Former Phoenix radio personality Bill Heywood was being remembered Thursday by friends, former co-workers and his longtime boss as someone who got the city going in the morning with his quick wit and calming, smooth voice.
Heywood and his wife were found shot to death Wednesday in a hotel room in Scottsdale, police said.
The award-winning Heywood was the dominant morning personality in Phoenix from the late '60s through the early '80s. His face was on billboards and he was even featured in a television movie set in the city. He hosted morning shows on Phoenix radio stations KUPD, KTAR, KOY and KFYI for several decades. He also spent time in Las Vegas in 1972 working at radio station KORK.
Phoenix television and radio personality Pat McMahon worked with and against Heywood for many years.
"Bill was always the guy you thought of as the consummate professional," McMahon told The Associated Press on Thursday. "He was witty, he was well-prepared. He was the guy a radio station could always depend on because he just was always a pro."
Scottsdale police said Wednesday they received a call from an employee at the Homewood Suites near Scottsdale and Mountain View roads reporting the discovery of two bodies.
Police said Heywood and his wife, Susan, both had gunshot wounds to the head. Two handguns were found close to the bodies along with a note.
Hotel staff told officers Susan Heywood checked into the hotel Tuesday night.
Scottsdale police said evidence at the couple's Phoenix home indicates the Heywoods had planned their deaths. Officials could not immediately confirm the couple's ages, but police said they were in their mid-70s.
During his broadcasting career, according to the Arizona Republic, Heywood was named by industry publication Billboard as the No. 1 radio personality for three different years. In 1978, Heywood appeared in a television movie based on a comet slamming into Downtown Phoenix called "A Fire in the Sky."
Gary Edens, the former general manager and owner of KOY Radio, was Heywood's boss and even served as his best man when the Heywoods married in the early '70s. Edens said he was in contact with Bill Heywood as recently as last Sunday and everything seemed OK with the renowned broadcaster.
"He didn't seem to me like a guy who was about to do something as tragic as he did," Edens said Thursday. "I just don't know what happened."
Edens said Susan Heywood was very ill and the couple was, in Eden's words, "connected at the hip," and were soul mates.
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