Early Life
Bill Szymczyk was born in Muskegon, Michigan on February 13, 1943. His mother worked as a nurse, and his father held several jobs, including factory worker and maintenance at a school. Growing up, his first introduction to music and electronics was when he built his own crystal radio from a kit. Using his radio, he became a fan of blues and R&B while listening to a station out of Nashville, Tennessee.
He joined the United States Navy in 1960, where he worked as a SONAR technician. It was in the Navy that he took his first course in radio and television production. Upon leaving the service in 1964, and without much of an idea of what to do for a post-military career, he enrolled at New York University's Media Arts School.
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