Occupation broadcaster Years active 1950s–1994 | Name Bob Wilson Role Sportscaster | |
Full Name Robert Henry Castellon Born March 9, 1929 ( 1929-03-09 ) Stoneham, Massachusetts Died January 15, 2015, Arlington, Massachusetts, United States Awards Foster Hewitt Memorial Award | ||
Robert Henry Castellon (March 9, 1929 – January 15, 2015), known as Bob Wilson, was an American radio personality who served as the longtime radio voice of the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League. In 1987, Wilson was honoured with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, enshrining him in the broadcasters' wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcaster's Hall of Fame in 2007. His booming baritone voice and his ability to articulate for radio listeners the dynamic flow and possession changes of ice hockey distinguished him from his peers. He also was noted for his detailed descriptions of hockey fights, which pleased his fans but sometimes gained him disapproval from critics.
Wilson worked at various radio stations in the Boston area, including at WCOP in Boston, where he was a top-40 disc jockey in the late 1950s. By the mid 1960s, he became a staff announcer at WHDH-AM 850 (now WEEI), where he worked as the analyst on Bruins' games and was the weekend sports anchor on the then WHDH-TV Channel 5, the city's CBS affiliate. From 1964-67, Wilson served as the color commentator for the Bruins' radio broadcasts alongside radio voice Bill Harrington. In 1967, he succeeded Jim Laing as the radio voice of the Bruins, his promotion coinciding with the team's rise to a Stanley Cup contender, led by Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. However, when the Bruins departed WHDH for WBZ-AM 1030 in 1969, Wilson was put out of a job. He left Boston and joined the sports staff of St. Louis radio powerhouse KMOX, and missed Boston's 1970 Stanley Cup triumph.
In the summer of 1971, he returned to Boston when WBZ restored him to the radio play-by-play post after Boston hockey broadcasting legend Fred Cusick switched from radio to WSBK-TV and the Bruins' TV network. In Wilson's first year back at the Bruins' microphone, he called Boston's 1972 Cup win. He then continued as the team's voice through 1994 when he chose to retire during the 1994–95 NHL lockout. He later worked part-time hosting a music program on 104.9FM WLKZ in New Hampshire's Lakes Region where he had become a longtime resident.
On January 15, 2015 Wilson died at the age of 85 in Arlington, Massachusetts, due to lung cancer.