Bill Drake | Pop radio leader, 71

Bill Drake, 71, who set the tone at hundreds of pop stations with a radio format that placed music - rather than disc jockeys - at the center of the broadcast, has died.

Mr. Drake died Saturday of cancer at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles, his domestic partner, Carole Scott, said.

At the height of his career as a radio programming consultant in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mr. Drake championed a streamlined format that came to be known as "Boss Radio," which made announcers' personalities secondary to the Top 40 hits they were spinning.

Under Mr. Drake's guidance, radio stations such as KGB in San Diego, KHJ in Los Angeles, and KFRC in San Francisco shot to the No. 1 slots in their markets by promising more music and less chatter. - AP