Former Station Owner Robert F.X. Sillerman Dead at 71

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Robert F.X. Sillerman

Robert F.X. Sillerman, the founder of SFX Entertainment and 1970's, 80's & 90's radio station group owner, died Sunday, November 24 of a respiratory illness. He was 71. According to Variety, Sillerman and legendary "Cousin Brucie" Morrow began radio ownership by purchasing stations as Sillerman-Morrow Broadcasting in 1978 stations on the East Coast and Atlanta.

In 1985, he partnered with Carl Hirsch's Legacy Broadcasting to acquire outlets in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Detroit, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Denver, selling the group to Westinghouse in 1989 for $727 million. He later formed Capstar Communications, and with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, he ultimately consolidated ownership of 71 stations into SFX Broadcasting, which sold for $2.1 billion in 1998 to Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc.

The deal with Hicks did not include the concert promotions businesses the company had also acquired that including Bill Graham Presents, Delsener/Slater, Pace Concerts, And Cellar Door Concerts -- which was renaming as SFX Entertainment. That company ultimately sold to Clear Channel in 2000 for $4.4 billion and later became Live Nation Entertainment.