** Updated in 2025
Before we talk about radio I want to acknowledge that Bob Crane was not a entirely a good person. Some people might say he was naughty, others might be more specific and say deviant or perhaps even a peccant serial philanderer. Today he's called a sex addict. We are not going to get into what he did, or was accused of doing. It'd get this little blog a Google ban. But the fact is, he was a seriously dirty dude. But we're going to focus on radio.
He was born Robert Edward Crane in 1928. He started out as an announcer on 1480 WLEA-AM. It was his first radio gig, but it was in Hornell, New York over 230 air miles form his new wife Ann Terzian, in Stamford, CT. Bob toughed it out, at 1480 WLEA living at the YMCA until he could score a better gig at 1120 WBIS-AM (now WPRX-AM) in Bristol, Connecticut. He bailed on then quickly for a better gig as the morning man at 600 WLIZX-AM in Bridgeport. He stayed there over six years. In 1951, WLIZ purchased WICC and Bob's program moved to the new stick. But he left for a gig Boston, MA at WEEI-AM. He left in 1956 only at the beckoning of the CBS radio network.
CBS gave him the morning show at 1070 KNX-AM in Hollywood. Soon it was the number one rated morning show in Los Angeles. He was known locally as "the king of the airwaves" If you've ever heard an air check, he' was really good on air. [LINK] His guests included Marilyn Monroe, Marvin Gaye, Bob Hope, Jayne Mansfield, and Frank Sinatra. But while number one in his slot, he still was really number two overall behind Dick Whittinghill at 710 KMPC-AM. The two arch rivals were actually friendly and Crane filled in for Dick for a few weeks two decades later in July of 1972. It's interesting that Whittinghill's 1976 autobiography Did You Whittinghill This Morning? makes no reference to Crane at all. (That's probably because of his ...extra circulars.) More here.
It was only in 1965 that be was offered the starring role in "Hogan's Heroes" and became a television star. In 1974, after years of TV he actually snubbed an offer for a new radio gig. He even had his own eponymous show for 14 whole episodes in 1975. After that his status as a regular at strip joints and discos got him blackballed from Disney, and probably other quarters. The poor performance of the movie Superdad in 1973 kept him out of yet more lead rolls. 
He spent the rest of his career doing dinner theater and making guest appearances. He filed a few TV pilots that went nowhere. In 1976, he made a guest appearance on WICC for their 50th anniversary. He was down but not out. But in 1978 he was found bludgeoned to death in an Arizona hotel room; he was fifty years old. His friend John Henry Carpenter was tried for the murder but was acquitted.
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