R.I.P.: Bill Tanner, Veteran Programmer, Iconic Morning Host

Bill Tanner

Iconic South Florida radio DJ Bill Tanner, of ‘Tanner in the Morning’ fame, has died at age 76.

Anyone who grew up in South Florida in the 1970s and ‘80s and listened to pop radio chances are you can still hum the “Tanner in the Morning” jingle from Y-100.

Set to the nagging, indelible sing-song riff from the old childhood jeer of “na-na-na-na-na-na,” the “Tanner in the Morning” handle came from DJ Bill Tanner.

Tanner, known in South Florida for inviting pop stars to record messages that urged listeners to “Get up and get off with Tanner in the Morning,” and who helped promote the careers of homegrown talents like KC and the Sunshine Band, died in his sleep at his Birmingham, Alabama, home on Thursday morning, reports The Miami Herald.  The cause was kidney failure.

Normally, that would be a common sentiment shared privately by millions of lucky sons and daughters the world over at times like these. But Bill Tanner’s special skills made his life public domain. And no matter how far his career took him once he left the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, South Florida was special to him.

Tanner was among the wave of South Florida radio personalities who helped define the area’s popular culture and listening habits before there was so much entertainment competition from the internet, social media and streaming services.

The late Rick Shaw, a hugely influential South Florida DJ who helped expose the Beatles to U.S. listeners in late 1963, probably got that rock-‘n’-roll ball rolling.

But Tanner’s brand of bonding with listeners — of being open with fans and cultivating a recognizable, relatable, persona — helped usher in a wave of like-minded DJs and programmers including Sonny Fox, Robert W. Walker, Don “Cox on the Radio” Cox, “James T.” Thomas and Jo “The Rock and Roll Madame” Maeder.

In 1974, Tanner became program director at the year-old WHYI (100.7 FM) Y-100, where “Tanner in the Morning” was born, and helped develop its persona-driven pop format. Maeder was one of Tanner’s hires in 1977, resulting in Y-100’s first female DJ.

Maeder calls Tanner her “radio mentor” in her free-wheeling Facebook tribute. “I recall the good times, and the times I can now laugh about, with greater poignancy as time goes on and legends like Tanner pass away.”

Walker, who worked alongside Tanner at Y-100, also called Tanner a “priceless mentor and unwavering friend. A tough taskmaster but an immensely kind human. ... He knew talent and gave a ton of them their first break.”

Tanner joined Metromedia’s WASH in Washington, D.C., as program director and morning host in 1983 after leaving Y-100.

He returned to Miami in 1985, lured by a four-year, million-dollar contract to turn adult contemporary WEZI-FM into South Florida’s first major urban contemporary station, the Miami Herald reported. The Herald called Tanner, “South Florida’s first million dollar radio man.”

“The format will be geared toward the Latins, Blacks and party-going, club-loving Anglos in the community,” Tanner told the Miami Herald then. The new Hot 105 got off to a fast start, but ratings quickly tanked. Tanner was fired.

In 1986, Tanner was named the first program director at WPOW “Power 96” in Miami, where he also hosted a morning show that became popular with a young, Hispanic audience. He resigned in 1991 after a well-publicized drug bust, the Herald reported. A judge later threw out the case.

Tanner also made his name at Spanish radio in 1992 with the debut of WXDJ Miami.

Other gigs included directing stations in Los Angeles and, in 1997, he helped launch two new urban radio stations in Birmingham.

Tanner has been with SummitMedia in Alabama since 2013, where he led radio programming strategy for all of the company’s markets, including Birmingham, Greenville, Honolulu, Knoxville, Louisville, Omaha, Richmond, Springfield, Tuscaloosa and Wichita, according to SummitMedia.