R.I.P.: Former ABC Radio News Reporter Bill Larson

Bill Larson

Former ABC Newsman Bill Larson has died.  His death was acknowledge by a NASA posting, which noted Larson's career as a communicator, broadcast journalist and news director spans more than four decades, virtually all of them related to the space coast or space program.

He was born in the small Wisconsin town of Chippewa Falls on July 27, 1933 and after high school graduation, he enlisted in the Air Force and began a journey that would bring him to the space coast for training at Patrick Air Force Base and marriage to a Cocoa Beach woman. Although he was next sent to Germany to teach English to former Luftwaffe pilots, he came back to the space coast when his enlistment was up.

Possessing a rich, dramatic voice it was only natural for him to go to work in radio, television and movies. WKKO in Cocoa was the first of a string of stations and the place where he had the chance to cover the very early rocket launches of 1957. After brief sojourns to stations in Colorado Springs, Omaha and Amarillo, he was hired as news director for WMEG in Melbourne, Fla., where he helped set up a news service called CKSN to supply stations throughout the southeast with launch coverage of manned missions beginning with Gemini. The service also helped newsmen get needed rest by providing space mission coverage every 15 minutes. Following the demise of CKSN Larson worked for other area radio stations providing the same type of coverage through the Apollo 11 moon landing.

By 1970, Larson's expert broadcast reporting of America's space program had reached ears in New York and he was hired by ABC Radio to anchor their regular news broadcasts and continue coverage of the space program. During his 10 years at ABC News in New York he provided live "pool" coverage of "splashdown" recovery operations in the South Pacific for two of the Skylab missions and the Apollo 14 mission for the major broadcast networks and anchored other Apollo launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center for ABC.

In addition to his news work he has appeared in several TV shows, movies and as on-camera and voice-over talent for many documentaries and commercials.