NEWS RELEASE
January 7, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact: Michael Hagerty, AZTV Director of Programming and Promotion, 602-224-2271 or mhagerty@arizonasown.com

RON BERGAMO PASSES
Longtime Arizona Broadcaster Killed in Car Crash

KAZT (AZ-TV, Channel 27/Cable 13) General Manager and Londen Media Group partner Ron Bergamo died Sunday in a car crash in Prescott, Arizona. He was 64. Ron’s wife, Jane, was critically injured and is in the Intensive Care Unit at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix.


Ron grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, where his mother was a schoolteacher. He attended North High School and the University of Arizona in Tucson.

He began his media career in 1969 with the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago. His first television General Manager’s job was in Midland-Odessa, Texas and led to a high-profile general manager’s position at KWCH, Wichita, Kansas where he attained national recognition as he turned the station into a dominant ratings and revenue force.

In the 1980s, Ron came home to Arizona as the General Manager of KTSP (Channel 10), then Phoenix’s CBS affiliate. He changed the call letters to KSAZ, which stood for “Spirit of Arizona” and was in charge for more than a decade, until the station’s purchase by Fox in the mid-1990s.

Ron was part-owner and General Manager of KWBA, Tucson until partnering with Jack Londen in 2001 for the 2002 launch of AZ-TV in Phoenix. In the following six years, AZ-TV grew from a low-rated station featuring black and white reruns to an aggressive, fast-growing home for contemporary comedy and quality local programming. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU, The Arizona Broadcasters’ Association and numerous other civic and charitable groups.

“Ron was this unstoppable force of optimism and energy” , said Michael Hagerty, AZ-TV’s Director of Programming and Promotion. “He taught us all that anything was possible…even miracles…on a daily basis. We’ll miss him very, very much.”

Services are pending.