It all started out for Bob Sillerman when he purchased 2 radio station in upstate New York with Cousin Brucie. Sillerman would then add both TV and Radio stations on the East Coast. Sillerman was named Radio Ink’s Execitive of The Year for 1996.
In 1985, Sillerman partnered with Carl Hirsch’s Legacy Broadcasting to buy up stations in L.A. Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis, Washington DC, Houston, Philadelphia and New York. That company would eventually merge with Westinghouse Broadcasting in the late 80’s for a reported $727 million.
Following the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 Sillerman built SFX into a 71 station powerhouse and sold it to Capstar for $2.1 billion. He then built SFX Entertainment into the world’s largest producer of live entertainment and sold that company to Clear Channel for $4.4 billion in 2000.
Sillerman died Sunday of respiratory illness.
