Bill McGee

William L. "Bill" McGee was born and raised on a ranch in Montana, and cowboyed throughout the West. At seventeen, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served in the Pacific Theater from 1942 to 1946.

In 1947, a chance conversation in Reno's Round Up bar landed him a job as the head dude wrangler on the Flying M E, an exclusive dude ranch outside of Reno that catered to wealthy Easterners and Hollywood celebrities seeking a six-week divorce. At the ranch, McGee met many guests who worked in the entertainment field. In 1950, he decided to leave cowboyin' and made a successful transition to broadcasting.

During his thirty-two year career in broadcasting, McGee held sales and management positions with NBC Radio, Independent Television Corporation (ITC), Peters Griffin Woodward (PGW), Kaiser Broadcasting, and U.S. Communications. At ITC, he licensed syndicated television programming, including "Lassie," "Fury," "Cannonball," "Danger Man," "Our Miss Brooks," and "My Little Margie," to advertisers and sponsors nationwide.

In 1971, he founded Broadcast Marketing Company (BMC) to supply radio and TV station clients with pre-tested, ready-to-use, local sales support and training services, at affordable prices, that would generate immediate revenues. In 1975, he created and produced CO-OPPORTUNITIES, the first nationally syndicated monthly co-op advertising information database.

In 1976, he pioneered the use of the film medium to sell radio advertising with "Get It On! Get It On Radio Now!!" In 1981, he produced "How To Make Effective Low-Cost Television Commercials," the first retail advertising seminar videotape presentation specifically designed to show retailers how to be more comfortable with commercial production. He authored nine guidebooks on broadcast sales.

McGee is the recipient of numerous awards, including PGW's "Television Colonel of 1964" and Broadcast Pioneer's "Pioneer Award" in 1982. In 1986, he was honored by the Builders of Broadcasting for "vision, dedication and achievement in the field of broadcasting." He is one of six charter members of the Cooperative Advertising Hall of Fame and is regarded as a leader and innovator in retail and co-op advertising.

Since retiring from broadcasting in 1990, McGee has authored three World War II military histories and garnered favorable reviews as a military historian. In 2004, Bill and his wife, Sandra, co-authored "The Divorce Seekers: A Photo Memoir of a Nevada Dude Wrangler," a collection of Bill's stories from the Flying M E days mixed with 1940s Nevada history. Bill is a member of Western Writers of America.

Bill and Sandra live in Tiburon, Calif., and run small press BMC Publications.