing classic ACC programs for syndication under the name American Country Countdown Rewind With Bob Kingsley, starting that May.[4][5]
Honors
In 2010, Kingsley was nominated for the National Radio Hall of Fame. [6]
References
- ^ http://www.allaccess.com/power-player/archive/10693/bob-kingsley
- ^ Hall, Claude, "Vox Jox," Billboard, June 15, 1974. Via Google Books, accessed 04-24-2015. [1]
- ^ http://www.radiohof.org/2010_nominees.html
- ^ "NASH Icon Partners With Bob Kingsley For ACC-Rewind," Media Confidential, April 17, 2015. Accessed 04-23-2015.[2]
- ^ "NASH To Launch 'American Country Countdown Rewind With Bob Kingsley'," All Access, April 17, 2015. Accessed 04-22-2015.[3]
- ^ http://www.dfw.com/2010/07/27/311602/country-dj-bob-kingsley-nominated.html
External links
- CT40.com - official website of Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40
- Stark, Phyllis, "ABC Taps Kix Brooks As New Countdown Host," Billboard Radio Monitor, November 9, 2005. [4]