R.I.P.: Iconic WVA Radio Broadcaster Bill Sahan

Bill Sahan

Veteran broadcasters in Charleston mourned the passing of a local radio icon this week. Bill Shahan, one of the best known radio personalities in the Kanawha Valley for more than two decades, died Thursday evening at the Hospice Unit of Thomas Memorial Hospital. Shahan battled esophageal cancer for nearly a year.

He was 55-years-of-age, accoding to wvmetronews.com.

“Billy was a natural for this business,”said another longtime voice in Charleston Charlie Cooper. “There are some in this business who are fortunate enough to have that personal attitude, sunny disposition, never met a stranger quality, and that intensity that never fades. That’s how Billy was.”

Shahan started his radio career when he was hired as an intern at Charleston radio station V-100 in the early 80’s.

“I don’t even know how he got the job, but he was an intern and like all interns you give them the jobs nobody else wants to do,” said WVAF 99.9 FM V-100 morning man Steve Bishop. “But the weird thing about Shahan was he wanted to do them. He thrived on things like that.”

Bishop recalled how the station’s news department used Shahan’s outgoing personality as a tool for their work.

“They’d send him out to get man on the street interviews which was perfect for him because he was such a people person,” Bishop recalled.

Shahan eventually advanced from intern to full time employee at V-100 and started his DJ career working overnights. During the mid-1980’s he was hired across town at the competing station Super 102. It was there the Shahan legend was born. He became the popular jock among teenagers taking their requests, playing their songs, and entertaining them with personal appearances or working as the DJ for their high school dance.

Around 2000, he returned to V-100, now under the management of West Virginia Radio Corporation.

There he was able to continue to court the following he built in the 1980’s.  Those loyal listeners who had grown up listening to Shahan and the popular music of their teen years, were now listening to new formats of music. Shahan was able to demonstrate his personality could transcend any genre of music. He worked for V-100 playing adult contemporary music, then WKAZ-FM where the format was oldies. Eventually he  transitioned for a stint on the hip-hop station 98.7 The Beat, and eventually became the morning DJ on the company’s country station 96.1 The Wolf.

He had recently been elected to the 2016 class of inductees into the West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame. He’ll now be inducted posthumously next month during the induction ceremony at the Hall of Fame in Huntington.