Bob Salmon aka Bob KIng

Kalamazoo radio veteran Bob Salmon (Bob King) has died.  Salmon passed away at the age of 81 on Sunday, May 14 at his home in Modesto, California, with his partner of 30+ years, Sadhna Perez, and his younger sister, Ann Nichols, at his side.

Salmon spent 20 years in Kalamazoo on the radio and as a sales manager and general manager of WKMI-AM, and was the leader behind some of the area’s time-honored and long-standing local promotions, including the Do-Dah Parade.

A local Kalamazoo radio legend known to listeners as Bob King, he was a longtime on-air personality and half of the duo behind the Doc Holiday and Bob King Show.

Salmon was born and raised in Edina, Minnesota, and spent twenty years in Kalamazoo, Michigan, before he moved to Modesto in 1985.

After getting his start in radio at KDWB in the Twin Cities area, Salmon relocated to Spokane, Washington, where he met David Steere, beginning a decades-long professional partnership and personal friendship. Following Steere to Kalamazoo in 1964, he became the on-air talent, sales manager, and ultimately general manager of WKMI radio, where and Steere created and comprised the Doc Holiday and Bob King Show, a long-running morning drivetime program best known for its amusing antics and practical pranks.

He moved to California in 1985, where he was an owner and operator of KMIX. His station group was responsible for reformatting of WJFM in Grand Rapids from rock to the popular country station B-93. He was also involved in creation of the the Do-Dah Parade in Kalamazoo, the WKMI Underdogs Basketball Charity Team and the B-93 Birthday Bash music festival.

Salmon retired in 2006, but began a new career as the publisher of Broker Agent Magazine.

There will a private celebration of life in his Minnesota hometown at a later date.