Eric Chamberlin of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, an industry analyst in the FCC Wireless Broadband Division for nearly nine years, died Dec. 2 of colon cancer. He was 38. Chamberlin worked on RF licensing. Survivors include his wife, Justina; two daughters, Avary and Mia; and his parents, Kenneth and Sharon.
Former Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Va., 91, who as House Commerce Committee chairman was credited with being instrumental in the creation of the 1996 Telecom Act, died Thursday. Before his election to Congress in 1980, Bliley was mayor of Richmond from 1970 to 1977. Bliley retired from politics in 2001, eventually joining Steptoe & Johnson as a senior adviser for government affairs. “Many of his legislative accomplishments still stand today, including in the telecommunications, food safety, and technology sectors,” Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said in a statement, pointing to the Telecom Act and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which she said “served to knock down competitive barriers and reduce costs to Americans and established data privacy protections for them at the same time.” Survivors include his wife, Mary, and his daughter, Mary Vaughn Bliley Utter. Visitation will be held Monday at Bliley's-Central, 3801 Augusta Ave., Richmond, with a funeral Mass Tuesday at Saint Bridget Catholic Church, 6006 Three Chopt Road, Richmond.
Maura McGowan of Ellicott City, Maryland, who retired in December after 36 years as an FCC analyst, died Oct. 26. She was 59. The cause of death wasn’t disclosed, but her family said it followed a long illness. Survivors include her husband, Tim Maguire; two children, Kate and Brendan; and her father, Francis. Donations in her memory may be made to High Hopes for Haiti.
Craig Bomberger, 55, FCC acting Auctions Division chief, died Oct. 8 of undisclosed causes. Bomberger worked at the agency for 24 years. He previously worked in the Wireless Bureau and in the Office of Economics and Analytics, according to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Survivors include his wife, Melissa, and daughters, Ella and Zoe. Donations in his memory may be made to the Maui Strong Fund or The Nature Conservancy.
William Dilday, the first black manager of a network-affiliated TV station in the U.S., died July 27. Dilday, 85, was a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists. He died due to complications from a fall, according to The New York Times. Dilday became manager of the NBC-affiliated WLBT Jackson, Mississippi, after petitions to the FCC and a suit by United Church of Christ and a group of Black citizens against the station for racial discrimination. He later became station manager of CBS affiliate WJTV Jackson, corporate vice president of News-Press and Gazette company and CEO of Kerimax Communications. As part of a group of investors, he bought a TV station in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Media mogul Herbert Siegel of New York, a , died Aug. 5. He was 95. His wife, Jeanne, told The New York Times the cause was heart failure. Among Siegel’s many business ventures was ownership of boat builder Chris-Craft Industries, which he turned into a multiple TV station owner and eventually sold to News Corp. He also for a time had ownership stakes in Warner, Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century-Fox Film.
Stuart Epperson, who with his brother-in-law, Edward Atsinger, founded Salem Communications, now known as Salem Media Group, in 1986, died this week. He was 86. Salem didn’t provide a cause of death. A former member of the National Religious Broadcasters Association board, Epperson was a member and past president of the conservative Council for National Policy. In the 1980s, he twice ran unsuccessfully as the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 5th congressional district. Survivors include his wife, Nancy, three daughters and a son.
Alaska Communications President-CEO Bill Bishop died Tuesday at his Anchorage home. Cause of death wasn’t provided, but the company said he had taken leave-of-absence to focus on his health. Bishop joined Alaska Communications in August 2004 and filled several roles, including senior vice president-customer and revenue management and chief operations officer before becoming CEO in 2019. Before joining Alaska Communications, he worked for AT&T, McCaw Communications and a federal government logistics contracting company. Bishop was on the USTelecom board and a former chairman of Alaska Business Week, an entrepreneurship training program for high school students. Survivors include his wife, Deena, and three children.
Newton Minow, who chaired the FCC from 1961 to 1963, died Saturday at his Chicago home, the Sidley law firm announced. He was 97. The firm didn’t provide a cause of death. As chairman he famously criticized TV as a “vast wasteland” in a speech to the NAB. However, in recent years he reportedly had a TV in every room in his house. During his leadership, the FCC mandated UHF reception in all televisions sold in the U.S. Minow also had a hand in developing legislation leading to the use of satellites for broadcast. He sat on the board of the National Educational Television and its successor, PBS, where he helped get funding to launch Sesame Street. Minow was with Sidley for 50 years, including as managing partner and as senior counsel. President Barack Obama in 2016 awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Survivors include three daughters, Nell, Martha and Mary.
Gordon Moore, 95, Intel co-founder, died March 24 at his Hawaii home, announced the company and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He was 95. Cause of death wasn’t disclosed. In 1965, Moore predicted the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every year, which became known as Moore’s Law. Three years after that prediction, he and colleague Robert Noyce established Intel. The two had worked under William Shockley, who co-invented the transistor and founded Shockley Semiconductor. Moore and Noyce later were among the co-founders of Fairchild Semiconductor. At Intel, Moore held various executive positions, including CEO, chairman and chairman emeritus. He stepped down as emeritus in 2006. He and his wife formed the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in 2000. His survivors include his wife, Betty Irene Whitaker, two sons, Kenneth and Steven, and four grandchildren.