OBITUARIES / PASSINGS / Bob Greenberg

Bob Greenberg, 75, a longtime music industry executive who held key positions at several record labels including Atlantic, Warner Bros., MGM/UA and Mirage, died Friday in West Hills, a day after suffering a stroke, his brother Jerry said.

Born May 8, 1934, in New Haven, Conn., Bob Greenberg got his start in the business in the 1960s doing promotional work for Eastern Allied Associated Record Distributors. He moved on to oversee promotions for Warner Bros. in the Northeast, then arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1970s to run the company’s West Coast promotions.

When Jerry Greenberg became president of Atlantic Records in 1974, he hired Bob, who originally served as West Coast general manager before rising to vice president of West Coast operations.

Bob’s wide-ranging duties included working with artists as well as distributors, talent scouts, publicists and others throughout the company.

“He was on the West Coast and I was on the East Coast. Artists loved him. He really developed a great musical ear,” Jerry Greenberg said this week.

“We had a wonderful relationship. We would talk every day about the business and our family.”

In 1980, the Greenbergs founded the Mirage Music label. Besides overseeing West Coast operations, Bob also later worked with Jerry at MGM/UA. Bob Greenberg later became president of music industry publication Hitmakers.

In 2005, the brothers opened the Rainbow Bar & Grill in Las Vegas.