Bob Bradley, broadcaster par excellence

BOB BRADLEY once gave some sound advice to fellow broadcaster Jay Meyers:

"Go out and work hard because broadcasting is a terrific vocation. If you do it right and you're lucky, you'll feel like you never had to work a day in your life."

Bradley, retired sports anchor and reporter for KYW-TV3, who also had a children's show in the '50s in which he became a character known as "Buckskin Billy," died Monday of complications of a stroke in Clearwater, Fla. He was 86.

"I grew up watching him as a senior at Drexel University in the early '70s," Jay Meyers, formerly a broadcaster with WFIL, wrote in a tribute on the Web site of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia.

Meyers worked with Bob at KYW as an intern and found him to be "a great mentor and teacher."

David Murphy, WPVI weatherman, recalled how Bob influenced him in the days when he was still trying to find himself. They were neighbors then in Drexel Hill.

"During a party at my house, Bob slipped upstairs to watch a Flyers or Phillies game with me," Murphy said, "and got talking to me about college. In that one night, he actually convinced me to go to Temple.

"It worked out pretty well. I met my wife there. And I wound up doing the weather on Channel 6. I've always been grateful to him for that advice."

Retired announcer Jerry Immel, of Atlanta, who knew Bob when they worked together in both Cleveland and Philadelphia, said that Bob was far ahead of his time "in that he was never 'announcerish.' "

"Many announcers of that generation were quite formal and stylized . . . but Bob's delivery was always extremely natural and accessible, way before that style became as common as it is today," Immel said. "I would even call him avuncular."

Bob retired in 1987 and moved to Clearwater. He had spent 30 years with Channel 3, nearly all of it in sports broadcasting.

After his stint as sports anchor, in the '80s, Bob went back to sports reporting, at which he excelled.

Kevin Mulligan, former Daily News sports writer who regularly graded sportscasters, said of him:

"Thirty years in Philadelphia and you need a microscope to detect slippage. Still hustles after stories, live interviews and features like the 30-year-olds. His experience allows him to give features and news reports added perspective."

Even in retirement, Bob would file reports and interviews from baseball training camps in Florida.

Bob was born Robert Bouwsma, of Dutch descent, in Muskegon, Mich. He graduated from the University of Michigan with an economics major.

He covered high school sports for the Lansing State Journal, and did some radio broadcasting. He moved to Cleveland in 1946 and began acting at the Cleveland Playhouse. He also performed as a singer.

He took a job with WNBK-TV in Cleveland, where he anchored the 11 p.m. news and created his Buckskin Billy persona.

He tried New York City, but had no luck breaking into TV there and moved to Philadelphia with his wife, Rosemary, whom he married in 1945.

He brought Buckskin Billy to Philly and then worked as a sports reporter and anchor at KYW. He also hosted "The 10th Inning," a Phillies post-game show on WPHL, Channel 17.

Bob also taught communications classes at Temple University.

In 1986, the Broadcast Pioneers honored him as "Person of the Year."

The group planned a remembrance of him at its luncheon meeting today.

Besides his wife, he is survived by a son, Robert; two daughters, Rebecca and Rosalind; and six grandchildren.

Services: Tomorrow in Florida. Donations may be made to the Honduras Mission, c/o St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 705 Michigan Blvd., Dunedin, FL 34698. *