R.I.P.: Publisher, Ex-Radio Owner Bill Phalen

Bill Phalen

Former Broadcaster and Cities West Publishing Chairman and CEO Bill Phalen has died.

He was 73-years-of-age, according to the Phoenix Business Journal.

He founded Scottsdale-based Cities West Publishing Inc. in 1998, which publishes Arizona's only two paid and audited regional magazines, Phoenix Home & Garden and Phoenix Magazine.

Phalen also founded or co-founded three broadcasting companies that acquired 24 radio stations throughout the United States, including KRQ-FM in Tucson and KZZP-FM in Phoenix; served as a past president of the Tucson Broadcasters Association; was on the advisory board of the ABC Radio Network; and is a past member of the Walter Cronkite Endowment Board of Trustees at Arizona State University.

Phalen was inducted into the Arizona Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2013, and Mass Communication and the Journalism Hall of Fame at the University of Southern Mississippi in 2008.