He was retired from broadcast news management and enjoying life in Charleston, S.C. Now, many across the television industry are pausing to remember William Andrew “Bill” Payer, who died suddenly on January 21. He was 78 years of age.
Payer began his career as a reporter and manager of an Ohio statehouse-based news service, Electro-Media. That was in 1971. In 1977, he was appointed Midwest Bureau Chief of Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, feeding WCPO-TV in Cincinnati and WEWS-TV in Cleveland. In 1983, Payer joined WBNS-10 in Columbus, Ohio, as a reporter.
In 1986, Payer left Ohio, taking on a role as News Director for KTUL-TV in Tulsa. He later worked as ND of WSYX-TV in Columbus, Ohio, returning in 1989 to the Buckeye State.
In 1994, Payer would leave Ohio a second time to become Assistant News Director of KPIX-5, the CBS-owned station in San Francisco. He spent six years in that position before rejoining CONUS, a company he had worked at before taking the Bay Area role. This time, he’d serve as CONUS’s VP of News and Programming.
In 2003, Payer took on ND duties at WKBW-7 in Buffalo, exiting three years later for similar duties at WIAT-TV in Birmingham during its period under LIN Media ownership. He exited that position at the end of 2013, at which time he occasionally free-lanced until retiring.
The family will hold a small private service, and then a celebration of Bill’s life for all who wish to attend will be held on Monday, March 31, at Dunes West Golf and River Club in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., from 2pm-4pm.
As he requested, his ashes will be spread at Cleveland Stadium after the Cleveland Browns NFL team win the Super Bowl.
