In a 1940 journal entry, my mother marveled at her five-year-old son’s fascination with radio. “Billy is a radio enthusiast,” she wrote. “He listens to all programs indiscriminately.” One evening, that included a “thrilling drama of murder and intrigue,” something the little boy happened upon while twirling the knobs.  But he wouldn’t let mom shut it off. No way. It was radio, and he loved it.  

Bill Wayland turned that childhood love of radio into a long career, doing some announcing in college, ultimately preferring the business side, becoming sales manager and account executive for Boston stations that included WHDH, WRKO, and WCOZ. He couldn’t bring himself to retire, working well into his eighties for WCAP in Lowell. 

“He was known all over town,” says lifelong friend and Dorchester resident Ron Della Chiesa, former host of “Music America” at WGBH. “He was a walking encyclopedia of the business, and a little older than the rest of us, so we called him “Daddy Wayland.”

Bill died on Nov. 4 at Lawrence General Hospital after a long illness. He was 89, the oldest of us five Dorchester-born children and the reason so many of us pursued broadcast careers. Twin brothers Ron and Doug became radio sales executives in Boston and Denver. I spent four decades in TV news. Bill’s Spanish-speaking son Christopher worked for Telemundo. Today, our nephew, Christian Wayland, is vice president and general manager of Boston’s NBC 10/ NECN.  

Bill worked briefly in the New York during the ‘70s, but missed his  broadcast cronies back in Boston who included  Della Chiesa, WCVB’s John Henning, and locally renowned disc jockeys J.J. Jeffrey and Arnie “Woo Woo” Ginsberg, both of whom also turned from the microphone to sales and management positions.

“So many of that generation are gone now,” says Della Chiesa. “Bill’s passing is the end of an era.” 

Bill was also an avid “sparkie” and scanner buff, following the work of Boston firefighters. And for several years at Christmastime, he became the voice of Santa Claus during the late David Brudnoy’s evening call-in show on WHDH. 

Friends and family gathered on Nov. 11 for a funeral service for Bill at O’Connor’s Funeral Home on Adams Street, Dorchester. His wife Judy had passed away earlier this year. They were longtime residents of Andover and Methuen, survived by sons Christopher of Phoenix, Will of San Anselmo, and many loving nieces, nephews and grandchildren. Our sister Anne passed away in 2016.

There is so much we will miss about Bill, including that little ripple of laughter that seemed to punctuate his every sentence. Bill loved to laugh. I guess that’s why he got to play Santa Claus.