Longtime Arizona radio broadcaster Bill Buckmaster is signing off this week

Bill Buckmaster is something of a legend in Tucson news.

The Arizona Broadcaster Hall of Famer has been on the airwaves in the Old Pueblo for decades hosting Arizona Illustrated and eventually, his own AM talk radio show. He’s also worked across the Southwest — in small Arizona markets as well as in Las Vegas — with a stint in the Bay Area in the 1980s. 

He’s signing off for the last time on Dec. 30. 

The news has been met with an outpouring of tributes to Buckmaster’s career.

The Show talked with Buckmaster about his decision to leave.

Full conversation

BILL BUCKMASTER: Yeah, it's a very difficult decision, very bittersweet. You know, everything about life is timing, and making that right decision, it had to be the right time, and this was the right time. I'll be turning 78 in December, and it just had to be. It's got to be the point where I want to do other things.

LAUREN GILGER: You've been so influential, especially in Tucson, over so many decades. We have to take a minute to talk about your career. I mean, you've done TV, you've done radio, you've done work with the AP, you've kind of done it all. Tell us just what stands out to you? Are there moments? Are there interviews? Are there people you've met along the way that really stand out in your mind?

BUCKMASTER: Well, Muhammad Ali was one. When I was working in Las Vegas, I interviewed him and was ringside for NBC Radio News when the night when Leon Sphinx didn't knock him out. It was a decision 15 round in February of 1978. That was an amazing experience. You know, my time in Las Vegas is when Howard Hughes died and there was the whole up uproar over, did he have a will? And I covered that for NBC, that whole trail. And it just was, it's been an amazing career. I've met so many wonderful people. We've added up that I've probably done about 8,000 interviews in my career.

GILGER: So, I mean, asking you what stands out among those 8,000 interviews is almost impossible to answer, I'm guessing.

BUCKMASTER: Yeah, another great one was talking with Jimmy Carter when he got off a plane in Las Vegas, and he's this governor from you know, former governor from Georgia. And he says, I'm going to be president someday. And I'm going, you are? He's carrying his own suit, you know, in a garment bag. And he says, I'm going to be the president. You see, you watch. Okay. Yeah. It's been an amazing ride. And I've been so fortunate. And the way the business, though, has changed. I'm old school. I interview people and I let the listener or the the viewer make up their own mind about that person. What's really changed is the whole thing about advocacy journalism.

GILGER: Right. I wanted to ask you about your views on the role of local media in particular. I mean, you've been in Tucson and been an important voice there for a long time. I mean, watching, you know, the newspapers shrink, watching public media be attacked, watching radio change and podcasting come about and all of the technological changes we've seen. I wonder what you think about where local media in particular in our state is headed.

BUCKMASTER: Well, first of all, let me say it, when I started in this state in 1988 and, and when I started really back in the, in radio news in the sixties and in the seventies, every small town in America had a radio news department. Some of my early jobs, I was the news guy. There was always a news guy or a newswoman in every small town. I worked in Sierra Vista for a while before I went up to Phoenix to do radio and TV for The Wire for AP. Then I went to Visalia, California, in the San Joaquin Valley. Back in the day, we all paid our dues. We went to little towns and we worked our way up. And what I really, I think it's terrible that so much of local news now is gone. And the news has become now so segmented. People getting it through social media, podcasting. They're not getting it in the traditional over the air anymore. It's changed so much.

GILGER: Yeah, it's changed so much. Do you think there's a silver lining? Do you think you're leaving, you know, at the right time, considering the changes in this industry?

BUCKMASTER: Absolutely. I think this is the right time. And where I've been on AM radio, the audiences have been shrinking. And again, that goes back to very few people now are getting their news through through an AM radio station. That's very sad.

GILGER: Yeah. But you have interviewed, you know, every newsmaker there has been probably in the state in the last several decades, right?

BUCKMASTER: My first interview in this state, I had come over from the Bay Area where I was anchoring television, and I came to Channel 6 to take over the nightly, then nightly news magazine, Arizona Illustrated. And the first interview I had that first week in January January of 1988, the governor, Evan Mecham, who of course was later impeached and left office, but that was my first interview. And you're right, I hosted so many of the congressional debates, the John McCain debate down here. I handled that one. I did so many of that for public broadcasting. It was really exciting.

GILGER: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so let me ask you lastly about your legacy and what you would like it to be and what you think it will be.

BUCKMASTER: Well, I think there's been so many wonderful things that have been said and written about me. But what I really want to be remembered for is someone who was very fair and let everybody have their say. Sometimes people would criticize me, well, he throws too many softballs. But I'll tell you, by throwing those softballs, there was a lot of stuff that came out of those interviews after the newsmaker felt relaxed, then the good stuff would usually come out, and it did on my shows.

GILGER: That is Bill Buckmaster, longtime TV and radio host here in the Southwest. Bill, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it, and best of luck.

BUCKMASTER: I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me on.