Willie B. Williams Dies; Fixture on N.Y. Music Radio

Veteran broadcaster William B. (Willie B.) Williams, a devotee of the Big Band Era for more than 40 years and an intimate of many of the musicians and singers whose records he played, is dead at age 62.

The popular host of WNEW-AM’s “Make Believe Ballroom,” who coined the phrase, “Chairman of the Board,” for his longtime friend Frank Sinatra, died Sunday at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan.

A hospital spokesman said Williams died of respiratory failure and chronic anemia. He also suffered from a blood disease that necessitated removal of his spleen several weeks ago.

With the exception of three weeks at the small New Jersey radio station that gave him his first job in broadcasting, Williams spent his entire 41-year career at WNEW-AM radio in New York City, serving for more than 30 years as host of the popular daily program, “Make Believe Ballroom.”

L.A. Counterpart

Al Jarvis hosted a Los Angeles radio program of the same name in the 1940s and ‘50s.

Williams’ opening words, “Hello world,” signaled the start of four hours of standards by Sinatra, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne, mixed with anecdotes garnered from friendships with leaders of the big bands of the 1940s and ‘50s, including Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

“He had the easiest rapport with a microphone that I’ve ever seen,” said Al Rylander, a spokesman for the Friars Club, a theatrical organization for which Williams was an officer for the last 13 years. “He made you think he was speaking right to you.”

Williams was named the Friars Club Man of the Year in 1984 at a ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria, at which Sinatra served as host.

On Monday, Sinatra, through a Los Angeles spokeswoman, called Williams “the best friend I ever had.”

“He was the best friend anybody could ever have had,” the singer said.

Sinatra Sang

Williams--whose real name was William Breitbard--began his broadcast career in the days when Sinatra sang twice weekly at WNEW for $18.75 a week, a station spokesman said.

He started as a staff announcer and would jokingly refer to Sinatra as “Chairman of the Broads,” in tribute to his friend’s popularity with bobby-socked girls who would swoon at the sound of his voice.

“It was cleaned up,” Rylander said. “As they both became more dignified, they changed it to ‘Chairman of the Board’ and it stayed.”

In later years, when Sinatra’s career faltered and appeared to have ended, Williams continued playing his songs. Sinatra frequently credited him with helping save his career and often used him as emcee of his shows in Las Vegas.