Cleveland GM Bill Applegate retiring

Channels 19/43 General Manager Bill Applegate

General manager Bill Applegate, who put the “action” in Action News at WOIO-Channel 19 and WUAB-Channel 43, will retire Friday, April 25.

Applegate took over the Raycom Media-owned Cleveland stations in January 2001. Happy talk was replaced by in-your-face news presentations.

Applegate cut his teeth in newsrooms, both on newspapers and in TV stations. He wasn’t the usual general manager promoted from the sales department.

His career took him from Eugene, Ore., Buffalo, N.Y.; Boston; San Francisco; Chicago; and New York City.

Applegate joined Raycom in 1996, eventually winding up in  Cleveland. He and his wife, Katherine, have four children and live in Lakewood.

To read PD TV critic and former BJ TV critic Mark Dawidziak’s article on Applegate’s retirement, click on http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2014/04/bill_applegate_retiring_as_general_manager_of_two_cleveland_stations.html#incart_river