William (Bill) Schuyler

MONTEREY, CA – William (Bill) Schuyler, television pioneer and entrepreneur, passed away on December 10, 2013. He was born in 1922 and grew up in Northern California, moving to Southern California as a teenager. During WWII, he was stationed in Japan. After the war he worked for RKO Radio in Los Angeles where he became very interested in a new industry in its infancy, television. Shortly after his marriage to actress, Kristine Miller, they moved to Santa Barbara where Bill was consultant and sales manager for KEYT.
In 1957 they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where Bill was part of the team that built KTVU and where he became the local sales manager for the first independent television station in San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area. In 1968 he and two KTVU associates moved to Monterey to build the original KMST. Being a great salesman and before their new station went on the air, he convinced CBS officials in New York to grant them the CBS affiliation for their new Monterey station. He was also the station's national sales manager. In 1977 the group sold the station to Retlaw, Walt Disney's television division.
After the sale, Bill applied and received the "construction permit" for a new station in Sacramento, KSCH. As the consummate entrepreneur, he searched the U.S. for new media broadcasting ideas including over-the-air pay television, the precursor to other paid broadcast channels. He sold that station in 1986, but not before acquiring a new permit for another station in Monterey, KSMS.
He built KSMS in just 60 days in order to save the local Spanish language broadcasting from being taken off the air. In 1991 he sold KSMS to build another television station in Boise, ID, KHDT, and now KNIN. While in Boise, he also acquired another permit to build the "low power" station, Channel 33, and now KBSE. During this time he also acquired the permit to build another "low power" station in Monterey, Channel 23, and now KMUV-LP.
Bill loved the television business until the day he passed away. An avid reader and researcher of everything television, he remained in pursuit of new television opportunities throughout his entire life. He thought television was the most exciting business and was always grateful for how lucky he was to have spent his entire career behind the camera in an industry he found so captivating and irresistible.
Bill married his wife, Kristine in1953 and they had two daughters, one of whom preceded him in death. He was nominated for and received a lifetime achievement award and was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1986 for his contributions to the television broadcasting industry. Bill, known as "Television's Maverick", left an enormous imprint that will always be felt by our Monterey Bay Area community.