Remembering Bob Buziak
• Another label legend lost… Bob Buziak, former President of both RCA Records and Sony’s TriStar Music Group, died on Monday, October 12 at the age of 83.
As Variety reports, Buziak was best known for reviving RCA’s fortunes in the ’80s with hit albums by Bruce Hornsby, Eurythmics and Love and Rockets, along with the blockbuster soundtracks to the Dirty Dancingfilms, which spawned a No. 1 single with Eric Carmen‘s “Hungry Eyes,” and the Oscar- and Grammy-winning “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes.
Buziak made a career detour from the Ford Motor Company into the music business in 1968, taking on distribution and promotion roles in Detroit and San Francisco before joining Capitol/EMI Records in Los Angeles, holding promotion and A&R positions there before joining Arista Records, where he thrived as head of West Coast Operations, and, later, Managing Director in the U.K. Buziak’s success at that label led directly to his being named President of RCA Records in 1986.
Buziak left RCA in 1990 to serve as President of Sony’s TriStar Music Group and later founded Chameleon Entertainment as a joint venture with Time Warner. In 1995, he launched Buziak & Company LLC, which consulted for telecom and cable companies, and played a key role in the sale of Paradigm Music Entertainment to Liberty Media.
Buziak is survived by his wife, Christie Buziak.
In a sign of a sadly bygone era in the colorful world of record promotion, and as related to RAMP by Bob’s goddaughter, Bryn Klenfner… one of Buziak’s signature moves — if you had a falling out with him — and there were more than a few — he would mail you back your Rolodex card cut into small pieces. Classic. [Photo credit: David Gahr]
