William Mercer; Disc Jockey for Stations in New York, L.A.

William Mercer, 73, a disc jockey known as Rosko to radio listeners in Los Angeles and New York. Born in New York City, Mercer attended Catholic school in Pennsylvania. After working as a government clerk and a men’s room attendant, he got his first radio job as a jazz disc jockey in Chester, Pa. He later found work at New York jazz station WBLS and then an R&B; station in Secaucus, N.J. Mercer came to California to find work in the late 1950s after being blacklisted for refusing to cross a union picket line. He worked for KDIA in Oakland and was later heard on KGFJ in Los Angeles. For a while, he was heard live on KGFJ and on tape in Oakland six nights a week. He then was hired by KBLA, a rock and R&B; station in Los Angeles, breaking the color barrier at that station. Returning to New York in the mid-1960s, Mercer offered an ultra-cool mix of music, poetry--including the works of Kahlil Gibran and Yevgeny Yevtushenko--as well as occasional commentary against the Vietnam War. Mercer moved to France in the early 1970s and worked for Voice of America for five years. On returning to the United States, he found work in radio jobs in New York. In recent years, his voice was heard in announcements for CBS Sports. He died Tuesday of an embolism in Manhattan.